Best 2022 Royalty-Free Sound Effects Resources
Not having enough budget for your production will not be an excuse, at least when it comes to special sound effects (SFX). If you’ve only heard about free stock photo download sites, you can be sure that they’re not the only options you can find for free downloads. No matter what kind of audiovisual project you are working on, sound effects can be a great support to give an emotional and different touch to your work.
Free sound banks are digital platforms that have different categories of music and sound effects that you can use freely, as long as you check what kind of license they have. Downloading free and royalty-free sound effects is not impossible, but usually finding a sound bank to download at no cost is not easy.
If you need advice on special effects for your audiovisual productions, do not hesitate to contact Enhanced Media.
FreeSound
A brief description of FreeSound would point out that it is a very popular sound bank among users. Maybe it’s because of its name, because, after all, we all like the word ‘free.’ The truth is that it has a wide variety of sound effects, from thousands of outdoor environments to nature sounds. Although its interface is quite old, at a glance you can recognize exactly what the audio is about and it even offers a photo chat where other users talk about production-related topics.
Something very important to know is that in order to download the files you must be registered. Although it is free, many people are not fans of it. Some of the advantages of this soundbank are the license-free mp3 sound effects, as well as the possibility to download them without limits and upload your own.
BBC Sound Effects
Yes, the BBC has a huge database of sound effects that can be used for free, but with certain conditions. As long as the product where you apply them is for personal, educational, or research purposes, it will be free. However, if the purpose of your work is commercial, you will have to pay according to a subscription. The best thing about this free soundbank is that it has more than thirty thousand audio clips from all over the world. As it belongs to a journalistic chain, you will not only find sound effects but also super interesting and cultural audio files for your work.
One of the best things about this sound effects bank is the mixer to overlay sounds and edit files you already find on the platform to create your own sounds.
Partners in Rhyme
This is one of the most used special effects banks and it’s quite popular in editing forums. It is quite easy to browse and you can listen to the audio in one click before downloading. Despite its simplicity, it is often used by professionals. It has a website, from which you can also download music for free, and is divided into three main categories according to the license. On the one hand, audios obtained from other websites, on the other hand, royalty-free — what we like the most-, and sounds that are under the public domain. A recommendation: if you are looking for music or very similar effects, you can download by packages and not single audios.
Some advantages are, besides being able to find free sounds and music to download, the fact that this library has about sixty categories of sound effects and music, as well as sounds from video games, movies, among others. The only disadvantage is that you must mention the page in the credits of your video or production.
Audiomicro
If you are looking for a perfect sound effect for your audiovisual project, in Audiomicro you will be able to download sounds in the style of any professional super production. This free soundbank has more than 300 thousand sound effects, classified in categories such as television, pop, ambient, corporate, jazz, etc. This will make your search much easier and you will be able to download your audio in less time than you think. It also has loop packs and all of them are absolutely free, which you can use for your favorite platform videos, as well as for your personal and business projects, your mobile applications, commercials, and video games. If you have in mind to produce movies, short films, or TV series, you will not lack effects of all kinds. Likewise, if you produce a radio program, podcasts, or audiobooks, you will have excellent tools at your disposal.
In addition to the aforementioned, Audiomicro has a quite useful search bar from which you can search for the sound effect you need. The only disadvantage is that you need a license in case your projects have commercial purposes.
Free Music Projects
It is well known that it can be hard work to search for totally free copyright-free music, and for this reason, this library is a relief for such an effort. What characterizes this special effects bank is that it is specially designed for music artists. On this site, you will find different effects, from ambient sounds to DJ sound effects to download for free. You only need to register and download the effects you want in MP3. The only thing the site asks you to do is that when you use any of the effects, you must label them in the credits.
