For those of you who’ve never heard of The Sound Collectors’ Club, at its core it’s a hybrid of crowd sourcing and community based sharing of…sound effects. The club works on themeswhich are open to suggestion by the community and change every couple of months. For a small annual fee of £20 you can become a member and get involved.

To get access to the communities contributions to each theme, you need to submit at least one sound effect yourself, after whichyou’ll be granted access to the relevant Google Drive folder. Turning your one sound effect into many.

Once you have access to a theme, you can download and use the sound effects for pretty much anything, royalty free! The only stipulation is that you don’t just repackage and sell the sound effects in the form that they are on the club.

So, not too long after discovering the SCC on Tonebenders Episode 5 featuring an interview from The Sound Collectors’ Club creator Michael Maroussas, I decided to join. After reading through the themes, I thought “Open & Close” would be a good place to start. I recorded the hinges and door lock from my front door with my sE2200a mic, edited and added appropriate metadata using free application Wave Agent (a great tool if you’re on a budget). Once I had my files together, I took a picture of the door and how it was mic’d (pictures aren’t a must but are welcome) and uploaded to my personal SCC Google Drive folder. Low and behold, a few days later I was granted access to “Open & Close” sound effects from recordists all over the world.

As I’m very much in the early stages of my career in audio, having access to these sound effects not only helps me build my library, they are also a valuable reference tool to think about when I’m out recording. Insight into how the pros record and info about their recording setups are invaluable.

So if you’re looking to build your library, join a great community or simply enjoy recording and sharing sounds, check out The Sound Collectors’ Club and get involved.

You can also find updates of newly added effects on The Sound Collector’s Club Twitter, so you’ll never miss a new sound!