# D&D Sound Effects?



## Ogrork the Mighty (Sep 13, 2004)

Does anyone know some good sources for sound effects that can be used for D&D? I'm not talking mood music; I'm interested in fantasy sound effects.


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## Ranger REG (Sep 13, 2004)

Your body.

Place a mike in contact with your stomach for example and record at maximum volume. If you have a sound editor, fool around with the sound, until you come up with something you like.

The more you experimint with sounds, the more you know what it is like to be a sound editor working on a movie, or simply a foley artist.


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## Ogrork the Mighty (Sep 14, 2004)

Uh, ok. But I was actually thinking more along the lines of audio files. Thanks anyways.


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## Ranger REG (Sep 14, 2004)

Ogrork the Mighty said:
			
		

> Uh, ok. But I was actually thinking more along the lines of audio files. Thanks anyways.



Try _Interactive Dungeon,_ a freeware.

http://www.dndresources.com/index.php/articles/c49+244

(Scroll down.)


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## mac1504 (Sep 14, 2004)

I've recently been entertaining the idea of working sound effects into my games via computer as well. I went and downloaded rpgsoundmixer which is a great tool (and pretty inexpenive at about $20 USD) which not only comes with a god selection of sound effects and fantasy tracks, but the heart of the program allows you to set up "sound scenarios" that allow you to easily access all of those sound effects and muscial scores through hotkeys. You can integrate them in about any fashion you wish. I haven't used the program in a game yet (I will be this weekend) but I think it will go over fantastic.

Although rpgsoundmixer comes with a variety of sound effects, there are some other good sources out there that you can download onto your computer and then add them to the soundmixer directory for use in its program.

Here are some good sources I've found:

Toxic Bag Productions: http://toxicbag.com/gmc.sht

Midnight Syndicate CDs (musical scores, no special effects): http://www.midnightsyndicate.com/

A good source for finding sound effects on the web: http://www.findsounds.com/

If you peruse the rpgsoundmixer boards, you'll find some good links in there for sources of sound effects as well. Warning: rpgsoundmixer is a german company, but they do their best to translate information into english, but the boards are a mix of english and german.

Good luck!


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## teknohippy (Jun 16, 2009)

I currently have an app looking for beta testers that is designed to aid with applying soundscapes to your table top game.

Softrope -- RPG Soundscape Mixer

I'm looking for the input of DMs for new features and the like if anyone is interested.


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## Hjorimir (Jun 16, 2009)

I've taken sound effects from EverQuest, Doom, F.E.A.R., WoW, and Neverwinter Nights (as well as few oddball ones here and there) and used them for my games. I use a program called Audacity when I want to mix a loop (prepared before the game, naturally).

To play the sounds, I use VLC Media Player because it is very light (on system resources) and I can open multiple copies of it simultaneously. So before the game, I may have a handful of ambient sound loops ready to go (e.g. thunderstorm, drippy caves, wading through water) and I'll also have some event- or npc-based sounds ready too (e.g. a sudden strike of lightning, a dragon's roar, a huge door slamming shut).

My players really have taken to it.


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## smartypants (Apr 26, 2011)

*sound effects*

Hi I am new here but found this a really interesting throead as I am a sound designer and make my own sounds.

There are loads and loads of websites out there for sounds, some free some paid but I would check out:

soundscalpel.com 
Freesfx.co.uk
Partnersinrhyme
soundjay


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## Quickleaf (Apr 26, 2011)

I've enjoyed using Welcome to Syrinscape | Syrinscape, and Benjamin (the creator) is on these boards, so he'll be able to chime in.

There's a bundle of audio files and you can overlay that on your music however you like. Good stuff.


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## Thunderfoot (Apr 26, 2011)

Halloween sound effects CDs are also a good source for various dungeon sounds - creaking/slamming doors, chains, torture, etc.  usually inexpensive, especially the day AFTER Halloween.


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## Mark CMG (Apr 26, 2011)

I tried playing audio files for sound effects and found them turning my game into a morning zoo, with me always (or often) trying to find the right sound effect to punctuate everything.  I didn't mind using looped tracks for dripping water or wind, at low volume, in the background.  But the intrusive effects like battle clashes were more distracting than they were worth, IMO.  Of course, I'm no foley artist (though I do have theatre and radio experience) so maybe I just wasn't playing the effects in quite the right manner.


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## fba827 (Apr 26, 2011)

a great idea, just one word of caution - organization and access to the sound files.

Anecdote: back in the 90s(?) D&D had these adventures that came with audio CDs and you'd cue up certain CD tracks based on where the PCs were... so you'd get your creaky doors, your dripping water, your shrill kobold screaming, the heavy footsteps, a couple of the NPC speechs, etc.

However, in actual practice, because it took a second or two to get to the right CD track only to play a couple secons of sound, it became more trouble than it was worth and at some points proved a distraction (for the DM) rather than mood-setting aide.

Having said that, it IS a good aide for setting the mood.  Just make sure you have it all easily organized and quickly accessible.


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## TORBUK (Oct 13, 2011)

*Am I too late???*

I wish I saw this post YEARS AGO...but, I do have a pretty decent reply for you to possibly use.  I obtained a few CD's from TOXIC BAG PRODUCTIONS.  They have specially made CD's to use for any campaign.  I have the "Fantasy Special Effects" and the "Fantasy Monsters" CD's.  I believe they still sell them.  If you still DM and you are still looking for a quality supplement for your game...check them out!  I hope this helps.  Good Luck!


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## Oryan77 (Oct 14, 2011)

Are there any players that can handle more than one playlist (if you wanted to play two playlists at the same time, not just having two playlists loaded at once)?

I also can't seem to find a player that can do that and also has separate volume controls. Usually one volume controller will adjust all of the computers volume.

My reasons for wanting these options is so I can play 1 playlist containing background music, another playlist playing background sound effects (like birds chirping) at the same time as the background music. And then being able to lower the volume on one or the other playlists without changing the volume on the other playlist.

I've even tried using audio mixer programs and they don't seem to do this.


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## RHGreen (Oct 14, 2011)

Hjorimir said:


> I've taken sound effects from EverQuest, Doom, F.E.A.R., WoW, and Neverwinter Nights (as well as few oddball ones here and there) and used them for my games. I use a program called Audacity when I want to mix a loop (prepared before the game, naturally).





I was going to say the same - I think TOEE has a good lot too.

I found some games pack their sounds in a .PK4 file (I think? It's been a while) which you can unpack using winrar.


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## ACreepierFolklaw (Oct 15, 2011)

of course, freesound.org


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## ToxicBag_Joe (Jan 13, 2012)

TORBUK said:


> I wish I saw this post YEARS AGO...but, I do have a pretty decent reply for you to possibly use.  I obtained a few CD's from TOXIC BAG PRODUCTIONS.  They have specially made CD's to use for any campaign.  I have the "Fantasy Special Effects" and the "Fantasy Monsters" CD's.  I believe they still sell them.  If you still DM and you are still looking for a quality supplement for your game...check them out!  I hope this helps.  Good Luck!





Hello, this is Joe from Toxic Bag Productions. We do still sell sound effects (thanks for the plug, Torbuk!), on our site and on DriveThruRPG.

You can also find sound effects at sites like Audiosparx.com and Sounddogs.com; they're generally sold _a la carte_ for a few bucks apiece.

To Oryan77's question: you might look at a program called RPG Soundmixer (mentioned earlier in the thread) for changing levels of multiple playlists. I'm not sure it has that functionality, but it might; I haven't used it myself. We have an ipad app that currently only supports one playlist at a time, though we're working on it. Your best bet (if you're on a mac) is to try to find a program called QLab, which was actually developed for theater sound design. It supports nested playlists and independent volume control for individual sounds. I believe version 1 was freeware, so there may be installers for that floating around. I like Hjorimir's idea of running several instances of VLC Media Player; I bet you could do independent volumes that way.

Has anyone tried softrope?

I know it's not cool to gatecrash a messageboard with a sales pitch, and I hope no one is offended that I've chimed in. My apologies to anyone who is. I am very interested in how people are using sound in their games, what roadblocks they're running into, and how they're getting around them. Peace.

Joe


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## Jeffrey (Jan 14, 2012)

mac1504 said:


> I haven't used the program in a game yet (I will be this weekend) but I think it will go over fantastic.




Please come back and let us know how it went.


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