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Pack: Vintage Music (Red Lib)

Pack sound's overall rating (10)
craigsmith

September 24th, 2019

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The Red Library is a collection of over 1,500 nitrate optical sound effects from the 1930s & 40s created for Hollywood studios. They were collected by a prominent sound editor who worked in the industry for 44 years. The fragile optical elements were donated to USC, and transferred to tape by USC Cinema students in the early 1970s.

I’ve nicknamed this “The Workbench Library”. These optical recordings were not masters, but leftovers. Editors always transferred more than they needed, because printing optical tracks was a slow process. The Red Library effects had been filed away in boxes for later use. Because of this, they aren’t as sonically clean as the Gold Library (also on Freesound.org). So I’ve done a little cleanup on these sounds, mostly fixing splices. But the goal of this project is preservation, not restoration. So embrace the noise!

Note: Gold Library file names start with a “G”, Red Library with a “R”.

Read more at (https://blog.freesound.org/?p=901)

I have been recording and manipulating sound since 1964. After graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, I worked as a sound editor and production mixer in Hollywood, specializing in noisy action-adventure films that are blamed for the downfall of society. I am now Academic Sound Coordinator in the School of Film/Video at California Institute of the Arts.

Optical
Vintage
Music
Drums
Noise
Accordions
Gongs
Piano
Musical
Tonalities
Latest sounds in this pack
R21-46-Strumming Piano Strings.wav
craigsmith
127
5.0
September 24th, 2019
Strumming the strings on a piano. Seven takes. Sustain…
R19-54-Mystery Violin Music.wav
craigsmith
209
September 24th, 2019
Strange mystery music piece. Rapid bowing on violins w…
R18-53-Automated Optical ID Tag.wav
craigsmith
55
September 24th, 2019
Automated ID tag for studio optical audio recordings. …
R18-17-Fast Bongo Drum.wav
craigsmith
172
3
4.8
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Rapid playing of a single bongo drum. Mostly a roll. T…
R17-07-Snare Drum.wav
55
craigsmith
September 24th, 2019
Snare drum beats. Steady hits, not much of a rhythm.
R17-06-Accordion Tunes.wav
craigsmith
231
2
5.0
September 24th, 2019
Accordion music. Upbeat tunes. Three variations with b…
R17-05-Bad Saxophone.wav
craigsmith
230
1
4.8
September 24th, 2019
Saxophone riffs. Awful scale and annoying squealing no…
R16-11-Snare Drum Roll.wav
craigsmith
194
5.0
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A long drum roll on a large tom tom drum.
R05-34-Accordion Tune.wav
craigsmith
122
1
4.3
September 24th, 2019
Accordion music. Playing a lively tune. No other sound…
R05-28-Optical Noise.wav
craigsmith
106
4.8
September 24th, 2019
Optical noise. Could be used for room tone, or to dirt…
R05-03-Chinese Gong Crescendo.wav
craigsmith
98
4.8
September 24th, 2019
Chinese gong with repeat crescendo. Many hits increasi…
R05-02-Gong Hit.wav
craigsmith
177
1
5.0
September 24th, 2019
Long gong sound. Reverberant and fades out.
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