In the world of audio production, sound effects are the unsung heroes that breathe life into your creations. However, collecting a vast library of sound effects can be a costly endeavour. Fortunately, there's a wealth of free sound effect libraries available, and in this article, we'll explore the top sources to help audio professionals level up their sound effects game.

Licensing, Attribution, and Usage Guidelines

Understanding the licensing models of the sound effects recordings you use is crucial to avoiding any legal or copyright issues. One thing that came across loud and clear in researching this article is that different sources may have a variety of licensing models.

It is essential that you make sure that you review and honour them carefully. When required, make sure that you provide proper attribution to respect the original creators' work, and if that is not possible, then don’t use a sound effect that needs attribution. It's essential to use sound effects legally and ethically to maintain your professional reputation.

Free Sound Effects From Large Sites

Just search for ‘free sound effects’ in your favourite search engine, and you will be presented with a number of sites offering thousands of free sound effects, but although they may be free, the licensing model they are offered under may mean that you cannot use them for the project you are working on. To start us off, let’s look at some of the bigger sites and see how useful they are.

One of the most well-known sound effects libraries is the one created by the UK broadcaster - the BBC. This has always been a paid-for collection, but back in 2018, the BBC made available its sound effects library online to the public. This library consists of over 16,000 recordings that can be downloaded free of charge. All the samples are WAV and have been tagged, which makes it incredibly easy to search and find sound effects.

So is it all free now? The answer is yes and no. The BBC released their library online using a RemArc licence. In essence, what this means is that the free sounds can only be used for personal, educational and research purposes. They cannot be used commercially.

What this means is none of the free sounds from the BBC library can be used by the professional in any project. It’s great for the beginner learning their craft, but not the professional earning their living. If you want to use any of the BBC sound effects commercially, then you are going to need to buy them, which you can do via Pro Sound Effects.

FreeSound

When we visited it in October 2023, Freesound proudly announced at the top of their site that they had 615,129 free sounds in their catalogue. However, in their FAQ section, they explain that there are a number of different license models used on their site.

Depending on the license there are things you can and can't do with the files. Let's start with the licenses. Creative Commons has a really nice page explaining them:

zero (cc0)
attribution (by)
attribution noncommercial (by-nc)

We aren't lawyers so this isn't legal advice, but here's our summary. For the ‘zero’ license you can do pretty much what you want with the sound. You could even sell the sound, ... but you can't claim you are the author!
For ‘attribution’ you should always mention the original creators of the sounds when you use them.
‘Noncommercial’ works like attribution, but you can't earn any money with the piece of work you create! As with all licenses the original creator can give you permission to use the sound outside of the original license.

If you are working professionally, then the attribution options are likely to make it impractical to use them in your professional work. Fortunately, on the Search page, it does say that there are over 315,000 sounds covered under the Creative Commons 0 license, which you could use in your professional work.

As you can see, the SoundBible home page makes no reference to the licensing used on the site. But go to the About page and in the answer to the question, “Can these sounds be used commercially? It says…

“The Royalty Free Sounds can indeed be used for commercial uses. The free sounds can only if they are under the Creative Commons Attribution, or Public Domain License.”

What this means is none of the free sounds on SoundBible can be used by the professional in any project. It’s great for the beginner learning their craft, but not the professional earning their living.

Zapsplat

There is nothing on the Zapslat homepage about licensing. When you go to the Free Sound Effects page, it says…

“Search through our extensive free sound effects categories below to find your perfect sounds, or you can use the search bar above. All our SFX are recorded and edited by professional field recordists and sound designers and licensed to you for use in your project.”

However, jump to the Pricing page and things become clearer. On the free account, which you need to register for, there is a daily download limit of 3 sounds every 15 minutes. Attribution is required, and the files are only available in mp3 format.

What this means is none of the free sounds on the Zapsplat site can be used by the professional in any project. It’s useful for the beginner learning their craft, but not the professional earning their living.

Free Sound Effects makes the licensing arrangements very clear on the home page. at the top of the page, it says…

“Scroll down to access Free Sound Effects section in the left hand menu. If you need better quality sound effects and a legal license to use in your project then search for royalty free sound effects in the Paid Sound Effects section. A one-time fee gives you a lifetime license for use in as many of your projects as you need. Only the Paid Sound Effects come with a legal license for use.”

What this means is none of the free sounds on Free Sound Effects can be used by the professional in any project. It’s useful for the beginner learning their craft, but not the professional earning their living.

Free Sound Effects from Independent Libraries

The good news is that independent sound effects companies understand the licensing arrangements, and most make their free sound effects available so professionals can use them in their work.

Here is a selection of free sound effects collections that we have found in our research.

Please note you may need to give your name and email address to get some of these.

Sonniss

Over a number of years before COVID, Sonniss gave away bundles of sound effects as part of its celebrations for the annual Game Developers Conference.

Each year, from 2015 to 2020, Sonniss gave away thousands of dollars worth of sounds for free in celebration of the Game Developers Conference.

All of the files they send out are just a small sample of their supplier’s complete collections. The Sonniss team picked a couple of sounds from each sound effect library added to Sonniss during each year. None of the files they give away have been modified in any way, and they are exactly the same files they sell on their site. If you would like more options and design choices to work with, please consider purchasing the corresponding sound library.

All of the sound effects are royalty free and commercially usable with no attribution required. You can use the sound effects on an unlimited number of projects.

In 2023, they came back with a bundle in celebration of #GDC2023 giving away a bundle of 44GB of free sound effects from their vendors at Sonniss including the 2021 and 2022 versions that they missed!

Free To Use Sounds

There is a great site called Free To Use Sounds run by Marcel and Libby. They travel full-time around the world recording sounds, collaborating with professional sound libraries like Soundly, Soundsnap, Epidemic Sound, A Sound Effect, and Zapsplat and companies like Zoom, LOM Label, and K-Tek.

They believe in supporting creative minds and providing the resources they need to bring their visions to life, which is why they have selected over 140 of their royalty-free sound libraries, with over 140,000 free downloads available. All these sounds were personally recorded by Marcel and Libby all over the world.

How To Download Free To Use Sounds

1. Choose the library you wish to download from the Free To Use Sounds page

2. On Bandcamp, just click ‘Buy Digital Album’.

3. In the pop-up window, set the “Name Your Price” to ‘0’.

4. Click on the ‘Download to your computer’ option.

5. Add your email address, country and postcode.

6. Click OK.

You will receive an email from Free To Use Sounds with a download link for your chosen library. When you click on the link, you may find that the default file format is set to MP3. We recommend that you change it to WAV for higher quality files.

They have even taken the trouble to produce this video to help you find out how to download these free sound effects…

Here are just 4 examples from the 140+ libraries that are available from Free To Use Sounds…

Red Libraries

Red Libraries have 8 free sound effect bundles…

• Freebies01 is a free selection of some audio files from Paris, including walla, discussions, people, footsteps, post office, shops and supermarkets.

• Freebies02 offers some of the very best of their collections like WOOD, IMPACTS, WINDMILL, WATER RUSH, WINDSHIELD, UNKnown-PASSBY and EVERYDAY LIFE IN PARIS.

• Freebies03 is a selection from some of their collections like WORLD OF SECRETS and TWISTED UNIVERSE,.

• Freebies04 is a selection from HUGE HIDDEN PASSAGES, which is a collection of elements designed for your mysterious access.

• Freebies05 is a selection from BODYFALL, designed in collaboration with french foley artist: Florian Fabre.

• Freebies06 is a selection from MUTANT INSECTS, TWISTED UNIVERSE and the MINI GAME PACKS.

• Freebies07 is a selection from Space Battle and ARTILLERY with Cannons, Rocket launchers, Gun turrets and Lasers.

• Freebies08 is a selection from Space Battle & ARTILLERY, FIGHTERS and MUTANT INSECTS and is a mix between Sci-Fi and Steampunk for all types of SF universe.

Echo Collective

The Echo Collective offers a selection of sounds from a variety of their libraries, typically 3 sounds from each library.

The selected libraries are utility helicopters, squelch, outdoor football pads, hospital ambience, forgotten zither, EXPLNR sounds vol 1, quiet spaces, swell, motion textures, Porsche 911 GT3, lockdown, arrow barrage, pro hockey ambience, analog interface, EXPLNR sounds vol 2, phono and signal return.

Airborne Sound

Airborne Sound is giving away 10 small collections…

Airport Ambience Sound Effects - This collection features the sound of crowds and traffic from a bustling international airport. Field recordings were gathered from both international and domestic arrival and departure areas, a Priority Pass lounge, hallways, and walkways. Also included are passenger drop off traffic atmospheres, PA announcements, and more.

Concourse Crowd Sound Effects - features thick, gushing rush hour crowds, steady streams of pedestrians, and handfuls of wanderers. Use crowd sound fx of people in lobbies, lane ways, walkways, and atriums to add texture and depth to your foreground tracks. A broad collection of high heels and footsteps, corporate conversations, worker chat, and crowd wash.

Ambience Sound Effects - A bundle of 15 crowd, sports, hall crowd, and weather ambience sound effects. Includes stations, construction, and other evocative atmospheres.

Construction Sound Effects - Need some demolition sounds? Perhaps some building clips instead? Maybe you’d like to beef up your urban soundtrack with some work sounds and tool sound effects. 14 angle grinders, jackhammers, chop saws and other construction clips

Courthouse Crowds Sound Effects - This collection of courthouse crowd sound effects showcases the sounds of lawyers and judges, plaintiffs and the accused, crowds and more in airy halls, quiet court rooms, tight corridors, and echoey atriums.

Crowd & People Sound Effects - A mixture of pedestrian, crowd, and people sound effects featuring voices, activity, and walking from food courts, stations, cafes, and more.

Jet Fly By Sound Effects - 30 sound clips of commercial jet airliners flying overhead and with screaming passes by.

Crowd Sound Effects - A collection of 10 crowd sound fx: cafes, college, fair, train and subway stations, and more.

Whoosh Sound Effects - A collection of 70 multimedia whoosh, swipe, sweep, and fly-in sound effects.

Button Sound Effects - A collection of 50 button and switch sound effects. You’ll find menu selects, switches, chunky presses and sound design elements. These clips have you covered with the classics as well as tactfully designed clicks, flicks and buttons.

Los Angeles based re-recording mixer Nikola Simikic has released a number of free mini sound effects libraries.

• Vacuum Cleaner - a little library of vacuum cleaner sounds.

• Rain - the sounds of rain hitting the deck roof hard, interior perspective rain and room tone, and rain hitting a window.

• Wind Through Coniferous Forest - Recording just wind and nothing else is a challenge. Finally, Nikola, using multiple layers of wind protection on the Line Audio CM3s, recorded wind with little else.

• Jackhammers - a small collection of Jackhammer recordings. Two of the files were recorded with a Sanken CO100k in 192k, so they sound great slowed down.

• Small Exterior Crowd Applause - useful especially for scenes of small sporting events like little league games.

• Thunder & Wet City Ambiences - some rolling thunder, along with wet city ambiences at night and some rain.

Bluezone Corporation

The Bluezone Corporation has a page full of free sound effects collections…

• Free Ambience Sound Effects - From the soothing sounds of a mountain lake to the crashing waves on a beach. you'll also find background sounds of spaceship command centres and space storms.

• Free Cinematic Impact Sound Effects - Add punch and intensity to your projects with these ready-to-use cinematic impacts. From the striking sound of a hammer on an anvil to the thunderous closing of metal factory doors.

• Free Communication Sound Effects - Enhance your scenes with a variety of communication-related sounds, including speaker hums, interference, military radio chatter, and more.

• Free Creature Sound Effects - Bring your creatures to life with this selection of creature sound effects. From menacing growls and grunts to the sounds of mythical creatures like Orcs and Ents.

• Free Debris Sound Effects - This pack includes detailed sound effects of wood, metal, stone, and glass debris, suitable for natural disasters, construction areas, and war zones.

• Free Explosion Sound Effects - From smoke grenades to futuristic explosions, these audio clips are essential for strategy and FPS games.

• Free Industrial Sound Effects - Immerse your audience in the world of factories and mechanical elements with this collection of machine room ambiences and metal banging sounds.

• Free Mechanical Sound Effects - A selection of complex starting and stopping mechanisms, as well as metal textures. These sound effects are ideal for industrial assembly lines and mechanical robot scenes.

• Free Metal Sound Effects - From detailed impacts to tension-filled sounds, this pack offers versatile and varied metal sound effects.

• Free Nature Sound Effects - Bring nature to life with this superb collection of high-resolution ambiences and sound effects. From the soothing movement of waves to the cracking of ice.

• Free Organic Sound Effects - From giant crawling creatures to slimy and bubbling substances, these audio clips will help to bring your monstrous creations to life.

• Free Robot Sound Effects - With heavy robot footsteps, futuristic weapon fire, and mechanical transformations, these high-resolution sound effects will add depth to your science fiction projects.

• Free Scary Sound Effects - This pack offers eerie and terrifying atmospheres ideal for backgrounds in deserted villages, scary forests, abandoned bomb shelters, and more.

• Free Science Fiction Sound Effects - From the passing of spaceships to synthetic alien textures, these sound effects are a source of inspiration for science fiction movies and video games set in futuristic space stations, colonies, and cities.

• Free Snow Sound Effects - From footsteps in the snow to cracking ice, these audio clips will add a touch of winter magic to your projects.

• Free Spaceship Sound Effects - Featuring futuristic user interface sounds, speeding spaceships, and cockpit ambiences, these audio clips will transport your audience to the depths of space.

• Free Steampunk Sound Effects - With mechanisms in motion, metal gears turning and clockwork sounds, these audio clips are perfect for creating a steampunk atmosphere reminiscent of the Victorian era.

• Free Trailer Sound Effects - From atmospheric textures to impactful transitions, these audio clips will captivate your audience and support the action on screen.

• Free Transformers Sound Effects - With mechanical parts in motion, transformations, and futuristic weapon fire, these clips will give your metallic creatures a formidable presence.

• Free User Interface Sound Effects - From detailed clicks and buttons to high-tech beeps and activation sounds, this pack is a valuable resource for creating engaging user interfaces.

• Free Video Game Sound Effects - These audio clips are perfect for strategy, adventure, simulation and FPS games.

• Free Water Sound Effects - From gentle streams and waterfalls to underwater sounds and cracking ice, these audio clips will bring your aquatic scenes to life.

• Free Weapon Sound Effects - From heavy machine guns to futuristic weapons, this sound pack provides the audio elements for war movies, alien invasions, strategy games, and FPS games.

• Free Wood Sound Effects - Step into the forest with this collection of wood-related sound effects.

Shaping Waves

Shaping Waves has created a free 3.6 GB sampler of their 96 kHz / 24-bit ambiences and sound effects collections.

They are taken from the following libraries…

Insects & Swarms, Big Machines, Piping Systems, Letterpress, Air Travel, Stethoscope, Athens Rooftop, Alarms, Robot Voices, New York, Berlin Balcony, Wendland Autumn, Circuits, Quadcopter, Planets and 8-Bit Games.

Volterock

Volterock has released three Vocal Hazard Packs. Participants were asked to yell as if they were dying, falling, attacking/charging into battle, punching, being punched, singing like a metal band, growling, shrieking, and gasping, and these packs are the result.

Glitchmachines

Glitchmachines have two free libraries, Spore and Teratoma, both designed by Ivo Ivanov.

Spore features an exclusive collection of sound effects with a high-tech sci-fi aesthetic. You will find a unique selection of hyper-stylized sub bass impacts, granulated liquid transformations, massive cinematic drones and eerie mutated atmospheres that defy categorization.

Teratoma features an exclusive collection of composite sound effects with a dark, sinister aesthetic. You will find a unique hybrid of dark sci-fi and psychological horror, featuring technical drones, abstract transitions, otherworldly soundscapes and morphing textures with a foreboding twist.

Articulated Sound Effects Libraries has three free sound effects packs…

• Starter Pack is made up of a 3.3GB selection of sounds from all of their libraries in which all files are now with all files UCS-compliant.

• Magic Elements Vol. 1 - Sampler - 4% of the sounds from the full library.

• Mini Bells - This free mini bells sound library comprises 30 bells samples. They come from the complete sound library “Bells World”, which features a collection of more than 3000 bell sounds from all over the world.

Karel Psota

Karel Psota has released 4 free sound effects packs: Fire Weapons, Epicomposer (email needed to download this), Ava Instinct (20 sounds from the official trailer sound effects library - email needed) and Haunted Farm, which was Karel’s first sound library.

Boom Box Library have released a free sampler showcasing four of their sound libraries; Ford Mustang, Editor Toolbox, Babies & Kids and Heads Up Display.

Sonopolis

Sonopolis has 5 free sound effects bundles. Each bundle are a selection of sound effects drawn from various Sonopolis libraries.

• Bundle 1 includes Sci-Fi Electric, Underwater, Percussion, Water, Water Ambiences, Tools/Construction, and Blades.

• Bundle 2 includes musical sounds, ambience, roomtones, animal sounds, rain, thunder, metallic sounds, Foley sounds, sci-fi sounds and sports sounds.

• Bundle 3 includes sounds drawn from Foley Plus, Whoosh, Swoosh & Swing and Icy Snow HD.

• Bundle 4 includes 60 Free sounds drawn from Clothing Foley, Dogs, Household Doors, Heavy Metal! and Icy Snow 2.

• Bundle 5 consists of 61 Free Sound Effects drawn from the following libraries: Bowed Cymbal 1, Bowed Cymbal 2, Bowling, Cloth Rip 1, Cloth Rip 2, Foliage Sweeteners and Suburban Ambiences.

Sound Of Italy has 3 free sound effects libraries;

• Sound Of Italy - Various - In this free library, you will find 136 miscellaneous Italian sound effects.

• Sound Of Italy - Explosions - This library is a collection of 147 sound files from soft to heavily designed explosions with debris.

• Sound Of Italy - Naples Fireworks - This is a free mini library from the full fireworks collection.

Back Pocket Sound

Back Pocket Sound was set up by Canadian sound designer, dialogue editor and re-recording mixer Benjamin Spiller. He has released over 60 mini sound packs that together offer over 20GB of sound effects. Libraries include…

• Snoring Sounds Man Snoring

• Trailer Park Nighttime Ambience

• Swiss Alps Nighttime Ambiences

• Spain Ambiences Crowds and Walla

• France Ambience Crowds Walla

• Germany Ambiences and Walla

• Atlantic Ocean A Coruña Spain

• Street Car Pass Bys Besançon France

• Airport Ambience Toronto and Amsterdam

• Ancient Churches Ambience and Room Tone

• Skatepark Ambience Toronto Skateboarding

• Garage Tools - Foley

• Sauble Beach Springtime Ambiences

• Writing - Paper, pencils and pens

• Snow Storm Ambience

• Toronto Music Club

• New Years Celebrations

• Electric Chain Saw

• Lake Simcoe, Water Ambience

• Ontario Countryside

• Adult Soccer Game

• Skateboarding, wood mini ramp

• Garbage bin roll out

• Theatre Crowd, Cheering and applause

• Keyboard Typing

• Subway Platform Ambience

• Wind Gusts

• Wind Howl Indoor

• Trailer Park Morning Ambience

• Toronto Bus

• Toronto Subway

• Ribs Cooking

• Flipping Chicken Wings

• Electric Bug Zapper

• Toronto Music Clubs, Crowd, Cheers, Walla

• Hound Dog Howls and Barks

• Country Highway Passbys

• QEW Highway Traffic

• Kayak Ambience

• Cans and Bottles

• Concrete Warehouse crowd and walls

• Boxing Collections

• Skateboarding Collection

• Lamps and Switches

• Cat Sleeping Purring

• Waterfalls Bruce Region

• Truck Driving Mud Puddles

• Tokes and Dabs

• Dark City Nightime Ambience

• Campfire Ambience

• Dog Eating Carrot

• Quiet Lake Morning Ambience

• Sprinter Car Driving Passbys

• Truck Tires On Rocks

• Midnight Residential Ambience

• Lake Huron Summer Evening

• CP Train Pass By

• Cat Eating Crunchy Food

• Lake Erie 

• Creaky Door

AntiSample

AntiSample offers four different free sound effects bundles…

• 88 one-shot sound effects - A collection of one-shot samples from various sound sources. 60 high-quality sounds at 24 bit and 48 kHz.

• Laser Construction Kit - This has everything you need to construct a modern ultimate, super extreme laser shot sound effect.

• Whooshers - This collection includes long, medium, short and ricochet-type sounds, which they feel are best used in a Sci-fi genre. All of the whoosh sounds have been created and processed at 24 bit and 96 kHz.

• Kickers - 30 kick drums samples made using a variety of analog synthesizers and are in 48K /24bit WAV format. They are heavily processed and shouldn’t require much work when dropped into your session. There are a wide variety of kick types suitable for most types of EDM, Cinematic music and even your own sound design adventures.

Tovusound

Tovusound offers Indian Ricksha Sounds and contains 28 sounds recorded from the inside and from the outside.

EdV3rb – LITE is the little brother of EDV3RB – ROOMtones + Impulse Responses. It includes 3 rooms from the full version in 5.0 Surround @24/48 as multiple WAV files. PLUS their Impulse Responses made for the IR-Reverb PlugIns Audio Ease Altiverb, Avid Space, Waves IR-1 and others supporting WAV impulses.

Bonson

Bonson in Canada offers a free sound effects bundle. Here are the type of sounds in it…

• Airplane passing overhead towards landing.

• Electronic static interference

• Outdoor explosion with long rumbling tail

• Single footstep - metallic impact with rocky debris (x3)

• Medium-sized fire - crackling with deep rumble - metal door opens to add paper.

• Propane blow torch - ignite, burning, welding, shut off

• Fireworks - light fuse, sizzle, launch, whistling take off, aerial explosion

• Rain in tropical forest - constant, medium strength with dripping into puddles - binaural recording

• Chainsaw cutting through ice - start, stall, multiple revs, idle, strain

• Pneumatic air ratchet power tool - High RPM, revving

• Drill power tool - spinning at various speeds

• Drill power tool - two quick revs

• Cartoon string impact - wobbling, oscillating, bouncy boing

• Boiling water bubbling - heavy gurgling

• Marina - boats bumping the dock, with light motor in the background

• Wing flap - Large, heavy, powerful, very low, aggressive flap; Leathery, webbed wings single down stroke (x3)

• Wing flapping in flight - heavy, fast, smooth, beating, propellor like flapping, thick, large, insect like wings

You will need to provide your name and email address, which will added to their mailing list.

99Sounds

99Sounds is a collaboration and promotional space for talented sound designers worldwide, allowing them to share their work with the audio community.

99Sounds is an independent sound design label and a free sound effects repository that was launched in 2014 by Tomislav Zlatić, the founder of Bedroom Producers Blog.

Their mission is to provide sound effects and sample libraries of commercial quality for free. They say that their sound libraries and plugins will always be 100% royalty-free and offered as such for both commercial and non-commercial use.

Most of the libraries have a YouTube video demonstrating the sounds in the collection. Here are a couple of examples…

City Sounds is a free collection of city sound effects recorded by Marcel of Free To Use Sounds and released by 99Sounds. City Sounds contains 42 audio recordings captured in various areas of large cities. The library includes traffic sounds, city atmosphere, street sounds, sports crowds, car horns, ambulance sirens, and even rain sounds recorded on a busy street. Marcel recorded these sounds in different cities across the globe, including New York, Denver, Seoul, Osaka, Istanbul, Busan, Bangkok, Munich, Valletta, Zagreb, Paris, Melbourne, and Auckland. The sounds are provided in 24-bit 48 kHz stereo WAV format.

Water Sounds is a free collection of ocean sounds, river sounds, and water stream sounds recorded by Régis Royer. Régis recorded these free water sounds during a road trip around Iceland. He aimed to provide the user with water sounds that can loop seamlessly to create a long water ambience. The library includes 45 water loops with perfect start and endpoints. The sounds are provided in 48kHz, 24 bits, stereo WAV format. The total runtime is 40 minutes.

99 Sound Effects is a premium-quality collection of royalty-free sound effects designed by Tomislav Zlatic. The library includes a range of sound effects, from cinematic braams and drones designed for use in movies to modern cinematic impacts, complex sonic textures, and various purely digital noises that can be used in any audio or video project. 99 Sound Effects also includes a set of retro-inspired sounds that will serve well as a sonic cure for your 80s nostalgia. These retro sound effects use analog synthesizers as the sound source, with various vintage and new outboard gear used for additional processing. The download includes a free sound effects library for Native Instruments Kontakt.

These are just a taste of the different collections available on the 99Sounds website.

SoundEffects+

At SoundEffects+ you find over 5000 free sound effects recorded, designed and produced by a team of our audio professionals. Their team owns the copyrights to all the sound effects on this website and you can safely to use them in your projects but do check the License Agreement. It tells you what you can and cannot do with our free sound effects. It says…

“You are allowed to use the Sound Effects free of charge and royalty free in your projects (such as videos, films, games, presentations, animations, stage plays, multimedia projects, advertisements, apps) be it for commercial or non-commercial purposes, solely in accordance with the terms and conditions of this License Agreement.”

As you can see from the homepage, you can search for individual sound effects or use the folder structure to look at different categories.

• Animals and Insects

• Background Ambience

• Appliances and Devices

• Cartoon and Comical

• Horror Sound Effects

• House and Office

• Human and Foley

• Game and Interface

• Musical Effects

• Nature and Water

• Objects and Impacts

• Science Fiction

• Sports Sound Effects

• Tools and Machines

• Transportation Sounds

• Weapons and Explosions

Conclusion

Free sound effect libraries provide a valuable resource for audio professionals, both those who are established and those just starting out, offering a wide range of high-quality sound effects that can elevate your audio projects without the associated costs.

By exploring the sources covered in this article and adhering to licensing and attribution guidelines, you can enhance your work.

But there is another option that is also ‘free’, and that is to record your own. Tim Prebble from Hiss and a Roar nailed it when he wrote…

“The best place for free sounds is right in front of your microphone!

• I believe every sound editor, every sound designer and every musician should own a field recording setup.

• When I was a kid, the only way to access a field recorder was to borrow a Nagra and microphone.

• I have recordings I captured on a borrowed Nagra 4.2 that are still useful to me now, 30 years later!

• I have recordings I captured on my first portable DAT machine that are still useful to me now, 20 years later!

• I have recordings I captured on my first HD recorder that are still useful to me now, 15 years later!

• The sooner you start recording your own sounds, the better!

When you make your own recordings, you help yourself in multiple ways:

• you learn to record and gain experience

• you develop an efficient modus operandi and learn from your mistakes

• you capture material that is unique to you

• you capture material that is specifically useful for your projects

• you gain deep memory of every recording you make because you were there!

• you appreciate how much work is actually involved in researching, recording, editing & creating sound library resources. Free is never free.”

Ready To Buy Some Sound Effects?

There are a number of larger brands supplying sound effects, like Sound Ideas and Pro Sound Effects, providing comprehensive sound effects libraries to buy. However, make sure that you check out the companies featured above as they all sell sound effects, and what nicer way to say thank you for the free sound effects than to buy some of their sound effects when you are ready to extend your sound effects collections?

We also recommend you check out the myriad of small independent sound effects providers, and the best way to do this is to use sites like A Sound Effect and Sonniss, which provide platforms to enable independent sound effects creators to reach many more customers than they could on their own.