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XLR MAG

Pro Sound Effects

17 stories

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosHow We Pay Sound Artists Every quarter, sound artists get paid because someone needed the sound of rain, or a slamming car door, or footsteps on gravel.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosPro Sound Effects Joins the Professional Sound Alliance (PSA) A new coalition advocating for fair licensing of professional sound in media and AI.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosMultidisciplinary Sound Artist Eric Potter Joins Pro Sound Effects Potter’s first PSE library, Weather Studies, is available now.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosBehind the Recordings: Brazilian Atlantic Forest: Vol. 1 Three days in one of the most biodiverse ecosystems on Earth.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosWhy I Founded Pro Sound Effects From the Amazon to Brooklyn: The Story Behind Pro Sound Effects In my first blog post , I explained why sound matters now more than ever.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosSoundQ Update: Smarter, Faster Workflows Explore the latest features designed to boost your workflow.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosDave Whitehead’s Approach to Alien Vocals How the District 9 and Arrival sound designer brought some of cinema’s most unique aliens to life. “Wiqkat kasibrlackg ckag. Ckpyokc kasipuyat. Naaa. Walalalalala.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosWhy Sound Matters More Than Ever Protecting the people behind professional sound has never been more important. I've spent more than 20 years building an audio company around something most people never stop to think about. Sound.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosSound as Strategy: The Audio Pro's Guide to Marketing Projects A practical guide to using sound with intention, from quick social ads to long-form campaigns. If you work in marketing or advertising, you already know that every little detail matters when it comes…

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosAlan Howarth's Philosophy of Sound Design Storytelling, restraint, and why sound effects are still music. Sound artist Alan Howarth (Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Halloween 2–6) has spent decades developing a…

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosThe First-Ever Native SFX Integration for Avid Media Composer PSE is now inside Avid Media Composer. Here's what that means for editors.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosTop Tools for Game Audio: Build a Pro Studio Stack That Ships Make sure you're equipped to ship with the right game audio tools, workflow, and resources for the job.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosDave Whitehead’s Approach to Sound Design Connecting with the film, following your instincts, and establishing a sonic identity. New Zealand sound artist Dave Whitehead (Dune: Part Two, Avatar: The Way of Water, A Minecraft Movie) approaches…

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosThree Ways Sound Effects Can Make or Break Your Game Understand how sound effects influence gameplay and immersion, and how to use them effectively to elevate your game.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & pros2025: PSE Year in Review Take a look back with Team PSE.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosI Thought I Heard a Stranger: Ann Kroeber and Alan Splet on Vinyl Fans of David Lynch and musique concrète will appreciate this collection of dark, dreamy soundscapes created from Kroeber and Splet’s sound effects.

Pro Sound EffectsStudios & prosSoundQ Update: Stay in Sync with New Watched Folder Feature SoundQ now keeps your sound library perfectly in sync across local drives, NAS, and the cloud. Our latest update to SoundQ introduces Watched Folders, a powerful new way to connect and manage your…

On the calendar

· Trade shows and launch events, this week's stories from each corner of the industry, and what its press is covering.

On view

This week, from that corner the newest stories from the corner of the industry you picked

The wire their own posts, translated

How records get made in 2026 from the industry's own reports

Sources

Fetched every six hours, linked to the original

About

Three pins, and nearly every signal in this business passes through them.

The magazine is named after the cable: the microphone in the booth, the line to the desk, the DMX run that fires the lights. Studio, stage and rig share the same cable. Most magazines pick one of the three. This one covers all of it, because the people we read do too — the engineer mixing a record on Tuesday is on front of house by Saturday.

Around a hundred and sixty sources, in English, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Chinese and Italian: makers and their release notes, reviewers who put a hand on the thing, studios and touring crews, the producers and collectives surfacing this month and the scenes they came out of. Synths and modular, plugins and DAWs, guitars and drums, microphones, monitors, PA and lighting. What the trade is talking about is counted and plotted. The editor's letter has just started; it will find its rhythm.

For each story: a headline, a short excerpt, one picture and the link out. We never reprint the article, and the picture belongs to the maker or the photographer. A German review appears in German and a Japanese one in Japanese, as the writer published it; the link goes to the original.

Nothing is sold on this site. When a link leads to a shop, it is the maker's shop, not ours.