PSE Interview: SoundBits (Audio)

Introducing the newest addition to the Pro Sound Effects Library: SoundBits!

Take a few minutes to get to know the man behind the superb and prolific (5 collections released since September!) SoundBits catalog - sound designer Saro Sahihi. In this Introduction, Saro talks about what SoundBits is all about, as well as details of his newest libraries - all interlaced with epic SoundBits whooshes, transitions, and impacts!

Saro_Sahihi-SoundBits


Saro Sahihi
Sound Designer & Founder of SoundBits

 

SoundBits is one of the catalogs included in Expansion 2 of the Pro Sound Effects Hybrid Library: a big-studio sound effects library exclusively priced for qualified freelance sound designers. Get more info on the Hybrid Library here.

 

Perhaps the future will hold some live PSE interviews, true to podcast-form... but for now let's blame the 4.5-hour time difference between NYC and Germany, where SoundBits is located. Enjoy!

TRANSCRIPT:

"Hi, my name is Saro Sahihi. I'm a sound designer from Stuttgart, Germany and founder of SoundBits

I love these huge, epic sounds that you hear in hollywood blockbusters these days. It gives me goosebumps if a spaceship or fireball passes by and it’s flight is supported by a heavy whoosh or a synthetic transitions sound.  Same for movie trailers with the heavy impacts on each cut.

So I started to figure out how these sounds are made. And, after some time, I became quite good at it. Sound always has to support the picture to make it even larger no matter if it’s a feature movie, image clip or video game. You don’t just see the fireball but you feel it too. 

It all started about 15 years ago, when some friends of mine and I decided to do some hip-hop and electronic music. I was very curious about beat making and all that technical stuff. I got my hands on some simple tools for that along with Cubase (Version 3.5, a long time before SX). In 2004 I decided to do audio-production more professionally and started my formal education at SAE Institute in Stuttgart, Germany. I successfully graduated in 2006.

Sound always has to support the picture to make it even larger no matter if it’s a feature movie, image clip or video game. You don’t just see the fireball but you feel it too. 

SoundBits was founded in 2007. It’s a one man show, but I occasionally work with other people depending on the project (like Philippe Bühler who I am sharing my studio with). I focused more and more on designing sound effects as well as audio post-production. Today, SoundBits provides sound design and editing for film and video games along with creating high-quality sound effects libraries.

Recently, I released the Just Gore library. Self-explanatory, I think. Splatter sounds, breaking bones, ripping flesh, stabbing... 496 files containing over 820 goregeous bone breaking, blood soaking, and flesh slicing sound effects ...and, there is a chainsaw, too, of course...

At the moment I am working on three quite similar libraries:

  • First is Hits & Crashes*. This is a construction kit to build your own heavy impacts and cinematic hits; or just use it in your movie, or game productions for anything that, well... hits anything else.
  • Just Impacts*: This is just what the title says. Designed, heavy impacts, hits, and crashes.
  • Cinematic Hits & Transitions 2: You know Part 1? Yes? This is even more trailer-ready, heavily designed hits and transitions.

Await the release of all three libraries about mid-November."

*UPDATE: Two of the libraries mentioned above (Hits & Crashes, Just Impacts) were released last week as different collections within the Just Impacts Bundle. Check them out! Also watch the Making of 'Just Impacts' video below:

Getting Started in Film Sound with Mark Mangini

Top 12 Answers from Richard King's Discord AMA

Managing a Creative Team: Roundtable Conversation