Skip to content
Sound Server

Foley and ambience

Free water sound effects

Free water sounds: drips, splashes, pouring, bubbles, streams and waves for foley, ambient music and games, as one-shots and loops with licences.

Samples
36 samples
Sources
from 4 sources
Cleared for commercial use
10 cleared for commercial use
Direct downloads
36 with direct download
Updated

Search live for “water”Use it from code or an agent

36 samples

Picked automatically from a live search of 41 sites and refreshed daily. Each sound belongs to its creator: check its licence on the source page before you release it.

Drips to oceans

Water is one of the most versatile sound sources. Close up, drips and bubbles are pitched and percussive; a little further away, pouring and splashing work as foley; at a distance, streams and waves become ambience. Producers use water for texture under ambient tracks, sound designers for scenes and games, and many people for relaxation.

Choosing a recording

For foley, pick dry, close recordings with one clear action. For ambience, look for long, steady recordings without voices or traffic. Waves and rivers contain a lot of low end that can muddy a mix, so a high-pass around 80 to 150 Hz is common.

Nature recordists share a lot of water on Freesound, Wikimedia Commons and the BBC Sound Effects archive. The BBC recordings are for personal, educational and research use only, so they carry a red verdict for releases; the others say on each card what you may do.

Questions

How do I make a water drop sound musical?
Water drops have a natural pitch. Pick a clean one, tune it to your key, and play it from a sampler as a melodic percussion instrument. A little reverb makes it sound like it's falling into a cave.
Can I loop a stream recording?
Yes. Find two points with similar movement, crossfade over half a second or more, and avoid any distinctive splash near the loop point, or listeners will notice it repeating.

Related collections

All collections →

  • Free rain ambience sounds

    Free rain ambience and storm recordings: light rain, downpours, rain on windows and thunder, as long field recordings with a preview and licence verdict.

    36 samples from 4 sources · plays “Rain, Moderate, C.wav”

  • Free forest ambience

    Free forest ambience: birdsong at dawn, wind in trees, insects at night and rainforest soundscapes for music, film, games and relaxation, with licences.

    29 samples from 3 sources · plays “Emmelie de Forest ESC2013 presentation”

  • Free glass sound effects

    Free glass sounds: breaking windows, shattering bottles, clinks, chimes and glass hits for film, games and percussion layers, with a licence verdict.

    36 samples from 4 sources · plays “Glass Breaking”

  • Free room tone recordings

    Free room tone and quiet interior ambience: empty rooms, offices, halls and hums to fill silence in film, podcasts and music, with a licence verdict.

    14 samples from 1 source · plays “room tone stairway 1.wav”

  • Free city ambience

    Free city ambience: street traffic, crowds, cafés, train stations, sirens and night-time cityscapes for film, games, podcasts and music, with licences.

    33 samples from 4 sources · plays “City Ambiance”

  • Free door sound effects

    Free door sounds: creaks, slams, knocks, locks, handles and sliding doors, wooden and metal, for film, games and podcasts, with a licence verdict.

    36 samples from 5 sources · plays “Metal cabinet door jarring”