High definition sound effect

High Definition Sound Effects or High Definition Audio are artificially created or enhanced sound effects that are recorded at 24-bit/48kHz or above, used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. The conversion from 16-bit/44.1kHz recordings can be converted into numbers that represent hi-def, but this process takes time and does not make them truly hi-def. The dynamic range remains the same, as does the frequency range.

Organizations are making efforts to support the integration of HD into the mainstream, including the High-Definition Audio-Video Network Alliance (HANA) and Altera’s High Definition Quality Initiative (HDQI). Though they include support for audio, the majority of these initiatives focus on video production and distribution.

HD Sound Effect Libraries

Blastwave FX and Sound Ideas now develop HD sound effect libraries that are available for purchase.

Blastwave FX develops next-generation HD sound effects libraries for professional audio production. Our design and engineering teams push the sound envelope with innovative product formats, rich metadata, multi-channel libraries and the highest resolution audio that technology allows. Blastwave FX libraries, including our flagship Sonopedia, serve as royalty-free creative resources for audio professionals worldwide in post, broadcast, film, television, video games, animation, radio, new media and beyond. Blastwave FX is based in Detroit, MI and is headed by Ric Viers, author of The Sound Effects Bible (MWP). Blastwave FX's exclusive worldwide master distributor is Pro Sound Effects.

Sound Ideas, founded in 1978 and now located just outside of Toronto, Canada, is the world's largest publisher of sound effects for the professional broadcast, post-production and motion picture industries. The company also publishes The Mix Broadcast Music Library, and offers a growing number of products for use in multimedia, game and Web design. Its sound effects and music libraries are used all over the world. Sound Ideas is the exclusive worldwide distributor for a number of custom-created feature film studio sound effect libraries, including: 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm, Universal Studios, Turner Entertainment, Disney Ideas, Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros., The Saul Zaentz Film Center (creators of "Amadeus"), and Jay Ward Productions – the creators of Rocky & Bullwinkle.

HD Terminology

Intel High Definition Audio: Intel released this spec in 2004 that implements HD audio on PCs. IHD can handle up to 36-bit/196kHz audio.
HD Radio: HD Radio is a trademarked name for digital radio technology developed by iBiquity, but actually stands for ‘hybrid,’ not hi-def. And just a reminder, ‘digital’ does not equal high definition. For both AM and FM, HD Radio transmits highly compressed audio with their proprietary codec called HDC.
Dolby Digital True HD, DTS-HD Master Audio, etc.: There are a great deal of HD specs, standards, and products mentioned these days. Most often, the abbreviation HD will indicate high definition audio playback capabilites or specifications (though as mentioned in the above HD Radio, this is not always the case). Dolby TrueHD is Dolby’s latest lossless technology, developed for high-definition disc-based media. Similarly, DTS-HD Master Audio is the DTS equivalent lossless audio. These are available as soundtracks on many Blu-ray disks. The sound is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master after its decoded by the player or receiver.

Metadata and Media Formats

HD Sound Effects libraries come with embedded metadata that lead to incredibly efficient searching and auditioning of sounds, then express transfers into your editing platform. Furthermore, HD Sound Effects libraries can be delivered on dedicated hard drives, saving even more time and staying organized.

Metadata is "information about information" and it is one of the really useful features of digital audio files. When audio went from analogue to digital, it became possible to label or encode audio files with more information than could be contained in just the file name. That identifying information is called "metadata".

Metadata can be used to name, describe, catalogue and indicate ownership or copyright for a digital audio file, and its presence makes it much easier to locate a specific audio file within a group – through use of a search engine that accesses the metadata. As different digital audio formats were developed, it was agreed that a standardized and specific location would be set aside within the digital files where this information could be stored.

As a result, almost all digital audio formats, including mp3, broadcast wav and AIFF files, have similar standardized locations that can be populated with metadata. This "information about information" has become one of the great advantages of working with digital audio files – since the catalogue and descriptive information that makes up the metadata is built right into the audio file itself, ready for easy access and use. You no longer need to consult a paper catalogue or product packaging to find out more about a particular file.

HD Sound FX Initiative

The HD Sound Effects Initiative (http://hdsoundeffects.org/) is an industry-wide consortium dedicated to fostering the awareness, adoption and use of high definition audio and sound effects libraries in professional media production. Organized by Pro Sound Effects with endorsement from leading library publishers Sound Ideas, Hollywood Edge, Digieffects and Blastwave FX, the HD Sound Effects Initiative serves as an educational and news resource for the professional audio community. By using the highest quality audio and HD sound effects libraries, we, as audio professionals, seek to push the limits of the HD experience and underscore the increasingly integral role of high definition audio and sound design.