Do audio libraries stifle creative freedom?

Today Develop continues its ongoing Audio Special online feature series with a look at the role audio libraries play in games sound design.

While some would discredit such resources as restricting individual flair and creative freedom, for studios large and small they remain an important and functional option when considering a game’s audio.

And, according to sound library outfit Soundrangers, when tailored to games such entities can be hugely useful, without restricting creativity at all.

"There’s two ways sound libraries can work for developers," explains Soundrangers co-founder and sound designer Barry Dowsett of the dual role a sound library can serve.

"There’s a crowd of people who will use pre-made sounds because they don’t have an internal sound department and their budgets aren’t large. But there’s also a crowd of professional game audio sound designers who also use our libraries as source material for whatever projects they’re working on."

In the piece, Dowsett goes on to explain his belief that sound libraries specifically tailored for games can not only serve studios on a budget, but also provide a basis and bank of sounds on which developers can build their own unique content.

Read the full feature here.