Can you hear the difference?
It was always our intention to let you hear a sound effect before you buy it. Most sound effect websites selling WAV files and mp3 files offer extremely low quality previews which make it hard to tell whether the original file was actually any good in the first place. So we set about looking for a way of letting people hear the entire sound effect, without degrading it too much, and the result is what you hear at www.bigfataudio.com. The beep sound in our previews is like a watermark in a stock photo - it's there to stop the sounds from being stolen. But it goes one step further, there is a tracking code contained in the beep, and this makes it possible for us to trace the previews if they are being used illegally. The only downside of course, is that you have to put up with the beep when you audition the sounds and we know it can be annoying. But hopefully, it is still better than hearing an awful, low-fi preview that sounds crunchy and degraded. Most of the "free" sound effects on the internet are stolen unfortunately, so we hope you will accept our watermark tone as a reasonable way of securing our sound effects.
What makes a good sound effect?
There are many things that make a great sound effect. The quality of the microphones and recording equipment, the location of the recording – are there any unwanted background sounds? The way they are edited and eventually offered to you as a WAV or mp3 files. These variables are very important and are reflected in what you hear in the many wav sound effects you find on the internet. Cheap microphones will create a noisy, hissy recording and badly edited sound files may be distorted and unbalanced. At
www.bigfataudio.com , we work with the best equipment and try to capture as natural a recording as possible that will truly represent the sound. Sound recording is a time consuming process and requires a lot of expertise and dedication. Whether it means travelling to strange locations of braving extreme weather, the pursuit of a great recording is what drives us and we hope you will be able to hear the difference!
Prefer an mp3? Just contact us...
You may have noticed that most of our sound effects are in WAV format. This is because this is equivalent to CD quality and unlike mp3, the sound isn't compressed. The downside of WAV files is that they can be rather large, but we would much rather you had the original, high quality sample than a lower quality mp3. It is very easy to make mp3 files these days, especially with free software like Audacity. But if you purchase one of our sound effects and you need an mp3 version, just drop us a line and we will email one to you as soon as possible. The same goes for higher quality WAV files - we also have 24bit, 48khz versions of most of our sound effects which TV and film producers sometimes prefer.
News: 5.1 Surround sound effects are here!!
From June 2008 Big Fat Audio will be leading the way with a range of unique surround sound recordings. These ultra high quality recordings will include crowd ambiences, natural backgrounds and even recording made onboard rollercoaster's. Surround sound is becoming ever more prevalent these days with many households owning surround cinema systems and many TV stations broadcasting in surround. The Discovery channel recently remixed its entire back-catalogue of programmes in surround! So please check back soon for further information about this exciting development.
What's so different about Big Fat Audio?
We pride ourselves on offering quality royalty free sound effect. We will never dupe you into buying a low quality, hissy, noisy recording that was made with budget equipment and poorly edited. Our recordings are unique and recorded with state-of-the-art equipment. And we render them in the best way possible - with maximum signal level and no distortion. You can also be sure that what you're buying from us is legal and that you will never break the law by using one of our sound files. That's a promise!