如果您真的想给您的YouTube视频一些适当的个性,您需要将音效集成到您的编辑中。问题是您不能将任何旧音效作为项目的一部分发布。您需要确保您拥有使用音效的正确许可,如果您必须验证单个剪辑,这绝对是一件痛苦的事。
这就是免版税的音效(sound effect)网站如此有用的原因。您可以使用任何您喜欢的效果,而不必担心因为您使用了错误的“Bang!”而被罚款或采取法律行动。或“战俘(Pow)!” 剪辑。
顺便说一句,我们有自己的YouTube 频道(YouTube channel),我们还在最佳网站上制作了视频以获得免费音效(best sites to get free sound effects),因此请务必查看。
公共服务公告:免版税不是免费的(Public Service Announcement: Royalty-Free isn’t Free)
在我们开始探索免版税音效之前,确保您了解“免版税”的含义非常重要。这并不意味着(not )您无需付费即可使用音效剪辑(sound effect clip)。这意味着,您最多只需要为它付费一次,然后您就可以自由使用它,而无需为最终产品 的每次观看或出售的副本向创作者支付额外的费用。(view or copy)
您还需要仔细查看相关剪辑的免版税协议条款,以确保您的项目类型实际上已涵盖!当然,免版税的音效也可以免费赠送,但这两个事实并不相关。
最重要的是,免版税的音效(sound effect)剪辑不一定是公共领域或知识共享(Commons)内容!他们可以携带传统的版权许可证(copyright license)。话虽如此,许多标榜自己为免版税目录的网站也混合在公共领域和知识共享(Commons)剪辑中。
最重要的是,您还应该在使用之前仔细检查附加到特定剪辑的许可证。
SoundBible使用起来非常简单。在您点击网站首页的那一刻,您可以立即开始下载您看到的免版税音效剪辑。(sound effect)每个剪辑的特定许可证都清楚地标在旁边,并且有数千个。如果您在SoundBible上找不到您想要的声音,您实际上可以向社区索取,这是一个了不起的功能。
我们唯一不喜欢该网站的是搜索剪辑可能有点笨拙,并且网站设计(site design)本身可能需要几秒钟才能理解。除此之外,这是一个了不起的资源,也是支持它的社区的真正功劳。
Freesound 在一个主要方面与 SoundBible 不同——您需要一个帐户才能下载声音片段。除此之外,找到合适的剪辑非常简单,而且通常这些剪辑是使用知识共享许可(Commons licence)方案获得许可的。
虽然Freesound 库(Freesound library)在音量方面相当平均,但该站点本身有很多非常好的功能,应该会巩固它在您的声音库书签列表中的位置。论坛充满了有用的信息,并且可能回答了您想问的大多数问题。
还有非常有用的声音包,它们按主题或目的(theme or purpose)将声音组合在一起。例如,这个SFX 包(SFX pack)有一些非常简洁的枪械效果。
顾名思义,GameSounds 托管旨在用于视频游戏项目的免版税音效剪辑。该站点确实非常简单,有效地只有一个页面。它也反映了来自其他网站(例如 99Sounds)的声音,其优势在于已从该网站收集和整理了特定于游戏的声音。
虽然 GameSounds 可能没有大量剪辑,但所有 9,505 首曲目都专注于这个单一目的。因此,如果您正在从事视频游戏项目(video game project)并且没有太多预算,那么这是一个必不可少的目的地。
ZapSplat不仅拥有该列表中所有音效网站(effect site)的最佳名称,它还拥有一个庞大的 59,000 个声音剪辑库(sound clip library)。虽然您可以免费下载几乎所有的剪辑,但对于不通过升级帐户或捐赠来交出一点钱的用户存在一些限制。
如果您选择付费,您可以更快、更轻松地下载剪辑。您也不必进行归因并可以访问更高质量的音频剪辑。该网站的所有者不断创造新的声音,因此无论您的预算如何,总有理由回来。
尽管有一个似乎来自 90 年代中期的网站,但 freeSFX 的布局实际上是这样的,您可以很快找到所需的音效类别。可悲的是,即使您确实很快找到了您想要的声音,您也需要先注册一个帐户,然后才能真正下载任何东西。
尽管所有免版税的音效都可以在您的项目中免费使用,但您确实需要归功于该网站。4,500 个集合相对较小,但种类繁多,您一定会找到不只适合您需求的几个。
在这里,我们有一个包含 400,000 多个专业音效(sound effect)剪辑的网站,其中许多来自一些非常著名的媒体来源。这听起来好得令人难以置信,在某种程度上,确实如此。
虽然这些剪辑可能是免版税的,但您仍然需要花几美元购买 AudioMicro(AudioMicro)。有时只需为完美的剪辑付费,但至少您知道它是一次性付款,然后您就可以随意使用它了。
SoundEffects+只有一个小的 5,000 个剪辑库,但有时质量远比数量重要。本网站上的每个剪辑(Every clip)都由音频专业人士录制。
虽然这些剪辑都可以在您的项目中免费使用,但它们的许可协议中存在一些重要的限制。关于不自己转售音效(sound effect)的通常做法适用,但也有诸如每月限制(month limit)100 个剪辑之类的规则,否则您将被暂停帐户(account suspension)。
除了这些小问题,您无疑会对SoundEffects+成为您的音频工具箱的一部分感到非常高兴。
GR Sites有一个非常小的音效库(sound effect library),只有不到 2,000 个免版税音效(sound effect)剪辑,但它们被精心策划为非常适合网站项目。因此,当您在设计网站并(site and realizing)在最后一刻意识到您没有合适的小叮当声或铃声(jingle or chime)将它们整合在一起 时,您会找到可以节省您的培根的确切类型的声音剪辑。
当然,这些效果中的许多也将非常适合您的视频或播客项目(video or podcast project)。该网站易于导航,您无需注册帐户即可下载商品,因此如果您遇到困难,绝对值得收藏。
Rhyme的合作伙伴可能有一个俗气的名字(cheesy name),主要关注音乐,但它有一个非常不错的专业级剪辑库。您确实必须为此支付一些钱,但该网站确实声称拥有业内最自由的许可证之一,在您为项目使用剪辑付费后不会提出任何问题。
这里有一些非常棒的东西,他们将它们组织成合乎逻辑的集合,这也可以帮助你加快制作速度。
SoundGator 是另一个看起来并不多的网站,但最终听起来还不错。注册并登录后,您可以快速下载所需内容并继续您的项目。
用户许可证(user license)在这些网站中也很典型,因为您可以随意使用这些剪辑,只要您不转售剪辑本身。SoundGator 之所以(SoundGator)列此列表,仅仅是因为它的精简和精简。
声音选择(sound selection)的种类也很不错,如果不是完全音量的话。很有可能这些剪辑中的一个最终会成为您完成工作仍需要的一种声音效果。(sound effect)
听起来不错?(Sound Good?)
我们认为这 10 个站点代表了当今 10 个最佳的免版税音效(sound effect)网站,并且是那些想要免版税内容的人可以使用的各种音效(sound effect)网站的一个很好的部分。您几乎肯定会找到您正在制作的视频、播客或奇怪的复古快闪游戏所需的内容。这当然比震耳欲聋的沉默要好。
10 Best Websites to Find Royalty-Free Sound Effects
If you really want tо give your YouTube videos some proper personality, you need to integrate sound effects into your edits. The problem is that you can’t just publish any old sound effects as part of your project. You need to make sure that you have the right license to make use of a sound effect, which can be an absolute pain if you have to verify individual clips.
This is why royalty-free sound effect websites are so useful. You can use any effects you like and never have to worry about being slapped with a bill or legal action because you used the wrong “Bang!” or “Pow!” clips.
By the way, we have our own YouTube channel and we also made a video on the best sites to get free sound effects, so be sure to check it out.
Public Service Announcement: Royalty-Free isn’t Free
Before we start exploring royalty-free sound effects, it’s very important that you make sure you know what “royalty-free” means. It does not mean that you don’t have to pay in order to use the sound effect clip. It means that, at most, you need to pay for it once and then you are free to use it without having to pay the creator additional money for every view or copy sold of the final product.
You also need to carefully look at the terms of the royalty-free agreements for the clip in question, to make sure that your type of project is in fact covered! Of course, royalty-free sound effects can also be given away for free, but these two facts are not connected.
Most importantly, royalty-free sound effect clips are not necessarily public domain or Creative Commons content! They can carry a traditional copyright license. That being said, plenty of sites that advertise themselves as a royalty-free catalogue also mix in public domain and Creative Commons clips as well.
The bottom line is that you should also carefully check the licence attached to a particular clip before using it.
SoundBible is incredibly straightforward to use. The minute you hit the front page of the site you can immediately start downloading the royalty-free sound effect clips that you see. The specific license for each clip is clearly marked right next to it and there are thousands of them. If you can’t find the sound you want on SoundBible, you can actually request it from the community, which is an amazing feature.
The only thing we didn’t like about the site is that searching for clips can be a little clunky and the site design itself can take a few seconds to make sense of. Other than that, this is an amazing resource and a real credit to the community that supports it.
Freesound differs from SoundBible in one major way – you need an account to download sound clips. Besides that, it’s pretty straightforward to find the right clip and in general these are licenced using the Creative Commons licence scheme.
While the Freesound library is pretty average in terms of volume, the site itself has quite a few very nice features that should cement its place on your list of sound library bookmarks. The forums are filled with useful information and probably answers to most of the questions you’d want to ask.
There are also very useful sound packs, which group together sounds by theme or purpose. For example, this SFX pack has a few pretty neat firearm effects.
As the name suggests, GameSounds hosts royalty-free sound effects clips that are intended for use in video game projects. The site really is as simple as can be, with just a single page effectively. It mirrors sounds from other sites (such as 99Sounds) as well, with the advantage that game-specific sounds have been collected and curated from the site.
While GameSounds may not have a large collection of clips, all 9,505 tracks are focused on this singular purpose. So if you’re working on a video game project and don’t have much of a budget, this is an essential destination.
ZapSplat not only has the best name of any sound effect site on this list, it also has a massive 59,000 sound clip library. While you can download just about all of the clips for free, there are some limitations on users who don’t hand over a little money by upgrading their accounts or donating.
If you do choose to pay, you can download clips faster and with less hassle. You also don’t have to do attributions and have access to higher quality audio clips. The owner of the site is constantly creating new sounds and so whatever your budget, there’s always a reason to come back.
Despite having a website that seems to hail from the mid-90s, freeSFX is actually laid out in such a way that you’ll find the category of sound effect you need very quickly. Sadly, even if you do find the sound you want quickly, you will need to register an account before you can actually download anything.
Although all of the royalty-free sound effects are free to use in your project, you do need to credit the site. The collection of 4,500 is relatively small, but there’s so much variety that you are bound to find more than a few which are perfect for your needs.
Here we have a site that hosts more than 400,000 professional sound effect clips, many from some pretty famous media sources. This sounds too good to be true and, to an extent, it is.
While these clips may be royalty-free, you still need to spend a few dollars to AudioMicro. Sometimes the perfect clip simply has to be paid for, but at least you know its a once-off payment and then it’s yours to use as you see fit.
SoundEffects+ only has a small 5,000-strong library of clips, but sometimes quality is far more important than quantity. Every clip on this site has been recorded by audio professionals.
While the clips are all free to use in your projects, there are some important limitations built into their license agreement. The usual stuff about not reselling the sound effect by themselves apply, but there are also rules such as a 100 clip per month limit, or you’ll get an account suspension.
Apart from these small foibles, you’ll undoubtedly be very pleased that SoundEffects+ is part of your audio toolbox.
GR Sites has a very small sound effect library at just under 2,000 royalty-free sound effect clips, but they are curated to be perfect for website projects. So you’ll find exactly the sorts of sound clips that will save your bacon when designing a site and realizing at the last minute that you don’t have the right little jingle or chime to pull it all together.
Of course, plenty of these effects are going to be just perfect for your video or podcast project as well. The site is simple to navigate and you don’t need to sign up for an account before getting to download the goods, so definitely worthy of a bookmark if you’re stuck.
Partners in Rhyme may have a cheesy name and a primary focus on music, but it has a really decent library of professional-grade clips. You do have to pay some money for these, but the site does claim to have one of the most liberal licenses in the business, with no questions asked after you’ve paid to use a clip for a project.
There’s some really amazing stuff here and they’ve organized it into logical collections that can also help speed up your production.
SoundGator is yet another site that doesn’t look like much, but it ends up sounding pretty good. After you register and sign in, you can quickly download what you need and get on with your project.
The user license is also pretty typical of these sites, in that you can use the clips however you like, as long as you don’t resell the clips themselves. SoundGator makes this list simply because of how stripped down and streamlined it all is.
The sound selection is also decent in its variety, if not in outright volume. There’s a good chance that one of these clips will end up being that one sound effect you still needed to get the job done.
Sound Good?
We think these ten sites represent the 10 best royalty-free sound effect websites out there today and a good slice of the variety of sound effect sites available to those who want royalty-free content. You’ll almost certainly find what you need for that video, podcast or weird retro-flash game you’re making. It’s certainly better than deafening silence.