First Stop - MovieSounds.com
When looking for sound files, a good place to start is the Movie Sounds page. Admittedly, the site deals only with motion pictures, and the selection of films to choose from (usually between 60 and 70) is smaller than some of the other well-known sound sites, but the value of MovieSounds.com is that it offers a few features not normally seen on many sound pages.
For instance, there's a section called "Sound Tools" that lets users download more than two dozen sound editing programs on a variety of platforms, such as Windows 3.1, 95 and 98, Macintosh and Unix. There were even a few links to sound programs for the old Amiga computers. There's also a section called "Event Sounds," which is divided into sections specifically for when your system starts up, shuts down, or runs into a computer error. And the "Movie Forum" allows users to post messages if there's a particular sound they're looking for, or to give opinions of a movie they've seen recently.
One of the nicest features about MovieSounds.com is that many of the site's sound clips have been configured to run on a program called the True Speech Audio Player. This program allows people downloading a sound clip to listen to it before it is completely downloaded onto your system. While there is a slight sacrifice in terms of quality, in some cases it saves you from having to wait 10 or 15 minutes for a sound file to load in its entirety before listening to it. Almost every sound page in MovieSounds.com provides a link to the True Speech player, which is available in both Windows and Macintosh formats.
MovieSounds.com has a great link called "Other Sites," which lists another 30 or so sound pages; a "Help" section which shows users how to copy sound files; a "feedback forum" where you can leave comments or questions; and an automatic e-mail update notification form that informs users whenever new sounds have been added to the site. There's even a section that shows users how to create their own wav files. The Movie Sounds page can be found at www.moviesounds.com .
The Daily .WAV - Something New Every Day
Another great source of sound clips is The Daily WAV. This site, maintained and updated daily by Hunter Elliott and is one of the best sources for sound files on the Web. A good deal of the extra sound files I've downloaded to my computer have come from this site.
Unlike the Movie Sounds page, the Daily WAV features sound clips from television and motion pictures. Sounds are divided by type (in this case, Either .WAV files or .MIDI files) and archived alphabetically, or by the month in which they were posted. For instance, if you clicked on the "archives" section and chose the letter S, you'd find a number of sound files from Star Trek, Saturday Night Live, Soylent Green, and several other movies and television shows. Beside the usual familiar quotes you'd find at many sites, the Daily WAV also posts an impressive number of obscure clips and phrases from popular culture.
Two features make it one of the most visited sound sites on the Web and show its commitment to excellence. First, a new sound is posted on the site's front page every weekday. This shows that the site is updated frequently and that Mr. Elliott pays a great deal of attention to how the site is maintained. Often when users on other sites attempt to download a sound, they'll get the wrong file or a dead link.
The second feature (and one that I have personally taken advantage of) is that Mr. Elliott takes personal requests for sound files. If there's a particular sound from a movie or television show you're looking for, The Daily .WAV has a section that lets users make requests. The webmaster has already located a couple of .wav files for me that I was unable to find anywhere else. Considering that the site is administrated by one person, and considering that he gets hundreds of requests a week, Mr. Elliott deserves a lot of credit for the job he's done.
EarthStation1: A Little Bit of Everything
The new and undisputed king among sound sites may well be EarthStation1 (http://earthstation1.com ), which makes the bold claim of being "the Internet's #1 Audio/Visual Archive." Having thoroughly browsed the site (and a few dozen others) prior to writing this article, I would have to say that if EarthStation1 isn't the best, it's certainly one of the most unique resources for sound files to come around in a long time.
Like many other sound pages on the internet, EarthStation1 has a section for sounds for motion pictures, television shows, links to certain sound recorders and other applications available for downloading, and a page devoted to the awards the site has won. What separates this site from the vast majority of others is the historical content of the sound clips offered and the amazing quality of sound files that are accessible.
An example can be found on the "Radio Sounds" page. In this section alone, users can listen to the original "War of the Worlds" broadcast by Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre; relive the broadcast of the Hindenburg tragedy; hear the voice of Franklin Delano Roosevelt giving his famous speech the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor; and listen to other famous news broadcasts and speeches of the era.
Other sections have similar sound clips of historical importance. The "Space Sounds" area, for instance, contains Neal Armstrong's famous "one small step for man" speech he made while stepping onto the moon's surface in 1969. And the "Historical Sights and Sounds" portion contains speeches from the likes of Douglas McArthur, Black Jack Pershing and William Jennings Bryan. There's even a section dedicated just to Winston Churchill, in which users can listen to many of the famous speeches the British prime minister gave during World War II.
There are hundreds of thousands of sound pages on line: some good, but most not worth mentioning. Very few provide anything other than the same old sound clips that every other site has. EarthStation1 is the exception. Because of its content, format, expanding quantity and unbeatable quality, it's easily one of the best resources for sound clips on the Web.
Honorable Mentions
In addition to the sites reviewed, here are a few more that you may find interesting:
The Sound Ring: http://www.nidlink.com/~ruger/ring.html
Classic Quotes from the Balcony: http://www.balcony.com/quotes.htm
The Earchives: www.geocities.com/Hollywood/1158/earchive.html
Hollywood Online: http://www. hollywood.com/movies/sound.html
Wav Central: www.wavcentral.com
The Wav Place: www.wavplace.com
As always, we welcome your comments. If you have any questions about the sound pages reviewed in this article, please feel free to contact me.