Hi Freesounder!
The Music Technology Group is the research institute based in Barcelona, Spain, that has created, maintains and keeps supporting Freesound for now over 10 years. MTG is turning 25 this year and we will be presenting Freesound as one of the most important projects to come out of the MTG since its inception.
To highlight the diversity of uses of Freesound we would like to ask you if you or someone you know ever used Freesound in any ?out of the ordinary? situations. We have asked this kind of question before and heard about people using Freesound to explain to teachers how children with autism experience sound, how dogs can be desensitized to thunder, to provide a soothing song-bird ambience at a child’s burial, how a scream recorded by a student in his bedroom made it to a Hollywood blockbuster, … and many more of these amazing stories.
To help us discover some more of these out of the ordinary uses, please tell us your story in this forum thread 🙂
With love,
The Freesound Team
Hi Freesound!
I’ve been using your platform since 2010, if not sooner. Your platform has granted me the opportunity to grow and diversify myself in sound. When I started working with film and video, and later sound design, it shows through your user interface how different the world is; how different the world sounds.
As someone who posts sound here, I’d like to input one particular sound;
https://freesound.org/people/Npeo/sounds/221672/
Imagine, a cold, dry December night in 2013. My window is open in my room on the bottom floor of my house in the valley north of Los Angeles. As I’m going about my business, cleaning up my room, I hear an owl. This isn’t unusual, they like to perch on top of the chimneys of nearby houses in the suburbs. But having just gotten a field recorder, I thought I’d stick the Tascam at the base of my window, and hit record, hoping it would give off another random hoot, and it did! I captured the owl’s hoot, saved it to my laptop, then posted it here.
That random winter night’s owl has been heard globally and downloaded nearly 3,000 times! That singular owl on a dead evening has been shared in projects, downloaded for school classes, and used even for personal projects. Freesound keeps these singular moments shared and spread.
https://freesound.org/people/Npeo/sounds/203121/
3 years ago, my cat ran away, but his voice has been heard nearly 7,000 times by people around the world! His voice has been shared in various projects since then; from songs to short class projects, and even some bigger YouTube channels have used his harmonic charm! Freesound has been an amazing place to spread and share sound, and without smothering this website with enthusiasm, I greatly appreciate this community, and it has been of great pleasure to share my work here.
Hi Andrew, thanks for sharing your nice story. Would you mind re-posting it in this forum thread https://freesound.org/forum/freesound-project/41697/?
In this way we’ll have all stories together in one place. Thanks!
Hello, i work as afashion design professor un Colombia. I use free sound to compose audio for experimental fashion. We search for ways and new meanings in fashion, in this sense the search and composition of sounds that responden to “non conventional” garments created by students and the exploration of a sinesthetic approach to materials, siluets and their fashion proposals! This excercise is constructed by askinf a simple question: “If this garment made sounds, what do you think it would sound like? Very usefull tool!
I struggle with anxiety and use mindfulness practices to cope with it. Mainly, I imagine walking and closing doors between the stresses and myself until I reach a calm place that I can focus and relieve my anxiety. Sometimes though, this is too difficult as a mental practice. So, I used freesound files to create a sound file of footsteps, door sounds, and other sounds that match this well trodden path in my mind. The audio helps me focus and has been an immense help.
I just discovered this audio on YouTube. I have debilitating tinnitus. This has greatly relaxed me this afternoon, and I don’t notice the screaming high-pitched ringing in my ears. Bless you! I may actually be able to listen to this tonight when I try to sleep. I haven’t slept for more than 2-4 hours since January. This is the audio I have been listening to that has calmed me down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUtaDA6dcmA
I’ve been using freesound for many years now. Many different projects. It’s helped me realize the importance of audio are when telling your story. I am very thankful to have been able to discover the sounds from all over the world. I appreciate you all!