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BBC Sound Effects made available to download for use under RemArc Licence (2018)

541 points by sandebert 6y ago

JdeBP 6y ago
At least there is more than one kind of insect cricket sound effect, rather than LA field crickets all over the world. (-:
- amelius 6y ago
  I think these were recorded before the decline of insect populations worldwide.
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    Hollywood movies used to be infamous in certain circles for having the same stock cricket chirp sound effects, recorded locally, whereever in the world a movie scene was actually supposed to be. It's nothing to do with insect populations.
unfunco 6y ago
These used to be released on vinyl, there was once an incident in Ireland whereby a record player was hidden in a tree and BBC sound effects records were played at night to scare some of the sheep that were part of a "King of the Sheep" competition. It was a big scandal at the time.
- Dig1t 6y ago
  Wow this sounds very funny and pretty interesting. I can't find anything about it from some cursory DDG/Googling. Would love to read about it if you have any links.
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    Ah, you don't recognize the plot of an episode of Father Ted. It's titled "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep".
    - mikro2nd 6y ago
      Which title, in turn, is a pastiche of a bloody awful 1970's pop-song.
      - JdeBP 6y ago
        My goodness! I've never heard that song until today. I wonder what street of what town Lally Stott is walking down, in the video. It makes quite a contrast with Richard Ashcroft moodily stomping down Hoxton, 27 years later. M. Stott is walking in time to the beat. And smiling. (-:
  - klausjensen 6y ago
    It was believed to be a monster of sorts. It was called "The Beast of Craggy Island".
- bilekas 6y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JLLB3fMqEw&feature=youtu.be&t=180&ab_channel=gfreshuk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JLLB3fMqEw&feature=youtu.be...
dylz 6y ago
Non-blogspam url: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk (2018) dang, is it possible to change the URL for this submission? The site linked loads 30+ ad slots and attempts to seemingly canvas fingerprint users.
- pmachinery 6y ago
  I don't know who/what "happymag" is (took too long to load so I gave up) or where they ranked yesterday but they're now the second result (after the link you posted) for BBC sound effects. The power of HN? Judging by the date I guessed this has probably been submitted before, and it has, with similar discussion about the license/licence which renders it pretty much useless (something I've noticed before about the BBC when searching for free to use sound effects): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050 Particularly disappointing for an organization funded by the public to the tune of around five billion US dollars every year and when the sound effects themselves, while being interesting and potentially useful, are now ancient. Edit: curious why this is downvoted. I thought it was interesting that being on HN might have such a drastic result on "SEO"; I posted a link to a previous discussion people might find interesting (it must be, since someone else also subsequently posted the same link); and I expressed the view that it's disappointing a very well funded public broadcaster couldn't release with fewer restrictions material that is ~35+ years old. Doesn't seem particularly controversial to me.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  The headline used here is misleading, too. The BBC has released this library, years ago, and the sound effects are available on terms quite similar to those of other sound effects library companies, which are not "libre", and which are augmented by some non-commercial non-endorsement requirements legally imposed upon the BBC by its Royal Charter. Hacker News guidelines would have the title be that of the page, which is simply "BBC Sound Effects - Research & Education Space". It's HappyMag making the "clickbait" claims, not actually the BBC page.
- mellosouls 6y ago
  Agree, this is not a great link. It's not new, it's two years old and has been covered here before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050
nsgi 6y ago
Bit of a shame the license is so restrictive you can't even use it in non-profit organisations without permission. Wondering what you can realistically do with them other than using one for a ringtone on your phone
- tgv 6y ago
  If you're a "media" producer, you can use them to build your game, soundtrack, presentation, etc. Once you're satisfied, and the product will be published, you can decide to get a license. You've seen the price: buying such licenses beforehand is only for dedicated professionals.
  - Daviey 6y ago
    But can you use them as a sound effect in a youtube video, where you may earn some revenue through adverts some time in the future (or maybe not)?
    - dylz 6y ago
      > where you may earn some revenue through adverts This is commercial use and paid.
      - Daviey 6y ago
        It really isn't as clear as that. Most youtube videos are not monetised, but the status could change years later. Further, in an hour long video, using a 5 second audio clip with an advertising revenue of £0.10 is considered commercial and a payment?
        mongol 6y ago
        Yes
        Uehreka 6y ago
        Not a lawyer, but I do work with licensed content: In this case you would probable need to pay the licensing fee before turning on ads for any video using assets from this library. But what if you do it by accident, forgetting that you’d used a licensed asset in this long-published video? Tough cookies. If you’re going to publish a mix of commercial and non-commercial content, you’d best be using some sort of tagging system to keep track of which videos use assets from which libraries. Because if you mess up, it’s on you. We frequently run into this issue when a vendor gets bought by another company who doesn’t want to renew their contract with us: At that point we have to use our tagging system to find any content using assets from that library and either pull it or find replacements from somewhere else.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
invalidusernam3 6y ago
> The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license[1]. So for commercial purposes you need to licence them, as described here[2]: > We provide various options from single downloads you choose ($5) to the entire library on hard drive ($1,995), to annual licensing for multi-user media production companies [1] http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/ http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/ [2] https://blog.prosoundeffects.com/how-to-license-bbc-sound-effects-to-use-in-your-commercial-productions https://blog.prosoundeffects.com/how-to-license-bbc-sound-ef...
- bb123 6y ago
  Does anyone with experience with this sort if thing know what kind of deal this is? It seems quite cheap.
  - JdeBP 6y ago
    The deal differs from other sound libraries in that educational purposes are covered by a quite different licence to commercial purposes. This is reflective of the mandate of the Royal Charter that incorporates the BBC, that it "support learning". The various restrictions on endorsement and representation and suchlike in the RemArc licence reflect the Royal Charter's imposition that the BBC itself be non-commercial. You can compare the commercial licence with that of others for yourself. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587496 for starters. Notice the sorts of terms that commercial sound libraries impose. Notice also that the commercial licence is not sold by the BBC. It is sold by a U.S. company named Pro Sound Effects. The Royal Charter prohibits for-profit activities by the BBC itself. So the profits from commercial licences are probably not going back to the BBC.
    - bb123 6y ago
      Thats very interesting, you seem to know a lot about how the BBC is structured. Do you mind if I ask how the for-profit prohibition of their charter aligns with the ad-supported international BBC News websites and broadcasts on BBC Worldwide?
aimor 6y ago
16,011 sound effects and not a single fart. There are 7 belches however (and 1 burp).
- jansan 6y ago
  You should be able to create this by yourself. Beans are cheap.
  - Ruthalas 6y ago
    Recording equipment, on the other hand... Time to rent studio space!
Dig1t 6y ago
This is so cool. I was just searching for a cat meow sound for a personal project today and was so annoyed that most of the top sites returned on Google and DDG were super spammy, ad-riddled atrocities. This is amazing, they have so many cat meows! I can't figure out if its possible to download the entire archive anywhere though..
- bhaak 6y ago
  https://freesound.org/search/?g=1&q=meow&f=%20license:%22Creative+Commons+0%22 https://freesound.org/search/?g=1&q=meow&f=%20license:%22Cre... Wikipedia also has a list of list of pointers to different sites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Free_sound_resources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Free_sound_resources These days, I wouldn't even consider any site that doesn't easily show the license of the available files. Needing to hunt for copyright information is a smell.
- NKCSS 6y ago
  You can just scrape it if you wanted to; grab the src of all the <audio> elements and page through them all. Use the names/descriptions for proper naming.
  - NKCSS 6y ago
    I just checked; the site uses this CSV to build the UI: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/BBCSoundEffects.csv http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/BBCSoundEffects.csv So no need to actually scrape; you can download the CSV and download all the individual files from that. base url: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/ http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/
    - aaronpkelly 6y ago
      Thanks, I used that CSV to download all the WAV files, but the final size was... very large... so I converted them all to OPUS :) The total size is now ~17G. If anyone wants the converted files, I made a .torrent: https://tinyurl.com/y6xn8ksj https://tinyurl.com/y6xn8ksj
adwww 6y ago
I love the descriptions. > School Computer Class, general atmosphere in pre-fabricated room, with hum from computers, keys clicking, occasional background speech, T.V. whistle from monitors & people moving around. Like did it make a big difference if the classroom was pre-fabricated? Perhaps it does to a BBC sound recorder!
- zbuf 6y ago
  It does! Love it. Anyone who grew up in UK schools will know a prefab classroom hut. So from that description I immediately know what type of reverb the sound will have. Crucially, how different it will be from eg. a high ceiling room in a brick building. I'd say that's a great description.
  - BigJono 6y ago
    Yeah we have something similar in Australia. Pretty much every school when I was growing up had these exact same portable classrooms with the distinctive shitty-looking rectangular roof. Every single school I walked past or played sports against had them too. https://aaportablebuildings.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Bayswater-Primary-1.jpg https://aaportablebuildings.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/0... I would have thought they'd have something more modern looking these days. But when I Googled around this article from 3 years ago came up with some newish looking ones in the exact same style. https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/record-one-million-students-to-squeeze-into-victorian-schools-20161010-gryxtx.html https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/record-one-milli... So I guess some things never change. At least they come in that nice blue now instead of the awful brown and green they used to use.
  - adwww 6y ago
    We had just one of the huts left in my UK school - until IIRC the roof blew away?! I don't remember the distinct reverb, my overriding memory is of being far too hot in summer and far too cold in winter.
- C19is20 6y ago
  The inclusion of 'pre-fab', as a description is stunning. I never got to use the ones at my school (UK, 1970's) , as they were prefects only. On the two occasions I was allowed in, I detested them. And I also detested the particular acoustics - which I didn't realise at the time, but several years in pro-audio, many years later, thankfully taught me much.
sillysaurusx 6y ago
I think all of these are available on piratebay. When I was into sound production, I found lots of high quality dumps there. There's way more than 16k floating around on piratebay, more like 500k+. And the quality of some of them is amazing. Never used 'em for commercial applications, obviously, because hobby. But it's a lot of fun remixing them. Another interesting source of sound effects are pirated games. Last of Us in particular has wonderful, stunning, horrifying sound effects, example of which I wish I'd saved.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  As a kid in the 90s, whenever I played a game (particularly demo versions of a lot of games, which in that era were distributed on CDs sold with videogame magazines), I'd eventually look into its folder and search for assets. For years, I kept a collection of interesting .wav files I found in these games, because I wanted to make a video game of my own. I'd also exchange these .wavs with a friend at school, who kept his own collection for the same reason. I vaguely remember using few sound effects from Star Trek: Generations and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith in a school play around 5th or 6th grade :). The sound of the base hangar door from Mysteries of the Sith is still etched deeply in my mind (along with surrounding dialogue). (None one of us knew the concept of intellectual property back then.)
- timc3 6y ago
  Well there is more in the BBC library that are commercially available, something like 30,000. A lot of which are not just short samples.
Sistrixirri 6y ago
Awesome news for content creators on twitch and Youtube
- JdeBP 6y ago
  It's not news, and the HappyMag headline is very misleading.
- donleon75 6y ago
  It a bit cheeky, not sure if youtubers can freely use those sounds and music freely in their content
lklcxkkdk 6y ago
Touching to see some sounds that have probably almost become extinct, like the sound of 8mm film projectors.
codecamper 6y ago
Well there better be some good Dr. Who in there somewhere. Exterminate! We are sentient beings!
- clackerjack 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure the following clip was used during the break-up of the Kaled Dome by artillery fire in 'Genesis of the Daleks' (1975): http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?q=large+guns+barrage http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?q=large+guns+barrage
HenryBemis 6y ago
Didn't that happen a couple of years ago? From another site I see the date March 27, 2019 https://momofilmfest.com/bbc-opens-sound-fx-library-for-free-use/ https://momofilmfest.com/bbc-opens-sound-fx-library-for-free...
mhh__ 6y ago
The BBC is perpetually limited to "not compete" with "real" companies. That is why you still cannot watch anything you want on the iPlayer despite the service having been working for long enough that they had could've really staked at out a claim for themselves. Even if you pay the licence fee they are still overly limited in what they can let you watch - in doing so the regulators have probably killed off the BBC's long term prospects amongst the younger generation (no one my age watches TV by default anymore) The aforementioned might be why they've gone with the licence that they did. If you wonder why the answer is successive Tory government don't like the BBC at an ideological and personal level (hence why the BBC ends up having to pay the once free licence fees of old people)
- easytiger 6y ago
  > If you wonder why the answer is successive Tory government don't like the BBC at an ideological and personal level (hence why the BBC ends up having to pay the once free licence fees of old people) The unelected Labour opposition proposed activist shills took control of the editorial policy of not just the BBC but also print media. For anyone not familiar with the debate, the BBC is inexorably accused of both being too left wing and too right wing by various loudmouths. > Even if you pay the licence fee they are still overly limited in what they can let you watch - in doing so the regulators have probably killed off the BBC's long term prospects amongst the younger generation (no one my age watches TV by default anymore) That's because the content is absolutely appalling. I speak as a BBC fan and proponent historically. Both TV and Radio output quality has been absolutely eviscerated in the last 10 or so years, for various reasons and by certain kinds of persons. I challenge anyone to go to this link for tomorrow: https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl6p/2020/09/26 https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl6p/2020/09/26 and tell me how the premier/flagship BBC channel content on a Friday there remotely represents balanced quality output? In prime time there are 3 reality/talent shows and Casualty, a terrible budget soap opera that's been endured for the last 35 years (with multiple spin offs) as well as a close to zero budget quiz show. That's the "good" content, the rest is even more miserable. How does that even remotely represent value for the $4billion a year they take by statutory arrangement?
  - 6y ago
retox 6y ago
This one seems to sample Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air" which came out in 1969 Martian computer - 1972 (7K, reprocessed) http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07074134.wav http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07074134.wav Terry https://youtu.be/hy3W-3HPMWg?t=117 https://youtu.be/hy3W-3HPMWg?t=117
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
iso1631 6y ago
Anything the BBC releases has to pass a market distortion test to make sure that it doesn't affect the competition - even commercial projects built by the commercial arm of the BBC (which doesn't receive any license fee funding) BBC Jam for example was a project back in 2006 offering multi-media educational resources free across the UK. This was 2 years before Khan Academy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4655292.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4655292.stm Commercial companies complained, and the project was shut down. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6449619.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6449619.stm In 2008, UK broadcasters (BBC, ITV and Channel 4), seeing how Netflix was going, and bearing this in mind, built a fully commercial video on demand platform. That too was shut down by the government because "it might become too powerful". The BBC's self funded commercial arm recently expanded in Austrailia, attracting complaints from the Guardian who had done the same thing. https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-boss-bbc-distorting-news-market-australia-google-needs-take-editorial-responsibility/ https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-boss-bbc-distorting-... Back to license fee funding, earlier this year the BBC, no longer able to use its resources to create the types of broadcasts due to covid (no coverage of sport for example when there's no sport), used its resources to help UK parents who were suddenly tasked with home-schooling 9 million children overnight. Everyone was happy you'd think, but oh no - "The BBC is under pressure to axe access to its home-learning lessons – used by millions of children during the coronavirus crisis – over fears they will squeeze commercial curriculum providers out of the market" https://schoolsweek.co.uk/calls-to-end-bbcs-lockdown-lessons-will-hit-poor-hardest/ https://schoolsweek.co.uk/calls-to-end-bbcs-lockdown-lessons...
- pmachinery 6y ago
  That seems quite a contrast to the early 80s, when they sponsored/commissioned their own branded home computer, promoted it on half the TV channels in the country and got it into every school in the country.
  - mhh__ 6y ago
    The government today is ideologically and politically opposed to the existence of the BBC, go figure. I don't think Thatcher was exactly a fan back in the 80s but equally they had more pressing matters to attend to
gpmcadam 6y ago
Strictly speaking, given the license fee payer funded this, they should all be free and open source anyway.
jalada 6y ago
I made a Twitter bot when this first came out that tweets random sounds from this every few hours: https://twitter.com/oh_sfx https://twitter.com/oh_sfx. A lot of different engine noises...
mhh__ 6y ago
Was surprised to see ASDIC in there. Good quality too. (ASDIC became SONAR)
rustybelt 6y ago
15980 are just variations of "Yakety Sax."
ogre_codes 6y ago
Am I the only one who immediately chased down the end link and typed "Dr. Who" into the search form only to be disappointed? Who cares if you can get a snippet of “South American parrot talking and screeching,” I can get that anywhere. Cool Dr. Who sound effects (or whatever your favorite show is) in good quality is what I think of when I see BBC sound effects.
motohagiography 6y ago
If you do CTF competitions: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?cat=morse+code http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?cat=morse+code Notably, the high speed morse sound was super interesting, as I might like to track down a few more samples of it. When I drop one into this decoder, it's having trouble with it for some reason: https://morsecode.world/international/decoder/audio-decoder-adaptive.html https://morsecode.world/international/decoder/audio-decoder-... In case you were curious, one of the morse sound effects (http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07069047.wav http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07069047.wav a high pitched oscillator) translates to: "P D F H X S T P H I Z UFR U TE4 F 4 L U V X G H I B J AU G G H Q Y P 8 0 P X Y U H B C A X JE P TI F H S T N PH ILK F G WUZ W Z UEI K S" which seems like a cipher of some sort.
OMGWTF 6y ago
I'm not sure I understand the commercial license correctly: > Our default license includes: > 100% Royalty-Free So, I just have to pay for the initial license, but I don't have to pay recurring fees or fees based on how many users pay for my final product? > Commercial Synchronization ??? > All Media I can use the sounds in Videos, Games, Audio Books, anything? > Worldwide Ok. > Unlimited Usage by 1-User I can sell unlimited copies of my final product for any amout, but I have to work on that product alone, at least the parts that use that sounds? So this "1-User" refers to the person who works on the product, not person(s) who will use this product, correct?

541 points by sandebert 6y ago

At least there is more than one kind of insect cricket sound effect, rather than LA field crickets all over the world. (-:

amelius 6y ago
I think these were recorded before the decline of insect populations worldwide.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  Hollywood movies used to be infamous in certain circles for having the same stock cricket chirp sound effects, recorded locally, whereever in the world a movie scene was actually supposed to be. It's nothing to do with insect populations.

unfunco 6y ago

These used to be released on vinyl, there was once an incident in Ireland whereby a record player was hidden in a tree and BBC sound effects records were played at night to scare some of the sheep that were part of a "King of the Sheep" competition. It was a big scandal at the time.

Dig1t 6y ago
Wow this sounds very funny and pretty interesting. I can't find anything about it from some cursory DDG/Googling. Would love to read about it if you have any links.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  Ah, you don't recognize the plot of an episode of Father Ted. It's titled "Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep".
  - mikro2nd 6y ago
    Which title, in turn, is a pastiche of a bloody awful 1970's pop-song.
    - JdeBP 6y ago
      My goodness! I've never heard that song until today. I wonder what street of what town Lally Stott is walking down, in the video. It makes quite a contrast with Richard Ashcroft moodily stomping down Hoxton, 27 years later. M. Stott is walking in time to the beat. And smiling. (-:
- klausjensen 6y ago
  It was believed to be a monster of sorts. It was called "The Beast of Craggy Island".
bilekas 6y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JLLB3fMqEw&feature=youtu.be&t=180&ab_channel=gfreshuk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JLLB3fMqEw&feature=youtu.be...

dylz 6y ago

Non-blogspam url: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk (2018) dang, is it possible to change the URL for this submission? The site linked loads 30+ ad slots and attempts to seemingly canvas fingerprint users.

pmachinery 6y ago
I don't know who/what "happymag" is (took too long to load so I gave up) or where they ranked yesterday but they're now the second result (after the link you posted) for BBC sound effects. The power of HN? Judging by the date I guessed this has probably been submitted before, and it has, with similar discussion about the license/licence which renders it pretty much useless (something I've noticed before about the BBC when searching for free to use sound effects): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050 Particularly disappointing for an organization funded by the public to the tune of around five billion US dollars every year and when the sound effects themselves, while being interesting and potentially useful, are now ancient. Edit: curious why this is downvoted. I thought it was interesting that being on HN might have such a drastic result on "SEO"; I posted a link to a previous discussion people might find interesting (it must be, since someone else also subsequently posted the same link); and I expressed the view that it's disappointing a very well funded public broadcaster couldn't release with fewer restrictions material that is ~35+ years old. Doesn't seem particularly controversial to me.
JdeBP 6y ago
The headline used here is misleading, too. The BBC has released this library, years ago, and the sound effects are available on terms quite similar to those of other sound effects library companies, which are not "libre", and which are augmented by some non-commercial non-endorsement requirements legally imposed upon the BBC by its Royal Charter. Hacker News guidelines would have the title be that of the page, which is simply "BBC Sound Effects - Research & Education Space". It's HappyMag making the "clickbait" claims, not actually the BBC page.
mellosouls 6y ago
Agree, this is not a great link. It's not new, it's two years old and has been covered here before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16864050

nsgi 6y ago

Bit of a shame the license is so restrictive you can't even use it in non-profit organisations without permission. Wondering what you can realistically do with them other than using one for a ringtone on your phone

tgv 6y ago
If you're a "media" producer, you can use them to build your game, soundtrack, presentation, etc. Once you're satisfied, and the product will be published, you can decide to get a license. You've seen the price: buying such licenses beforehand is only for dedicated professionals.
- Daviey 6y ago
  But can you use them as a sound effect in a youtube video, where you may earn some revenue through adverts some time in the future (or maybe not)?
  - dylz 6y ago
    > where you may earn some revenue through adverts This is commercial use and paid.
    - Daviey 6y ago
      It really isn't as clear as that. Most youtube videos are not monetised, but the status could change years later. Further, in an hour long video, using a 5 second audio clip with an advertising revenue of £0.10 is considered commercial and a payment?
      - mongol 6y ago
        Yes
      - Uehreka 6y ago
        Not a lawyer, but I do work with licensed content: In this case you would probable need to pay the licensing fee before turning on ads for any video using assets from this library. But what if you do it by accident, forgetting that you’d used a licensed asset in this long-published video? Tough cookies. If you’re going to publish a mix of commercial and non-commercial content, you’d best be using some sort of tagging system to keep track of which videos use assets from which libraries. Because if you mess up, it’s on you. We frequently run into this issue when a vendor gets bought by another company who doesn’t want to renew their contract with us: At that point we have to use our tagging system to find any content using assets from that library and either pull it or find replacements from somewhere else.

deleted 6y ago

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invalidusernam3 6y ago

> The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license[1]. So for commercial purposes you need to licence them, as described here[2]: > We provide various options from single downloads you choose ($5) to the entire library on hard drive ($1,995), to annual licensing for multi-user media production companies [1] http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/ http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/ [2] https://blog.prosoundeffects.com/how-to-license-bbc-sound-effects-to-use-in-your-commercial-productions https://blog.prosoundeffects.com/how-to-license-bbc-sound-ef...

bb123 6y ago
Does anyone with experience with this sort if thing know what kind of deal this is? It seems quite cheap.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  The deal differs from other sound libraries in that educational purposes are covered by a quite different licence to commercial purposes. This is reflective of the mandate of the Royal Charter that incorporates the BBC, that it "support learning". The various restrictions on endorsement and representation and suchlike in the RemArc licence reflect the Royal Charter's imposition that the BBC itself be non-commercial. You can compare the commercial licence with that of others for yourself. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587496 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24587496 for starters. Notice the sorts of terms that commercial sound libraries impose. Notice also that the commercial licence is not sold by the BBC. It is sold by a U.S. company named Pro Sound Effects. The Royal Charter prohibits for-profit activities by the BBC itself. So the profits from commercial licences are probably not going back to the BBC.
  - bb123 6y ago
    Thats very interesting, you seem to know a lot about how the BBC is structured. Do you mind if I ask how the for-profit prohibition of their charter aligns with the ad-supported international BBC News websites and broadcasts on BBC Worldwide?

aimor 6y ago

16,011 sound effects and not a single fart. There are 7 belches however (and 1 burp).

jansan 6y ago
You should be able to create this by yourself. Beans are cheap.
- Ruthalas 6y ago
  Recording equipment, on the other hand... Time to rent studio space!

Dig1t 6y ago

This is so cool. I was just searching for a cat meow sound for a personal project today and was so annoyed that most of the top sites returned on Google and DDG were super spammy, ad-riddled atrocities. This is amazing, they have so many cat meows! I can't figure out if its possible to download the entire archive anywhere though..

bhaak 6y ago
https://freesound.org/search/?g=1&q=meow&f=%20license:%22Creative+Commons+0%22 https://freesound.org/search/?g=1&q=meow&f=%20license:%22Cre... Wikipedia also has a list of list of pointers to different sites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Free_sound_resources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Free_sound_resources These days, I wouldn't even consider any site that doesn't easily show the license of the available files. Needing to hunt for copyright information is a smell.
NKCSS 6y ago
You can just scrape it if you wanted to; grab the src of all the <audio> elements and page through them all. Use the names/descriptions for proper naming.
- NKCSS 6y ago
  I just checked; the site uses this CSV to build the UI: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/BBCSoundEffects.csv http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/BBCSoundEffects.csv So no need to actually scrape; you can download the CSV and download all the individual files from that. base url: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/ http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/
  - aaronpkelly 6y ago
    Thanks, I used that CSV to download all the WAV files, but the final size was... very large... so I converted them all to OPUS :) The total size is now ~17G. If anyone wants the converted files, I made a .torrent: https://tinyurl.com/y6xn8ksj https://tinyurl.com/y6xn8ksj

adwww 6y ago

I love the descriptions. > School Computer Class, general atmosphere in pre-fabricated room, with hum from computers, keys clicking, occasional background speech, T.V. whistle from monitors & people moving around. Like did it make a big difference if the classroom was pre-fabricated? Perhaps it does to a BBC sound recorder!

zbuf 6y ago
It does! Love it. Anyone who grew up in UK schools will know a prefab classroom hut. So from that description I immediately know what type of reverb the sound will have. Crucially, how different it will be from eg. a high ceiling room in a brick building. I'd say that's a great description.
- BigJono 6y ago
  Yeah we have something similar in Australia. Pretty much every school when I was growing up had these exact same portable classrooms with the distinctive shitty-looking rectangular roof. Every single school I walked past or played sports against had them too. https://aaportablebuildings.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Bayswater-Primary-1.jpg https://aaportablebuildings.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/0... I would have thought they'd have something more modern looking these days. But when I Googled around this article from 3 years ago came up with some newish looking ones in the exact same style. https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/record-one-million-students-to-squeeze-into-victorian-schools-20161010-gryxtx.html https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/record-one-milli... So I guess some things never change. At least they come in that nice blue now instead of the awful brown and green they used to use.
- adwww 6y ago
  We had just one of the huts left in my UK school - until IIRC the roof blew away?! I don't remember the distinct reverb, my overriding memory is of being far too hot in summer and far too cold in winter.
C19is20 6y ago
The inclusion of 'pre-fab', as a description is stunning. I never got to use the ones at my school (UK, 1970's) , as they were prefects only. On the two occasions I was allowed in, I detested them. And I also detested the particular acoustics - which I didn't realise at the time, but several years in pro-audio, many years later, thankfully taught me much.

sillysaurusx 6y ago

I think all of these are available on piratebay. When I was into sound production, I found lots of high quality dumps there. There's way more than 16k floating around on piratebay, more like 500k+. And the quality of some of them is amazing. Never used 'em for commercial applications, obviously, because hobby. But it's a lot of fun remixing them. Another interesting source of sound effects are pirated games. Last of Us in particular has wonderful, stunning, horrifying sound effects, example of which I wish I'd saved.

TeMPOraL 6y ago
As a kid in the 90s, whenever I played a game (particularly demo versions of a lot of games, which in that era were distributed on CDs sold with videogame magazines), I'd eventually look into its folder and search for assets. For years, I kept a collection of interesting .wav files I found in these games, because I wanted to make a video game of my own. I'd also exchange these .wavs with a friend at school, who kept his own collection for the same reason. I vaguely remember using few sound effects from Star Trek: Generations and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith in a school play around 5th or 6th grade :). The sound of the base hangar door from Mysteries of the Sith is still etched deeply in my mind (along with surrounding dialogue). (None one of us knew the concept of intellectual property back then.)
timc3 6y ago
Well there is more in the BBC library that are commercially available, something like 30,000. A lot of which are not just short samples.

Sistrixirri 6y ago

Awesome news for content creators on twitch and Youtube

JdeBP 6y ago
It's not news, and the HappyMag headline is very misleading.
donleon75 6y ago
It a bit cheeky, not sure if youtubers can freely use those sounds and music freely in their content

lklcxkkdk 6y ago

Touching to see some sounds that have probably almost become extinct, like the sound of 8mm film projectors.

codecamper 6y ago

Well there better be some good Dr. Who in there somewhere. Exterminate! We are sentient beings!

clackerjack 6y ago
I'm pretty sure the following clip was used during the break-up of the Kaled Dome by artillery fire in 'Genesis of the Daleks' (1975): http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?q=large+guns+barrage http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?q=large+guns+barrage

HenryBemis 6y ago

Didn't that happen a couple of years ago? From another site I see the date March 27, 2019 https://momofilmfest.com/bbc-opens-sound-fx-library-for-free-use/ https://momofilmfest.com/bbc-opens-sound-fx-library-for-free...

mhh__ 6y ago

The BBC is perpetually limited to "not compete" with "real" companies. That is why you still cannot watch anything you want on the iPlayer despite the service having been working for long enough that they had could've really staked at out a claim for themselves. Even if you pay the licence fee they are still overly limited in what they can let you watch - in doing so the regulators have probably killed off the BBC's long term prospects amongst the younger generation (no one my age watches TV by default anymore) The aforementioned might be why they've gone with the licence that they did. If you wonder why the answer is successive Tory government don't like the BBC at an ideological and personal level (hence why the BBC ends up having to pay the once free licence fees of old people)

easytiger 6y ago
> If you wonder why the answer is successive Tory government don't like the BBC at an ideological and personal level (hence why the BBC ends up having to pay the once free licence fees of old people) The unelected Labour opposition proposed activist shills took control of the editorial policy of not just the BBC but also print media. For anyone not familiar with the debate, the BBC is inexorably accused of both being too left wing and too right wing by various loudmouths. > Even if you pay the licence fee they are still overly limited in what they can let you watch - in doing so the regulators have probably killed off the BBC's long term prospects amongst the younger generation (no one my age watches TV by default anymore) That's because the content is absolutely appalling. I speak as a BBC fan and proponent historically. Both TV and Radio output quality has been absolutely eviscerated in the last 10 or so years, for various reasons and by certain kinds of persons. I challenge anyone to go to this link for tomorrow: https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl6p/2020/09/26 https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl6p/2020/09/26 and tell me how the premier/flagship BBC channel content on a Friday there remotely represents balanced quality output? In prime time there are 3 reality/talent shows and Casualty, a terrible budget soap opera that's been endured for the last 35 years (with multiple spin offs) as well as a close to zero budget quiz show. That's the "good" content, the rest is even more miserable. How does that even remotely represent value for the $4billion a year they take by statutory arrangement?
- 6y ago

retox 6y ago

This one seems to sample Terry Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air" which came out in 1969 Martian computer - 1972 (7K, reprocessed) http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07074134.wav http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07074134.wav Terry https://youtu.be/hy3W-3HPMWg?t=117 https://youtu.be/hy3W-3HPMWg?t=117

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

iso1631 6y ago

Anything the BBC releases has to pass a market distortion test to make sure that it doesn't affect the competition - even commercial projects built by the commercial arm of the BBC (which doesn't receive any license fee funding) BBC Jam for example was a project back in 2006 offering multi-media educational resources free across the UK. This was 2 years before Khan Academy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4655292.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4655292.stm Commercial companies complained, and the project was shut down. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6449619.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6449619.stm In 2008, UK broadcasters (BBC, ITV and Channel 4), seeing how Netflix was going, and bearing this in mind, built a fully commercial video on demand platform. That too was shut down by the government because "it might become too powerful". The BBC's self funded commercial arm recently expanded in Austrailia, attracting complaints from the Guardian who had done the same thing. https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-boss-bbc-distorting-news-market-australia-google-needs-take-editorial-responsibility/ https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-boss-bbc-distorting-... Back to license fee funding, earlier this year the BBC, no longer able to use its resources to create the types of broadcasts due to covid (no coverage of sport for example when there's no sport), used its resources to help UK parents who were suddenly tasked with home-schooling 9 million children overnight. Everyone was happy you'd think, but oh no - "The BBC is under pressure to axe access to its home-learning lessons – used by millions of children during the coronavirus crisis – over fears they will squeeze commercial curriculum providers out of the market" https://schoolsweek.co.uk/calls-to-end-bbcs-lockdown-lessons-will-hit-poor-hardest/ https://schoolsweek.co.uk/calls-to-end-bbcs-lockdown-lessons...

pmachinery 6y ago
That seems quite a contrast to the early 80s, when they sponsored/commissioned their own branded home computer, promoted it on half the TV channels in the country and got it into every school in the country.
- mhh__ 6y ago
  The government today is ideologically and politically opposed to the existence of the BBC, go figure. I don't think Thatcher was exactly a fan back in the 80s but equally they had more pressing matters to attend to

gpmcadam 6y ago

Strictly speaking, given the license fee payer funded this, they should all be free and open source anyway.

jalada 6y ago

I made a Twitter bot when this first came out that tweets random sounds from this every few hours: https://twitter.com/oh_sfx https://twitter.com/oh_sfx. A lot of different engine noises...

mhh__ 6y ago

Was surprised to see ASDIC in there. Good quality too. (ASDIC became SONAR)

rustybelt 6y ago

15980 are just variations of "Yakety Sax."

ogre_codes 6y ago

Am I the only one who immediately chased down the end link and typed "Dr. Who" into the search form only to be disappointed? Who cares if you can get a snippet of “South American parrot talking and screeching,” I can get that anywhere. Cool Dr. Who sound effects (or whatever your favorite show is) in good quality is what I think of when I see BBC sound effects.

motohagiography 6y ago

If you do CTF competitions: http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?cat=morse+code http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?cat=morse+code Notably, the high speed morse sound was super interesting, as I might like to track down a few more samples of it. When I drop one into this decoder, it's having trouble with it for some reason: https://morsecode.world/international/decoder/audio-decoder-adaptive.html https://morsecode.world/international/decoder/audio-decoder-... In case you were curious, one of the morse sound effects (http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07069047.wav http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/assets/07069047.wav a high pitched oscillator) translates to: "P D F H X S T P H I Z UFR U TE4 F 4 L U V X G H I B J AU G G H Q Y P 8 0 P X Y U H B C A X JE P TI F H S T N PH ILK F G WUZ W Z UEI K S" which seems like a cipher of some sort.

OMGWTF 6y ago

I'm not sure I understand the commercial license correctly: > Our default license includes: > 100% Royalty-Free So, I just have to pay for the initial license, but I don't have to pay recurring fees or fees based on how many users pay for my final product? > Commercial Synchronization ??? > All Media I can use the sounds in Videos, Games, Audio Books, anything? > Worldwide Ok. > Unlimited Usage by 1-User I can sell unlimited copies of my final product for any amout, but I have to work on that product alone, at least the parts that use that sounds? So this "1-User" refers to the person who works on the product, not person(s) who will use this product, correct?