What is Soundsnap?

Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD's.

It was originally started by a small group of sound people from all over the world. Our common belief is that sounds and samples should be free for everyone to use in their projects, commercial or not.

Our users are a diverse mix of sound designers, sound artists, web game developers, filmmakers and music producers. Hobbyists and home video makers are welcome too.

What Soundsnap is NOT:

  • An alternative to Myspace, Limewire or BitTorrent.
  • A place to upload your band's songs or your favourite mp3's. Soundsnap is only for sound effects and loops.
  • A place you can upload or find sounds from commercial libraries. All sounds here are original- made or recorded by its users.

We encourage everyone to upload high quality sound FX and samples, helping us make every kind of sound available on Soundsnap.

We are looking for feedback from the community to constantly improve, and we depend on our users for that. So please feel free to leave a recommendation or feedback in the special section of our forum.

I hope you enjoy your time here and Happy Snapping!

Tasos Frantzolas
Soundsnap Founder

mutanto's picture
Posts: 75
Joined: 2007-08-27

Hi. I've been thinking about the star ratings.

I think it's a little bit awkward how rarely they are used, seeing that you can obviously upload a 50+ sound files only to get 2 or 3 ratings.

One of the main reasons I joined Soundsnap for, was to actually receive some form of response to the stuff I created. Not *just* to share material.

So, I'd like to push for some form of making use of the rating thingy, or as coldhearted as it may sound, consider removing it altogether (which would definitely be a pity).

How about having people forced to give a rate before they download something? Or, if that sounds too compelling, maybe loosen it up so that they're forced to rate every 3, 5 or say 10 downloads or something like that?

Best Regards,
Henrik Cederblad

--

http://www.henrikcederblad.com



Roland Stähle's picture
Posts: 258
Joined: 2007-08-26
Hey Mutanto, I'm absolutely

Hey Mutanto, I'm absolutely your opinion. My suggestion is that one must value, before one is allowed to download.



Sampleconstruct's picture
Posts: 224
Joined: 2007-09-11
I think it´s not possible

I think it´s not possible to force people to vote although I´d like them to. I don´t download here but I vote a lot, because I belive, we all need feedback in our artistic lives. I checked out a file from the Sonic Art category last night (http://www.soundsnap.com/taxonomy/term/77). Is has been downloaded 107000+ times and only has 2 votes, which is really bizarre. So people come here like into a supermarket, take their favourites and leave without paying. Strange world it is......

--

www.simonstockhausen.com - www.universe-of-sounds.com



Tasos's picture
Posts: 814
Joined: 2007-07-02
Thanks for all the input

Thanks for all the input guys.

I think that its hard to force people to rate, since this would place a barrier to downloading. However, we need to think about a good way to promote rating more.

Hopefully this discussion will raise the awareness about the importance of rating.



Tasos's picture
Posts: 814
Joined: 2007-07-02
One thing we have thought

One thing we have thought about, is to have a point system that will reward users for some things, like uploading sounds, rating or even posting on forums maybe.

On one hand, we don't want to make this into a competition- it could lower the quality of uploads.

But this would give a motive for users who cannot upload, to contribute to the community by rating.

Then we could have an algorithm that selects the probability of appearing on the 'featured users' block according to this score. This is a complicated but interesting idea i think...



Roland Stähle's picture
Posts: 258
Joined: 2007-08-26
Hi Tasos, This sounds very

Hi Tasos,
This sounds very good. But you should still allow to time with changes.
Rate Sounds, please!!!It makes FUN!!!
Many thanks it's really a great side.



Ann75's picture
Posts: 1
Joined: 2007-10-21
I just joined the site a few

I just joined the site a few days ago and I've rated just about everything I've listened to/downloaded. I think it helps the composers so they'll have an idea of what types of sounds people are interested in.



HardPCM's picture
Posts: 53
Joined: 2007-07-03
BAD OR NOT PLEASE RATE

BAD OR NOT PLEASE RATE THEM!!!!!

No, I have no solution for that problem
but having input from the sound users
is always cool... :(

--

http://www.esnips.com/user/hardpcm
Jump!!! Destroy!!! Create Better!!! I love Distortions Yaaaa!!!



Tasos's picture
Posts: 814
Joined: 2007-07-02
Actually, Its more important

Actually,

Its more important to rate bad sounds, because that way the bad sounds are differentiated from the high quality material. This is especially important for recorded sound effects, where quality is essential for our professional users.

Rating is our main weapon in the battle against low quality recordings!



Red Prince's picture
Posts: 213
Joined: 2007-11-10
I think comments are much

I think comments are much more useful than star ratings. If you get one rating of two stars but many downloads, what does that even mean? But if you get a comment from someone explaining what is wrong (or right) with the sound, that is more meaningful.