Free Synths
Free synths are good enough for serious horror work. Learn one properly before you buy anything. A single synth is a great limitation.
See all 3 tools →Free sounds
Free Horror Sounds & Plugins
Start making horror music without spending anything.
Free synths, sample libraries and sound archives that are genuinely useful for horror composition.
How far can free tools take you?
Free tools are often enough to write convincing horror music: a sine wave, a long reverb and a few recordings go a long way. These are the free resources worth learning properly.
Browse by type
Online Sound Libraries
Free online libraries are full of found sounds: doors, creaks, rooms and weather. Check the licence on each sound, then process them until they're yours.
Start with: Freesound · BBC Sound Effects
See all 2 tools →Browse by horror style
Dread
The slow stuff: a low drone, the rumbling of doom, the sense that something bad is going to happen and we don't know when.
Tension
Notes fighting each other and wanting to return home. In horror, we never quite let them.
Psychological Horror
Unsettling isn't the same as tense. Two things that don't get on: notes, instruments or vibes that shouldn't be together.
Supernatural
Things that shouldn't be there: pure sine tones with glide and vibrato, whispers, and sounds with no visible source.
Body Horror
Organic, wet and close. Sounds the listener feels in the body, not just hears.
Industrial Horror
Metal, machinery and noise. Found sounds and distortion that turn pipes and factories into something hostile.
Cosmic Horror
Too big to understand. Vast spaces and music with no tonal home, so the listener has nothing to hold on to.
Gothic Horror
Candlelit and old-world: organs, strings, and the odd waltz for vampires dancing.
Folk Horror
Old, rural and wrong: acoustic instruments, voices and simple melodies taken out of context.
Free horror music sample pack
Flesh & Bow
Over 60 drag-and-drop horror samples recorded by Richard Pryn on cello, violin and voice: dry, mono and in the key of G, ready to layer and process into your own signature sounds.
- 10 drones
- 28 string impacts
- 12 vocal effects
- 15 signature sounds
WAV, 44.1 kHz / 24-bit, mono. Royalty-free, including commercial use. Free: just enter your email on Richard's site.
How to choose
Check the licence
Free doesn't always mean free for commercial use, especially on sound archives.
Learn one synth deeply
Pick one free synth and learn to make drones, risers and ghostly tones with it.
Putting the sounds to work
Explore all free sounds
The Free Orchestra
A free Kontakt Player library of cinematic sounds drawn from ProjectSAM's catalogue, recorded in a concert hall: string staccatos, horns, brass clusters, choirs, percussion and drones.
TensionDark Atmospheres
Free Sample Libraries
PaulXStretch
A free app and plugin for extreme time stretching, based on the PaulStretch algorithm, made for radical transformation rather than subtle correction.
DreadDark AtmospheresCosmic Horror
Free Plugins
VCV Rack 2 Free
A free, open-source virtual Eurorack modular synthesiser that runs as a standalone application, with VCV's free modules included and access to the VCV Library of third-party modules.
Dark AtmospheresIndustrial HorrorTension
Free Free Sounds
Vital
A spectral-warping wavetable synthesiser.
TensionDark AtmospheresCosmic Horror
Free version available Free Sounds
Surge XT
A free, open-source hybrid subtractive synthesiser with multiple oscillator types, filters, modulation and built-in effects, available as a plugin and a standalone application.
Dark AtmospheresTensionIndustrial Horror
Free Free Sounds
Freesound
A free, collaborative online library of user-uploaded sounds (738,114 at the time of checking) run from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, searchable by tag, with downloads requiring a free account.
Dark AtmospheresSupernaturalBody Horror
Free Free Sounds
BBC Sound Effects
An online archive of over 30,000 BBC sound effects that can be searched, auditioned, mixed in a browser mixer and downloaded as MP3 or WAV.
Dark AtmospheresGothic HorrorFolk Horror
Free version available Free Sounds
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