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Sound Effects Libraries: Cataloging Tips
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 first column should be title Main Category and should broadly include categories such as Amusement and Games, Home and Office, and Web Buttons. Minimalism in choosing main categories is the best means of having a tightly organized library right off the bat.
2. The Sub-Category column is meant to break down each main category into various elements such as Animals:Birds, Animals:Dogs, Animals:Pigs etc.
3. Assigning a SKU number that begins with three unique letters, such as your company's initials, and five digits such as SFX00001_BirdChirp as you make them will add immediate organization to your library. The next sound should begin with SFX00002 etc. allowing each sound to be completely unique in title. This sort of numbered titling eases future confusion should you end you with 50 dog barks organized alphabetically.
4. The Title is a friendly title to be displayed for the potential licensee such as Dog Bark 1.
5. The Time Length is a valuable piece of information to include in your meta-data because longer sound effects and generally more valuable than shorter ones and the licensee should be able to tell right off the bat how much sound they are licensing.
6. Track info stipulates whether the sample is stereo or mono as well as the sample rate, bit rate , and file type such as Stereo 48k 24bit .wav which informs the licensee about the quality of the sample.
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.
About the Author In addition to writing articles on multimedia subjects, SFXsource holds a Sound Effects catalog and provides royalty free music for multimedia productions.
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