Welcome to the Free Samples Section
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Here you will find links to sites containing good quality free audio (.wav, mp3, etc…) and soundfont (.sf2) samples.
I have ordered the sites by their approximate quantity and quality of samples, from top to bottom.
Note: in most cases, the links below will direct you to the free samples section of that particular website. If you copy and paste the link instead of clicking on it, you may have to do some searching to find the samples.
_Free WAVE and MP3 samples_
The Freesound Project
freesound.iua.upf.edu
The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs.
Sample Swap
www.sampleswap.org
A collection of over 12000 free instrument samples.
Flash Kit
www.flashkit.com
Around 10,000 loops and sound effects for royalty free use in your Flash apps.
ccMixter
www.ccmixter.org
A community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.
Internet Archive
www.archive.org
Large site. Great for finding public-domain music, films, and radio shows from which to sample (but you’ll have to do the sampling yourself).
FindSounds
www.findsounds.com
FindSounds is a free site where you can search the Web for sound effects and musical instrument samples.
SoundSnap
www.soundsnap.com
Thousands of free soundclips seperated into categories. Nicely designed site.
Looperman
www.looperman.com
Nearly 3000 free samples and loops of various instruments
Free-Loops
www.free-loops.com
Nearly 3000 free wave and mp3 samples, specializing in electronic music (techno, house, etc.)
Philharmonia Orchestra - The Sound Exchange
www.philharmonia.co.uk
A large database of free orchestral instrument samples
University of Iowa - Electronic Music Studios
theremin.music.uiowa.edu/MIS.html
Several gigs of good orchestral samples
Macaulay Library
www.animalbehaviorarchive.org
A large, impressive collection of Animal Recordings.
Zillion Sounds Collection
sounds.beachware.com
A collection of 5000 mp3 samples and sound effects.
SampleNet
www.samplenet.co.uk
A collection of a few thousand mp3 samples of instruments.
Sound Dogs
www.sounddogs.com
Contains many mp3 ‘previews’ of decent length. Included because of decent categorization and amount of content.
Wav Central
wavcentral.com
A collection of wave file clips from various movies, tv, and other Sound FX.
The Daily Wav
dailywav.com
A daily updated list of clips from movies and tv.
Sound Central
www.soundcentral.com
Keyboard/Synth Samples. A large collection organized by manufacturer.
Rekkerd.org
rekkerd.org/loops
A collection of sample packs containing beats and melodic loops.
KB6
samples.kb6.de
Some classic drum machine sample packs.
Loopasonic
www.loopasonic.com
A collection of a few hundred wave instrument samples.
Freeloops
www.freeloops.com
A nicely categorized collection of a few hundred mp3 samples of various instruments.
Free Wave Samples
www.freewavesamples.com
Over 100 wave samples of various synthesizers.
JFTL
www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?CurrentPage=1&bandID=264683
A collection of samples from ‘circuit-bent’ instruments.
Free Samples n’ Loops
www.free-samples-n-loops.com
A collection of several hundred wave sound loops and samples of various instruments.
Audio Skull
www.audioskull.com
About 300 drum n bass / dj samples.
SampleSense
www.samplesense.com
Free Sample PACKS. Not a huge collection, but looks to be quite high quality.
Absolute Sound Effects Archive
www.grsites.com
Around 2000 wav files of various sound effects.
Frogstar
www.frogstar.com
Around 1500 free sound clips and effects.
I Love Wavs
www.ilovewavs.com
Around 1000 Wav files of many different sound effects.
PacDV
www.pacdv.com
Around 1000 wav/mp3’s of various sound effects.
Tingatel Sound Archive
freesoundfiles.tintagel.net
Around 1000 sound effects.
Ljudo
ljudo.com
Use a search feature to find your desired sound effect. Contains over 1000.
A1 Free Sound Effects
www.a1freesoundeffects.com
Nearly 1000 assorted sound FX.
Brandens Sound Effects
www.brandens.net
Around 1000 free sound FX wave files.
FreeSFX
www.freesfx.co.uk
A few hundred sound FX samples and sample packs.
Sdmm Studio
www.3dmmstudio.co.uk
A couple of dozen sound packs for use in movies.
GoldBaby
www.goldbaby.co.nz/freestuff.html
A collection of about a dozen decent sample packs. Some unusual ones.
Music For Video
music-for-video.com
A few high quality sample packs
Simply The Best Sounds
simplythebest.net
A few hundred wave files of various sound FX.
Smart Loops
www.smartloops.com
Access a few hundred free samples after supplying your email address.
Blue Distortion
www.bluedistortion.com
A small amount of synthesizer samples, some more in the forum if you register.
Mean Beat
meanbeat.cjb.net
A small collection of drum samples, and bass samples
Nexus Project
www.nexusproject.net
A small collection of electronic samples
Here you will find a collection of various software tools for Audio & Music creation, editing, and performance - supported by the following operating systems:
Please select a category on the right to view the software.
Glossary
Audio & Midi Sequencers - software designed to create, record, and edit music.
- Audio (i.e. digital audio) is a computerized sound recording, such as on a CD, or an mp3 file. Opposed to an analog recording, such as an LP or a casette tape.
- Midi is a computer technology which allows music information; such as notes, volume, tempo, and pitch bending to be stored in a file, or sent from one midi device to another midi device (such as from your midi keyboard into your computer). Midi doesn’t contain any actual sounds, so it must be processed through a device (or program) which interprets the Midi data, and uses it to generate audio.
Audio Analysis - Methods of (usually visually) analyzing an audio signal - such as a spectrum analyzer, which displays the intensity of the various frequencies from which the audio signal is composed.
Audio Editor - Software which specifically allows you to finely edit and process an audio file, such as with EQ, or various effects.
CD Ripper - Software which extracts audio tracks FROM a CD.
CD Burner - Software which saves audio tracks TO a CD, in such a way that it can be played on a CD player.
File Encoders - Software which takes, for example, a ‘.wav’ file (which is very large), and compresses it into a smaller, but usually slightly lower quality file (such as an ‘.mp3′, or a ‘.wma’).
DJ Software - Software usually designed to emulate DJ hardware, with features such as track mixing, or possibly ’scratching’.
Effects Processors - Software which allows the hosting, or chaining of effects, such as VST’s.
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_Free SoundFonts_
Hammer Sound
www.hammersound.net
Over 1000 good quality soundfonts
Soundfonts.it
www.soundfonts.it
A collection of several hundred good quality sound fonts
Free SF2 Files
soundfonts.homemusician.net
Several hundred free soundfonts of various instruments and types.
SF2Midi
www.sf2midi.com
Nearly 5000 soundfonts - Registration required - reported problems such as slow downloads. But if it works it's a very big collection!
Burnie's Site
lesitedeburnie.free.fr
A few MASSIVE soundfonts - piano, organ, harpsicord.
soundfonts.darkesword.com
soundfonts.darkesword.com
A small collection of various soundfonts
RKhive soundfonts
www.fox-gieg.com/rkhive
An archive of several hundred small soundfonts
Project Sam
www.projectsam.com
Enter email to view some free 'sample' GIGA files. NO SOUNDFONTS HERE.
The Jazz Page
www.thejazzpage.de
Some decent looking instrument soundfonts.
Personal Copy
www.personalcopy.com
Another deprecated site featuring some large soundfonts.
SF2
www.wolod.narod.ru/sf2.htm
Again, the site is about to keel over, but there are some good soundfonts here.
Soeren Bovbjerg
come.to/bovbjerg
A couple of big, decent piano soundfonts