Initially opened in 2018, the BBC Sound Effects Archive is a remarkable and vast resource, incorporating recordings which originated as far back as the 1920s. Recently, the archive has doubled in size, and now offers over 33,000 samples in WAV or MP3 formats, completely free. The sounds originate from studio-manufactured SFX to field recordings from various global locations.
Navigation is fairly straightforward, with smart tagging allowing users to search via a number of ultra-specific categories, including Electronics, Medical, Toys, Applause, Aircraft, Comedy and many, many more – users can also filter their searches via duration and continents (where the sounds were recorded).
The content of the samples varies wildly, spanning from the sound of a crow feeding its young to the 1989 FA World Cup final. From sonorous church congregations to the sound of vigorous hand-washing and distant reception hall muttering.
If you want to use any of these in your tracks then that’s all well and good – but don’t even think about trying to use it in a track you want to sell (read: stream). Due to the 'RemArc' (AKA, the whimsically-titled ‘Reminiscence Archive’) license that the BBC are providing these sounds under, you're legally unable to use them in any track that you want to make a profit out of. However, there is an option to buy the sound from partner Pro Sound Effects typically for a $5.00 fee.
If you don't want to pay, then you can still draw on these sounds to mash up a montage for a personal project, or experiment with using this most vintage of sample resources in the context of a mix. In that context alone, it’s a really superb repository.
Encouraging such experimentation, the BBC’s archive website provides a Mixer Mode which enables users to blend their own sound effects together in creative new forms.
Since its foundation in the early 20th century, the BBC has collated one of the most sizeable (and nostalgia-inducing) sonic libraries in existence. They were created for – and harnessed across – its many radio and television productions, from the bucolic aural universe of The Archers to the extraterrestrial planet-scapes of Doctor Who.
Many of these sounds previously were released as standalone records, and generated an army of devotees in both collectors and creatives over decades. In an article for Record Collector back in 2017, journalist Richard Bradley reflected on the importance of the BBC's hefty archive: “Though these sounds were recorded to serve a utilitarian programme-making purpose, many have a social history value as well. We are conditioned so that the visual becomes the dominant sense. We take cameras on holiday to record the sights, but taking sound recorders to record the sounds is more of a niche pursuit – yet just as evocative. When we revisit a familiar place after a spell away, it is the visual changes we notice – a building demolished, a new flatpack block of flats. Changes in the soundscape are far more subtle.”
Head to the BBC sound effect archive to browse sounds HERE
