Free sound samples

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Music : Sound samples +/-

Dear site visitors, thanks to tremendous interest in these files, we are currently moving them to more dedicated servers. We transmitted 5TB of sound sample a day for two days last week... In the meantime, v.1 of the 44kHz samples (with 80% of the files) can be downloaded via this BitTorrent tracker. Many of the samples have now been linked at the Internet Archive, but there is also a list of links that have not yet been moved to the Internet Archive.


Over 10GB of FREE Samples – for The Children of the World

Loops, Grooves, SoundEffects, Noises, Soundscapes, Machines, Explosions, Synths, Drums, Voices, Instruments, Animals, Industrial Ambiences, Film and Game Foley, and more, more, more! This huge and continuously expanding collection of new and original samples have been donated to Dr. Richard Boulanger @ cSounds.com specifically to support the OLPC developers, students and XO users. They are free and will be available under a CC-BY license for downloading and use in your music and activities. Each of the 7000+ samples is 16-bit, WAV, Mono, normalized to -3dB, and provided at 3 sample rates - 44.1K, 22.5K and 16K.

SADLY, still 50+ collections have NOT YET been transfered and linked at the Internet Archive

  • Berklee Sampling Archive v1, v2, v3, v4, v5, v6, v7, v8, v9, v10, v11, v12, v13, v14, v15, v16
  • The Open Path Music Collection v1, v2, v3, v4, v5
  • The Original Tam Tam Sample Set
  • Berklee Alumni Samples by Lee Barkovich, Glen Forsyth, Adam Keshen
  • Csounder Samples by Oeyvind Brandtsegg
  • Boulanger's: Csound Book Samples, System Sounds and Machine Noises, OLPC XO Startup Sound, and Sound Effects for Tam Tam
  • Boulanger's: Percussion, Piano, Cello and Csound Samples from 8 of his Compositions & Dissertation


from The Berklee College of Music

Selections from The Berklee College of Music Sampling Archive (1999-2007)

(OVER 2400 SAMPLES! - 1.5 gigabytes)

The Berklee College of Music, in Boston, MA

A collection of sounds that have been selected, organized and prepared for OLPC by Dr. Richard Boulanger (a.k.a. Dr.B.). From 1999 - 2007, these samples were recorded in The Berklee Studios and on location in and around Boston under the supervision of Associate Professor Michael Brigida by over 250 Music Synthesis majors taking his Advanced Sampling Class at The Berklee College of Music. Editing and trimming these original, long, and often meandering recordings into usable individual samples was done by Music Synthesis students - Diane Douglas and Colman O'Reilly.

The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 1 - instruments - ethnic (169 samples) tabla, conga, didgeridoo, sitar, rattles, shakers, kalimba, khaen, gong, and more
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 2 - instruments - extended techniques (63 samples) bowing, blowing, tweeking, glisses, scrapes, etc.
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 3 - instruments - guitar (28 samples) feedback, scrapes
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 4 - instruments - piano (50 samples) traditional and prepared piano
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 5 - instruments - voice (113 samples) singing, synthetic, screams, vocal fx, mouth pops and noises, bubbles, and wolf whistles
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 6 - noises - animals (51 samples) real and human vocal imitations
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 7 - noises - mechanical and industrial (150 samples) fans, motors, machines, mechanical noises, sirens, subway trains, engines, blenders, buzzers, sprinkler, wind-up toys
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 8 - noises - rolling, rattling, squeeking and granular textures (563 samples) crumpling, dropping, grinding, squeeking, rolling, rain, beads, ball bearings, rattles
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 9 - noises - ruberbands and balloons (47 samples) bass, drum, blown, fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 10 - noises – foley, natural ambiences and sound effects (361 samples) wrenches, background noise, rain, swimming, opening and pouring beer, cheering and laughing crowd, old telephone ringers, swords, walking
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 11 - percussion - bells and cymbals (154 samples) alarms, metal plates, struck and bowed cymbals and glass
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 12 - percussion - slams, strikes and smashed (319 samples) metal, wood, glass, rubber, hits, bounces and doorslams
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 13 - synthesizer - fx (126 samples) spaceships, lasers, explosions, machineguns, glisses
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 14 - synthesizer - loops (56 samples) ostinatos and arpeggios
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 15 - synthesizer - pads (58 samples) animated drones and ambient textures
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Berklee Sampling Archive - Volume 16 - synthesizer - waves (84 samples) pedals, analog timbres, filtersweeps, stabs
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K

OLPC Samples from 31 Music Synthesis Alumni from Berklee

(OVER 1450 SAMPLES! - 2.39 gigabytes)

A collection of original samples and synthetic sounds recorded and created by current Music Synthesis Majors and Music Synthesis Alumni from The Berklee College of Music.

BT (a.k.a. Brian Transeau) (25 samples) – from Breaks from the NU Skool at 100, 105, 110, 112, 120, 124, 126, 128, 130, 132 and 136 BPM
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Jonathan Bailey (67 samples) – upright bass
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Lee Barkovich (32 samples) – synthetic robots, acoustic gunshots, synthetic explosions
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Trevor Bresaw (23 samples) – sax, synth drumkits, sci-fi synth fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Jean-Luc Cohen (79 samples) – acoustic drumkit and organic textures – rainstick, didgeridoo, bubbles
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Matthew Davidson (33 samples) – synth, techno and electro loops at 100, 104, 112, 120 and 132 BPM
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Michael DiMattia (42 samples) – loops, pads, bass, percussion, ethnic, techno and more at 77 and 88 BPM
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Mark Dorflinger (31 samples) – drumloops, trombone, knives, scissors, bottles, fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Diane Douglas (21 samples) – processed piano strums and smashes, csound fm chaos
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Glen Forsyth (26 samples) – kalimba, drumkit, drumloops, breathy-bottle
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Flavio Gaete (405 samples) – viola, string orchestra, guitarloops, bassloops, vibeloops, synthloops, drumloops, complete tracks from original songs – BNGA, HLC1-4, SIK and TFS1-2
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Flavio Gaete & Tony Diodore (121 samples) – drum, bass, guitars, vibes, synthpads, synth and percussion loops from original songs – Better and No Escape
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Jonathan Hakakian (16 samples) – drumloops, cellphone, printers, microwave oven, and other textures
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Jacob Joaquin (88 samples) – baby talk plus eurorack, serge and csound synth sounds
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Adam Keshen (78 samples) – beatbox, bucket street percussion, synth fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Matt Lange (38 samples) – glitchy drum kit, synthetic laser sounds
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Lisa Lim (29 samples) – didgeridoo, tabla, koto, harp, oud, shakuhachi, framedrum, shekerra, hammered dulcimer
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Rommel Molina (65 samples) – footsteps, chains, armor, swords
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Colman O'Reilly (85 samples) – squeeky dog toys, csound processed guitars, stutter edits, swells, assorted noises, distorted guitar progressions at 80 BPM
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Joo Won Park (22 samples) – fly, cricket, frogs, footstep, storm, mouthsounds, vocal drum
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Gabriel Pulido (14 samples) – beach, cat, celloloop, goovyseeds, windloop, piano and vibes
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Sandro Rebel (8 samples) – piano comping at 110 and 116 BPM
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Chen Sokolovsky (47 samples) – female background singing voice, vocal drum, beat box, assorted sound fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Andrew Sorkin (47 samples) – skateboarding, bubbles, speech, kickdrums, drones and synth fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Gregory Tripi (41 samples) – atmospheres, pads, cello loops, processed cello, harmonics
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Nils de Mol van Otterloo (63 samples) – bass clarinet, tabla, gamelan, musical glasses, gongs, world percussion loops, frogs, birds, oceanwaves, and synth textures
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Elaine Walker (1 samples) – desert rain
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Jeremy Zuckerman (9 samples) – funky guitar licks, loops, comping at 100 BPM
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K

Sounds from 2 Music Synthesis Faculty at Berklee

An acoustic soundscape and a special collection of samples and synthetic transformations featuring the vocal talent of Oral Moses.

Michael Bierylo (106 samples) – Gamelon, Electric Sitar, Bass-Baritone "Oral Moses" Vocal Samples, assorted SFX
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Stephen MacLean (2 samples) – An Acoustic Soundscape - Frogs on a California Coast
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K

BONUS – Berklee Shares – Free Online Courses from Berklee

Berklee Shares lessons come from Berklee Press books and DVDs, online music courses and online college-level accredited certificate programs at Berkleemusic.com, the online extension school of Berklee College of Music. Here you will find free music lessons that you can download, share and trade with your friends and fellow musicians.

from Csounders Around the World

Samples From the Worldwide Community of Csound Developers, Teachers and Users

(OVER 1200 SAMPLES! - 1.64 gigabyte)

Michael Bechard (24 samples) – metal percussion
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Oeyvind Brandtsegg (56 samples) - vibes, piano, processed vocals, synths, and fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Andrés Cabrera (20 samples) – colombian tiple
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Lou Cohen (90 samples) – clavichord, marimba, assorted instruments and noises
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
David Cronkite & Phil Hornsey (63 samples) – bowed crotales and glockenspeil
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
John ffitch (37 samples) – selected soundscapes from India, Cuba, France, Spain, Sweden, Singapore, England
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Risto Holopainen (18 samples) - seagull, moped, prepared piano, teacups, and synth fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Eshan Khadaroo (126 samples) – beatkitchen - synthloops, drumloops, drumNsynthloops at 56, 80, 84, 87, 100,110, 111, 120 BPM
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Peiman Khosravi (139 samples) – African string instrument, Venezuelan calling horn, bells, harpsichord, double_bass, kitchen_sounds, and vocal noises
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Anthony Kozar (28 samples) – speech phonemes, time-stretched vocals, chimes
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Jay Leboeuf (34 samples) – rock and jazz drumkits
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Keith McMillen (282 samples) – Zeta electric bass and violin
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Tim Mortimer (143 samples) – guitar, bass, glitch, blips, synth textures, pads, fx, and assorted acoustic and electric noises
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Dave Phillips (13 samples) – physical models
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Prent Rodgers (111 samples) – fingerpiano, spring drums, bass, fx
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Mihir Sarkar (10 samples) – tabla
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Akito Van Troyer (47 samples) – balinese gamelan
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Nimalan Yoganatha (16 samples) – soundscapes form USA, Cambodia, SIngaport, Malaysia, Canada and Japan plus tabla and mbira improvisations and vocal and synth timestretches
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
from Dr.B. - over 2.25 GigaBytes!

Dr.B.'s Selected Samples from 8 of his Compositions & Remixes

Behind the Green Door - Csound & Cecilia Processing and Transformations of ICMC Berlin Door Squeeks (86 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Conversations 4 Piano and Radio Baton - Csound & Cecilia Processing and Transformations of Slawomir Zubrzycki Piano Samples (121 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Conversations 4 Percussion and P5 MIDI DataGlove - Csound & Cecilia Processing and Transformations of Tomek Choloniewski Percussion Samples (147 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Game Over - Computer Speech (11 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
For Gomi's Peace Piece - Csound & Cecilia Processing and Transformations of 2 Female Voices speaking about peace (121 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Moving Into the Light - Cello Source Recordings by Philip Boulanger and Csound & Cecilia Processing and Transformations of the Acoustic Cello (53 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Pop Songs - LP Vinyl Surface Noise, Clicks, and Pops (12 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Trapped in Convert - Radio Baton Remix - Csound Synthesis, Resynthesis and Processing & Cecilia Processing and Transformations of Trapped in Convert Instruments and Synthetic Sounds (59 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K

Dr.B.'s Selected Samples from The Csound Book

Some Csound Book Samples (26 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K


Dr.B.'s Selected Samples from Dr. Boulanger's Doctoral Dissertation Research on Soundfile Convolution

Dynamic Spectral Intersection (DSI) Research - Source Recordings and CARL/Cmusic Soundfile Convolutions and Phase Vocoder Transformations (36 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K

Dr.B.'s OLPCsound Collection

A collection of synthetic sounds that were created by Dr.B. specifically for the OLPC XO using Csound.

System Sounds and Machine Noises (22 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Dr. Boulanger's Original XO Startup Sound featuring "The OLPC Motive - A B E C# = the letters O L P C" (3 versions)
44.1K, 16K

Dr.B.'s Personally Selected and Edited Favorites from The Berklee Collection

A huge collection of sampled and synthetic sounds that were collected, edited, sampled, designed, synthesized as alternative source material for the TamTam activities by Dr.B.

Dr. B.'s Selection from Berklee (460 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Selected Sound Effects for TamTam (87 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K

Some of Dr.B.'s Selected Samples from Home

Marion Ave at Night (1 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
Philip Boulanger's Solo Cello Sources for Moving Into the Light - themes, arpeggios, harmonics, fx (8 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K

A Few of Dr.B.'s Fun Sounds

Colette Boulanger's Animal Sounds – cat, duck, sheep, horse, rooster, chicken, tigress – bonus dB laughter and dB's pet dog Sophie (11 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
On the Beach in Aruba (3 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
from Tam Tam - 19 megabytes

The Original Samples, Percussion Sounds and Drumkits from TamTam

A huge collection of sampled and synthetic sounds that were specially designed, compressed, EQ'd and edited for the XO Csound Masterpiece - Tam Tam by the activity developers: Eric Lamothe, Jean Piché, Olivier Bélanger and Nathanael Lécaudé

TamTam Drumkits (95 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
TamTam Original Sample Set (125 samples)
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
from Open Path Music

The Open Path Music Custom Sample Library for OLPC

(OVER 350 SAMPLES! - 83 megabytes)

Open Path Music, in San Jose, CA

A collection of sounds that were recorded specifically for OLPC by some of San Jose's top studio musicians at Open Path Music for use in Tam Tam and other XO Activities.

The Open Path Music Collection V1 (113 samples) – drumKits, drums, tablas, congas, timbale, cymbals, shakers
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Open Path Music Collection V2 (54 samples) – flute, altoFlute, clarinet, tenor & bari sax, trumpet, flugelhorn, shenai
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Open Path Music Collection V3 (66 samples) – acoustic & electric guitars and bass, banjo, mandolin, ukelele
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Open Path Music Collection V4 (30 samples) – acoustic and electric piano, harpsichord, clavinet, organ, toy piano
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K
The Open Path Music Collection V5 (163 samples) – singing and speaking voices, laughter and other vocal sound effects
44.1K, 22.5K, 16K