Customer Reviews

Cosmi 6000 Sound Effects

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Many of the files are repeats, many more are corrupt. Most importantly the quality is very poor, I would guess most (80%) are 11.025/8bit/mono. Too low quality for anything over a school project. I wouldn't even put them on my desktop.

The description says that it will work on Windows 95 or later. Unfortunately it does not work with Windows XP or Vista.

Horrible quality, many repeats, many sounds mislabeled.

Interesting idea, as far as the software goes, but not useful for anything, even a simple amateur home/family video project.

Not worth even half the money.

I am very disappointed with this collection of sound clips. Most are short, of low quality, and contain a lot of hiss or other noise. Many of the sounds are not isolated, as if they were lifted from a TV show and you can hear other sounds in the background. Some are not really sound effects, just someone speaking gibberish. You can only export the sounds as WAV files, and you can only export them one at a time, which makes it extremely tedious to add these sound effects to your project or your own sound organizer, like iTunes. You must keep the CD in the computer to access the sounds, which again makes it cumbersome to use. The search and play interface is terrible and very amateurish, like it was written by a high-school student on a weekend. The only positive I can say is that it does contain a wide variety of sounds.

better than some of the alternatives. If you just are looking for a couple of sounds this might be worth the $5. Certainly better than the Snap! 2000 Sound Effects.

Yup, many of the sounds have hiss and are not the best quality.

Yup, there are more bird calls than anyone could possibly ever need.

Yup, there are lame, clipped, and odd sounds included, some of which sound like they were nabbed from movies and other old productions now in the public domain.

So why the five stars you ask?

1. There are a great number of very usable sounds, both in quality and content. SFX for web, animated projects, software, and, granted, non oscar-winning video projects. ("Files are stored in 8,000 hz to 24,000 hz fidelity depending upon the specific effect.")

2. There is a searchable index and sound categories.

3. AND for anyone in search of sound EFX that may be LEGALLY included in products for publishing and resale, this collection is worth all nine hundered and ninty-nine pennies. ( Be careful to read the licensing information for sound EFX collections you may buy - the vast majority prohibit use in for-profit projects - don't open yourself and your clients to copyright liability!)

Cosmi Licensing Terms: (cut from the PDF manual with the product )

This program is subject to COSMI'S standard single user license agreement contained on the back of the manual/CD-ROM insert. Sound effects in this collection may be used by the registered owner of the program without payment of any royalty in the following cases:

a) web pages - no more than 150 sound effects per site;

b) computer programs (including computer programs for resale), no more than 150 sound effects per program;

c) any computer generated application, 150 sound effects per application;

d) broadcast (no more than 150 sound effects per day).

All other uses require permission. Permission will be granted in most cases without charge for other uses. IN ALL CASES, you must affix a copyright notice to the materials which can be either yours or:

Portions copyright 1998 COSMI Corporation

PERMISSION WILL ONLY BE GRANTED VIA E-MAIL REQUEST.

Please provide the following: your name, your mailing address, your telephone number and a contact time, and a brief description of your proposed use.

Finally, why am I bothering to provide the lengthy review? I'm simply excited to find such an incredibly affordable collection like this that I can LEGALLY use as I see fit and am sharing the news with friends in various media professions and thought I'd do the same for you.