Free audio data

All kinds of free sounds can be found here - in various degrees of 'freeness'

• Please tell us which sounds and samples are good below this page and on the LinuxMusicians Forum!

• A script on the LAU mailinglist was posted, to download various free sound-fonts, sample and LA-resources on the LAU mailing-list (don't hesitate to write an python GUI for it, which allows you to choose which file(s) you like to download :) ). (WAV/ Giga/ SFZ/ sf2 etc.)

• ccmixter.org is a community music remixing site featuring remixes and samples licensed under Creative Commons licenses.

• The Freesound Project The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.

• findsounds.com a free site where you can search the Web for sound effects and musical instrument samples.

• Over 10GB of FREE Samples – for The Children of the World (For adults too ;) )

• List of sample libraries at LinuxSampler forum. Great library for good sounds!

• KVR: The Big sample site list

• University of Iowa Musical Instrument Samples - Systematic recordings of notes from the entire range of most orchestral instruments and a Steinway piano)

• LinuxSampler supports Gigastudio, SFZ and sf2 (experimental) format.

• List of sample libraries at LinuxSampler forum. Great library for good sounds!

• LinuxSampler Instruments and Samples

See SFZ

• The Salamander Grand Piano and LinuxSampler
• Sonatina Symphonic orchestra - quite complete Creative Commons licensed sample pack in SFZ format.
• Linuxified version of Sonatina Symhonic Orchestra ( More info here)
• Direct Guitar Lite Based on DirectGuitar, this smaller version offer to musicians, producers and composers the same quality of the “Big Brother”
• Digital Sound Factory A commercial SFZ library. The Dimension products (Cakewalk) work in LinuxSampler. It's a large and diverse set of instruments that are clearly licensed. They also have a good number of high quality sf2 fonts.

The Sonatina Symphonic Orchestra (SSO) is an SFZ orchestral sample library. It is currently the best open orchestral sample library - although there are a number of known issues with it. Unfortunately, it is not under development, and there is no structure put in place to help improve it. Mattias Westlund, the author, is only one person. A project like this requires collaborative effort.

There is a need in the Linux community for an open sample library. It is the missing link that hinders otherwise good tools, like LinuxSampler, from developing. What good is a sampler if there is no sample library?

Nils Gey has done a series of experiment pieces with SSO, the first one is here. While his conclusion is that the library disappoints, do check out his pieces and decide for yourself. He also maintains/maintained a github project (dead link) for collecting an maintaining/fixing SFZ libraries like SSO.

• Sonart Yamaha C7 Grand Piano, Alternative mirror
• Free gigasamples Many free gigasamples over 100 Piano, Percussion, Guitar, Brass, etc.
• Cuban instrument samples Many free Cuban instrument gigasamples tres,claves, marimbula
• G-Town Church samples A collection of various percussion sounds and instruments

• http://freepats.zenvoid.org/sf2/ - an effort to build a free (as in freedom) set of patches

• Sf2Midi.com

• http://www.thejazzpage.de/index1.html - soundfonts under 'download', only for noncommercial use.

• HammerSound

• Soundfonts on your Linux box:

fluid-soundfont-gm - Fluid (R3) General MIDI SoundFont (GM)

   fluid-soundfont-gs                                     - Fluid (R3) General MIDI SoundFont (GS)

• The sinfon36.sf2 soundfont (from Sf2Midi.com) might be the best free orchestral soundfont on the net. For playbacks of well-known classical pieces, check misterdls's SoundCloud page. The audio was produced simply with MuseScore and the sinfon36.sf2 soundfont.

• GSCW drumkit

• Big Mono drumkit

• Maestro Concert Grand v2 (337 MB)

Copyright (C) 2003 Mats Helgesson. Great Gig sample! Alternative download mirror

• Salamander Grand Piano SFZ

• Jazzguitar from thejazzpage.de (soundfont). Other guitar soundfonts are good as well on this site.

• GPL Acoustic double bass (*.sf2 soundfont)

• fitchsounds free cello samples.
• Fitch cello - sfz versions of the above

• Jeff's Rhodes soundfont
• Rhodes sounds from Zynaddsubfx synth.
• Nice GPL soundfont (sampled from the real thing)

• GSCW Hydrogen Kit 1
• GSCW Hydrogen Kit 2
• Big Mono drumkit
• VINYL DRUMKITS-ELECTRONIC is a drum kit library for NI Battery 2-3, Kontakt 2 and Soundfont. (by Pettinhouse)

• GPL soundfont of the "flute" timbre (sampled from the real thing)
• GPL soundfont of the "reed" timbre (sampled from the real thing)
• Nice collection of different mellotron instruments as wav samples.

• Makesfz.sh Quick and easy creation of simple .sfz files
• Extreme Sample Converter a multifunctional audio software, browser, player, and program editor with advanced conversion between different sample formats. SFZ import & export, Gigastudio, Kontact, Renoise and more. Works with Wine.
• Translator Free Free demo to translate sound files (*.sf2 to *.gig for example). Works with Wine.
• sfz format editor sfZed is an editor for the sfz format, the format for the sfz SoundFont Player and and for CakeWalk Dimension instruments. The editor works with audio samples to map them to the keyboard, and shape them to create the sound you want. It uses the sfz sample player vsti plugin to audition the results, the synth technology which the sfz format was based on with full polyphony. It will also convert Soundfont sf2 to sfz, giving you the opportunity to change and fix the way it plays back. The sfz format contains over 200 settings like velocity sensitivity, loops, reverb, EQ and controller settings to create the sound you want for your music. sfZed works with a midi keyboard to allow you to play and set values, including mapping drum samples. (Works with Wine).
• sfArk SoundFont Compression It's a lossless audio compression format optimized for SoundFont files. sfArk is free for non-commercial use. Programs to decompress sfArk files exist for Windows, MacOS X and Linux platforms. (Works with Wine).