The Free App That Makes Sound Design Stupid Easy

If someone came up to me and said, "Hey Dylan, I'm not looking to spend any money, I just want a smoother sound design workflow. What would you recommend?", the first thing I'd say is "who are you and how'd you get into my house?" The second thing: download the free app called Soundly, without a doubt. Full disclosure: I told the Soundly team I was making this video and asked if they'd sponsor it. They said yes, and they keep the lights on in this studio. The recommendation, though, predates the sponsorship. Here are five reasons why.

1. Thousands of free sounds, one click

First, what Soundly is: an intelligent library for ALL your sound effects. Drag in the folders you've accumulated over the years, and everything below applies to them. But it also ships with free collections you add with a click (one alone is over 18,000 sounds), plus a built-in store if you want paid packs without hunting the internet. They even just added a free meme sound effects pack: recreations of famous meme sounds you can use without copyright strikes. 2,000 years later... Super cool of them.

2. Smart search that actually understands you

This is the feature I wish every editing software had. Search "plane" in Final Cut's sound effects tab and you only get files with "plane" in the name; your "jet" and "bomber" sounds stay hidden. Soundly's smart search includes related terms: aircraft, even a "landing in Cape Town" recording, because it understands the big picture, not just keywords. It also suggests related search terms (type "beach," get ideas for building a fuller environment), and if English isn't your first language, search in your own language and it translates the results.

3. Find Similar

Found a sound that's almost right, an airplane interior that's just too noisy? Hit Find Similar and Soundly scans your entire library, yours and theirs, and lists every variation. When you're in a flow state and need another option fast, it's a huge timesaver.

(You'll see some results marked Soundly Pro, the paid tier. You likely won't need it: it's for 10,000+ personal sounds, cloud storage, and their 250,000-sound collection. The free version is shockingly good.)

4. Favorites and collections

Star your go-to sounds and they live in a starred tab. Better: make collections per context, a YouTube collection, a client-video collection, so the right palette of sounds is always one click away.

5. The S key (Final Cut users, rejoice)

Getting sounds into your editor: drag a selection or the whole sound across, or tile Soundly next to your editing software. But if you use Final Cut Pro, use their new feature: select a sound and press S. It instantly lands on your timeline at the playhead, as a connected clip, and switches you back to FCP to keep editing. Whoosh needed? Find it, press S, boom. The first time, a setup window appears: toggle it on, leave "connected clip" selected, hit okay. I was giddy when they added this. Round of applause to the Soundly team.

Bonus reason: they actually listen to their users and add requested features, unlike certain companies I know. No credit card needed for the free app. And if you do go paid, use code DYLANJOHN for an extra three months free. Grab Soundly here and have a great rest of your day.