The kind folks at Adobe have about 50 scores that can be downloaded for free from within Resource Central in Soundbooth (or from Adobe’s website), so I made sure that I got those downloaded so that I could play with them. Then, as Adobe offers a variety of premium scores for $49 for a pack of 5 (which comes out to only $10 per score), I chatted with them about providing us some for this article. They kindly made a nice selection of 5 packs of 5 songs available so that I could comment both on the simplicity of using Soundbooth’s scores in general is but, also, so that I could comment on my opinion of the differences between the free and premium scores. (For those who are interested, they currently have 14 bundles of 5 scores each for a total of 70 premium scores available.)
I previewed each of the seventy-five pieces (50 free songs and 25 premium), placing some of the most viable ones inside a timeline from a rough cut of the opening credits for Collide. (At the end of the article, you can see three examples from this work.)
First off, before I get into other comparisons, let’s start with the first question many filmmakers have: how is Soundbooth at laying in a score? I found it to be very easy to use. It’s not as complex as SonicFire Pro (nor do you have the minute instrument manipulation abilities that you do in that series), but it’s simple to create a track that is the length you want it to be and you have a decent number of customization options. Plus, because Soundbooth is already part of the Adobe Production Premium package, you don’t have to export out separate audio tracks, but can add it in below the current dialogue you have in your film. (Now, with that said, the multi-track support found in Soundbooth CS4 is still pretty limited and the new .ASND format is brand new, but it’s workflow is simpler than Sonicfire Pro and will continue to get more simple as true multi-track Dynamic Link is likely implemented in CS5 and beyond.)
Now that my comments on the actual use of Soundbooth CS4 are done, the next question most microfilmmakers are going to want to know is: are the premium scores an improvement over the free scores? Do they cover an area that is different enough from the free scores? Yes, they are.
My verdict on the premium scores is that they are, quite frankly, wicked cool! Yes, that's right, I said "wicked cool." (Feel free to use that expression at your leisure.) I found the scores to be tasty and affordable (an important fact on our budget). As I mentioned, I sampled five score packages containing a total of twenty-five individual pieces. Now, a little note about the scores available to Soundbooth: they are not all music. While some of the premium packs are packs of musical scores, some of them are packs of environmental sounds to allow you to create an immersive environment. (Our editor-in-chief, when he was first testing out Soundbooth, used the “Thunderstorm” environment score to make an amazingly professional and realistic sounding thunderstorm CD to fall asleep to and is planning to use an environmental “Coffee Shop” track to create a sonic landscape for his youngest son, who can only fall asleep in authentically busy environments. While both of these may sound fairly domestic, they each require high audio fidelity and realism to be effective, which are essential for film use.)
Now, there are a few free ambient scores available as well, so you can try out a lot of effects for films with the free scores. Of course, the premium ones do seem to have one or two more adjustable sound effects options and, on the whole, sound a little better to my ear. (Plus, they are usually bundled with specifically complementary environments or areas.) Either way you go with the ambient scores, it IS good to have an arsenal of environmental/ambient sounds at your disposal, especially if you end up forgetting to capture nat sound/room tone in a location. It always happens on that day when there is so much to manage and keep track of on a shooting day. Even when you don't forget, sometimes you need to enhance what you already have. Maybe you're shooting somewhere that you've decorated up to resemble an airport waiting area, but couldn't use the real airport. Your room tone won't sell the environment as well without ambient noise that indicates that you are, in fact, at an airport. So, these pieces are very helpful.
