Over 280 Free Sound Effects for Videos, Apps, Films, and Games
Download over 280 FREE sound effects for your commercial and personal projects! Explore and get your FREE SFX packs now.
25 FREE Unique Vintage Sound Effects
Let’s start with some vintage and analog-inspired sound effects. These bleeps and bloops provide the perfect analog texture for retro sound and video projects.
In addition to the previously mentioned bleeps and bloops, this pack presents plenty of opportunities to create atmospheric swells, whooshes, and audio hits.
Pro tip: Blend these sound effects underneath another good effect or song to give your audio more depth.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 25 FREE Vintage SFX
15+ FREE Household Sound Effects w/ ROOM TONE
Sound effects aren’t just for sci-fi films and futuristic compositions. They’re just as vital for even the most mundane scenes and settings.
A perfect example of this—background foley sounds and textures, like a vacuum running in a distant room. Or a toilet flushing. Or a neighbor’s dog barking in the backyard. Or a neighbor’s dog flushing a toilet while barking at a vacuum. You get the idea. These minor elements add up to immerse your viewers into a scene.
Pro tip: Mix these FREE household sound effects with some music to sell your setting.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 15+ Household Sound Effects/Room Tones
50+ FREE Kitchen and Cooking-Themed Sound Effects
Unless your approach to making spaghetti is different than ours, that vacuum sound effect probably won’t be of much use for videos set in a kitchen. We’ve got you covered in that part of the house, too.
If food content is on the menu, these cooking-themed sound effects are the perfect way to add a dash of sizzle and spice to your YouTube channel, documentary, or podcast.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 50+ FREE Cooking SFX
18 FREE Office Sound Effects Pack for Your Next Project
Filming a workplace comedy or corporate training video? This pack of FREE office-themed sound effects will help.
It’s got computer beeps, keyboard strokes, background chatter, far-off phone calls, and more—pretty much everything you need to sell in a true-to-life business setting.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 18 FREE Office Sound Effects
15 FREE Garden and Backyard Sound Effects Pack
If you need the sound of a neighbor mowing their lawn, someone digging a hole to plant flowers, or even little details like a garage door opening and closing in the distance, then you’re covered with this pack of garden and yard SFX. Plus, did we mention it’s FREE? Yeah. It’s FREE. Crazy, right?
DOWNLOAD NOW: 15 FREE Garden and Backyard Sound Effects
40+ FREE Footstep Sound Effects
One area of sound design that truly takes a professional mixer and editor is being able to distinguish how certain sounds should feel.
There’s an intangible element to this that requires a lot of “trusting your instinct” when editing. I say this because this pack gives that feeling of reality and believability you want for your film.
This pack of forty footsteps is an asset you’ll keep on your hard drive forever because you’re always going to need realistic-sounding footsteps, regardless of the type of project you’re working on.
Whether your characters are on dirt, concrete, or snow, different speeds and pressures will fit any of your varying plot lines and situations.
DOWNLOAD HERE: 40+ FREE Footsteps and Foley Sound Effects
10 FREE Christmas-inspired Sound Effects
Christmas marketing starts earlier every year, so no matter when you’re reading this, you should probably get moving on some holiday content right now!
Download this pack of FREE seasonal sound effects for holiday videos. Trust us—yule be glad you did!
DOWNLOAD NOW: 10 FREE Christmas Sounds
80 FREE Cinematic Atmospheres
The majority of this article will feature individual, often three to five second long clips with the sound effect placed in the middle so you can keep the file sizes low and the editing workflow simple.
But, if you watch the trailer above for our “cinematic atmospheres” pack, you’ll notice these sounds and soundscapes last longer than your average sound effect.
These soundscapes are meant to serve as both effect and score that add an ominous, epic, and grand-sounding tone underneath your footage.
Usually, these sounds are meant to be played underneath your other sound effects and dialogue. Think of these sounds as that extra “oomph” your film might need.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 80+ FREE Cinematic Atmospheres
20 FREE Movie Trailer Sound Effects
If you haven’t already used these sound effects, you’ve probably heard many of them in projects made by friends or colleagues. This pack of 20 FREE movie trailer sound effects is one of the most popular freebies on PremiumBeat, and for good reason.
These assets—risers, sweeps, slams, and more—offer a considerable advantage to video editors looking to create next-level, seriously epic trailers. Get them today and make something magnificent.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 20 FREE Movie Trailer SFX
10 FREE Glitch Sound Effects
Want to add some fractured audio effects and glitchy computer noise to your sci-fi and/or other futuristic compositions? Get this pack of 10 FREE distortion SFX from our friends at RocketStock.
(While you’re at it, check out RocketStock’s Corruption pack, featuring 120 glitch and distortion elements.)
DOWNLOAD NOW: 10 FREE Glitch SFX
29 FREE Computer HUD SFX
Now that you’ve got a seemingly endless supply of bleeps, bloops, and glitches, round out your sci-fi SFX collection with this UI pack from RocketStock.
This beautifully-curated bundle features 29 FREE tech sound effects, including scanners, alarms, cursor clicks, keypad taps, and more—perfect for all of your HUD or computer interface needs.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 29 FREE Sci-Fi SFX
25 FREE Explosion SFX + 15 FREE Fireballs
Like making things go boom? Good news—we have one of the most explosive freebie packs of all time, featuring twenty-five FREE explosion sound effects AND some of our favorite explosion video elements—blasts, bombs, mines, grenades, and more.
That’s over forty creative assets, all for the combined low price of nothing.
DOWNLOAD NOW: FREE Explosion SFX + VFX
28 FREE Firework Sound Effects + FREE Firework Video Effects
Making magical summer content just got 100% easier thanks to this FREE pack of fireworks SFX and this FREE bundle of firework video elements. Load up on pops, whizzes, whistles, and bangs, and then let the OOOs and AHHs begin!
DOWNLOAD NOW: 28 FREE Firework Sound Effects
30 FREE Horror SFX
We’re moving from the explosive into the spooky with this collection of thirty FREE horror sound effects—perfect for making your zombie-movie dreams come true.
The pack includes plenty of risers, bloody splashes, creepy whispers, screeches, slams, etc.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 30 FREE Horror SFX
15 FREE Ambient Atmosphere SFX
Nearing the end of our roundup, we have some essential ambient atmospheres to share with you. These might not seem as exciting as the rest on the list, but trust us—working in these ambient backgrounds is a super-effective way to transform a stale video into something more dynamic.
This FREE ambient SFX pack includes various background noises—birds chirping, street traffic, coffee shop bustle, electric hums, forest mist, waves, storms, and more.
DOWNLOAD NOW: 15 FREE Ambient SFX
7 FREE Cat Sound Effects for Your Next Video Project
Finally, we wrap things up with the most important sound effect category—cat noises. You think we’re joking, but we’re not. It’s simple—every video is better with a cat in the background. Prove us wrong.
This extraordinary pack includes seven FREE cat sound effects, including the iconic “meow,” as well as “mrow” and “mew.”
BONUS: We’ve also included the cat sound we consider to be the most incredible cat sound of all cat sounds—the somehow-underrated-yet-completely-undeniable “mreeeoroeeor.”
DOWNLOAD NOW: 7 FREE Cat Sound Effects
Making Your Own Foley + Free Sound Effects
Some of the sound effect packs listed above are considered “foley” effects, meaning they’re everyday sounds that you hear without even realizing you’re hearing them. The sounds range from walking on dirt to breaking bones!
Films need thousands of these types of sounds to build out their film world, creating a sense of realism that subconsciously lets the viewer feel like it’s natural life.
Robbie Janney made a tutorial on how you can make your foley, along with giving away the sounds he recorded while making the tutorial.
DOWNLOAD HERE: 41 FREE Sound Effects
Which Microphones Are Best For Recording SFX?
Since we’ve made it to the bottom of this list, I thought it might be fun to go over how you can record sound effects on your own. Just being realistic, these packs aren’t going to have every sound you ever need.
So, let’s say you’re flying through an edit, and you’ve hit a roadblock because you need that one specific sound, and the budget is completely tapped out (meaning you can’t buy the effect from our library), so what do you do?
Here are a few pieces of gear and tips to keep in mind when recording your sound effects.
- Smart phone’s internal mic: The built-in microphones to your smartphone, regardless of the make and model, are exceptionally good at recording clean, minimally noise-filled SFX. Using my phone has saved me on many shoots just for picking up small sounds at the last minute.
- Zoom H1n Handy: This little audio recorder is simple, easy-to-use, and has an impressive mic. Just grab an SD card and hit record for some usable sound bites to get your edit out of a fuzzy spot.
- Deity S-Mic 2: Over at PremiumBeat we’re big fans of Deity, and their staple boom microphone is a welcomed addition to our gear closet. The price will run a little steep, but throwing this on a pistol grip while running it to your audio recorder will get you top-tier sounding recordings.
Looking for some additional options for recorders, as well as audio advice? We’ve got you covered:
- High-End Audio in Budget-Friendly Field Recorders
- Affordable Field Recorders for Filmmakers
- Helpful Tips Every Audio Engineer Wants You to Learn
- Blind Microphone Comparison with 5 Different Mics!
- Easy Audio: The New Deity Pocket Wireless Microphone
Cover image via Zapp2Photo.
