FindSounds
Search the Web for Sounds
Search for
Options:         Stereo only      High fidelity only
Text Search  Enter one or more words in the search box above and then click on the Search button to find audio files labelled with one of these words. You can enter any word or phrase. Here are three examples: elephant, laugh, bass drum. To see many examples, click here.

A text search is not the only way to find sounds. Click here to learn how to perform a sounds-like search.

Stereo only  Search for stereo audio files with 2 channels or more.

High fidelity only  Show higher-quality (16-bit or greater) recordings. Compressed audio files such as .mp3 are still included. Uncompressed audio files must have a sample rate of 44100Hz or greater.

Search Results  After performing a search, you will see a page displaying the top ten hits. Click on the Next Page button at the bottom of the page to view the next ten hits. Click on the Previous Page button to display the previous page of hits.

For each hit, you will see the URL of an audio file and information about the audio file, including its size, number of channels, resolution, sample rate, and duration. To download and play the audio file, click on the URL or Play button. Depending on the size of the file and the speed of your Internet connection, it will take anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to download the file. Be sure to have your speakers turned on.

Colored Waveform Display

Each hit includes a colorful graphic image like the one shown above. This is the Colored waveform display, which provides valuable visual information about the content of the audio file. Like other waveform displays, it is a graph of amplitude (or loudness) over time. Unlike other waveform displays, the graph is colored to reflect the frequency content of the audio file. Similar sounds are represented by similar colors, and changes in sound can be seen as changes in color. For stereo files, the waveform display represents the left and right channels combined.

For each hit, you can find audio files that sound like it by clicking on . See the Sounds-Like Search page for information.

Click on "show page" to view a Web page that links to this audio file. Additional information about the file may be found there.

Click on "e-mail this sound" to create and send an e-mail message containing the URL of the audio file, or click on "tweet this sound" to tweet the URL of the audio file. When a recipient of the message clicks on the URL, the file is downloaded and played.

Frequently Asked Questions 

How do I download an audio file to my hard drive?

On Windows, right-click on the audio file URL and choose Save Target As or Save Link As in the popup menu. On the Macintosh, click on the audio file URL while holding down the Control key and choose Save Link As or Download from the popup menu.

Are the sounds royaty free? Can they be used commercially?

Since FindSounds.com is a search engine, it provides links to sound effects so that they can be downloaded from the site that is hosting them. We do not make any claims regarding the licensing or commercial use of those sounds. Use the "show page" link in the search results to visit the remote site for these details.

How do I tell Windows to play a sound for various events such as startup?

  1. Download an audio file, saving it to your hard drive as described above.
  2. Go to the Sound section of the Control Panel and click on the Sounds tab.
  3. Select an event in the list, such as "New Mail Notification," and then click on the Browse button.
  4. Locate the audio file you saved in step 1 and click on the OK button.