Soundly 2 is here Asbjoern Andersen


It’s no secret that there are dozens of apps that help manage sound fx libraries. Both Mac and PC users can find many options that help sound pros sort and find collections of sound clips.

However, as soon as Soundly launched it was doing things differently. How? In this post by sound effects guru Paul Virostek, he highlights five killer features that make Soundly break away from the pack.


Written by Paul Virostek
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Zombie sound effects library
The Soundly How-To Series:

This is the fifth installment in the Soundly series by SFX guru Paul Virostek – here are the previous ones:

1. An introduction to Soundly
2. The Soundly Quick-Start Guide
3. How to Organize Sound Libraries with Soundly
4. How to Find and Use Sound FX Clips with Soundly

 

Special offer: Try Soundly PRO for free, for 14 days – here’s how:

 
I just got word that Soundly kicked off a very special offer today, giving access to the full Soundly Pro version (with its approx 40.000 cloud sound effects & more) for free: All new and registered users can use the promo code SUMMER to unlock all the pro features for 14 days – no payment information needed.

How to get up and running:

New users, download Soundly for free for Windows here, and Mac here – and then enter the promo code SUMMER while registering. If you’re already registered, go to user -> profile within the Soundly app, and enter the code SUMMER in the promo box.

 

1. Organize Your Sound Library

Organize sound libraries.
What it does: Soundly makes it easy to add, sort, and search sound libraries. It can index local, cloud, and network clip collections. Adding sound fx is as simple as dragging and dropping them onto Soundly’s window. Each library is displayed separately, so filtering results is easy. The app provides search suggestions and tracks search history. Playback – including from the cloud – is fast and fluid. A slick waveform display allows playing and processing whole clips, and even smaller portions, too.

Why it’s cool: It’s a common problem. You have some sound fx on your laptop. Others are on an external drive on your desk. More still are scattered across a network NAS drive. It’s tedious to hunt and peck across a handful of locations to find the sound you need. It’s worse when you have the pressure of a deadline. Soundly keeps all your sounds in one place, lets you search them swiftly and audition them easily. It’s fast, effortless, and, with its new 2.0 interface, attractive, too.
 

2. Import Clips to Apps

Select audio and send to Pro Tools.
What it is: Adding and finding clips is great, but sound pros need to use them, too. Soundly allows sound clips to be transferred to editing apps with a tap of a button. The app can send entire clips, or selected, small portions of longer files. It’s simple: just drag the section into an editing app and the clips is transferred. Pro Tools users have bonus features: single or multiple clips can be transferred with “handles” either to the cursor location in an editing timeline or the bin.

Why it’s cool: No one wants to be slowed down by digging through folders and navigating editing app file browsers. That slows work and kills creativity. With Soundly, a simple mouse drag can take the cool sound you’ve found and send it to any other app. It’s even quicker for Pro Tools and Reaper users: just click the Pro Tools icon to send the clip selection to the timeline cursor. That makes it faster to get clips into your project and get back to work.
 

3. Cloud Sound Library

Cloud sound library.
What it is: Soundly doesn’t just manage clips, sort them, and send them to other apps. It launches with access to a professionally recorded sound library that is streamed instantly from the cloud. Any user can access 1000 popular clips, and Pro subscribers can choose from around 40,000. The sound library features everyday sounds that will are useful in any project, as well as elite recordings such as military vehicles, too. Want more? No problem. The Soundly store offers the Freesound.org library, as well as collections from independent community field recordists and sound designers.

Why it’s cool: Merely downloading the app gives users access to 1000 pro sound effects completely free of charge. That’s a good way for budget-conscious sound pros to enhance their existing sound collections. And, when you have a little more cash or are working on more demanding projects, getting instant access to 40,000 more clips is only a few clicks away. Soundly’s cloud library makes worrying about finding the right sound effect a thing of the past.


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Foley Sound Effects Grenade Foley Play Track 1374 sounds included $15

    A focused collection of grenade foley, captured with precision using replica units. This library provides the essential, clean sounds of tactical handling, interaction, and impacts.

    Recorded at 96kHz/24-bit across various surfaces including steel plates, carpet, wood floorings, soil, and grass, this library offers variation for different environments. The recordings feature grenade shakes, surface impacts and rolls, pin pulls, spoon lever ejections, spoon drops, and tactical gear foley, all captured with Lewitt LCT 540 S and Shure SM7B.

    This is a practical toolkit for sound designers working in film, games, and other media, providing a tonal and versatile foundation for building realistic military action.

    50 %
    OFF
  • Car Sound Effects Toyota MR2 1984 sports car Play Track 228 sounds included, 44 mins total $65

    All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with RØDE NTG1, Line Audio Omni1 and FEL Clippy XLR EM272 microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is also available in UCS.

  • Hello Creators!

    Here’s my new pack “Cartoon Voices”.

    Cartoon Voices  ·  The Sound Guild

    I hope this voices will help you give more life to your characters in your project. There’s different voices for different situations: emotions, attacks, hurt, laughs, coughs, efforts, dialogues, surprise, upset, question, etc…
    They can be used in different styles of video games or other media projects.
    These 109 sounds can be used in a variety of situations, I put a name to the SFX but this doesn’t mean it can’t be used in other contexts.
    All this sounds have been recorded with a professional voice actor.
    I hope you enjoy implementing this voices in your project!

    Check all my packs on Asoundeffect

    50 %
    OFF
  • Animal Sound Effects Collections Botswana Play Track 49+ sounds included, 136 mins total From: $60

    Botswana Faunethic sound library is a unique collection of 49 sounds recorded through several national parks of the country (Okavango, Chobe,…). All these sounds has been recorded and produced with high quality equipment in multichannel.

    This collection offers a wide diversity of soundscapes and animals sounds such as:

    -Bush, savanna and forest soundscapes.
    -Hippopotamus grunt and vocals.
    -Elephants vocals, showering and drinking.
    -Zebras and impalas fighting.
    -Lion chasing an elephant during one night.
    -Birds and insects at different perspectives.
    -Villages

    If you want to hear more about this field recording trip, feel free to check this post.
    The multichannel version contains 40 tracks in native 4.0 and 9 tracks recorded in stereo only.

    This library provides authentic and interesting sounds, recorded with DPA, MBHO and Neumann mics powered by an Aeta 4minX.
    All Faunethic tracks includes metadata carefully edited, compatible with Soundminer, Soundly and Basehead.


Latest releases:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Extra Rain Play Track 106 sounds included, 141 mins total $9.99

    EXTRA RAIN – is an auxiliary sound library containing 106 unique sound effect files of rain. From distant showers to slow growing down pours and rainy days by the window. Whether it’s a gentle background shower or a wall of rain you’re looking for; This Extra sound effects library will help supplement the rainy day needs, for your next project. Extra Rain comes in at over 2 hours and was recorded at 192kHz / 32bit using an ultrasonic microphone. All of our libraries comply with the Universal Category System naming convention standard, allowing for accurate and easy granular searches.

    50 %
    OFF
  • Quietsub FX Complete Bundle

    Quietsub FX is a library of 15,055 sound effects at 24 bit 96,000 BWF. The library is organized into a number of collections related to specific categories, and a large miscellaneous category. The library was recorded to be as comprehensive as possible with an emphasis on quality and choice for users.

    The Complete Bundle includes the following parts:

    Quietsub FX gives you a wide ranging library of sound effects. Production of the library focused on creating high quality and choice for users, which ultimately is what creators want. This package is ideal for film, video, radio, podcast, and wherever sound effects are used.

    All files include metadata.

  • Quietsub FX Transportation

    An extensive collection of 1,321 Transportation sounds. If it has means of movement to carry people or goods, whether by engine or human propulsion, you’ll likely find it here.

    This collection comes in two parts. The transportation portion, and Transit Chimes.

    Transit Chimes: Transit Chimes are the sounds you hear all the time on public transportation. Dings, dongs, attention getters. This collection of 70 sound effects gives everything you need to satisfy your craving for these noises. Use them in your productions, or start your own transit system.

    Transportation: People are always going somewhere. And they sure make lots of noise doing it. Just about anything that moves people or freight can be found here.

    Recording for this category is outside the studio affair. A tremendous amount of time driving and walking around, as well as planting yourself in strategic locations where vehicles do their thing.

    • Cars general
    • Classic cars
    • Sports cars
    • Boats
    • Aircraft
    • Bicycles
    • Buses
    • Motorcycles
    • Trucks general
    • Garbage Truck
    • Highway and street backgrounds
    • Traffic sounds

    This extensive collection touches all the bases.

    Files are 24-96000 BWF with metadata.

  • Quietsub FX Video Transition Sound Effects

    A great collection of 128 Video Transition Sound Effects. These are designed to be used at video edit points to add impact.

    Video Editors will enjoy these video transition effects. In recent years, sound effects began appearing in videos to accompany the actual visual edit. This was the inspiration for creating this collection.

    There’s no better way to add depth to video edits than with short sounds and ramps. These work great with short video breakup visuals and flashes.

    This collection is made up of various wipes and transitions.

    Cut away. Chop, Hack etc. These sounds will make those video transitions more interesting.

    Files are 24-96000 BWF with metadata.

  • Quietsub FX Sci-Fi Sounds

    A collection of 192 Sci-Fi Sounds.

    There’s lots of science fiction out there, but still no little green men. Possibly that’s what makes sci-fi so popular. The dream of something you think may exist, but cannot be proven. Sci-Fi, of course, has its own sounds. In this collection of 183 sound effects, you will find most of what you will need to outfit your next spacecraft.

    Included in this collection:

    • Alien interiors
    • Blasters
    • Backgrounds
    • Space ship sounds

    Files are 24-96000 BWF with metadata.

Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


4. Metadata Editor

What it is: Soundly can embed invisible bonus metadata text to sound files. It reads popular iXML, BWAV, and MP3 formats, and writes back to the universal BWAV standard description field.

Why it’s cool: metadata’s bonus text information helps organize sound collections and find clips within them. That eliminates mental clutter, speeds sound clip selection, and help you make better choices. For sound librarians, Soundly can apply metadata in batches, too, making it easy to enhance existing sound collections with helpful metadata text. Worried that it will cost hundreds of dollars to do this, like any other metadata app? Don’t be. Soundly embeds metadata free of charge.
 

5. Cloud Collaboration

Sharing sound library contacts.
What it is: You’re hooked on Soundly. You’ve converted your colleagues and friends, too. That’s how Soundly’s fifth killer feature helps: Soundly’s cloud collaboration tools allow you to share sound libraries and playlists of clips with others. You can even upload your own sound libraries to the cloud so they can be shared, too.

Why it’s cool: Did you find the perfect bird ambience for a studio project? Maybe you found a fighter jet pass that’s the ideal building block for a starship. It’s easy to save it to a playlist, then email the sound supervisor or other editors your list of selections. When they have a license to the same library they can start working with those clips right away. Are you a lone wolf working on your own? Soundly hasn’t forgotten you, either. Soundly’s cloud storage allows you to upload your own clips to the cloud. That means you can access them at other facilities, or at home, after work.

These are just five cool features in Soundly. There are many others: granular search results sorting, text file import and export, audio processing, and much more.

Bonus: New features added in the just-released version:

Soundly released a brand new version last week, and here are some of the highlights from the release notes:

• Related Searches
Traversing through millions of past searches, Soundly’s AI-powered search algorithm now suggest related keywords for you. That means less time searching and more time discovering!

• Multi DB Support
Soundly can now simultaneously connect to multiple shared databases, making file and database organization even easier.

• Channel Select
A much asked for feature is finally here with Channel Select, making it incredibly easy to extract one or more specific channels from multichannel files.

• Portable Mode
Copy the Soundly application to a USB stick or similar and take it anywhere you go. Great for professionals using multiple studios!

• Did you Mean
Google-style Did You Mean Functionality helps you spell your searches correctly! Combined with Related Searches and the Sound Effect Thesaurus, Soundly’s search capabilities now stands in a class of its own.

• Thesaurus Update
Soundly’s specially built Sound Effect Thesaurus has grown and is now even more accurate.

 

A big thanks to Paul Virostek for this Soundly guide!

Try Soundly for free:

If you want to take Soundly for a spin, download it for free
for Windows here, and Mac here.
 

Please share this:


 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Foley Sound Effects Grenade Foley Play Track 1374 sounds included $15

    A focused collection of grenade foley, captured with precision using replica units. This library provides the essential, clean sounds of tactical handling, interaction, and impacts.

    Recorded at 96kHz/24-bit across various surfaces including steel plates, carpet, wood floorings, soil, and grass, this library offers variation for different environments. The recordings feature grenade shakes, surface impacts and rolls, pin pulls, spoon lever ejections, spoon drops, and tactical gear foley, all captured with Lewitt LCT 540 S and Shure SM7B.

    This is a practical toolkit for sound designers working in film, games, and other media, providing a tonal and versatile foundation for building realistic military action.

    50 %
    OFF
  • Door Sound Effects Locks & Doors Play Track 100 sounds included, 7 mins total $18

    This library gathers recordings captured with a contact microphone on various types of doors and locks. It includes wooden, metal, and plastic doors, as well as gates, residential doors, and office doors.

    The recordings highlight the internal mechanisms of locks: opening, closing, locking, unlocking, clicks, and latch movements. The collection also features isolated key handling and keychain sounds.

    The set provides detailed and usable sound material for sound design, post-production, or mechanical analysis.

  • “European Birds 2” is a sound library containing many recordings of 56 different species of birds, with a focus on isolated recordings of individual birds. All sounds were recorded in England, and all recorded species can be found in continental Europe. Many recorded species can also be found in varying areas of Asia.

     

    Includes:

    • Pleasing sounds from songbirds such as Robins, Blackbirds, Finches and Wrens
    • Familiar sounds of Pigeons and Doves
    • A variety of water birds including Moorhens, Coots, and Geese
    • Raspy calls of Crows and other birds from the corvid family
    • Melodious birds of open farmland, such as Skylarks and Yellowhammers
    • Chaotic songs of summer migrant warblers
    • Forest birds such as a Tawny Owl, Cuckoo and Green Woodpecker
    • and more! (For a full list of species, see the contents summary)

     

    Features: 

    • 950+ audio files in 24 bit 96kHz quality
    • WAV format
    • “Multi” and “One Shot” files provided
    • UCS compliant file naming and metadata, allowing for easy searching in sound library management tools
    • Available for commercial or personal use without attribution

     

    View a summary of included sounds here

    View a full list of included files here

Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Extra Rain Play Track 106 sounds included, 141 mins total $9.99

    EXTRA RAIN – is an auxiliary sound library containing 106 unique sound effect files of rain. From distant showers to slow growing down pours and rainy days by the window. Whether it’s a gentle background shower or a wall of rain you’re looking for; This Extra sound effects library will help supplement the rainy day needs, for your next project. Extra Rain comes in at over 2 hours and was recorded at 192kHz / 32bit using an ultrasonic microphone. All of our libraries comply with the Universal Category System naming convention standard, allowing for accurate and easy granular searches.

    50 %
    OFF
  • Quietsub FX Complete Bundle

    Quietsub FX is a library of 15,055 sound effects at 24 bit 96,000 BWF. The library is organized into a number of collections related to specific categories, and a large miscellaneous category. The library was recorded to be as comprehensive as possible with an emphasis on quality and choice for users.

    The Complete Bundle includes the following parts:

    Quietsub FX gives you a wide ranging library of sound effects. Production of the library focused on creating high quality and choice for users, which ultimately is what creators want. This package is ideal for film, video, radio, podcast, and wherever sound effects are used.

    All files include metadata.

  • Quietsub FX Transportation

    An extensive collection of 1,321 Transportation sounds. If it has means of movement to carry people or goods, whether by engine or human propulsion, you’ll likely find it here.

    This collection comes in two parts. The transportation portion, and Transit Chimes.

    Transit Chimes: Transit Chimes are the sounds you hear all the time on public transportation. Dings, dongs, attention getters. This collection of 70 sound effects gives everything you need to satisfy your craving for these noises. Use them in your productions, or start your own transit system.

    Transportation: People are always going somewhere. And they sure make lots of noise doing it. Just about anything that moves people or freight can be found here.

    Recording for this category is outside the studio affair. A tremendous amount of time driving and walking around, as well as planting yourself in strategic locations where vehicles do their thing.

    • Cars general
    • Classic cars
    • Sports cars
    • Boats
    • Aircraft
    • Bicycles
    • Buses
    • Motorcycles
    • Trucks general
    • Garbage Truck
    • Highway and street backgrounds
    • Traffic sounds

    This extensive collection touches all the bases.

    Files are 24-96000 BWF with metadata.

  • Quietsub FX Video Transition Sound Effects

    A great collection of 128 Video Transition Sound Effects. These are designed to be used at video edit points to add impact.

    Video Editors will enjoy these video transition effects. In recent years, sound effects began appearing in videos to accompany the actual visual edit. This was the inspiration for creating this collection.

    There’s no better way to add depth to video edits than with short sounds and ramps. These work great with short video breakup visuals and flashes.

    This collection is made up of various wipes and transitions.

    Cut away. Chop, Hack etc. These sounds will make those video transitions more interesting.

    Files are 24-96000 BWF with metadata.

  • Quietsub FX Sci-Fi Sounds

    A collection of 192 Sci-Fi Sounds.

    There’s lots of science fiction out there, but still no little green men. Possibly that’s what makes sci-fi so popular. The dream of something you think may exist, but cannot be proven. Sci-Fi, of course, has its own sounds. In this collection of 183 sound effects, you will find most of what you will need to outfit your next spacecraft.

    Included in this collection:

    • Alien interiors
    • Blasters
    • Backgrounds
    • Space ship sounds

    Files are 24-96000 BWF with metadata.


   

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