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9 fantastic music production sites
Ever search the net for music to use in a production environment? Be it podsafe, CC attribution, public domain, royalty free or other free and semi-free stuff.
Have trouble finding anything? No problem. LostAudio just found at least 20GB of sound/music that is legal to use. The below is an incomplete but useful list of the best accessible audio download sites, that are actually updated and worth a visit.
- Freesound
A collaborative sound collection featuring thousands upon thousands of user generated audio for soundscaping. It’s a great site for media makers, and good for post-production in relation to music production. - ccMixter
All about the music, the mashup and the community. ccMixter features some really large and great high quality sample packs through the contests, as well as user uploads. Loads of finished (or revisited) music as well. - SoundSnap
Another of those collaborative audio sites. Focus is broad, including sound fx, loops, shots. Soundsnap has a nice user interface to search the thousands of items. Some good, some great, some sucks - but it is all licensed in a very PD-like way. - iBeat
One of the new guys on the block, featuring moderated original music production samples. Besides shots and loops iBeat carries small ‘complete’ instrumentals usable as karaoke like ready-to-perform-on material. - SampleSwap
The archive at SampleSwap boasts 5GB+ of production audio. It’s completely add free and features a nice multi download feature. Browse the site, fill your bag and get everything zipped via a mail link. High quality and progressive licensing. - Looperman
A community of audio enthusiasts uploading and sharing all about music. The quality is good, considering that it is based on collaborative sharing. - Free-Loops
We recently published a review of Free-Loops (remember the dash!) and things have quickly changed for the better in regards to user experience. This is a no-hassle database of loops and beats, which we recommend just as much for listening too it’s users as well as serving up nice audio with progressive licensing. - OLPC
Loops, grooves, licks, sound-effects, city and country soundscapes can be found in the One Laptop Per Child audio project. You’ll find over 8GB of uncompressed samples. This really is massive and quite confusing - but it’s there, highs and lows included. The easiest way to get these would be via p2p… just follow the link to find out more. - BBC Studio Samples
The BBC has over a thousands archived samples by instrument type. Quite a few of the national broadcasters are opening up with stuff like this, so there might be another quality service just a click away in your country.
If your favourite site isn’t included post it in the comments, and we’ll add it when we revisit this subject. This was just a one shot, at some of the quality material that is available at the very least for non-commercial projects.
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6 comments to “9 fantastic music production sites”
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2. August 2008 at 5:02 pm :
In Europe and other place abroad, production music was called atmospheric music, mood music, effects music, background music and cinema music. Good Domain
2. August 2008 at 7:30 pm :
There are many names… especially for production music and the different types of licensing.
The list includes non-music sites, ie Freesound, and mashup sites like ccmixter … the are just considered great resources, non the less, in the Lost Audio book of production music.
Much of what you are referring to Good Domain, is often considered easylistening ie mood, background and atmospheric music. The fantastic sites on this lists, can represent in all of the above categories.
2. August 2008 at 7:54 pm :
Jesus Christ. That is a shit load of material.
Didn’t know others than soundsnap, but sure have been looking.
Thanks.
3. August 2008 at 12:14 am :
@Bo
Yes. Holy Crap. It is a whole lot.
Another post - or database - would be to aggregate all the material. So start out slow… the OLPC samples can get a bit irritating as well, because of how they are packaged.
3. August 2008 at 7:47 pm :
[...] have tested this yet. But the idea of using this a mobile, on the road, screener for audio, ie our production music references, makes it seem like it doesn’t matter if the quality isn’t pristine. It’s just a [...]
4. August 2008 at 10:10 am :
Thank you. That sure is an informative list.
What about http://www.youlicense.com ?
I found out about recently, and I think it could be used as a good resource too.