When I come back from my family vacation, I love creating videos that retrace the highlights of the trip. It's a way to showcase the hundreds of photos and videos we've taken on our travels. And since I like to make things fun and dynamic, I often add music and sound effects. But it's not always easy to find free sound effects that are perfect for these videos.
Indeed, finding the perfect sound effect to enhance a scene or highlight an action can be more difficult than it seems. Many professionals prefer to create their own sounds, before going through an editing phase. However, there are several online sound banks that are worth a look, and one of the most interesting is run by the BBC, under the name of "Sound Effects". With over 33 samples available at MP3 and WAV formats, you can read and download whatever you need, provided that certain conditions are met.
33 free BBC sound effects available
The British Broadcasting Corporation (better known as the BBC) has in fact made available to the general public a library of sounds recorded in the world entire over the past 100 years. These recordings include premieres by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, recordings of the bombings on London during World War II, special effects produced for BBC television and radio broadcasts, as well as 15 recordings from the BBC Natural History Unit archives.
For the record, the natural history sound collection was born out of the need to provide authentic natural sounds for television and radio productions of the Natural History Unit BBC's Nature Documentary, which exploded in production in the 1960s. Most people are probably unaware that the majority of nature documentaries are recorded without sound. This is because the technical requirements of cameras and microphones are very different, and you usually have to be much closer to the animal to record its sound than to film it. As a result, most of the time, sounds are added during the editing of productions.
So the BBC offers more than 33 sound samples in MP3 and WAV formats, ready to be downloaded or listened to directly online. The contents are divided into 22 categories (nature, military, transport, animals, machines, sports…), but the search internal allows the use of more specific terms in English such as "fast flowing stream", "exercise bike" or "telegraph equipment". On the other hand, it is also possible to use generic labels such as “cars”, “bars”, “phones”, “sports” or “cinemas”.
More anecdotally, the site offers a small tool to mix multiple sounds together… ideal for creating realistic ambient sounds! To do this, simply go to Mixer Mode (using the Sound Mixer button at the top of the search), select as many sounds as needed, then adjust the different sound tracks… and all you have to do is download the result!
All files in the directory Sound effects are shared under the license Note, intended for the BBC's digital services. Generally speaking, these sounds are suitable for personal, non-commercial, academic or research use. Any commercial use, however, requires the purchase of the sounds in question via the platform ProSoundEffects. Regardless, the amount of free sound effects to explore is colossal and definitely worth checking out.
Official website: Sound effects
