Free Ambient Sounds – Wind, Bird Song, Street Noise and More

Ambient sounds are an essential ingredient when striving to create authentic and immersive sound design for scenes in videos and movies.

Examples of what might be classed as ambient sound are street noises (for city scenes), bird song (for scenes in nature), rain (for an interior scene set during a storm) or air conditioning (for scenes set in offices).

Download 10 free ambient sounds with our ambience SFX pack

The free Krotos Studio Ambience Sound Effect Pack features ten example sounds from Krotos Studio, covering bird noise, car horns, traffic, wind SFX and other types of ambience sound effect.

But wait! Get unlimited free ambience sound effects and more with the FREE Krotos Studio

Krotos Studio lets you generate unique ambiences yourself, for a custom effect that exactly fits your scene and its unique character – no chopping, no slicing. The best part is, ambience sounds are covered in the free version of the software, so you can easily start creating bespoke ambience sounds today! See it in action in this quick Youtube Video.

Why are ambient sound effects important in videos? What is ambience sound?

Ambient sounds effects are really important in videos as they help to create a sense of realism and immersion.

An excellent example of the power of ambient sound effects is with ambient music videos on YouTube.

There are thousands of soundscape music videos on YouTube that are designed to help you relax or to focus on work. Some of them have added ambience sound effects like rain or forest noises.

Whilst ambience sound effects are not the primary focus of any scene, they are essential for giving the viewer a sense of immersion. If you had a scene where your characters were walking down a bustling city street, and all you could hear was their dialogue, it would just feel wrong!

That’s why, as a filmmaker, it is essential to have a library of ambience sound effects files that you can use in your projects.

If you listen to an example of a video without ambient sounds and then a video with ambient sounds, you will immediately notice how much more immersive the videos with atmosphere sounds are.

Here’s a video without added ambient sounds:

https://youtu.be/_4kHxtiuML0

And here’s a video with atmosphere sound added:

https://youtu.be/E8XKj1qxJD4

As if by magic, adding royalty-free ambient sounds instantly transports your mind to a different place.

How to get unlimited royalty-free ambient sounds

Krotos Studio gives users the ability to design and download unlimited royalty-free ambient sounds. There is a free version available, which gives you access to many presets, making City, Forest and Suburb ambience sound effects free for anyone using it.

Let’s look at how you can use Krotos Studio to get your ambience free download.

Step 1: Open Krotos Studio in your video editor

Krotos Studio is available as a standalone application and as a plugin. As a plugin, Krotos Studio can be opened in any digital audio workstation (DAW), or as a standalone desktop application, so no matter how you work, you can integrate Krotos Studio into your workflow..

Step 2: Select a preset

The free version of Krotos Studio comes with a strong array of different presets which give you access to many different sound effects. The paid version comes with even more presets that are updated on a regular basis.

The Forest preset comes with the free version of Krotos Studio, so we’ll use that.

Step 3: Perform your sound effects

Each preset contains a series of X/Y pads. By dragging the node on each pad around, you can alter the sound that Krotos Studio is making, helping it to fit in with your scene, and even add performance elements to build tension or to match actions happening on screen.

For our example, we have created an atmosphere sound based on birdsong and stream noises.

To record your sound performance, press the Start button with the play icon.

Step 4: Drag your sound into your project

When you have finished performing in your sound effect, press the stop button.

You can now directly drag a WAV file of your performance into your video editor project – it’s that simple!

For more in-depth instruction, check out this guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where can I get free sound effects?

Krotos Studio gives you access to unlimited and unique royalty-free sound effects for free. You can download it here.

Where can I get ambience sounds?

Krotos Studio has a wide range of royalty-free ambient sounds  – many of which are available for free. Learn more here.

Where can I get royalty-free nature sounds?

Krotos Studio gives you access to unlimited royalty-free nature sounds, including forest, countryside, and seasideatmosphere sounds.