Best Websites Where You Can Get Free Sound Effects

If you're a filmmaker or audio editor, finding the right sound effects can be incredibly important. For example, if you're making a thriller film and want to make sure that there's an eerie sound in the background at all times, then it's going to be difficult to find one without paying for it, unless you do your research! 

In this article, we’re going to teach you all about the places where you can find the best free sound effects for video editing!

Why Do We Need Sound Effects?

Sound effects are an integral part of any film or video project. They can be used to add emotion and tension, enhance the mood of a scene and help communicate important information about the characters or their environment.

If you are not sure if you need to add audio to video, here are the main benefits of doing so:

Sound Effects Convey Information

Sound effects are one of the most common and important elements in any film or video. If a scene has a car driving down the street, we expect to hear the sounds of an engine and tires on pavement. We don’t need to see the car moving, because we have other visual cues—things like camera angles and lighting—to tell us what’s happening spatially. But if you try to imagine that same scene without any sound effects whatsoever, it would be pretty weird!

Sound effects convey information about what's going on around us and help immerse us in whatever world we're watching unfold on screen. They can be used to portray different environments (a stormy beach) or objects (a creaky door). And they can even tell us something about characters' psychological states: 

• a nervous laugh might give away someone's true feelings while they're pretending not to be afraid; 
• heavy breathing may indicate frustration at being unable to solve a puzzle; 
• footsteps could mean someone is walking toward danger rather than away from it

...the possibilities are endless!

Sound Effects Add Personality and Emotion

Sound effects can be used to convey emotion. If you're writing a scene where a character is in danger, the use of sound effects can create an atmosphere of tension and fear. In this way, it's possible for sound effects to help establish mood and tone.

That being said, there are many ways that sound effects can play into your story. For example:

• If a character is running through a forest at night and tripping over branches on the ground as he goes, you could use windy gusts of audio to convey his feeling that something isn't right with his surroundings (or perhaps even his own state of mind).
• If someone opens up an old chest they found in their attic while cleaning out clutter from their parent's house after they've passed away, you could play ominous music underneath their discovery of old photos from when they were younger—which reveal another side of who those parents really were before everyone else saw them as "the perfect couple."
• If you want your audience to laugh, you will use a funny sounds download

In fact, you can even use an online voice recorder to tell the story behind your YouTube videos. In fact, if you are working on an audio piece such as podcasts, you can improve your voice recordings using audio editing software.

Sound Effects Advance the Plot

Sound effects can be used to advance the plot in the same way that images and dialogue do.

A character's footsteps can be heard approaching, signaling that he or she is coming closer to you. A doorbell ringing could signal that someone has arrived at your house, while the sound of a door opening could signal that someone just left it—either way, you'll know something is happening in relation to you or your surroundings.

Best Websites for Royalty Free Sound Effects

Now that you better understand the importance of a sound effect on the development of video projects, it’s time to learn how and where you can download royalty free music and sound effects! 

These websites have music and audio clips that are free for everyone to use:

Freesound

Freesound is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. It's a great place to find royalty free sound effects and music, so it's definitely worth bookmarking if you need either of those things as part of your content creation process.

Freesound is simple to use and places a strong emphasis on the site's user community. Their blog is prominently displayed, with frequent community updates for their members.

The search bar makes it simple to find any sound, and users can see a variety of information at a glance, including ratings, properties, download quantities, and the sound's licensing.

The site's community vibe is also a feature to be appreciated, with users able to follow one another and listen to related tunes with a single click.

In order to download sound effects from Freesound, the first step is creating an account. However, it’s important to note that not all the sounds can be used in commercial projects, so make sure to check the licensing terms.

ZapSplat

ZapSplat is a free sound effects library that has a large selection of sounds, including animals, vehicles and weapons. They also have a large selection of music tracks. You can search for sounds by keyword or category. If you don't like what you find in the categories on ZapSplat's home page, click "Browse All" to see all their available content sorted into subcategories.

You can download sounds in .MP3 or .WAV format depending on your needs (or both!).

99 Sounds

It's a free sound effects site with over 40,000 royalty free sound effects, and it's updated every week. You can find anything from birds chirping to water droplets to kids playing. There are also categories of sounds, such as animals, nature, sports and machines to help you find what you're looking for more easily.

The search bar is easy-to-use and there's even an option to filter by length of clip (from 1 second all the way up to 24 hours).

However, 99 Sounds is more of a tiny collection of themed royalty free sound effects than a sound effect directory. You cannot search for and download individual sounds; you can only download themed collections.

The compilations are presented in a neat, clean fashion that nearly resembles album covers. However, because of the thematic nature of the collections, there is unlikely to be something for everyone here.

There’s also a download button so that once you've found what you want – boom! – ready to use the sound effect in your next project or video. 

Free SFX

FreeSFX is a fantastic resource for finding free sound effects to use in your projects. The website contains a massive library of free sound effects to download and use. You may go through the sound effects by category or by keyword.

It’s important to know that these free sound samples have unlimited downloads. However, it’s essential to also mention the downsides of this platform. It is not the largest website, and if you search for anything that they do not offer, you will be directed to a 404 page.

To download sound effects, you must first establish an account, which is simple and free. The site's main flaw is that the quality of the effects is inconsistent.

Findsounds

FindSounds, unlike some of the other sites we've discussed, does not have its own library of sound effects to pick from; instead, it merely makes it easy to discover free sound effects online. 

The platform functions similarly to a sound effects search engine, not like a free sound library. However, it has two main benefits: it’s fully free and you can filter the sounds by high fidelity or stereo only.

FreeSoung.org

While it might not be as visually appealing as the other royalty free sound effects websites, Freesoung.org is a site built on the Epicsound library.

However, most of the sounds available in this library are not for free. Epidemic Sound is one of the largest audio collections on the Internet (35,000 tracks as of this writing), and independent composers get access to it all for a minimal monthly price ($15).

Did You Know That Flixier Also Has a Sound Effects Library?

If you want access to more sound effects, our online video editor has its own royalty free music.

If you're searching for some background music to add to your videos to establish the tone, we've got you covered! We have a vast selection of copyright free background music that you can search through and add to your films to enhance the ambiance and make them more engaging for your viewers!

In the Audio menu you can also find a tab dedicated to free sound effects, so you can add all the atmospheric effects you need without having to leave the editor and search any external websites. 

But worry not—if your favorite sound effect can only be found on the previous sound websites, there’s still so much to do! Flixier allows you to add music to your videos from a variety of sources. You may upload songs from your PC, add a SoundCloud link, or choose a song from our stock music library! The greatest part is that because Flixier is online, you won't have to bother about downloading or installing any apps! Simply log in to Flixier using your web browser to add music to your movies on Mac, Windows, or ChromeOS.

Flixier can also let you record voice overs and other audio for your videos! Our Record button allows you to instantly capture sounds from your computer microphone, making it simple to make and modify voice overs in minutes! Don't worry if you're bashful or don't have a microphone! You may make natural-sounding voice overs for your films with our neural-powered text-to-speech tool.

Where Will You Look for Royalty Free Sound Effects?

Now that you have so many options, what will you choose to bring your videos to life? Decide whether your material will be used for commercial or non commercial use and choose the sound effect platform suitable for your needs!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this list of some of the best websites where you can find free sounds. If you have any other suggestions, please leave them in the comments below!