Soundly cloud sound effects library Asbjoern Andersen


Once in a while, a game-changer comes along – and in the world of sound effects, Soundly looks to be exactly that. It’s an entirely new way of getting sound effects: It’s cloud-based, offers drag-and-drop straight to your DAW, instant access to thousands of sound effects, and it’s lightening-fast.

Another thing that’s really exciting: Soundly founders Peder and Christian are huge fans of A Sound Effect, so they brought me on board to be their exclusive distributor of premium independent sound effects! I’m currently working on bringing the libraries from the independent SFX community into Soundly.

So how does Soundly work? Check out the video introduction, read my interview with founder Peder Jørgensen – and download it for free below, so you can try it yourself:



Soundly Intro


 

Hi Peder, just what is Soundly?

Soundly is an app for Mac and Windows that gives you access to a big 96kHz, 24-bit sound effects library in the cloud, and let’s you drag and drop sound effects from the cloud library straight into your project. It works with every sound and video editor that we have tested it with, and we’ve tested it with a lot. You can also add effects like pitching, reversing, summing, hear it in real time and have it instantly printed to the sound when you drag it out.
 

When did you get the idea for Soundly, and how long has it been in the works?

I started doing more and more sound design on my laptop, and it was a drag to always have to have a hard drive of sound effects with me, so I started researching if it was possible to solve this all in the cloud. I’m a decent coder and tested different ideas, and when I got the first test version running, I really felt I was onto something big. I was amazed at how fluent and fast everything was feeling and I just went from there.

I was amazed at how fluent and fast everything was feeling and I just went from there

I’ve been working on this on and off for the last 5 years, and we have been running beta tests for the last two years so it feels like it’s ready to meet the rest of the world.
 

Download Soundly for free – and get 300+ free SFX too:

Want to take Soundly for a spin? Simply download it below for Windows or Mac, set up an account and you’re off. Oh, and you get 300+ free sound effects in Soundly in the process too!

Download Soundly for free below:
 
Download for WindowsDownload for Mac


 

Soundly offers a unique cloud based approach to sound effects. How does it work, and how about performance?

Files come down blistering fast from the cloud in very high quality and people often won’t believe it’s possible to do it that fast, but we have done some very smart things to make this work as fast as it does. The servers are running on Google’s own infrastructure so this is very fast wherever you are, and scales perfectly when we are doing stress loads – so I’m very confident the servers will hold up even under heavy load.
 

Soundly comes with librarian features too, so you can manage your existing catalog too – how does the librarian aspect work?

Yes, you can also use Soundly to index your local sound effects or music and use it as a regular librarian tool.

You can also use Soundly to index your local sound effects or music and use it as a regular librarian tool

It supports meta data in many different formats and you can also import your entire library from other sound library tools.

A cool feature is that you can monitor a local folder, so if you add new sound effects to your sound effects folder they will be indexed by Soundly and instantly available.
 

Soundly & A Sound Effect

I’m really happy to have A Sound Effect on board for the Soundly app – and the independent SFX libraries are gradually being added. The A Sound Effect website will continue to work just as before, of course, and I have lots of exciting things coming up here, too. I look forward to sharing them with you!

 

There’s also a premium SFX library included. What’s the story behind that one?

The idea behind the app was to join a librarian app and sound effects in one tool. So from the very beginning I’ve been trying to get a good sound library on board. It’s been a lot of work as most people with a good library won’t sell it as a subscription. They want to sell the whole thing for a high sum instead of what we are doing, selling a subscription at $14.99 a month. I knew Christian Schaanning from the sound design community and he has done some great films here in Norway and has also been doing some work in LA on films like Transformers 3. You can check out his imdb here.
I had just lost another Library and met him randomly and drunkenly late at a bar in Oslo… Mid week. I had been to an award show – I do sound for tv and radio adds – and he had had a seminar with some junior sound designers. We made one of those drunken deals where we where going to meet tomorrow and discuss this further, and we actually did.

As it turned out, he has made one of the best sounding sound libraries I’ve ever heard

As it turned out, he has made one of the best sounding sound libraries I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t organized yet, but he promised to get it named and tagged, and he did. We uploaded the library to the beta testers in March, and they instantly loved it. As the library is in the cloud we are constantly adding new sound effects and it’s growing every day. Christian has now joined the company and we are trying our best to save the world, together.


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

    Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

    Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

    Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

    The library features:

    • 450 + designed sound effects
    • 190 + source audio files
    • Whooshes
    • Impacts
    • Risers
    • Stingers
    • Low end and Sub Bass
    • Impulse Responses
    • Passbys
    • Textures – noise, grit, glitch
    • Ambiences
    • Buttons and Clicks
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    Creative Tension

    This collection offers a curated selection of screeches, high-tension tremolo, heavy jeté strokes, dark demonic textures, finger patterns, chaotic string elements, clock loops and bow accents.

    Haunting and Experimental

    Create haunting atmospheres, perfect for horror, thriller or experimental soundtracks. Every element has been designed to unsettle and disturb, blurring the line between music and noise.

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  • Modular UI is an advanced user interface library designed by world-renowned sound designer and musician Richard Devine.

    Designed and sourced entirely from Richard Devine’s personal and exclusive Eurorack modular synths and processors collection, the Modular UI soundpack combines the retro, clean sound of analog with the futuristic tech of the new wave of advanced analog and digital synthesis from modular synths, evoking flashbacks of iconic sound design heard in both classic and modern sci-fi films.

    The Modular UI soundpack gives you access to sounds created by one of the masters of modular synths and sound design, and is sourced from equipment that would take a lifetime to purchase and assemble, giving an incredible value to this soundpack both artistically and financially.

    Utilizing many Eurorack modules that have not yet been released to the public and containing samples equally suited to sound designers and electronic musicians alike, Modular UI is in a class by itself!

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Latest releases:

  • Kawaii UI Bundle is the ultimate bundle for cute user interface sounds.
    In this Bundle you get both volumes of our Kawaii UI libraries.
    Kawaii UI + Kawaii UI 2

    These libraries provide an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
    Bring your games and apps to life with the Kawaii UI Bundle.

    It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.

    Kawaii UI Trailer
    Kawaii UI 2 Trailer

    The source recordings inside are a treasure trove of physical button presses, clicks, pops, taps, mouth sounds, toks, shakers, general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds.. Kawaii UI Bundle provides you with the essential building blocks to craft your own distinctive designs.  Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.

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  • Vegetation Footsteps is a detailed collection of footwear and movement variations recorded on dry leaves and forest floor textures. Featuring walk, run, sprint, scuff, pivot, and single step actions, this library captures the nuanced crunch and rustle of layered vegetation underfoot. With performances in sport shoes, sandals, leather shoes, high heels, and barefoot, each sound is designed for realistic character movement across natural environments. Ideal for games, film, and animation, Vegetation Footsteps offers clean, focused assets for building immersive terrain interaction.

  • A collection of 135 potion sound effects.

  • A collection of 140 individual power up ability sound effects.

  • A collection of 103 bowling sound effects.

Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


What’s ahead for Soundly?

We have a lot of stuff coming out the door, and upgrading will always be free as this is subscription based. We like to keep things secret before we release new features, but I can say that we are working on a revolutionary way for sound designers and video editors to work together in the cloud. Get on board now and join the revolution :)
 

Soundly – at a glance:

 
• FREE TO DOWNLOAD and comes with 300+ free sound effects, hand-picked from the exclusive Soundly PRO premium SFX catalog
• 2 PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION OPTIONS: PRO ($14.99/m, 5000+ SFX), 24HR pass ($9.99)
• ACCESS sound effects in the cloud from anywhere in the world
• DRAG-AND-DROP whole sound files – or snippets – from the Soundly cloud straight into your DAW, video editing suite or to your desktop
• TWEAK AND EDIT pitch, speed and reverse on any sound, and hear the results in real-time
• IMPORT LOCAL FILES – including metadata -, to easily manage your existing SFX collections
• INSTANT SEARCH to quickly find the sounds you need, across cloud libraries + local files
• THE STORE allows you to get additional free and premium sound effects libraries – immediately delivered as you need them
• BUILT FOR SPEED, as Soundly uses Google’s infrastructure for unparalleled redundancy, safety and speed

Visit getsoundly.com for more


 

Please share this:


 



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

    Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

    Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

    Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

    The library features:

    • 450 + designed sound effects
    • 190 + source audio files
    • Whooshes
    • Impacts
    • Risers
    • Stingers
    • Low end and Sub Bass
    • Impulse Responses
    • Passbys
    • Textures – noise, grit, glitch
    • Ambiences
    • Buttons and Clicks
    • Mechanical Elements
    • Granular effects
    91 %
    OFF
  • Bloody Nightmare is a modern horror cinematic library aimed at the most cutting edge bone chilling productions out there.

    Whether you work in sound design, as a composer, trailer editor or as an electronic musician, Bloody Nightmare is a valuable new wave of Horror sounds that will surely cause visceral moments of terror and dread!

    91 %
    OFF
  • Modular UI is an advanced user interface library designed by world-renowned sound designer and musician Richard Devine.

    Designed and sourced entirely from Richard Devine’s personal and exclusive Eurorack modular synths and processors collection, the Modular UI soundpack combines the retro, clean sound of analog with the futuristic tech of the new wave of advanced analog and digital synthesis from modular synths, evoking flashbacks of iconic sound design heard in both classic and modern sci-fi films.

    The Modular UI soundpack gives you access to sounds created by one of the masters of modular synths and sound design, and is sourced from equipment that would take a lifetime to purchase and assemble, giving an incredible value to this soundpack both artistically and financially.

    Utilizing many Eurorack modules that have not yet been released to the public and containing samples equally suited to sound designers and electronic musicians alike, Modular UI is in a class by itself!

    91 %
    OFF
Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Kawaii UI Bundle is the ultimate bundle for cute user interface sounds.
    In this Bundle you get both volumes of our Kawaii UI libraries.
    Kawaii UI + Kawaii UI 2

    These libraries provide an adorable blend of cute, satisfying interface sounds, crafted to enhance user experience and feedback.
    Bring your games and apps to life with the Kawaii UI Bundle.

    It’s ideal for creating joyful menus, delightful HUDs, playful navigation and notifications, engaging pop-ups, and expressive text.

    Kawaii UI Trailer
    Kawaii UI 2 Trailer

    The source recordings inside are a treasure trove of physical button presses, clicks, pops, taps, mouth sounds, toks, shakers, general synthesised UI sounds, FM bells and telemetry style sounds.. Kawaii UI Bundle provides you with the essential building blocks to craft your own distinctive designs.  Combining these elements gives sound designers a robust sonic palette to create new UI sounds.

    13 %
    OFF
  • Vegetation Footsteps is a detailed collection of footwear and movement variations recorded on dry leaves and forest floor textures. Featuring walk, run, sprint, scuff, pivot, and single step actions, this library captures the nuanced crunch and rustle of layered vegetation underfoot. With performances in sport shoes, sandals, leather shoes, high heels, and barefoot, each sound is designed for realistic character movement across natural environments. Ideal for games, film, and animation, Vegetation Footsteps offers clean, focused assets for building immersive terrain interaction.

  • A collection of 135 potion sound effects.

  • A collection of 140 individual power up ability sound effects.

  • A collection of 103 bowling sound effects.


   

8 thoughts on “Meet Soundly – a revolutionary new cloud-based approach to sound effects:

  1. sorry for my language, but this is fucking amazing!! drag and drop works perfectly, playback is fast, the only thing right now is lack of sounds, but that is ofcourse will change in the near future as i imagine. Again amazing app!! Will be going for paid subscription asap.

    • Fantastic, thanks Linas, glad to hear that! And indeed, there’s much more content and features on the way – stay tuned :)

  2. Is there any way to get my Filemaker database into your program? I have a ton of sound effects that are using the Filemake as the search engine. But I see i can drag my folders into your program but how do I get my database to link to it?

    • Just got word from Peder at Soundly that he might be able to help with that Filemaker database :) You can email him at mail@getsoundly.com

  3. Hi there, I am very impressed with what I had seen of this software and I am extremely interested in using this in my workflow, but have a few questions. I have a pretty extensive sound library on a server and was wondering if your software will allow me to add all of libraries and then search them locally? I was also wondering if the the metadata feature allows you to add metadata to preexisting libraries? If you could answer these questions for me, it would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you

  4. Hi Anthony,

    Thanks so much for checking out Soundly!

    Yes, there is no limit on the amount of local files you can index if you subscribe to Soundly. In the Soundly Free version, there is a limit of 2500 local files.
    You can add metadata to whatever audio file you have indexed in Soundly, and Soundly will also print this meta data to the wave file itself.

    Thanks for your interest in Soundly! We are very happy that you like it!!

    Best Christian
    Soundly

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