Sound Effects

Dear Experts, 

I searched the Forum without luck so now I am asking you: Can you recommend a source for public-domain sound effects, e.g. cars driving by, thunder claps, ...?

Thanks in advance!

 

Comments

  • jmucchiellojmucchiello Posts: 2,347

    pixabay.com has a music and a sound effects section. Just be aware not all "free" licenses are usable in commercial products. Read the licenses carefully.

  • donniekeidicdonniekeidic Posts: 192
    edited September 26

    I found this a while back, 23GB of public domain sound effects (2,787 sound effects in total, all with CCO PD license) from the golden age of hollywood: 

    https://archive.org/details/sound-effect-libraries-red-gold-sunset-editorial

    and I use the free version of this software to browse them easily:

    https://getsoundly.com/

    Post edited by donniekeidic on
  • donniekeidicdonniekeidic Posts: 192
    edited September 26

    make sure to download all 3 of the zips that are linked, and just to give an idea of the layout of soundly, it really makes it easy to search for whatever you need "thunder clap" for example shown in pic.

    You will need to create an account and sign in to use Soundly, but you don't need to buy anything, its totally free to use it to browse your local library of sounds (up to 10,000 local sound files), no need to use the cloud so don't let the marketing of it scare you away. 

    Screenshot 2026-09-26 182614.png
    1136 x 541 - 58K
    Screenshot 2026-09-26 182058.png
    2559 x 1033 - 123K
    Post edited by donniekeidic on
  • @omvendt

    Pulled from my SFX bookmarks in no particular order:

    https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/

    https://opengameart.org/art-search-advanced?keys=&field_art_type_tid[]=13&sort_by=count&sort_order=DESC

    https://www.playonloop.com/sound-effects-for-videos/

    https://freesound.org

    No account needed for any of them unless you want to actually buy something. As JM has mentioned, do carefully check the licenses if you plan to do anything public with the audio. Most SFX on these sites are CC0 or CC-BY but not all of them.

  • ed3Ded3D Posts: 2,652
    edited September 27

    And   also   Free       Thanx

     www.soundimage.org

    Post edited by ed3D on
  • garrett_3dgarrett_3d Posts: 1,003

    Yes, be careful with Pixabay. I used an instrumental in my trailer video and it got flagged for Copyright on YouTube. Some unheard of company tried to claim it. The fuss I had to go through to prove I had the rights to use it took ages to sort out. I don't think the claimant even knew that the artists themselves actually posted the tune on Pixabay as free to use commercially laugh

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 41,652

    I stopped using those Creative Commons or public domain sound collections because they nearly always got content matched, there are companies specifically registering them on YouTube to get matches, Orchard Music being the big one

    I gave up trying to dispute myself playing Twinkle Twinkle little star by ear on my synthesizer because I risked losing my channel

    All of Kevin MacLeod's stuff gets muted by Facebook too even with the CC4 attribution

  • garrett_3dgarrett_3d Posts: 1,003

    Ugh! Facebook. The invention of the devil. The biggest single source of hate and misinformation.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 41,652

    garrett_3d said:

    Ugh! Facebook. The invention of the devil. The biggest single source of hate and misinformation.

    well I do think X might slightly outrank FB but it's like comparing poop to faeces cheeky 

  • garrett_3dgarrett_3d Posts: 1,003

    I've never graced Twatter with my presence so I wouldn't know. I shall bow to your superior knowledge on that one.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 41,652

    garrett_3d said:

    I've never graced Twatter with my presence so I wouldn't know. I shall bow to your superior knowledge on that one.

    I closed my account while it was still called Twitter 

  • richardandtracyrichardandtracy Posts: 8,150

    Sometimes tripe writing errors come up with a better version.

    Regards,

    Richard

Sign In or Register to comment.