The Best Foley Sound Library Plug-ins
The foley sound, or room effect, consists of the recreation of sounds in the cinema. Unlike the sound effects available in libraries, the foley sound is made specifically for each movie. This sound-dubbing may have taken place for different reasons. Either the sound was not picked up well during the filming due to technical difficulties, or for aesthetic, dramatic, or narrative reasons.
The name foley sound comes from Jack Foley, the developer of this technique, which is widespread today among sound-mixing professionals, such as Enhanced Media. Foleys are essential to make the sound of a film much richer. Whether fiction or documentary, any professional film production includes foley sound. Sometimes the actual sound produced by picking up direct sound is not as believable as what a foley artist can create in his or her studio. Just imagine a snake moving across the sand, for example.
This kind of sound helps a lot to tell the story. The development of foley sound today is so meticulous, that, if we are in the cinema and close our eyes, we will be able to appreciate several details of what is happening in the scene and thus expanding our senses beyond the image.
We will even be able to understand everything happening on the screen and make us travel in time and space. Generally, this sound is done in a room, using everything you can think of to recreate the sound. It is quite an art and requires a lot of creativity and curiosity, and it also requires the right tools. In addition to microphones, monitors, consoles, prompts, and a suitable recording studio, there are software tools that will not only save you a lot of work but also improve the sound quality as you cannot imagine. Let’s see the best Foley Sound Library Plug-ins:
Cinema Sound Foley Library
This plug-in developed by Kontakt Player is a real toolbox for any foley artist. You can work with a lot of detail, at the level of the big Hollywood studios, and from your own laptop, in a practical and simple, but very professional way. You can produce immersive audio for any kind of audiovisual production. The cost of this plug-in is US$179, and it is a reasonable price, considering all the advantages you get in exchange for using it. Cinema Sound Foley Library, as its name suggests, offers you a generous bank of sounds that you can use according to your needs, and you can modify the sounds as you wish. An important advantage is that the samples are not pre-EQed, which means that you have maximum frequency fullness, as well as the possibility to sculpt further with your own EQ. Also, you won’t need external effects plug-ins because this software already has everything you need.
Foley Household
This library is perfect for beginners and professionals. It has a hundred basic samples, and you can add another 120 as individual Wav files (all high-quality). It has a polyphonic mode, reverb, a white noise layer, and an excellent LFO oscillator that you can adjust depending on your specific needs. One aspect highlighted by satisfied customers is that it takes up little CPU space and has a very easy-to-use graphical interface.
Reformer Pro
This plug-in, developed by Krotos, converts pre-recorded audio files into samples that you can use at will in your productions. It is a practical tool for those who want to create, mix, and modify their own sound effects. All in real-time. An advantage of this plug-in is that it saves time and energy since the samples are automatically recorded in your DAW, without the need for editing. Simply, through the microphone of your choice, you record your sample and add the texture you like. You can import all the samples you need, you can modify and mix them, although this plug-in has more than two GB of high-quality sounds, ready to be used in any audiovisual production. The cost of this plug-in is US$478.80. This plug-in also allows you to work with immersive audio, and in a very simple way.
X-treme FX
Thanks to this plug-in, you will have at your disposal a library of more than 5000 high-quality sound and foley effects. Everything is meticulously cataloged, so searching for what you need won’t take you long. It’s quite easy to use: just select, drag, and drop the samples into your DAW, and you can modify any file as you wish thanks to the wide range of effects available, such as filters, delays, reverbs, dynamics processors, and much more. Another interesting aspect is the classification of sounds into ten categories, including foleys, of course. The size of the plug-in is quite convenient for any laptop (9.25 GB), you don’t need to download additional plug-ins, and it costs US$99.
