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REVIEW: Boom Library - The Complete Boom Basics
- Alex Gregson
- Nov 23, 2021
- 9 min read
Company: Boom Library
Product: The Complete Boom Basics
Price: $251.86 Yearly Subscription ($999.00 Buyout)
Our Rating: 4.8/5
Boom Library has made a name for themselves delivering high quality products that continually raise the bar in what is expected from a sound effects library. With their latest offering The Complete Boom Basics, they have rolled 57 of their most popular libraries into one neat package to deliver a superb sound effects library at a jaw-droppingly low price.
Back To Basics
The first thing that jumps out about this collection is the size. Clocking in at 52Gb and over 12,000 audio files, this library certainly provides the user with a huge array of content. There is an insane amount of value here and its great to see such a wide variety of in one package. This vast and detailed library is a great toolkit for completing many sound design tasks. With sounds ranging from the organic and historical, vehicles and weaponry to the more synthesized and abstract, The Complete Boom Basics give you all the content you need to design compelling and exciting sounds for Film, TV, Games, Trailers, Animation and much more.
Some of the amazing content contained within this collection.
Mega Variety
You can find everything from ambiences, UI sounds, weapons from various time periods, explosions, cinematic whooshes & impacts, crowds, creature sounds, and the list goes on. With such a staggering amount of sounds to choose from it can be a little overwhelming at first, but the folder structure breaks things down into easy-to-navigate sections and its never too difficult to find what you are looking for.
One especially great section in this collection is the vehicle sounds. not only do they sound brilliant, but they have really gone to town with providing highly specific sounds that cover individual car models, different engine sizes, SUVs, vans and high powered muscle cars.
Another gem contained within this collection is the vintage World War II tanks and aircraft sounds. These include tanks from both the allies and axis, as well as the iconic P15 Mustang fighter plane. These sound highly authentic and are not something you see that often.
High-Quality Sound Design
As we have come to expect from Boom Library, the quality of the sounds contained in this collection is fantastic both in terms of their fidelity and aesthetic. Everything has a pristine level of polish whilst retaining that hard-hitting cinematic edge. Despite the huge variety of sounds, there is a consistency across the library that makes everything feel part of the same family, which is no easy feat when there are over 12,000 files.
To put this library through its paces on a real project, we used it on a horror movie trailer to create the sounds of the monster growling and its footsteps, the sounds of magic energy encircling the main character, and for risers and impact sounds. The sounds were user friendly, and the particular advantages include full frequency content, consistency, and many variations of most effects. The magic sounds were particularly dynamic and useful, BOOM has provided enough duration in the files to cover extended sequences, often overlooked in independent sound design libraries.
What Is Contained In This Collection?
This mammoth library is subdivided into 55 separate folders that cover a different category of sounds. This file structure makes navigating the library easy, and you can always find the sound you are looking for without spending ages searching for it.
Below you can find a short description and overview of the contents of each folder.
Urban USA - A collection of ambiences from major American cities with different types of locations and times of day. You can find busy financial districts, parks, downtown, train stations, outdoor market, industrial district and underpasses.
Room Tones Europe - Room tones from a variety of settings including factory, workshop, library, school sports hall, underground car park and office spaces.
Assault Weapons - A hard hitting collection of heavy weapon sounds, sniper rifles, pistols, machine guns, grenades, mechanics and bullet impacts all recorded at close, medium and distant perspectives.
Baby BOOM - Baby vocalisations from a range of different moods and ages. Crying, babbling, laughing, screaming, shouting and yawning.
Birds of Prey - An assortment of bird calls, screeches, growls and other sounds from birds of prey such as eagles, vultures, falcons, hawks, owls and more. Expect to find lots of chips and squawks, as well as some more aggressive sounds from these predators of the sky.
Black Powder - All things gunpowder, canons, explosions, impacts, historic guns such as muskets. Complete with long tail reverbs and plenty of variations on each sound.
Cars SUVs & Vans - Highly detailed car sounds from a range of modern Vans and SUVs. As well as long take engine and drive-by sounds, this collection has an extensive batch of interior and mechanical sounds, indicators, pedals, seatbelt, and everything else you can think of. Recorded at different points of the car - engine, exhaust, interior.
Cars V8 BOOM Basic Edition - A collection of sounds from legendary muscle cars such as the Ford Mustang and Shelby GT500. Engine recordings at slow, medium and fast, recorded from engine, interior and exhaust perspectives. Approaches, sharp turns, aggressive starts and passes to give you everything you need to create high-octane car sequences.
Cinematic Darkness - Dark cinematic effects perfect for horror & trailer sound design. Drones, Glitches, Risers, Stutters and transitions that will raise the tension and create a creepy atmosphere.
Cinematic Elements - Fire & Water - Construction kits based around the elements of fire and water. Flaming whooshes, sizzles and cracks, bubbles and underwater motions, ice-cold splashes and full-water immersions.
Cinematic Hits - A collection of ready-to-use cinematic hits and impacts, epic drums, rumbles and crashes.
Cinematic Horror - Inspired by film such as The Hills Have Eyes and Ghost Ship, Cinematic Horror contains a range of horror themed construction kits. Complete with drones, impacts, scrapes, distorted guitars, mangled instruments and creepy vocal sounds.
Cinematic Metal - A stunning assembly of unique and earth-shattering metallic hits, perfect for use in trailer sound design.
Cinematic Metal Titan - Designed to shock and amaze, Titan gives you a large range of thunderous effects ready to shake the room. With multi-layered hits, braams, booms, impacts and stingers that will push the limits and add some serious weight to your sound design.
Cinematic Strikes CK - Comprehensive drum hit package designed to satisfy every area of the frequency range. These construction kits offer up a range of epic drum hits, rolls and swells, complete with multiple options in terms of beaters, whips, drum sticks and recording perspectives.
Close Combat - Everything you need to create exciting fight scenes and make your audience feel each and every blow. High quality and detailed punches, kicks, drops, body falls, as well as subtle elements such as cloth movements and whooshes.
Creature Foley - A range of creature effects such as bites, claws, wings, footsteps and movement sounds to help you bring horror creatures to life.
Creatures - Create your own unique creatures with the diverse offering of breaths, chokes, slobbers, bellows from creatures such as Aliens, Dragons, Zombies and Lizard hybrids.
Crowds - Concert Audiences - Realistic crowd ambiences for concerts, clubs, stadiums, arenas and more. Applause, cheering and shouting from a range of sport and entertainment settings.
Debris - The sounds of demolition and destruction. Debris gives you a stunning collection of detailed and rich textures featuring glass, dirt, sand, metal, gravel, rock, wood and more. Think collapsing buildings, earthquakes and explosion aftermaths.
Destruction - A devastating array of hard-hitting, destructive sound effects. With creaks, breaks, stress fractures, splinters and other apocalyptic sounds. Tailor made for creating destructive soundscapes.
Dirt Bikes - Dirt bike motor sounds covering different distance perspectives, brands and models of bikes.
Dogs - A collection of sound effects from a man's best friend. Dogs contains a wide assortment of canine based sounds such as barks, licks, growls, whimpers, scratching and eating, from many different breeds and sizes of dog.
Everyday Cars - Drive-bys, handling sounds, ignitions, honks, engines, doors, trunks from 10 everyday car models. With multiple long takes and interior/exterior perspectives.
Flammable Liquid - Raw and dirty flamethrower sounds to ignite your inner pyrotechnic. Complete with flame bursts, whooshes and splutters.
Gun Handling - Triggers, dry shots, safety switches, reloading, magazines and more from a range of different firearm models. Highly detailed and authentic effects.
Guns - A substantial collection of modern, powerful gun sounds that would feel right at home in a Hollywood action blockbuster. With sounds separated into light, crispy, realistic and larger than life, this collection provides you with all you need to create intense gun battles.
Historical Firearms - Contains a set of old-fashioned weapon sounds perfect for historical setting such as the wild west and pirates. Expect to find canons, muskets, revolvers, carbines and lever-action rifles.
Horses - A range of cavalry based sounds including trotting, galloping, saddle, eating, mounting/un-mounting as well as hooves on various surfaces.
Hot Rod - Rev Ups - An assortment of aggressive engine sounds from a range of gas-guzzling hot rods and vintage v8 cars.
Impulse Responses Outdoor - A range of different impulse responses from outdoor settings. Ready to be loaded into your convolution reverb plugin.
Jet Fly Bys - Fly by sounds from a range of different jet aircraft rockets, military and passenger planes.
Magic - Unleash your inner wizard with this set of unique and enchanting magic spell sounds. From warm and healing magic all the way to dark and evil spells.
Magic Arcane Forces - A range of construction kits and designed sounds themed around the more aggressive and supernatural end of magical sounds. Expect to find heavy and hard-hitting spells, darks summons and elemental flourishes.
Mechanicals - Recorded dry and up-close, mechanical is a selection of clicks, rattles, springs, cogs and mechanisms from metal machines, designed specifically to give the user the most flexibility possible when working with these sounds.
Medieval Life - Construction kits to help you build medieval scenes from quiet villages all the way to bustling towns and cities. With sounds including animals, carts, voices and mechanical, Medieval life is perfect for quickly laying down some ambiences when working on a film/game project.
Medieval Weapons - An assortment of razor sharp weapon effects ready to build intense medical combat sequences. Expect to find swords, shields, spears, axes, hammers, catapults, plus a range of armor movement and gore sounds.
Modern UI - A versatile collection of pristine user interface sounds, perfect for use in game menus and apps. With a clean and pleasing aesthetic, Modern UI offers a huge range of unique sounds to use in your projects, or as source material for designing your own effects.
Monsters & Beasts - Construction kits containing you a range of different animal vocalisations including elephants, pigs, lions and racoons. Expect to find growls, snarls and hisses. there are also several designed sounds covering prehistoric animals such as the saber-tooth tiger and pterodactyl.
NEON - Neon contains a wide selection of abstract electronic sounds that would be perfect for science fiction and cyberpunk. Complete with glistening ambiences, hits, granular textures and particle effects.
Noisy Places - A variety of ambiences from noisy setting such as harbour & industrial, town & country, urban & suburban and much more.
P51 Mustang - A thrilling collection of sounds from the iconic P51 Mustang. Expect to find fly bus and approaches, dives, whistles, take offs, landings, propellor and engine effects, all recorded in multiple perspectives.
Sci-Fi - An extensive toolkit for futuristic and sci-fi sounds, contains a range of construction kits covering servos, energy weapons, hydraulics, mechanics, impacts and more.
Silencers - The stealthy sound of suppressed firearms, perfect for assassins, special forces and hitmen alike. inside you will find multiple recordings from silenced pistols, assault rifles, shotguns and submachine guns.
The Interface - A fantastic selection of button clicks, slides jingles and more. ideal for designing satisfying interactive elements in game menus, apps and other software.
Toons - Toons contains a great collection of quirky and comedic effects that echo back to classic cartoons such as looney toons and mickeys mouse. Complete with crashes, jumps, honks, whistles and wobbles to bring out your inner cartoon character.
Trains - A collection of clean train recordings from a range of different models and engine types, recorded in multiple perspectives such as the cockpit, wagons, engine rooms and cabins.
Urban Explosions - Featuring the creative talents behind the sound for Dice's battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront games, Urban explosion contentions a range of explosion, destruction and debris sounds recorded in a dense urban environment.
Virtual Foley Artist - Footsteps - A diverse range of footstep sounds featuring many kinds of shoes of different materials and walking surfaces.
Wildcats - An extensive collection of big wildcat recordings. Inside you will find snarls, growls, roars, moans and mating calls. These make for perfect source material when designing your own orginal creature sounds.
World War II Tanks - An arsenal of classic tank sounds from iconic machines of the second world war. Included are the iconic Sherman and panther tanks, with a vast array of engine sounds, pass bys, canon fires, plus interior and exterior perspectives.
As you can see there really is a huge amount of variety included in this library! With the currently discounted price we strongly recommend The Complete Boom Basics to anyone who is looking for a comprehensive and high quality sound effects library covering the more 'epic' end of the spectrum.
The Bottom Line
Whilst the size of this library positions it more towards professional audio post facilities, the fantastic yearly subscription price would make it a great buy for any budding sound designers, game audio, and audio post professionals who are looking to upgrade their sound collection with a large library. The huge variety of quality sounds offered makes this product great value for money.
You can purchase The Complete Boom Basics Here: https://www.boomlibrary.com/sound-effects/the-complete-boom-basics/
We hope you enjoyed this review!
344 Audio is an Audio Post Production studio in Manchester.
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