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Company: Badlands Sound
Product: Above & Below Traffic
Price: $18
Our Rating: 4.6/5
Badlands Sound are known for their affordable libraries with unique themes. Their latest venture offers a much needed fresh perspective on traffic ambiences.
Opening Our Copy
Badlands like to organise their samples into one folder, which makes sense with their libraries being quite compact in terms of file numbers. Everything here is neat and tidy, very lengthy files, all around 5 and half minutes each which is quite impressive - a total of approximately 70 minutes of content, all in stunning 24 Bit 96kHz WAV fidelity. We couldn't wait to open this one up, as the theme, cover art and past libraries from Badlands are all stunning.
Above The Line
This library has got to be one of the best value for money products that we have ever reviewed, time has been taken to capture true to life moments here with a theme that I have never seen covered before. The 13 files offer a variety of passing vehicles which will liven up any residential area, city, or highway (the car chase scene from The Matrix Reloaded comes to mind).
The great thing about the above and below perspective on these sounds is that they have multiple uses with some tweaking: traffic beds under your spot effects, external traffic noise from an interior shot, LFE rumbles and more. The even better thing about this library is the price - $18 (also 30% off currently). I think is a steal for the amount of work involved.
The best thing about them is the sound. They have that gritty 'field recordist' vibe, which makes them sit in scenes with a sense of reality without over accentuating traffic noise. It could even be worth purchasing this library just for an alternative BG perspective in a complex scene, they work great where the audible focus should be in the foreground.
Below The Line
The only constructive criticism we can give on this library is that it is much more 'above' than 'below'. I feel Badlands should have recorded more content below vehicles in strange locations and increased the price to reflect this.
Bare in mind that this does't take away from the fresh content that this product delivers, I know we'll be using it a lot for distant traffic backgrounds and more.
The Bottom Line
Need some earthly recordings to liven up a city scene? Tired of using the same traffic samples, that are too obnoxious to work? Get 30% off Above & Below Traffic now and you won't be disappointed!