- Vinyl Noise SFX is a free library of vinyl noise and crackle sound effects created by Matoto aka Chia. The library contains 37 audio samples in total, featuring a variety of vinyl record noises. Visit for this and many more awesome free sample packs for your production arsenal!
- 37 FREE vinyl crackle samples I made for you guys (Chia's Vinyl Crackle Sample Pack) Recently I've been talking with you guys who go to the IRC channel about this — here are 37 (more than three dozen!) samples of authentic, old school crackly noisy bits you get from playing vinyl.
Sound of old vinyl crackling noise. 6 versions included: Vinyl Crackling Noise Start - 0:02 Vinyl Crackling Noise (with a needle) - 0:12 Vinyl Crackling Noise - 0:07 Vinyl Crackling Noise Loop - 0:09 Vinyl Crackling Noise Loop - 0:08 Vinyl Crackling Noise Loop - 0:07 Thanks and enjoy!
It sounds crazy, but despite the fact that many of us work hard to make recordings that are as pristine as possible, we also miss those blemishes that used to be part and parcel of the audio experience: hiss, crackle and other types of noise.
But now, thanks to SampleRadar, you can bring them back. This collection includes all kinds of 'unwanted' sounds that can be used to add character to your productions.
What you need to know
The noise, hiss and crackle samples are divided into eight folders, each of which is labelled to describe the type of sounds that it contains.
All the samples are supplied as WAV files so can be imported directly into your DAW or sampler of choice. Because they're royalty-free, you're welcome to use the samples in your music in any way you like - all we ask is that you don't re-distribute them.
The noise, hiss and crackle samples samples are supplied in a zip file, so you'll need to extract them before you can see them. Enjoy!
Example sounds
Tape noise
Vinyl crackle
Perc hit
Modular rhythm
![Vinyl crackle sound effect fl studio Vinyl crackle sound effect fl studio](/uploads/1/2/5/0/125042929/838637120.jpg)
Noise, hiss and crackle samples: click to download
Noise, hiss and crackle samples (263MB)
These samples originally appeared on Future Music magazine's cover DVD. Check out the latest issue for many more.
I'm trying to figure out how I would create a really old‑style, warm‑sounding distortion/crackle on a string motif for an intro to a song I'm writing. I'll be using East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra for the actual string loop, and I want to create a sort of 'AM radio' feel for it. That's easy enough to achieve using various EQ techniques, but I also want to give it a really subtle '60s record‑player crackle — something that's there if you know what you're listening for, but not so 'in your face' as to sound cheesy or clichéd. I was wondering if there are plug‑ins that can do this. I fear I may have to break the bank again...
Here are three plug‑ins you could use to add simulated vinyl noise to your audio tracks without breaking the bank: Izotope's Vinyl (left), Retro Sampling's Vinyl Dreams (far left), and Steinberg Cubase's bundled Grungelizer (top).
Via SOS web site
Computer Sound Crackles
SOS contributor Mike Senior replies: There's no need to break the bank for this, because there are actually a few different freeware plug‑ins that provide the kind of thing you're after. One of the best known is Izotope's freeware Vinyl plug‑in, which is available for both Mac and PC. The advantage of this one is that you get a lot of control over the exact character of the vinyl noise you're creating: not only can you balance various different mechanical and electrical noises, but you can also choose the decade you want your virtual vinyl to hail from and how your processed audio is affected by disc wear. The downside of this plug‑in for me, though, is that it doesn't seem to output some of its added noises in stereo, irrespective of how I set up the controls, and a lot of the character of vinyl noise, to me, lies in its stereo width. To be fair, though, the 'dust' and 'crackle' components seem to be stereo, and stereo was, of course, only really in its infancy in the '60s, so this might not matter to you. Indeed, collapsing the whole signal to mono might be a useful way to 'date' the string sound itself. If you're running Steinberg's Cubase, the built‑in Grungelizer plug‑in provides a similar paradigm to the Izotope plug‑in, albeit with a simpler control set. However, all the added noises from this plug‑in appear to be in mono too.
For stereo vinyl noise, check out the freeware plug‑ins from Retro Sampling (www.retrosampling.se). Both Audio Impurities and Vinyl Dreams can overlay vinyl noise, although you only get wet/dry knobs, so you're stuck with the preset effect. That said, if you set up the plug‑ins on a separate channel in your sequencer, you can dramatically adjust their character with EQ to make them seem less obtrusive — a combination of high‑cut and low‑cut filtering usually works well for me. If you want a smoother vinyl noise (less of the Rice Crispies!), you can also slot in a fast limiter or dedicated transient processor to steamroller spikes in the waveform.
Vinyl Sound Effect
These processing techniques also allow you to get good mileage from the vinyl noise samples that periodically crop up on sample libraries. I've been collecting vinyl noise samples for a while, so I can tell you that there are good selections on the Tekniks Ghetto Grooves and Mixtape Toolkit titles, as well as on Spectrasonics' original Retrofunk collection. I've also turned up a good few examples in general‑purpose media sound‑effects libraries, if you have anything like that to hand.