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A professional sound designer’s projects can see hundreds of tracks spanning a timeline of many minutes or even hours. Given how many sounds can be used over that span – whether they’re gunshot sounds, traffic SFX, footstep sounds or anything else – wouldn’t having to pay royalties on every single one seem wholly impractical? As far as big projects go, the less paperwork, the better!
Which is why most sound effects libraries and apps make the deal simple: pay an upfront fee or subscription, and anything you use won’t need another payment.
In the following list, we’ll take you through the ten best sound effects libraries that operate under a royalty-free licensing agreement model.
It can be tempting to use sounds plundered from your internet explorations without any second thought; they can happen to fit the project with no extra work, and better yet, no extra cost. The danger comes from the amount of non-royalty-free sound banks floating around, being reuploaded on blogs, websites, or legally questionable file-sharing sites.
These sounds can originate from industry giants such as the BBC or Skywalker Sound, whose well-funded legal department will bring the hammer down hard if they catch you using their intellectual property without permission. Turning a cost-free shortcut into a costly legal headache for you and your employer.
By choosing to purchase/use royalty-free sounds from reputable sources, you are not only ensuring you have the legal right to use the sounds, but are also likely to be using sounds that are less recognisable, and therefore more unique to your project. Doing things by the book is one thing, but it's even more important not to be boring!
How about going beyond royalty-free? Why use somebody else’s sound effect in the first place when it’s just as quick to make a custom one, tailored to your scene? That’s exactly what you get with Krotos Studio: a playable, performable sound effects generator so you can ‘play along’ with the scene at hand, and drag the resulting file into your timeline when you’re done.
All sounds from Krotos Studio come royalty-free, right out of the software.
A Sound Effect has been a mainstay in the sound world for years now as an ever-growing hub of independent sound designers contributing towards a true behemoth of an archive. Unlike a lot of sound libraries that allow for independent creatives to upload their work, A Sound Effect selects its roster to ensure that not only are the sounds of high quality and usability, but also are unique, not taking on too many generic sound packs of similar styles.
This has led to renowned artists such as Mattia Celloto and George Vlad calling A Sound Effect home, and fostering an array of not only sound packs but also VSTs that are well worth exploring. Who knows, maybe your own sounds will be part of the A Sound Effect ecosystem one day.
Boom Library is an industry standard for a lot of modern high-end productions. Trusted by Netflix, Blizzard, Nintendo, and Marvel Studios, you can more than likely trust that their range of FX and atmosphere will be up to scratch. They offer a wide selection of sounds, ranging from nature recordings to targeted anime essentials, alongside many bundles and more all-around packs, such as Boom One, that include a wide range of sounds that have a place in most productions.
They also offer some bespoke software and plug-ins that range from effects, sound generators, and processors. With a lot of their sound packs also boasting surround and 3D audio, it’s no surprise that Dolby has also given Boom Libraries their seal of approval.
Offering not only a highly usable sound FX library, but also sound-file management software to better organise your already existing sounds, Soundly has become a trusted name in the sound design community. While not having the most exhaustive library on this list, it is always being added to, with sounds being easily searched for using keywords and metadata, as well as being able to export files directly from Soundly into your DAW of choice. A perfect choice for smaller projects with tight turnarounds, or as a way of supplementing and utilising your existing sound library.
They also offer a free version of the Soundly software, which comes with limited access to their sounds and previews of their premium content (available through a single-day/month payment, or a rolling subscription).
Like the name implies, Penguin Grenade has its own way of going about things. Specialising in experimental sound design and spearheaded by Paul Stoughton, Penguin Grenades' work uses electronics, field recordings, and electroacoustic experiments to create otherworldly sounds perfect for Sci-fi/Fantasy settings, such as their Pulse Energy Weapons pack. With the fruits of their labour leading to features on projects such as Halo 2, God of War: Ragnarok, and Dead Space.
Fulfilling a specific niche, you may not be able to find sounds for all use-cases, but you will know when you are in need of their particular brand of sonics.
Kindred spirits in sonic aesthetics, Sound Morph is another key player in video game audio; specialising in Sci-fi sounds, but also stocking more general cinematic worlds and off-world atmospheres, alongside more horror-oriented and non-diegetic soundscapes. Sound Morph also offers musical sound elements including drums made by professional musicians and ambiences that blur the line between score and sound design.
Sound Morph also releases software that specializes in morphing and twisting sounds, as well as sound design-specific synthesizers made for sci-fi interfaces and gadgetry.
Another specialist in fantasy/sci-fi and action sound effects, Rock the Speaker Box has become a go-to for video game sound design and genre-media projects looking for hard-hitting FX. Working with companies such as PlayStation, Activision, and Rockstar Games, they offer specific sonic solutions to explosions, gore, magic systems, futuristic technologies, and more. Like a few of the other inclusions on this list, their scope is more limited, which allows them to excel at what they do but may leave their library more limited than more all-encompassing collections.
They offer discounts on bundles, such as their action bundle, as well as some always-welcome freebies of hits and impacts.
Over a decade-plus, Saro Sahihi of SoundBits has been capturing and releasing high-quality soundpacks, with their work featured on other heavy-hitting catalogues such as Pro Sound Effects, Pond5, AudioJungle, and DepositPhotos, as well as distributing exclusively through partnered stores, including our very own Krotos webpage. Ranging from whooshes and klangs to vehicle sounds and engines, as well as an ever-expanding range of atmosphere recordings made all around the world, you will probably find that one sound you have been pulling your hair out looking for.
With a selection as gargantuan as it is, Soundbits' highly reasonably priced soundpacks are a testament to finding interesting sounds anywhere and everywhere.
Offering highly specific sound packs for VERY reasonable prices, Silverplatter Audio’s game is zooming in on specific sounds and packaging them for ease of discovery and use. With categories such as coins, crowbars, vintage machinery, billiard balls, and everything in between, Silverplatter has made it as easy as possible to find what you are looking for. Also offering an everything bundle that is, quite frankly, a steal. So if you have something very specific you don’t have time to record yourself, check out their wares - it may be there, and for a price you can’t sniff at.
Let's also not forget their merch page, just in case you want some Silverplatter Audio swag after they have saved you from debilitating sonic limbo.
A more open community to the previously mentioned A Sound Effect, Freesound is a treasure trove of both the best and worst sounds the internet has to offer. Boasting a pool of over 625,000+ samples, the quality of the sounds featured fluctuates on a user-to-user basis, but it is full of gold if you know where to look and are clever with your search terms. Just be sure to double-check the attributions of what you want to use to make sure the uploader is happy with their work being used without credit or a license.
Freesound is, at the end of the day, a community, with all the imperfections and uniqueness that entails, reminding us of the internet's more collaborative beginnings and what can be found by people doing something purely for the love of it.