Sites to Download Free Sound Effects for Almost Everything

Do you create or mix music, video, animation, games or other media? Sound is as crucial part of such creations as it’s challenging to find free sound effects that perfectly fit in your new project
That’s why, we’ve compiled below an ultimate list of websites that offers cost-free, royalty-free sounds that’s completely legal to download and use in your own projects — personal as well as commercial projects. That said, do check the licenses for any restrictions before using.

Sound Search Engines

Soungle. Soungle is a free search engine to search for sounds. You can easily search for sound effects, music instrument samples and more, and download them as applicable (mostly free).
Find Sounds. Its free sound search engine fetches sound effects and samples of different music instruments from the web.

Sound Archives and Collections

GRSites. There are more than 1900 sound effects to choose from grouped in several categories with unique sound effects from animals to aircraft and cartoon to horror. These sound effects are available in both WAV and MP3 formats.
SoundBible. SoundBible provides thousands of free sound effects, downloadable in either WAV or MP3 format.
AudioMicro. It provides over more than 2000 music and sound effects. The content is user-generated and contains a very well-organized audio library.
Freesound. The database contains 1000+ collections of audio samples, recordings, snippets and bleeps. It allows the users to access the sounds through tags or keywords.
ZapSplat. It is a non-profit sound effect and music library with thousands of sound effects categories. The site has a collection of more than 10691 sound effects and royalty free music that can be downloaded in MP3 or WAV format.
Orange Free Sounds. The site provides a list of sound files, music loop and background music for both commercial and personal in MP3 format. The site is updated regularly so you always get something new to choose from.

 

Free Sound Effects. It provides access to several free sound effects organized in 10+ categories. The sounds provided are high quality, royalty free sound effects.
FlashKit. It provides a list of 7058 sound effects which is well-organized and constantly growing. All sound effects have an MP3 and a flashtrak versions.
BlastwaveFX. Blastwave contains a comprehensive library that serves as a royalty free audio resource for numerous professionals worldwide. The site offers more than 33, 000 high-def sound effects and over 40 libraries.
Sound Effects for Free. The site’s agenda is “No Fee. No Catch. Unlimited Downloads.” Its library has 210+ professional quality audio sound effects. Those can be downloaded in MP3 or WAV format.

Media College. It’s a resource website for every type of electronic media. There are hundreds of sound effects distributed in 22 categories that are available for download in WAV format and can be freely used in personal and commercial projects.
PacDV. It provides royalty free 3000+ sound effects for sound designers, filmmakers, multimedia developers and more. Those are divided into categories like mechanical, ambiance, domestic, music, miscellaneous, etc.
SoundsCrate. It has a huge database of hundreds of sound effects grouped in 30 categories to choose from. To view and download the free ones, hover over Audio menu and select any category under the Royalty Free Sounds section.

99Sounds. 99Sounds showcase hundreds of audio and samples by designers all around the world. You can download the collections for free in compressed format having the sounds in WAV extension.

NCHSoftware. It has a huge library with more than 1000 sound effects. The music and sound effects are license free so you can use it in any type of production. The collection is fully organized in sections but require you to download the free WavePad Audio Editor to access the library.
The Recordist. The library consists of a wide range of free sound effectsavailable in MP3 format and arranged under well-organized categories.

SoundJay. It has a list of over 300 sound effects — all free to download in WAV and MP3 formats. The sound effects are available as royalty-free to be used in various types of commercial and non-commercial projects.
FreeSFX. This platform offers a huge pile of 5460+ different sound effects, which are all free to download in MP3 extension. You can use the sound effects for commercial, non-commercial, broadcast multimedia or audiovisual production.
GameBurp. This is your ultimate source for free sound effects for games and apps. You can choose from over 2000+ sound effects with royalty free license for personal and commercial usage. You can get the sound effects in WAV format and compressed OGG format.

Acoustica. Its database contain 7 and more categories of sound effects, including weird, strange, artful and elusive sound effects.
Partner In Rhyme. You can choose from various categories like general, public domain and royalty-free sound effects.
Sonnyboo. Find royalty free music, helpful videos and tutorials here on top of the 40+ free sound effects in a compressed archive plus other related files like artworks, previews, license (do check before using the files), etc.
Airborne. It’s a playground of small enthusiastic field recordists offering over 25,000 sound clips. The site offers various bundles of sound effects in MP3 format that are captured worldwide.
Sound Gator. The site has various free sound effects in 18 categories to browse and download for free. The sound clips are in MP3 format and can also be searched using the search bar.

Pachd. You can find around 30+ sound effects on Pachd. The sound effects are offered royalty free in MP3 or WAV format.
Deusx.com. The site lists around 40+ sound effects to download for free. The sounds are provided in WAV format and can be used in your personal or commercial projects as you please.
Bargus. The site provides 50+ sound effects like crowd, farm, garden, household, human, misc, rural, transport and urban. These can be downloaded as WAV format (inside compressed archives).
The Motion Monkey. This site offers a comprehensive, royalty free package of 300+ retro video game sound effects that you can even use in commercial projects or paid games. The library is updated regularly and is downloadable in 24-bit WAV, OGG, and MP4 formats.
sshhtt. This site contains a list of 22 categories and a huge pile of free sound effects to choose from but you have to register to download them in WAV or MP3 format. The site is in Spanish.
Dramatic Publishing. You can pick and download from the 30+ sound effectsavailable on this site. The effects are downloadable in MP3 as well as WAV file formats (as self-extracting zip file).
Free Sound Effects and Loops. It’s a place to find and download free music loops, sounds and sound clips. The website hosts 30+ sound effects in WAV format.
3dmm Studio. Here you can find great sound effects and realistic background music. The available 10+ sound packs are well-categorized. The effects collections (Will Cheyney packs) are standard ZIPs with WAV files inside.
Ice Cold Sounds. This site offers just 7 sound effects to choose from. The effects are available in MP3 format and must be used for personal, non-profit projects only.

F7 Sound and Vision. You can get interesting and free sound effects that are available for download in WAV format.
High Quality Production Music. You will find all kind of music for your video production on this site. The list of 500+ sound effects come in uncompressed WAV format.
The Wav Surfer. It provides around 400 free sound effects and 4000 movie sounds in WAV format. You can find sound effects in categories like movies, animals, television and musical.

Boogie Jack. You will find a list of 110+ sound effects including weird, annoying, ridiculously amazing and elusive kinds. You can easily save/download the WAV files for using them in your own projects.
EarthStation1. You can download 100+ free sound effects in MP3 or WAV format from Earth Station 1. You can find various kinds of sound effects here — from alarm and vehicle to animal and nature and more.
Sweet Sound Effects. You can download hundreds of free sound effects in WAV or MP3 format from this site. These are nicely segmented in categories. The author allows using them in personal as well as commercial works.

Jewel Beat. The site offers hundreds of sound effects and other sounds for free. These are simply categorised in pages and can be downloaded in MP3 format.
Big Sound Bank. You will find 770+ free and wide range of sounds, noises and soundscapes on this website. The files are available in WAV, AIFF, MP3 and OGG formats.
Noise for Fun. You’ll find the original and creatively designed sound effects in 8 categories on this site. There are hundreds of sound effects that can be downloaded in WAV format.
Sound Effects Library. This sound effects library is made in a random style. There are total 60+ sound effects on this page with option of downloading those in multiple formats including WAV and MP3.

Universal-Soundbank. You will find hundreds of sound effect samples and loops downloadable in MP3 format on this site.
Sample Phonic. The site has a collection of 33 reverse sound FX samples. You can download the free sample pack and use the same in any type of creative project. The sounds are available in 24-bit WAV format.

Producer Spot. The site has over 800+ sound effects arranged in different collections. This site list all types of sounds — from screams to devil’s laughter and from war machines to zombies sounds.

Top Free Intro. On this site, you will find 60+ free, intro sound effects. The downloads are in ZIP format containing WAV or MP3 files inside.
Salami Sound. You will find 2720+ sound effects of traffic, car, motor rail, animals, nature, workshop and more as MP3 on this site.
Looperman. You will find 67,260+ free sound effects and loops in WAV or MP3 format. It also avails an advanced search tool to look for sounds and lists sounds in other ways, like tags, genres, etc.

Sample Swap. The site has a well-organized list of sound effects and loops that you can download for free. They have thousands of sound effects available in WAV and MP3 formats.
Free-Loops. There are over 7550+ free instrumental and other sound effectson this site. The files are in MP3, WAV, AIFF and MIDI formats, and the sound effects have their own individual license terms.

Music-Note World. All the music and sound effects on this site are free to download and can be used by individuals, legal entities and businesses. You can find sounds in various categories and the downloadable sound materials come in MP3 format.

Hit Film. This post has a compilation of 300+ free sound effects.The download contains the sound effects in WAV or MP3 format and if direct download links don’t work, try torrent links.
Open Game Art. The post offers 100+ sound effects in a single ZIP file. You’ll find the free sound effects inside the compressed archive in WAV, OGG, M4A formats.
Little Robot Sound Factory. This site has various well-ordered libraries of sound effects and loops with sample and brief description for all.

FXHOME. The site has a compilation of over 25+ amazing collections of sound effects in ZIP files (having WAV or MP3 files).
Unity Asset Store. Unity offers 240+ sound effect collections for free for game developers. From horror to sci-fi and futuristic weapons to jungle animals, you’ll find sound effects on various categories in their library. Do note that these sounds work and open only with Unity.

Sound Image. The site has over more than 1000 music track and sound effects with daily additions.
WavSource. You will find all kind of sound effects here — totalling to 100+ in number in WAV format. The effects provided are meant for educational, research and review purposes only (and must be kept personal if used otherwise).
Free Sounds. It is a great platform to choose from a huge list of free sound effects. All the sound effects are in WAV format and can be used in videos, presentation, flash animation, presentation, and many other places for personal use only (as no license is provided).
Wav Sounds. You can find 120+ WAV sound files on this site. This site provides free sound, music, ringtones, loops, animated videos, flash files, etc. These downloads, however, are only allowed to be used in educational, research, criticism or review purposes.
Wav Central. The site offers more than 50+ sound effects. All the sound effect files are available in MP3 format and can be used freely for personal use.

Stay on Beat. This website contains hundreds of sound effects and loopscategorised in various genres. You can download hip hop, dubstep, rock, acoustics and many more instrumental sound effects.
Sound Jig. This site lists more than 190 sound effects and 150 audio loops. All the files are available in MP3 or WAV file format. They can be used for commercial and individual purposes.

Halloween.it. This site lists all types of scary and creepy Halloween-themed sound effects for free of cost. The list contain more than 32 sound effects in both WAV and MP3 download formats.
FinalCutKing. This section offers a variety of free sounds effects in MP3 or WAV format. The sound effects include cool downloads like lightsaber effects and explosion effects.
Royalty Free Music Library. It provides 10+ sound effects which can be downloaded for free to use in all types of projects. The sound effects range from mundane everyday sounds to unique ones, and are available for download in MP3 format.
Hiss and a Roar. The royalty-free sound effects in this library are diverse but not overly complicated. The site has more than 230 sound effects in WAV format and is available for download as RAR format.
Director Zone. You can find over hundreds of amazing sound clips here to add to your videos and other projects. You can choose from a wide range of free sound effects to download that can be used in Cyberlink AudioDirector and Cyberlink PowerDirector.
 
source: hongkiat