Freesound Forums

Hi all!

I'm new to the community and really like the idea of this project, am looking forward to contributing...

Looking through the site it seems to be roughly split up three ways - foley type sounds, ambiences, and short musical loops/pieces/fx. Does that sound about right?

Sooo, my question is what gets used/searched for/submitted the most? Are there any glaring holes in the collection that need filling?

Cheers
ID

EDIT: I tend to do more synthesis than recording, but have portable recorder etc and want to get more use out of my kit. Most of the found sounds I record usually end up as unrecognisable fx drones, background textures or rhythmic loops though I'm quite interested in straight up foley sounds and want to explore this in more depth.

I live in a forest so will be getting some cool nature sounds over the next year or so - rutting deer, babbling brooks etc.

I have a ton of dubstep wobbles, reese's etc but kind of figured thats not really what people will be looking for here - they're pretty easy to synthesize and its what you do with the automation on them in a mix that counts...

bumpity bump - dialogue with an experienced freesounder would really help me out please

Well I have no idea what is most searched for. But I don't think there really is a hole in the collection. See the Requests forum, most requests are for specific spoken texts, so I suppose other type sounds are covered well enough.

If you use the advanced search there are some helpful things. Perhaps most interesting to your question is theMost Downloaded sounds. Maybe not exactly what is most searched for, but there is possibly a relationship between what is downloaded and what is searched for?

I'm one of the moderators of sounds here at Freesound. Indeed, these are the three main groups. I think that the synthesized sounds (pads etc.) are the most popular uploads, followed by field recordings, followed by short music loops or short pieces. I guess it is easier to make something with the computer than to go out and record something. But I don't know if this reflects the downloads. It seems that field recordings and short music thingies are more popular downloads.

Hello,

It is a good question...
I am not even sure if there is a way of actually ansering it (ever) since sound tags and descriptions are not always complete and are often inconsistent...
I am sure there is stuff in here that would be popular, but isn't because it has not been adequately tagged...

But that aside, I think there are specific groups of users at freesound:
without maknig the distinction between professional and amateur, I would say that there are the following main categories:
- Sound designers and engineers
- Musicians
- hobbysts, experimentalists, sound collectors and students

Sound designers and engineers are generally interested in ambience sounds useable for film and other productions.
This group would most likely down/upload this type of sounds.
Sometimes there are specific dialogue or voice requests from this group. Othen this would be for sound effects for a game or film.
Sound effects are sometimes also requested for game / film (spaceship or laser sounds, for example)

Musicians (and this includes musicians, DJs, mixers, and so on) will look for various things.
If they like using samplers (mostly software samplers these days) they may look for instrument sounds to use and manipulate.
Musicians may often upload and download drum loops or other types of musical loops.
Uploading short non-loopable riffs is also popular.
DJs often request voice samples of the type "DJ X" to use in their mixes etc.

I probably best fit the hobbyst / experimentalist category.
This category contains a lot os miscellaneous: you got students up/downloading stuff for school/univesity projects, which could be anyhting really...
Sound collectors will up/download all sorts fo sounds from farts to telephone rings or sound clips of "my dog playing with the neighbour's dog"...
Experimentalists will up/download odd stuff. Sounds processed with bizarre effects, synthesized sounds... all sorts of thinks, including "my stereo got broken and started making this sound" sort of thing.

There are different groups of people here at freesound, all with different interests and areas of expertise.

I agree with LG in the sense that it is generally easier to make something with your computer or synth than to go out and record something. It is also much less expensive, as with current technology almost anyone can synthesize sounds of good quality, while doing a good recording requires specific and expensive equipment.
Judging by the fact that all types of sounds get downloaded, I guess they all have a place and a use and it is good to have such diversity here.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Cool, guess I'll just keep doing my thing then and ul whatever sounds good/original/unusual. In AlienXXX's 3 categories I kind of sit slap bang in the middle (left my job as an engineer/music tech tutor a year or so ago, been concentrating on music making for pleasure and djing since).

Been thinking of doing some dubstep loops/construction kits as I have a lot on the cutting room floor so to speak - I annoyingly managed to break my portable recorder the other day when I was recording the dawn chorus in the forest, nothing a bit of loving soldering wont fix but a PITA all the same.

Just another note.
I had a further think about which of my samples get downloaded the most.
Although I would, at first thought, say that (some) of my percussion loops are quite popular... actually, some of my recorded sounds probably take the prize...

I recorded a door squeak and a camera servo that proved surprisingly popular, despite have been recorded with a home made piezo mic and a webmic.

So, anyone really interested in recording sounds but not having the expensive gear can still post some sounds that will be of enough quality and prove popular.

Although it is nice to want to contribute to 'fill the gaps', I think the best thing you can do is record what you love to record and contribute that. I don't look at freesound as a library that needs to be filled with specific sounds but as a place I can upload the sounds that I enjoyed recording. I see that the coverage we get will be based on the diversity of the recordists themselves.

Cheers

David

David is very right.

I don't get tired of saying this, so I will say it again:
Most people look at Freesound like a "library of sounds" to upload and download to and from... Behind the sounds, though, there is a living, breathing community of people who share the same interest as you: SOUND!

There is a lot to be gained by interacting with other users. The knowledge of some of these guys is imense.
So when you have a question relating to sound, this is a great place to ask.