Sound FX acquisition

[Hobbes]

I've been wondering for some time now, how do you guys go about getting sound in your games? I've tried to record stuff with my microphone, but it's hardly practical.

I've visited some websites, but the overall quality is rather poor (lots of hissing, 11khz sound, for example).

I think sound is a very important aspect for a game, and I'd love to have good sound in it. So, I'm wondering, how do you all go about this process?

[Vel]

I usually download a ready sound with good quality and edit it with cooledit.

[Trapezoid]

I have a bunch of SFX libraries that came with Klik and Play and The Games Factory. I also rip FX out of LucasArts games with Scumm Revisited. There are also websites like www.musicrobot.com/cgi-bin/windex.pl and www.findsounds.com that can help you find clips.
And of course I like to alter and mix sounds in Cakewalk and Cool Edit Pro.

[Hobbes]

Got 'em URL's bookmarked. They look good. Thanks!

[Trapezoid]

Another good way of finding wavs is through google. For instance, you could search for "vacuum.wav" or "meow.wav" or something like that, and it turns up plenty of pages and directories. Add the word "index" and it'll narrow it down to the directories...

[GarageGothic]

Another option for good quality sounds is to buy sound effect cds. The really good ones are often quite pricy, but their might be other ways to get them. My local library have lots of sound effect cds in their music collection, the same kind professional sound editors on movies and television use. They're especially good for ambient sounds (rain and thunder, a carnival, a sports arena, an indoor basketball game) as those are very difficult to record properly yourself because of microphone placement and equipment limitations.