My New Video: The Four Best Sites to Search for Free Sound Effects

[Reid Rosefelt]

This is my first video edited with Adobe Premiere instead of Vegas.  It was a nightmare to learn and it will take me a long time to catch up to my workflow with Vegas, but it never crashed once. 

 

 

 

[InstrEd]

as Kermit would say

Yay!!

[user 905133]

TY for tackling a number of issues related to found sounds, sound effects, etc.

I have seen at least one site that said something to the effect that the sounds there were free to use (i.e., no royalties) without credit, but that if used and posted to various places on the internet, the artistic creation could not be copyrighted by the artist since the works would be flagged as having content owned by someone else.

I decided not to save that link. 

Edited March 17, 2021 by User 905133
to clarify the post

[John Maar]

56 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

This is my first video edited with Adobe Premiere instead of Vegas.  It was a nightmare to learn and it will take me a long time to catch up to my workflow with Vegas, but it never crashed once. 

 

 

 

Excellent Reid! Thanks. I too just purchased Adobe Premiere Elements. I've burned through several video editors (CyberLink, Corel, a couple of lower-end ones). Never happy for one reason or another. I'm hoping Premiere will do what I need, without installing all of the bloat and product advertising. I've been happy with Affinity's trio (Designer, Photo, Publisher; $25/each when on sale; best software deal going), so I only need a video editor.  And I want one with a perpetual license, not a subscription. I'd be interested in your feedback on the changes you had to make to your workflow.

[Reid Rosefelt]

39 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

TY for tackling a number of issues related to found sounds, sound effects, etc.

I have seen at least one site that said something to the effect that the sounds there were free to use (i.e., no royalties) without credit, but that if used and posted to various places on the internet, the artistic creation could not be copyrighted by the artist since the works would be flagged as having content owned by someone else.

I decided not to save that link. 

The best site by a mile is to use findsound.org with the filter on for Creative Commons 0.  You can apply the filter yourself, or use this direct link that takes you to the site with the CC0 filter applied:

https://freesound.org/search/?g=1&q=&f= license:"Creative+Commons+0"  

This gives you access to over 243,000 sound effects, free and clear.  I think you can do anything at all you want with them, but certainly commercial use and no attribution is required.   

This is so much more than the paltry amount available at other sites, even paid ones.  Plus, you can filter further by types of files, bit-depth, etc.  It also has a word cloud, which is helpful.  

Edited March 17, 2021 by Reid Rosefelt

[John Maar]

2 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

The best site by a mile is to use findsound.org with the filter on for Creative Commons 0. https://freesound.org/search/?g=1&q=&f= license:"Creative+Commons+0"

This gives you access to over 243,000 sound effects, free and clear.  I think you can do anything at all you want with them, but certainly commercial use and no attribution is required.   

This is so much more than the paltry amount available at other sites, even paid ones.  Plus, you can filter further by types of files, bit-depth, etc.  It also has a word cloud, which is helpful.  

Your video has already paid for itself! Not in a million years would I have thought to double-click on the magnifying glass icon. That link you posted that includes the search criteria is the one I bookmarked. I'm not going to count on remembering the double-click trick.

[Reid Rosefelt]

39 minutes ago, John Maar said:

Excellent Reid! Thanks. I too just purchased Adobe Premiere Elements. I've burned through several video editors (CyberLink, Corel, a couple of lower-end ones). Never happy for one reason or another. I'm hoping Premiere will do what I need, without installing all of the bloat and product advertising. I've been happy with Affinity's trio (Designer, Photo, Publisher; $25/each when on sale; best software deal going), so I only need a video editor.  And I want one with a perpetual license, not a subscription. I'd be interested in your feedback on the changes you had to make to your workflow.

I think that Vegas Pro may work fine for a lot of people, but my videos combine a lot of codecs, and there is a ton of layering and compositing and processing, and they can get very long.  Perhaps something I'm doing just doesn't work with Vegas.  It was insane how often it crashed for me.   Premiere handles all that with ease.  

But working with Premiere is like learning a whole new language.  My fingers fly over Vegas--I know how to do everything I want with great speed and ease.  It's going to take me a long time to get to that level with Premiere.  But I was able to do this video and the next one will be easier.  I'm just going to keep watching videos and learning. 

There are a few things that Vegas does easily that Premiere doesn't do, and there are things that Premiere does fine but I prefer the way Vegas does them.  But overall; I think Premiere is a LOT better.  It does so much more, things I didn't know an editor could do.  The fact that it is the standard really helps--plugins work better.  The synergy with Photoshop is really great.    And the fact that it is so robust for the kind of work I do makes the decision to change a no-brainer.  

Using my Stream Deck is very important.  I like keyboard shortcuts.  I really have it set up nice for Vegas and Cubase, but I am slowly putting together which buttons I use the most.   I also have a ShuttleXpress, which is helpful.  

[John Maar]

1 hour ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

I think that Vegas Pro may work fine for a lot of people, but my videos combine a lot of codecs, and there is a ton of layering and compositing and processing, and they can get very long.  Perhaps something I'm doing just doesn't work with Vegas.  It was insane how often it crashed for me.   Premiere handles all that with ease.  

But working with Premiere is like learning a whole new language.  My fingers fly over Vegas--I know how to do everything I want with great speed and ease.  It's going to take me a long time to get to that level with Premiere.  But I was able to do this video and the next one will be easier.  I'm just going to keep watching videos and learning. 

There are a few things that Vegas does easily that Premiere doesn't do, and there are things that Premiere does fine but I prefer the way Vegas does them.  But overall; I think Premiere is a LOT better.  It does so much more, things I didn't know an editor could do.  The fact that it is the standard really helps--plugins work better.  The synergy with Photoshop is really great.    And the fact that it is so robust for the kind of work I do makes the decision to change a no-brainer.  

Using my Stream Deck is very important.  I like keyboard shortcuts.  I really have it set up nice for Vegas and Cubase, but I am slowly putting together which buttons I use the most.   I also have a ShuttleXpress, which is helpful.  

Thanks for taking the time! [wipes brow and feels better about purchase!]

Once I get moved to France, I'm going to help my niece get a YouTube channel going. It will have a Tour de France focus. I can handle all of the audio processing, but needed a video editor I could live with. High Hopes! [apologies to the Floyd ?]