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."

Re:Great!

[ergo98]

Hey, this sounds familiar [yafla.com] (pardon the pun)!

In that link above I reference the Quiet American's One-Minute Vacations Site [quietamerican.org]: It's a fantastic resource.

Re:Great!

[YetAnotherDave]

Sounds like the 'net in general...

Re:Great!

[YetAnotherDave]

kinda like the net in general...

Re:Wow

[Radi-0-head]

Har har... nice pun.

Re:Wow

[ameshkin]

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 [mytuneslive.com]. 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.

Re:Wow

[Fusen]

you sure DRM songs would be covered? afaik most downloaded(legit) songs can only be used on N computers, so surely uploading it to your site would count as one?

Re:Wow

[ameshkin]

We're working on that now. Honestly, I don't care if they are or not.

Re:Wow

[Fusen]

sorry for the double post by I was just wondering what sort of help you want? contact me at [e-mail]

Mirror? uhhhhh....yeah, right.

[Bananatree3]

This is NOT a mirror, but rather a clever plug for ebumsworld, MASKED as a mirror.

Re: Mirror? uhhhhh....yeah, right.

[Null537]

And you are NOT a MASTER of the OBVIOUS.

Creative commons music

[t0qer]

Not quite the same as samples, but Winamp creator Justin Frankel made Ninjam [ninjam.com] 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.

Re:Creative commons music

[Anonymous Coward]

Also not quite the same, but I saw this recently.. "http://cc365.org/ [cc365.org] is a 2006 song-a-day calendar of Creative Commons licensed music from a wide selection of artists and genres.

Re:Creative commons music

[Heembo]

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 [about.com] (look under "MP3 Players")

Re:Creative commons music

[Heembo]

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/ [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?

Re:Creative commons music

[t0qer]

Even cooler than that is Justin's Jesusonic [jesusonic.com], a programmable DSP that works with ASIO (almost all sound cards can be made to work with an ASIO mixer) [asio4all.com] Not to mention it works on mac, pc,*nix varients and is free.

It's a great site if I could listen....

[ip_freely_2000]

....seems to be Slashdotted to hell at the moment. What a great idea.

Re:It's a great site if I could listen....

[Almost-Retired]

Well, they did say getting /.'ed would be the icing on the cake. Just hope it doesn't run all over the floor before they can cut and serve the cake we can't hear...

--
Cheers, Gene

Re:It's a great site if I could listen....

[hords]

Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!

Re:It's a great site if I could listen....

[catwh0re]

a slashdotting is a birthday cake to them, ...so right about now they'd qualify to be a bakery. in any event they're toasted. *ding ding tssshh*

Reminds me of...

[Cave_Monster]

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).

Re:Reminds me of...

[NeMon'ess]

I used to do those too, but then I got tired of hearing the same sounds over and over again. Has anyone found a program that will rotate a bunch of sound files for the same alert? Just like Webshots changes my wallpaper each day, I'd like to see the same for my sound files. Yeah I'm using Windows, but does this program exist for any OS?

This should improve Open Source quality.

[external400kdiskette]

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.

Re:This should improve Open Source quality.

[EmbeddedJanitor]

It will improve OSS quality in other ways too. Purile farty-pants will have a place to be creative without screwing up important code etc.

Re:This should improve Open Source quality.

[WilliamSChips]

No, I think the codebases are audited against puerile(from the Latin puer, pueri, m, meaning boy) farty-pants.

License compatibility?

[tepples]

I mean stuff like the default sounds on GAIM for example sound really awful

But is the CC Sampling Plus license compatible with the GNU General Public License? The GPL requires that a work be made available for commercial or noncommercial distribution in the most editable form, called "source code". This "source code" would generally include a verbatim copy of the whole sample. The GNU Free Documentation License has similar restrictions, where the editable form is called a "transparent copy". The CC Samp

Re:License compatibility?

[pavon]

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. [fsf.org]

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.

Re:License compatibility?

[bdejong]

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/ [creativecommons.org] )

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 auth

For this application it does.

[pavon]

That's not the part I am talking about. Read the second line in the license summary. Commercial use is allowed if you are sampling the sound, to create something new and creative (as is traditionally done with sampling in music). However distributing the sound in it's entirety is only allowed for non-commercial purposes. When using the sounds in an application, you likely won't be remixing them, you will use them as is. If the author of the application makes money from it (regardless of whether it is open s

Non-Issue

[Short Circuit]

If someone wants to commercially distribute said GPL app, they need only contact the original authors of the samples to get permission to do so.

Or, if a lawyer got together with the company's devel team, they could take advantage of the term "verbatim", and compress or bundle the samples in a format that limits their usefulness to the task at hand.

Re:Non-Issue

[tepples]

they need only contact the original authors of the samples to get permission to do so.

Once an e-mail address becomes invalid, and a Google search on the name doesn't turn up any relevant web sites or recent Usenet postings, how would you suggest that a publisher of a video game that uses a given audio sample under a Sampling Plus license contact the author of said sample?

Re:Non-Issue

[Short Circuit]

I know what you mean; I've run into the same problem trying to get permission to put module format songs to Stepmania steps. And I've managed to find valid email addresses for most of the people I've tried to contact.

Basically, you search for the email adress or username they used, and see if they made posts anywhere else using that same identity, possibly associating it with another email adress, another alias, or even a Real Name. (Google and Usenet are great for this.)

So it's not quite a non-issue, but

Here ya go

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Enjoy [freefarts.com]

Re:No farts?

[mrchaotica]

It's community-driven -- go get some beans and a microphone, and upload your own!

Kudos to Freesound

[EggyToast]

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!

6000!

[Exquire]

Holy *bleep*! Oh, but now the surver's *rooooo*k'd.

Suitable Birthday Present?

[Lord Byron II]

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

Re:Suitable Birthday Present?

[Anonymous Coward]

Such horrific abusive treatment might have been an appropriate present for a Sony birthday.

Re:Suitable Birthday Present?

[kesuki]

since they invented masochism, the sexual pleasure or gratification of having pain or suffering inflicted upon the self [wikipedia.org]

Re:Suitable Birthday Present?

[boarsai]

Some people like it rough?

Re:Suitable Birthday Present?

[Short Circuit]

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

Nice

[tetrahedrassface]

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!

sound of the day

[aneroid]

this reminds me of "Sound of the Day [blogspot.com]".

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

great resource for audio creators

[davidtweet]

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.

Read the license carefully

[tepples]

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 [slashdot.org].

Re:Read the license carefully

[netzwerg]

This is definitely an interesting point. I read the license and I'm still not sure when the use is considered to be commercial.

There's probably some more info at the creative commons site [creativecommons.org]. Most Creative Commons licenses seem to be quite restrictive for my taste.

Mmm...

[MrNonchalant]

Cake. :P

Great idea

[saskboy]

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

Re:Great idea

[Finnegar]

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

Re:Great idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes.. but they keep in in a place where there's no-one to download it.

Re:Great idea

[dennison_uy]

Link [getodd.com] to the sound of a tree falling in the forest when there is nobody around to hear it (taken from http://www.getodd.com/stuf/treefall.html [getodd.com])

Mirror

[lmbettez]

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/ [nyud.net]

Re:Mirror

[Alien Being]

"insert adequate sound!"

How about the sound of inadequacy?

Brando: I could have been a contender, I could have been somebody, instead of a bum which is what I am.

but no sound for...

[towsonu2003]

...linux nor slackware? I'd expect to listen to a farting-while-configuring geek there?

Wikimedia Commons

[GerritHoll]

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

Re:Wikimedia Commons

[bennomatic]

Just because they're free doesn't mean that competition isn't a good thing. Perhaps their focus on sound--as opposed to the broader range on WmC--will make this a more useful site for some people. I don't know, but I assume that you would never say, "Why don't Chrysler and Mercedes get together? They both make cars!"

Oh, wait...

Anyway, that having been said, thanks for the link; I didn't know about WmC!

Now they can add...

[johansalk]

the sound of a burning server.

Re:Now they can add...

[jo42]

...and cow bells...

Couldn't Find: Sound Of One Hand Clapping

[rewinn]

Is the site unenlightened, or am I?

Re:Couldn't Find: Sound Of One Hand Clapping

[Short Circuit]

*laughs*

That's a real knee-slapper, that is.

Re:Couldn't Find: Sound Of One Hand Clapping

[tod_miller]

Unfortunately the only really good one is Bart Simpsons rendition, and that has copyright. I think there are laws allowing such a small sample, but fair use != open source.

Of course, I might upload my own one hand clapping sample, do you have a codec or sample rate preference? left or right hand? No euphamisms please.

*thinks*

OMGsh you were teh joking!!!11sixhundredandfourtyseventhousandsixhund redandfourteen

d'oh

Somewhat Restrictive License

[AthenianGadfly]

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 [slashdot.org] 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.

Re:Somewhat Restrictive License

[bdejong]

We chose for one licence as it is already very difficult trying to explain this one license and it's details to people. We know this is troublesome for some people, perhaps we will switch to two licenses somewhere in the future, 'public domain' and 'sampling+'.

  - bram

Re:Somewhat Restrictive License

[Eivind Eklund]

Mod parent up.

Re:Somewhat Restrictive License

[AthenianGadfly]

Thanks Bram - that's hepful. I can certainly understand the argument for keeping it to one license for simplicity's sake. Perhaps a less restrictive license could be introduced, the current one kept as the default, and the current license could be billed to users as "You can do at least these things with any sound on this site, some licenses may allow more" - I realize this isn't quite as clear as only one license, but it might be a way of characterizing a second license that would be simpler. Another way t

My contact address is wrong...

[bdejong]

Ugh, someone borked my contact address.
It's: http://www.iua.upf.edu/mtg/pages/contact/single?id =17 [upf.edu]

What Makes It Work?

[Anonymous Coward]

Creative Commons Licensing.

If media provided by sites like Freesound matter to you then please take a look at this [blogspot.com]. CC could really use our collective help right now, it appears that their non-profit status could be in jeopardy...

Why not songs?

[tod_miller]

I am just curious. Is is Freesoundsample? Is there a reason other than it is not the purpose of the site?

Or are we being limited by our capacity for expressing ourselves in grunts again, and the word 'songs' scares the shit out of people. I may never know as the site is wanged.

And if they arenot having songs, why mention it? Why not mention that they are also not having live lemur strip cams?

I am just puzzled by the whole ---- OMG not songs ---- in the snippet.

Re:Why not songs?

[bdejong]

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.

They've been slashdotted.....

[stunt_penguin]

so come back and look at their graph of the number of people who signed up each day..... they're going to have to rescale the graph and put in a /. dot!

OT, but similar project for vector art/clip art?

[elliott_p]

I know there are lots of www.free.clip.arts.here.com sites, but are there any that works along the same mentality as this? Where the licensing is clear and any developer working on small projects needing icons and whatever else can easily grab what they need, at the same time knowing it's high quality stuff. Does deviantart count? I can't really tell what their policy is for re-use, and it seems more for large artistic creations.

Re:OT, but similar project for vector art/clip art

[arose]

http://openclipart.org/ [openclipart.org]

Congrats

[MissSoul]

Is a great idea, we needed something like that! Congratulations and have fun ;)

Slashdotters!

[ringm000]

Oh sh*t! There goes the site...

Google Base

[noamt]

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.