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Freesound Reaches 10,000 Files

Bram writes ""The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, -not songs-... released under the Creative Commons Sampling+ License. The Freesound Project provides new and interesting ways of accessing and browsing these samples." In less that 7 months we've grown to 30,000 users and today we finally reached the first goal of the project: we've collected over 10,000 samples, added by various people around the globe: only a slashdotting would be a suiting birthday cake. If you do visit Freesound, don't forget to have a look at the Geotagged Samples as they are well worth it."

28 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Creative commons music by t0qer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not quite the same as samples, but Winamp creator Justin Frankel made Ninjam which allows musicians to participate in a near real time jam session over the net. The Jam Farm on ninjam has plenty of tracks all under the creative commons license.

    1. Re:Creative commons music by Heembo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Please note that it was Justin Frankel **and** Dmitry Boldyrev that created Winamp and ported it to Windows. http://inventors.about.com/od/mstartinventions/a/M PThree.htm (look under "MP3 Players")

      --
      Horns are really just a broken halo.
    2. Re:Creative commons music by Heembo · · Score: 4, Informative

      I used Winamp from the beginning - It's really cool to see what their creators are up to. If you are into iTunes - check THIS out from Dimitry of Winamp fame: http://subband.com/ It's supposedly "allows you to add bass frequencies, spatialization, 3D surround sound and numerous other real-time enhancements to your music when played through iTunes" - any chance this is cool?

      --
      Horns are really just a broken halo.
    3. Re:Creative commons music by t0qer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Even cooler than that is Justin's Jesusonic, a programmable DSP that works with ASIO (almost all sound cards can be made to work with an ASIO mixer) Not to mention it works on mac, pc,*nix varients and is free.

  2. Reminds me of... by Cave_Monster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    the days when I used to jump on the internet and download sound snippets to customise my desktop with (ie. have a different sound play when you minimise a window, close a window, open a window etc).

  3. This should improve Open Source quality. by external400kdiskette · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good sound is important, I mean stuff like the default sounds on GAIM for example sound really awful, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff out there like that and a huge database of beeps means in all probability quite a few nice beeps to increase user sanity.

  4. Here ya go by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 4, Funny
  5. Kudos to Freesound by EggyToast · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Congrats Freesound! I personally have always thought that sound and samples were one of the most underrepresented forms of media on the internet. They're hard to catalog, hard to search for, and generally take up a lot of space without necessarily being that useful to a lot of people. Can't take screencaps of a soundfile, after all!

    But I know I'll often hear from people who just want to find a particular sound, whether it's for music, presentations, or whatever. Not just cheesy stuff, either, but actually worthwhile purposes. It's great to see that there's a group out there trying to provide a worthwhile sound catalog for everyone. After all, it's not like everyone has access to foley experts!

  6. Suitable Birthday Present? by Lord+Byron+II · · Score: 4, Funny

    Since when is having your servers raped by an oncoming hoard a suitable birthday present?

    1. Re:Suitable Birthday Present? by Short+Circuit · · Score: 3, Funny

      Please, do not equate HTTP connections with sex. I'd hate to loath my computer for getting more than me.

  7. Nice by tetrahedrassface · · Score: 2, Insightful
    I hope im not the only one around here that didnt know anything about this project.
    Its really an interesting concept and one at first blush seems really simple, and then you think about it, and realize that in our Draconian world its ahead of its time.

    Its sure to be a great resource, and hopefully some high quality samples are there.

    I haven't been able to peruse the site yet really, but I can think of a lot of uses for such a sound library as this.

    This is really cool if not for the sheer esoteric value it posseses.

    I don't think we have to worry about the sound of horseflies being copyrighted anytime soon , but hell it really wouldn't surprise me.
    This is a great resource available to all, and I can't wait to listen to some wierd, new, interesting stuff.
    Maybe some contributers have a parabolic antenna?
    Maybe I_will_get_one meself!

  8. sound of the day by aneroid · · Score: 5, Informative

    this reminds me of "Sound of the Day".

    archives go back to Dec 2004. (wrt to geotagged freesounds it wouldn't be much but that's still +~365...and it's interesting)

  9. great resource for audio creators by davidtweet · · Score: 5, Informative

    As a developer of audio for free/open source games, I totally go to freesound first. No squeaky doors in the immediate vicinity to make field recordings of--no problem! Somebody's already made their field recording available. It can be a great complement to your own recordings or commercial samples. I also love the clear licensing terms, unlike many other free audio content websites.

  10. Great idea by saskboy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do they have the sound of a tree falling in the forest when no one is there to hear it, yet?

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
    1. Re:Great idea by Finnegar · · Score: 3, Funny

      One hand clapping? A politician admiting to a mistake? The massive boom as their server explodes?

  11. Mirror by lmbettez · · Score: 3, Informative

    the site seems to be collapsing... [insert adequate sound!]

    Maybe we should use the Coral Cache of it:
    http://freesound.iua.upf.edu.nyud.net:8090/

  12. Re:Wow by ameshkin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Hi, I'm working on a similar site, well not really but I never thought about posting it here. I'm very new at PHP and I need help with it. The site is here. If anyone can help out, please let me know. The basic idea is to allow a user to upload their MP3 library, and then listen to it from any wired device.

  13. Wikimedia Commons by GerritHoll · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be a good idea to cooperate with Wikimedia Commons, a "repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files"? The goals seem to overlap quite a lot...?

  14. Now they can add... by johansalk · · Score: 4, Funny

    the sound of a burning server.

  15. Couldn't Find: Sound Of One Hand Clapping by rewinn · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is the site unenlightened, or am I?

  16. Read the license carefully by tepples · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As a developer of audio for free/open source games, I totally go to freesound first.

    Doesn't freesound's license prohibit use of samples in commercially distributed computer programs, including commercially distributed Free games? See my other comment.

  17. Re:License compatibility? by pavon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am pretty sure that legal compatibility isn't an issue. Since you are only packaging the sounds with the software, and not merging them into the source of the application, they are considered separate works distributed together, and not a single derivative work. While the files do add to the functionality of the program, they are really no different from config files or scripts that modify the behavior of the program. As long as the modification is done outside the source code, then it isn't considered a derivative work. The GPL does not prevent you from bundling works. It is completely legal.

    However, the non-commercial use clause is annoying and could cause practical difficulties for open source projects. The GPL expressly allows for the software for commercial purposes, how ever the CC Sampling Plus license doesn't. Therefore, a person who chose to use the package for commercial purposes couldn't use the sound files. It would be the responsibility of the project to inform their users that different parts of the project are under different licenses, and the responsibility of the users to follow them. This would be a major pain and would not be in the spirit of Free Software (similar to all the icon-set licensing arguments that have come up lately). I would avoid using files under this license in Free Software projects for that reason.

  18. Re:Wow by Fusen · · Score: 2, Informative

    sorry for the double post by I was just wondering what sort of help you want? contact me at reload@gmail.com

  19. Somewhat Restrictive License by AthenianGadfly · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems to me that the license under which these sounds are released could use some work - perhaps the creators should be given a choice in how their sounds are licensed? For example, I do a lot of sound design for community theater, where crediting 10-15 different online entities in the program is not always looked on with favor. I would be happy, personally, to release the sound effects that I have created under a license not requiring attribution (at least in some circumstances).

    As the author of this comment mentions, the current (only) choice for a license could get in the way of including these sounds in free software projects as well. Maybe an option that allows more freedom in using the effects in commercial works would help alleviate this? Then the artists could choose for themselves how they wanted their work to be licensed.

  20. Re:License compatibility? by bdejong · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm sorry but that's not correct. The Sampling+ license does not prevent commercial usage:
    "You may not use this work to advertise for or promote anything but the work you create from it."
    ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/sampling+/1.0/ )

    This means -for example- you can't use Sampling+ sounds for a commercial for a car (without asking the original author for permission). But this doesn't mean you can't use a sound in a commercial application. ANother thing people tend to forget is that the original author obviously keeps the right to do whatever he wants with the sample. So, if you really WANT to use a sound in a commercial, you can just ask for permission.

      - bram

  21. Re:Why not songs? by bdejong · · Score: 2, Informative

    We wanted a repository of instantly-usable sounds for music (and other "sound-combination" pocesses) production. Songs are good to sample from, but nothing beats a pre-cut loop, or a multi-sampled vibraphone when it comes to making music.

    And, there's plenty of sites out there that already do songs. ccMixter being probably one of best known ones. There's not one site that does only samples, we thought there should be.

    Freesound is a tool for "music-MAKING" rather than "music-LISTENING".

    Hope that makes sense.

      - bram

  22. Re:OT, but similar project for vector art/clip art by arose · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
  23. Google Base by noamt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What they should do, is team up with Google. Ask them to allow sound files in Google Base, then upload all of their sounds there. This will get them a free, (almost-)non-slashdottable, mirror.