How to Catalog Sound Effects for Sound Libraries

The final step in organizing sound effects for submission to a sound effect library is pairing different types of data with each sound. This metadata, as it is called, lets prospective clients in on specific details concerning each sound. The seven most useful categories of metadata to be included in your sound effect catalog are listed below.

Finding the right format is the first step in creating your metadata document. The most frequently requested format for metadata is an .xls file with categories in columns and individual sounds in rows. Searching through your sounds according to File Name, or Time Length will be very easy if you use this type of format.

1. The Main Category column should contain broad categories such as Ambiences, Animal, Human, Transportation. Try to be as efficient in their use as possible in order to maintain a logical order to your library from the start.

3. The next main type of metadata, the Sub-Category, is intended to splice up each main category more specifically such as Tools: Hammers, Tools:Saws, Tools:Screwdrivers.

3. If you associate a SKU number of three letters unique to you, such as your initials, and five digits such as SFX00001_DogBark with each sound effect upon their creation your sounds will be perfectly organized. The sound to follow the above example would begin with SFX00002 and so on which assigns a totally unique identity to each sound. This numbering system alleviates confusion in the future should you have multiple Dog Barks and only organize them alphabetically.

4. The Title is a friendly title to be displayed for the potential licensee such as Dog Bark 1.

5. Since shorter sound effects are generally worth less than longer sound effects it is important to include the Time Length in your metadata so that interested clients know the length of each sample they might license.

6. The quality of each sample is given by stating the Track Info which includes stereo/mono information, the sample rate, the bit rate, and file type such as Mono 44.1k 16 bit Stereo .wav.

7. Keywords are very important in letting potentials buyers find your sounds and should not be ignored. They should contain the plurals of the sound, associated sounds, phrases, and even misspellings such as dog, dogs, dog bark, dog barks, bark, barks, dog pack, pack, wolf, canine, wolves, canines, barck, barcks.

After successfully organizing your sound effects according to the seven above characteristics you can market and submit your library to online distributors for profit through licensing.

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