Looking for traffic sounds and traffic jam sound effects for your video projects? Or even simply some traffic white noise to loop for your own personal use? You’ve come to the right place.
In this article you’ll find a pack with 11 free traffic noise sound effects, as well as info on how you can create your own royalty-free traffic sound effects for free with Krotos Studio.
We’ll also take a look at a few of our favourite traffic scenes with keystone references for the sound of a traffic jam, with a quick look at some movie examples including The Italian Job!
What sound files are inside this pack?
- Busy London Traffic.wav
- City Road Traffic.wav
- City Traffic.wav
- Neighbourhood Traffic.wav
- Passing Traffic From Interior.wav
- Quiet Traffic.wav
- Street Traffic.wav
- Suburban Traffic.wav
- Traffic from High Perspective.wav
- Traffic With Sirens.wav
- Village Traffic.wav
But Wait! Here’s how to get unlimited royalty-free traffic sounds
Krotos Studio is a powerful sound-design tool for filmmakers and sound designers. You can think of it as a Foley studio in your computer. It enables you to design and perform original sound effects without any need for expensive microphones, or a recording studio. What’s more, one of the presets in the free version of Krotos Studio is the City preset – it’s perfect for designing traffic sounds.
Step 1: Open Krotos Studio
Krotos Studio is a standalone desktop application. To create traffic sound with it, open the app and head to the city preset which comes with the free version of Krotos Studio
Step 2: Design your traffic noise SFX
Each preset in Krotos Studio contains X Y pads which can be used to design your sound effects to get your own unique sound.
The city preset has two X Y pads, they each contain the blend between different sounds you would hear in a city. Between these two X Y pads you will find sirens, horn, and traffic sounds.
We can get a unique blend between these three traffic sound elements to match the scene we’re designing. This is what is so powerful about Krotos Studio, you don’t have to settle for sound effect audio files that don’t quite match your scene, by designing your own sounds you can ensure that the SFX matches the shot perfectly.
Krotos Studio will automatically record your SFX when you start changing the city preset. You can stop it from recording by pressing the Stop button, and start recording again by pressing Start.
Step 3: Export traffic SFX
Exporting audio from Krotos Studio is very easy. Once we have stopped recording, simply click and drag from the Drag Recording button.
You will now have a WAV file which can be dropped straight into your DAW or audio editor.
Krotos Strudio is capable of designing more than just traffic noise sound effects. With Krotos Studio you can create ambiences, whooshes, weapons sounds, footsteps and much more. Learn more about what Krotos Studio can do by browsing the various presets which come with it.
You can even get interior car sounds out of Krotos Studio, perfectly suited to dialogue and ADR for scenes where characters are riding in a car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JZf-hrHoXw
Top tip: if you’re looking for some soothing traffic white noise, just open the Krotos Studio app and leave the city preset playing in the background!
Famous traffic scenes from movies
Traffic may be boring in real life, but in the movies it can actually be a blast! There are plenty of iconic moments from cinema history that have taken place in traffic jams. Here are some of our favourites.
Remember, if you’re looking for an easy way to make a traffic jam sound effect you can do it for free with Krotos Studio.
The Italian Job
https://youtu.be/_O5lEBqnQqg?si=DtSkOVBa68f0DO3f
Probably the most famous example of a traffic scene on film is in The Italian Job. In order to steal $4 million in gold bullion, Michael Caine and his team of career criminals sabotage the traffic control system in Turin and chaos ensues.
Whilst the traffic jam brings Turin to a standstill, the thieves make their getaway in the iconic red, white and blue Mini Coopers the film is best known for
Office Space
https://youtu.be/C3jizSM6M0o?si=-U0S1gRrfZ00vyVR
The opening of this 1999 comedy directed by Mike Judge finds a disgruntled commuter in an all-too-familiar rush hour traffic jam. When one lane starts moving, he switches to it only to find it immediately stops moving. As soon as he switches the lane he was just in starts moving so he switches back, only for the same thing to happen again.
Final Destination 2
https://youtu.be/mVf-do1gL_I?si=RonHd5l2ZIaWuEuM
After a premonition of a deadly traffic pile-up, Kimberly Corman refuses to drive her car any further, creating a traffic jam behind her.
As you would expect, the drivers behind her aren’t very pleased about this, and a police officer who is stuck in the queue comes to talk to her. She tries to tell the officer what she saw but he won’t believe her until seconds later the accident she saw in her vision occurs.
FAQs
What is the sound of traffic called?
There is no specific name for the sound of traffic but it is made up of lots of elements. Car horns, sirens, and engine sounds are all part of that traffic sound, and Krotos Studio gives you all of these elements to play with when designing your own unique traffic SFX.
What elements make up the sound of a traffic jam?
Car engines idling, car engines driving slowly, car horns honking, and occasional shouting are all sonic elements that combine to create the sound of traffic jams. These will increase in their frequency as the severity of the traffic jam increases!