The Freesound Project is a web site that collects sounds and sound effects (not music) that are available under Creative Commons licensing, and therefore free and legal for anyone to use. It’s also a community; you can register and upload your own sounds for sharing.
At the top right, enter a term in the Search box. For example, try entering thunder or bell, and you’ll find lots of options.
Great resource, but do you think it is a good idea to include sound effects in a presentation? I’ve often found the result can seem amateurish and irritating.
I believe we should be careful introducing extraneous media into presentation that doesn’t directly aid the presenter to convey the message.
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Jessica
Jessica,
You are absolutely right that sound effects need to be used only to convey the message. But there are a number of ways that they can be used to do so. For example, in my holiday card (http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/pptblog/create-a-swinging-bell-or-pendulum-in-powerpoint/), I used a bell sound for the bell. The message was the passing of time and its celebration as we go into the New Year. Or, for a message that difficult times are ahead, you could use a thunderstorm sound. It works as a metaphor. These are both “soft” messages that lend themselves to visualization and similarly, sound effects. You certainly wouldn’t use the sound of money clinking in a business presentation on 3rd quarter financial results. Thanks for bringing that up.
As a teacher of students with visual impairments I would like to disagree for one simple reason. Power points are not usually accessible. However, if using a power point individuals who are blind require notes from the power point and transitions sounds assist them in tracking the presentation.