Hello everyone and welcome to my website yourfreesounds.com – A unique and self-made library of royalty free sound effects!
This is is my very first blog post. I wanted my first post to be about me as a person as well as about my website yourfreesounds.com in general. So in this article you will find out who I am, what this website and the sound effects are all about and what you can expect from yourfreesounds.com in the future.
The guy behind the sound effects
I am Phil, born and raised in Germany. More precisely, in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the idyllic Münsterland. There I created my first sound effect with a child drum kit, which I got from my parents for Christmas. Later a bigger drum set followed, with whose sounds I kept my whole family busy. Recording sound effects was still a long way off. Even though I had my drums, a great family and great friends, it was clear to me from very early on (at the age of 16) that my future would not take place in this beautiful area. Of course, I was still too young to set out into the big wide world, so I first completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk and stayed in my home town.
During my apprenticeship a clique formed around me, which had a preference for vinyl and especially for electronic dance music. Like two of my friends before me, I bought two turntables and a mixer and started my first attempts to mix tracks. Every weekend we met to have hours of mixing sessions – either just at home or at self-organized parties in our area (we even threw parties and mixed our records in a chippy :D).
Discovering the world of sounds
After many endless mixing sessions, I finally wanted to produce my own music. The first DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) I bought was Propellerhead Reason. This was the time when I created my first own sound effects, which I then used in my own tracks. To create the sound effects, I used software synthesizers or simply mixed different samples to create new sound effects. I realized that the possibilities for creating my own sounds are almost unlimited. A completely new world opened up for me, a new sound world! For many years I continued to work on the production of electronic music. I also persued the DJing meticulously.
Berlin, oh Berlin
It was in 2006 when I travelled to Berlin with friends for the first time. The last Berlin Loveparade took place and of course we wanted to participate. It is well known that Berlin is not only the German capital, but also THE techno city par excellence. Besides notorious techno clubs like Berghain, Sisyphos or Watergate you will find a lot of creative people who have dedicated their lives to electronic music. I was instantly fascinated by this city. I got off the train and knew directly: “I will live here!“. It was a feeling that I have never experienced again in this form in any other city in the world.
Recording the first sound effect
It took another three years before I finally took the big step into the German East. On 03 October 2009 it was time: I left my hometown and moved to Berlin alongside a friend. IN Berlin everything continued to revolve around sounds in my spare time – creating loops and sound effects, producing tracks and putting on records. The rest of the time I studied media and computer science, worked as a graphic designer, designed and produced t-shirts and worked as a UI/UX designer and frontend developer later on. Again some years went by. In these years I got to know many people from the electronic music scene, played in clubs and also published my own tracks. For one of the tracks, I came into contact with a microphone for the first time and recorded my first sound effect: A cough! ^^
The way to YourFreeSounds.com
Even after the release of that track it still took a few years until I actually started to record sound effects – haste makes waste. I made plans to go travelling for a while. Canada was supposed to be my primary destination. I had in mind that I would document my journey in some way. I thought about photo galleries and travel blogs, YouTube videos and vlogs. One morning I woke up and it was clear in front of me: sound effects! I will document my journey with sound effects!
My original intention was simply to record every place I would visit in the form of sound effects. Each place has its own individual sounds. I wanted to record these in the form of different Sound Effect Libraries. I started to experiment and first recorded various sound effects in my surroundings: Foley Sounds (everyday sound effects) in my apartment, Walla sound effects, subway sound effects or traffic in Berlin.
The future of YourFreeSounds
In the meantime, I have found so much pleasure in recording sound effects, that I not only capture ‘every’ place in the form of sound effects, but also much of what I encounter in other ways: Be it a glass that I put on the table, a coffee machine, instruments, electronic devices, trains, cars, nature sounds etc… I don’t set any limits to the kind of sound effects. A completely new sound world has opened up for me and I invite you to discover it together with me. So be as excited as I am for all future sound effects that I will release on this website. My next destination is Canada and I am pretty sure they have some amazing sound effects waiting for me.
Learn firsthand what new sounds I’m working on by following me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
I am happy to be part of your creative work with my sounds and I wish you a lot of joy using my website yourfreesounds.com.
“Make the world a better sound!”
Phil
