Category Archives: Articles

Things I’ve learned the hard way so you don’t have to.

Tropical Sounds from Hawaii

Articles, Free Sound Effects, PIR News

Last month we returned from our 6 week long journey through the Hawaiian islands, as well as vacationing we were recording sounds, taking video and of course swimming and boogie boarding.

I am back in the studio now and am starting to edit the collection of nature sounds we recorded while we wandering around in Maui, Kauai, Hawaii (the big island) and Ohau. The recordings are turning out surprisingly well I think.
Check out the tropical sounds on freesoundeffects.com and I’ll probably make a few more relaxation CDs with some of these sounds.
If you need some quick free jungle sound effects for an educational or personal projects you can download them for free here.

10 Christmas Songs That Are Not in Public Domain

Articles, Royalty Free Christmas Music

Many people mistakenly believe that the Christmas classics that they hear year after year in their shopping malls and department stores are all in the public domain and can be used freely in their videos and projects. Below is a list compile by Nathaniel Patchner of rightsworkshop.com of the 10 Christmas Songs you probably thought were in the public domain but aren’t;

1. Winter Wonderland
2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
3. White Christmas
4. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
5. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
6. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
7. Jingle Bell Rock
8. Frosty The Snowman
9. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
10. The Little Drummer Boy

If you are looking for recordings of Christmas songs that are in the public domain check out our Christmas Audio Resources Section.

If you need help licensing a non-public domain Christmas song please contact rightsworkshop.com

New Musicloops.com Composers

Articles, PIR News
Introducing Gary Wolk and Justin Nihiser
Gary Wolk
Gary writes sound-a-like music and is very good at it. Sound-a-like, or knock-off music, is music that sounds as close as possible to famous songs and styles without infringing on the copyrights of the original works. Gary’s tracks capture the unique flavor of the music of the superstars like Otis Redding, The Beach Boys, The Stray Cats, U2, Bruce Springsteen, The Allman Bros Band, Neil Young, Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Tower of Power, well, you get the idea.
Justin Nihiser
Justin has written and placed music for Coke, Groupon, Burger King, Casio, Wii, A&E, History, MTV, E!, CW’s Hellcats, The Big Bang Theory, and numerous other clients and we are happy to be distributing his high qulaity royalty free music.

One of the unique things about Justin’s catalog is that he sells each track for only $9.95.

I’m not sure why he is doing that but there you go.
Musicloops.com now has over 12,000 songs in its database and we’re adding an average of 150 new tracks a week.
If you ever have questions or comments regarding Musicloops.com please feel free to contact me.

Free Online and Offline Audio File Conversion

Articles, Composer Tips, PIR News

At Partners In Rhyme we deliver all of the audio our customers order in WAV format. Some of our customers need their audio in MP3 format and we help them with instructions on how to easily convert their audio to any format they need using free iTunes software.
For those of your who do not want to download software to convert your audio there is a new free online audio conversion site just for you called Media.io
http://media.io/

To convert using iTunes follow the instructions below:

Converting to MP3 is very easy. If you don’t already have it download the free app iTunes (Mac or PC) here:

http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

Load all of the sounds into iTunes (simply drag and drop in most operating systems) then choose iTunes > Preferences
Click on the ‘General’ tab, then click on the ‘Import Settings’ button and choose ‘MP3 Encoder’.
You can also choose the quality setting you want or choose ‘custom’ if you have a specific setting in mind.
Click OK. Then go back to the library, select all of your tracks that you want to convert, then choose Advanced > Create MP3 Version.
Once that is done you will have an MP3 version of the track in your iTunes music folder.

Interview with Sound Designer for Red Dead Redemption

Articles, Composer Tips, PIR News

Read Dead Redemption is one of my favorite PS3 games, not only for the game play but for the beautiful environments, musical soundtrack and flawless sound design.
I am posting a link to an in depth interview the audio director of Red Dead Redemption.

The interview is by Miguel Isaza for designingsound.org

When I saw the first images of Red Dead Redemption I knew that it will be a beautiful and amazing game. Then, the gameplay confirmed me that not only the visuals were great. The sound work there was fantastic. Clean mix, great sounds, and a perfect sonic experience for any player. So, if like me, you wanted to know more about the sound direction of the game, here is an interview with its audio director Jeffrey Whitcher.