# Freesound

> Freesound as searched by Sound Server: The big Creative Commons sound library (700k+): drums, FX, foley, field recordings, synth hits and loops, with per-sound licence, BPM and key analysis.

- Website: https://freesound.org
- Best for: The big Creative Commons sound library (700k+): drums, FX, foley, field recordings, synth hits and loops, with per-sound licence, BPM and key analysis.
- Categories: Drums, Bass, Vocals, FX, Foley, Ambience, Keys, Guitar, Synth, Strings, Brass, Woodwind, Mallets, Other
- Pricing: free
- Licence: set per sample
- How it is searched: api
- Direct download through Sound Server: yes
- Restrict a search to it: `https://sound.shep.bot/v1/search?q=...&providers=freesound`

## What it is

Freesound is a collaborative database of Creative Commons sounds, run since 2005 by the Music Technology Group of Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Hundreds of thousands of recordists have uploaded drum hits, synth notes, field recordings, foley and loops, and every upload is analysed for tempo, key and loudness.

## Best for

Almost anything: drum one-shots, foley, field recordings, synth and instrument notes, vocal snippets and effects. Its tempo and key analysis makes it a good source for loops and tuned sounds.

## Licence

Each sound has its own licence chosen by the uploader: CC0, CC BY or CC BY-NC (in 3.0 or 4.0 versions), plus Sampling+ on some older uploads. CC0 and CC BY sounds can go into a commercial release (CC BY with a credit); CC BY-NC sounds can't.

## How Sound Server searches it

Through Freesound's official API. Previews (MP3 and Ogg) stream to anyone; original WAV, AIFF or FLAC files need a free Freesound account, so results link to the sound's page. When the server has no Freesound key, Openverse still returns Freesound sounds.

## Example searches

- [Punchy kicks](https://sound.shep.bot/search?q=punchy+kick&category=drums.kick&providers=freesound)
- [Rain recordings](https://sound.shep.bot/search?q=rain&category=ambience&providers=freesound)
- [Vocal chops](https://sound.shep.bot/search?q=vocal+chop&category=vocals.chop&providers=freesound)
- [Risers](https://sound.shep.bot/search?q=riser&category=fx.riser&providers=freesound)

Guides: https://sound.shep.bot/guides/freesound-samples-commercial-use.md, https://sound.shep.bot/guides/credit-cc-by-samples.md

All sources: https://sound.shep.bot/docs/sources.md

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Source: https://sound.shep.bot/sources/freesound