This mega collection of free SFX packs covers the most popular use cases: YouTube videos, short films, podcasts. Download the best free sound effect packs below.
This massive collection of sound effects includes over 300 individual sounds that you can use in your video, film or podcast. Since we focus more on the video side in our production, we’re inclined to provide more use cases for video. This is why you will find some use cases that belong more in the video world like trailers, explosions, footsteps.
Podcasters will also find a good bunch of useful sounds to use in their audio projects. We will offer SFX resources that include technology sounds, glitches, scratches, ambient sounds, and more.
Now prepare a separate folder on your computer to host these free SFX packs. Ready? Let’s jump into it.
Contents
Origins of Sounds Effects
Sound effects have their origins in radio back in 1920s. With the popularity of home radio back in the day, audio program directors had to come up with new ways to keep listeners engaged. They started introducing sounds to increase the dramatic effect of the audio storytelling.
By and by, broadcasters began hiring sound engineers to create sounds like glitches, footsteps, buzzes, bells, and so on. These sound engineers had to work alongside voice actors. This is how Foley artists came into being. Today Foley is a well-established profession respected in both video and audio production world.
As you may have guessed, sound effects migrated from radio to film once films got sound back in 1930s. Today any video production, from YouTube videos to blockbuster movies, includes sound effects.
Where To Find Free Sound Effect Packs
Sound effects are not a rarity anymore. You can license sound effects online and use in your personal and commercial projects. You can also find free sound effects whose quality is outstanding. These sounds are also good to use in commercial projects.
We have collected 14 free sound effect collections for the most popular use cases: explosions, glitches, retro, vintage, scratches, zombie sounds, ambient atmospheres, hi-tech interface sounds. You can use the sound effects in podcases, narrative short films, documentary projects, commercial projects, corporate projects, any digital content.
Free Trailer Sound Effects
- Free Trailer SFX pack from PremiumBeat includes 20 action trailer sound effects including sweeps, risers, slams, and intense atmospheres. You can download this pack without any signup. The sound effects are cleared for commercial use.
- 99 Free Cinematic and Trailer SFX pack includes 99 premium royalty-free sounds cleared for use in commercial projects. Set the price to 0$ and go through the checkout process to download these packs for free.
Free Explosion Sound Effects
- The Detonate free pack from PremiumBeat includes 25 explosive sound effects that you can use in scenes with explosions. All good for personal and commercial use. Download in one click.
Free Sci-Fi Sound Effects
We have a couple of collections of free Sci-Fi sound effects for you:
- 29 free Sci-Fi sounds from PremiumBeat including: cursors, alarms, beeps, and more.
- 15 free digital interface sound effects from Mixkit.
Both free collections allow for commercial use alongside personal use.
Free Glitches & Scratches
Here are two valuable collections of free glitch sounds:
- 10 premium free glitch sounds from Rocketstock will help create a gritty ambience in your video and audio projects.
- 12 free scratch sounds from Mixkit will allows you to add scratch sounds to your projects.
Both collections of free sounds are good to use in commercial projects without attribution.
Free Retro & Vintage Sound Effects
Here we have two high-quality sound packs for your projects:
- Free Retro Sound Pack that includes explosions, weapons, arcade style speech, and more.
- 25 Free Vintage Sound Effects from PremiumBeat including risers, whooshes, and more.
Free Footstep Sounds
- Get 40 free footstep sounds in this free pack from PremiumBeat. All cleared for use in commercial projects.
Free Technology Sound Effects
- Mixkit offers over 70 high-quality free technology sounds that you can use in both video and audio projects.
Free Ambient Sound Effect Packs
- Get 15 free ambient sounds on PremiumBeat including birds, campfire, coffee shop, forest, ocean waves, and more.
- Download 80+ free cinematic atmospheres. This pack includes 5 sub-collections. This is a perfect collection for filmmakers as the choice is so rich. All clear for use in commercial projects.
30 Free Premium Sound Effects
Get 30 premium sounds in this pack from FilmPac. The pack also includes 20 video clips and 3 music tracks. That’s all in exchange for your valid email.
More Free SFX Packs
We have several more free SFX collections that you can download for free.
- Free Epic Sound Effects
- Free Office Sound Effects
- Free Household Sound Effects
- Free Gardening Sound Effects
- Free Horror Sound Effects
- Free Halloween Sound Effects
- Free Christmas Sound Effects
- Free Celebration Sound Effects
- Free Animal Sound Effects
How to Use Free Sound Effects in Projects
Here are 5 best practices that you’d want to apply to your process of using free sound effect packs.
Download and Review
Set up a download folder for these free packs. Download them one by one and listen to them. Before using them in your videos or podcasts, listen to them to get a feeling of their quality. Make sure the downloaded sounds don’t have any odd sounds, cuts, watermarks. We made sure that they are not watermarked, but check nonetheless.
Find Your Favorite Part
Open the audio files in your audio or video editing software. Find your favorite stretch. Whether it’s a 2-3 second piece or longer, make sure you make a note of that.
Cut and Loop
If you want to use and reuse your favorite audio piece, you may need to loop the audio. Cut down to your favorite part, copy and duplicate this stretch time and again.
Match to Video or Audio
When your sound stretch is ready, match it up with your video or audio (for podcasts). Sync the sound up with the action in your video.
Adjust Levels
If you video or audio project does not call for the background audio to stand out, keep the sound effect levels low if you use ambient sounds. If you use explosions, cracks, glitches, you want to make them heard. Also use high-pass and low-pass filters if needed just to make the sound feel closer or further away.
Final Thoughts
Sound assets are useful elements to create a more realistic effect on your viewer or listener. Use them actively in your projects. At the same time you don’t have to pay for sound effects all the time — save with the free packs above! Bookmark this page with the free sound effect packs and come back frequently. We will keep adding new free sound collections here in the future.