Welcome back to our wishlist. The holidays are still lurching towards us, and we’ve got more ideas to share for the audio creators on your list. Strap back in for a whole new creative experience with these outstanding options.
Edit
After all of the recording, acting, writing, and unaccounted-for hijinks – it’s time to pull all of that together and make some sense out of it. Everyone needs an editor, and every editor needs a good Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
Over the years we’ve used a number of different DAWs but never found the right one until we tried Reaper from Cockos. Reaper is an intuitive, customizable multitrack audio with a small footprint that won’t chew up your disk space. It works with PC, Linux and MacOs and interacts smoothly with all your hardware. The 64-bit comes loaded with 16 different plug-ins, it reads 23 different file formats and writes in 14, including video and midi. It starts, loads and renders fast and is easy for beginners to learn. Best of all, after your 60-day FREE trial ends, it only costs $60 for a license that you can use on all of your computers.
Price – $60
Price – $128 RX7 Elements
Izotope RX is the best audio cleaning tool we’ve ever used. Recording audio dramas can get messy sometimes. During our field recording outings, we often encounter unwanted sounds in our takes: cars, planes, trains, boats, generators, donkeys, roosters, canoes, barking dogs, and construction equipment. Studio or set recordings can pick up electronic noise, heating and cooling systems, and a host of other sounds that you never noticed until you put on your headphones. RX9 comes with a dialog isolation algorithm that helps you get clean dialog out of your track. It also comes with a dehum mode, ambience match and that entrancing spectral editor.
Sound Design
Have you heard the terms: Room Noise, Impulse Response, Dehum, SFX, and Control Surface? Has someone in your life explained the difference between Foley and Sound Effects? Do they run around in headphones and get excited when a cheese grater creates just the right whoosh? Do they gush about panning and groan about footsteps? Don’t panic, it’s just a sound designer and we’ve got a few things on our list for them too.
Reaper
Another shout-out for Reaper. Reaper’s customizable multi-track interface makes keeping track of your sound design simple. It inserts files from your SFX Search Engine instantly and the intuitive scrolling feature allows you to move between tracks seamlessly.
Price – $60
Do you have SFX files saved on your drive? Have you had to build an extensive folder structure that takes you FOREVER to find just the right SFX? Then we cannot recommend Basehead enough! Basehead is both a Sound Effects Search Engine and a streaming SFX resource. It allows you to find the SFX you need, drag it into your DAW, and edit the metadata quickly and easily.
Price – $149 – $449 depending on the edition that fits your needs.
If you’re looking for sound effect libraries, A Sound Effect is a great choice. They have a large, curated collection of hand-picked SFX from some of the best creators. The website allows you to browse, search and preview SFX and one license covers it all.
Price – Varies
While you’re at A Sound Effect check out our SFX packages.
Are you looking for SFX packs? Well, we make them. UberDuo provides high-definition sound effects bundles. Our audio packs and playsets include Impulse Responses, ambience, and SFX and they are reasonably priced.
Some Studio Gear for Editors
Beringer X Touch Universal Control Surface
This is a powerhouse control surface for its size and price. It has 9 touch-sensitive, motorized faders, a jog/scrub wheel, LCD scribble strips, Eight rotary controls with LED collars and an 8-segment LED meter per channel. With included support for HUI and Mackie Control. Using it is like bringing your drag and click DAW back to the desk from some manually fine-tuned audio.
Price – $499.00
Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 8×6 USB Audio/MIDI Interface
Keep all your hardware plugged in and ready to go when the muse slaps you in the face. It has an Air effect mic preamp to give your recordings an open sound. It has two independently adjustable high-fidelity headphone outputs.
Price – $319.99
Dying for more?
Creating audio dramas that send shivers of terror down the listener’s spine takes more than just an immersive sound design.
If the person you’re shopping for prefers spending their time recording check out our first wishlist A Few Goodies for Horror Audio Drama Podcast Production: Part 1 – Go Record Something. Or take a look at our list of gadgets and tools for recording on the go. Private: A Few Goodies for Horror Audio Drama Podcast Production Part 3: Be Prepared
While you’re here don’t forget to LISTEN to some shows, make some friends to COLLABORATE with, and CREATE something new.