Freesound Forums

Hi all,

I'm about to post a production elements sound pack to Freesound but I want to make sure that the sounds are classified as accurately as possible. I read a definition list of the various catagories but, looking at various sound libraries I own, I find myself rather confused.

What is the difference between a chopper and a stutter? Many whooshes also ascend so what's the difference between an ascend and a whoosh?

When is a whoosh not a whoosh but instead a sweeper or, indeed, an ascend?

Is there a difference between hits and impacts?

The one I really struggle with is stingers and stabs. One definition I've seen defines a stinger as a mixture of quite a few elements. Stingers in other libraries don't work like this though.

There seems to be considerable overlap and perhaps these umbrella terms are subjective to the point of virtual uselessness, but I'd like to point prospective users of my work in the right direction if possible.

I wondered what peoples' thoughts and experiences were

One of the problem is that many of these sounds don't exist in the real world or are not made be acoustic instruments.
A piano is a piano... A violin is a violin, etc...

Stabs (or stingers) are just sounds with a fast attack and a kind of pizzcato feel, right?
So you could use a gate or envelopes to modify piano sounds, maybe add a synth on top and make 'piano stabs'...

In the same way, what is a pad? Sure, could be a synth patch. But you can also strech and manipulate a guitar sound to tur it into a pad...

Lets not even get into wooshes, swooshes, risers and ascends...

The point is: some of these sounds can be various things, fit into multiple categories.
Here is where the Freesound tag system really helps.
My first example could ve tagges as 'piano', 'synth', 'stab'
The second example maybe 'streeched', 'ambient-guitar', 'guitar-pad', etc

Think not just of how you would classify your sounds, but how others might classify or search for them.
Freesound now has an automated tag suggestion algorithm. If you type 2 or 3 tGs, Freesound will suggest ither tags that often appear together with those. You don't need to add those tags, but if you want to, just click on them. It is very useful to suggest some tags you might not have thought of.