.png)
Company: Soundholder
Product: Cars In Motion
Price: $50
Our Rating: 4.2/5
Soundholder's latest product aims to provide a plethora of moving exterior car sounds with multiple microphone positions.
Popping The Hood
After opening our review copy, we were greeted by quite an extensive set of sounds covering a variety of vehicles. It was nice to see everyday cars and some more abstract vehicles covered, such as tractors and construction. The files are provided in 24bit 96kHz WAV and have extensive metadata.
Starting The Engine
When listening to the files, they sounded great for the most part. A couple really stood out as unique (we loved the nasty, aggressive tyre squeals and skids of the Volswagon Golf II and the icy crackle of the Audi A4 Allroad as it slowly paced across the snow). Nothing here sounds overly clean or processed, there is a lot of room for EQ if you want a more cinematic sound, and space for realism if you don't.
Many of the vehicles have a nice boomy mono file, courtesy of one of our favourite microphones - the RØDE NTG3, other vehicles are covered by the Sennheiser MKH 8040. Many have a stereo file, provided by the on board microphones of the Sony PCM-M10, which offers a nice distance perception and width. A rather odd choice to include though were some files recorded by a RØDE Videomic, which has a rather high noise floor. Soundholder assure us that these were included only as an additional option.
This library has an earthly quality, likely due to the microphone choice and experienced field recording techniques, it's great for accenting scenes that you have spotted with a specific car library from Soundholder. It's a shame that the scope is limited to this though, you won't find any on board microphones here - see Soundholder's many other products for that. We would also like to have seen more exotic vehicle choices - this library would have benefited massively from a luxury sports car (Ferrari, Lamborghini etc.), but Soundholder have the option to do this in a future update.
Revving Up
An update system has been put in place to ensure that users get the most value from the product. All customers will receive additional free vehicles and these are already in the process of being created, which adds tons of value to an already reasonably priced product.
The inclusion of tractors and construction vehicles is a very useful addition and for some people may warrant the entire library purchase.
One of our only gripes with this library is it's lack of consistency. Every vehicle sounds good, but not every vehicle has the same microphone positions and sample variations. For example - one vehicle has a horn doppler pass by and others have recordings while reversing. Some vehicles are strictly mono too. Hopefully this won't affect most people's usage, considering it is branded as a more 'general' car library. It does however make the library feel like a combination of different vehicle recording sessions rather than a cohesive final product.
The Bottom Line
An extensive library for Sound Editors that work with cars. It's best uses would be in combination with on board recordings of vehicles, or to sweeten certain shots with a distant sound or pass by. The unique sequences Soundholder have recorded on some files make this product a great addition to your hard drive, as a general car sound effects library. At this price point, you'll struggle to find another natural sounding exterior car library, which has unique vehicles and amazing braking sounds. There is an exclusive discount code (Ends 5th April) below as well as a competition by Soundholder to win a free library!
Get Cars In Motion with $10 Discount: Use Code: 344audio