Splice vs Sounds
Two royalty-free sound libraries in the mix
SO, YOU’VE DECIDED to take the plunge and get into music production? Whether you’re going down the professional route or just wanting to have a bit of fun, the likelihood is that you’ll be using a digital workstation to piece together your music. Unless you’re physically creating and recording your own music, you’ll probably need to add external sounds, drumbeats, or sound effects to your production. Created by other artists, these are known as samples.
Sampling is a term that describes taking a portion of an existing song, whether it’s a drumbeat, a line of vocal, or a few notes from an instrument, and adding it into a new song. Perhaps the most famous example is Vanilla Ice’s hit IceIce Baby, which sampled the bassline from Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie. Yes, that’s the sort of level we’re aiming for.
Anyway, these samples can be clips from a song, instruments, loops, or vocals that can be used in any way you like to create your own production. Using a DAW, you can tweak these samples to suit your style and add some depth to your work, without spending ages trying to replicate them yourself.
One major issue with sampling is copyright infringement issues, so it’s vital to make sure you’re allowed to use a sample in your work. One of the easiest ways to do this is via a royalty-free library. These sites offer huge collections comprising many thousands of samples to search through. Two of the best sites currently offering this service are Splice.com and Sounds.com. So, how do these two libraries compare against each other and which one should you choose?
Our first impressions are that both of these sites have a nice interface. They follow a similar template, with menus and categories along the top coming in from the left, a catalog to scroll through in the center, and your login and account details towards the top right. Both are graphicand image-rich websites that help you to navigate around easily.
At a glance, Sounds has a darker interface, while Splice’s look seems to be more Apple-influenced. It’s hard to separate these two but, thanks to a cleaner approach, Splice just shades it. The lighter style is easier on the eye, helping you to find what you’re looking for a little quicker.
As good as they both look, they also need to offer a rich catalog of quality material. Splice.com started out in 2013, with the aim of consolidating the creative process for musicians and bringing all the resources into one place. This is a site where you can not only find sounds and download plugins, but also work on your productions and share content. It has evolved to be an allin-one solution for the musically inclined. Splice has now developed into more than just a catalog and it is certainly a diverse website.
In the sounds page of Splice, there are a few menus to select through to make the search process easier. There’s an overview page that showcases new sounds, featured stories behind certain sounds, top packs, top labels, and many more categories, including trending sounds. This makes it a great landing page from which you can get some inspiration. If you are solely looking for a particular type of sound or a specific instrument, then this is your better option.
There’s an instruments section, where you can research and fine-tune your selections down further, and also a cinematic FX page, which is great for people
who aren’t just using Splice as a music production tool, but also need it for video editing or commercial cinematography audio creation. Next to that is the genres menu, which is always a must-have feature. These have labels so you can browse through and find samples from the same production team. There’s also a MIDI section, with note sequences, basslines, melodies, and chord progressions to download and add to your track. This range of features makes it easy to find the exact sounds you need.
Sounds.com doesn’t quite have the diversity that Splice offers in terms of a learning and studio platform. Instead, it focuses its attention on the ‘sounds’ element, splitting them up into categories. Along the top, you have a browse section, a similar interface that you’d experience on Spotify or Tidal where you might find something new and interesting. Next to that is the collections page. This is where you can search through artists on the site and view their libraries. This is handy if you’re a fan of an individual’s work and want to keep up with their releases.
Moving on from there is the instruments page. Like Splice, this is a pretty selfexplanatory menu, but it’s easy to find samples relating to a specific instrument. It’s great for cutting out unnecessary samples as both of these sites have large libraries. Like Splice, Sounds has a genre menu to further split samples and sounds.
The last menu is a page where you can store your library. Here, you can create a collection of sounds that you like, view your previous downloads and see your saved sounds. This place is convenient when you find something you like, but don’t want to use it straight away. Or if you are listening to music out and about, you can search for a sound on your phone and save it into your collection to download when you get home.
In terms of functionality, Sounds takes the crown for this category, as finding and compiling sounds is slightly easier than on its rival Splice. With bold and clear categories, both sites won’t exactly leave you scratching your head, but the organization on Sounds just seems to be one step ahead. Like some royalty-free image websites, both pages use a creditbased system where you can pay a monthly fee to buy a set amount of credits. You then use these credits to purchase samples and soundbites in order to download them to add to projects on your DAW.
Sounds initially appears to offer better value for money, but look a little closer at the pricing and you’ll find that’s not necessarily the case. Though Sounds gives you more credits per month, Splice has a larger library and, with a range of other features, including lessons and tutorials on creating your own music, it not only has a wider choice but it also offers a more intensive service for those who are serious about producing digital music.
Sounds is also a valuable resource, but Splice edges it as the better option. If you’re looking for samples and instruments only, Sounds might be the better choice, but for a more inclusive package, Splice is the route we recommend. Of course, a larger library doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better, but at least there should be a greater chance of finding something that works for you in its catalog.
VERDICT
9
Splice
CONNECT Vast library; clean UI; monthly rolling unused credits; great variety of services.
DISCONNECT Credits are lost if you unsubscribe; overwhelming at times. Splice Sounds + $10/pm (100 monthly credits) Splice Creator $20/pm (200 monthly credits) Splice Creator + $30/pm (500 monthly credits) www.splice.com
VERDICT
8
Sounds
HARMONY Organized with neat, easily searchable layout; image-rich; handy library function.
EAR ACHE No workstation; no lesson option.
Sounds Essential $10/pm (150 credits) Sounds Pro $20/pm (500 monthly credits) Sounds Ultimate $30/pm (1000 monthly credits) www.sounds.com