Rain Sound Effects is a free thunderstorm sound library featuring 64 royalty-free rain and thunder sounds.
The free download link is located at the end of this article.
Free Rain Sounds
I recorded these free rain sound effects during a spring storm on the streets of Belgrade. The sounds were captured using a portable Edirol R-09 stereo audio recorder.
The library contains all the rain and thunder sound effects you may need to evoke the atmosphere of a rainy day in a large city. You can hear the cars passing by on some of the recordings, tires splashing through puddles, and people walking around in a hurry.
The rest of the audio content was recorded in quieter parts of the city, far from the busy downtown. These are perfect for use as sleep sounds or a rain background in video projects and game development.
I also recorded the beautiful sound of raindrops falling on an umbrella. The subtle sound of rain dropping on the surface of an umbrella is almost like vinyl noise.
There are also around twenty recordings of distant thunder rumble. These can be mixed with clean recordings of rain if you need background noise for a movie or an audio project.
The coolest sounds in this library are the samples of seven extremely loud thunders that struck very close, even too close if you ask me. Those are the most valuable samples in the pack because recording a storm from such a close distance is indeed a very rare opportunity.
The funny thing is that I got a bit scared at one moment, so I turned off the recorder and took shelter inside a building.
This is something I regret from today’s perspective.
There would have been around five or six more fantastic thunder strike samples if I kept recording that time. Still, at that moment, I was pretty sure that staying outside would be too dangerous, so I played it safe.
Play the last sample in the “Heavy Thunder” folder at a loud volume, and you’ll understand why I chickened out. It was almost as if the storm was trying to tell me that it wasn’t playing around and that it didn’t fancy ending up in a free rain sound library.
Thankfully, I managed to record some fantastic rain and thunder sounds during this heavy storm, and you can now download them for free.
Rain Loops
Most of the samples in the “Rain” and “Distant Thunder” folders have been edited to loop perfectly. You can easily connect multiple copies of the same audio file in an audio track inside your DAW to create infinite rain loops.
The provided loops can work at any tempo, and of course, there is no need to use time-stretching because the loops do not contain rhythmic content.
Thunder Sounds
The “Heavy Thunder” samples are provided as one-shots. They have long tails, so it’s very easy to layer them on top of a rain loop and get natural-sounding results.
In the audio example embedded in the sidebar, a single rain sample was looped five times, with four different heavy thunder samples layered on top.
How To Use Free Rain Sound Effects
The heavy thunder samples have been normalized to -0.1 dB to ensure maximum volume without clipping. The rain and distant thunder loops have been normalized to values ranging from -12 dB to -6 dB, depending on the overall atmosphere and the feel of the loop.
The rain sounds will probably be rather quiet in your mix anyway, so the normalization settings reflect this.
No effects were used on any of the sounds provided in the pack. They were only trimmed to find the perfect loop start and endpoints. You can always use additional EQ and dynamic processing to make these recordings fit your project perfectly.
I suggest filtering some of the low-frequency content, as anything below 60 Hz can most likely be removed without impacting the sound of the samples.
Summary
Rain Sounds includes a collection of rain and thunder sound effects for free download.
All included samples are available in stereo 24-bit WAV format with a 44.1 kHz sampling rate. There are 64 individual audio samples inside, adding up to 659 MB of audio data.
111 Comments
great!
:)
Hi,
is it allowed to mix these sounds together and use it in monetized youtube videos ?
Are Credits required ?
Is there a also a way to work together when I would like to sell those atmos I creat with your sounds ?
Best from germany
Joerg
Yes, you can use these sounds in monetized YouTube videos, as long as they’re mixed with other sounds (used as a background element, sound effects, etc).
I downloaded 99sounds Thunder an Rain late last night at 2:00am eat but haven’t seen any sign that it downloaded at all
You made my DAY !
Great! Thanks for sharing!
Cheers man!
Thank you :)
Thanks for visiting. :)
Great free sounds – thanks!
Thanks for the kind words!
Very nice ! thank you !
Cheers!
There was a storm last night and I had regret because I couldn’t record the sound. This pack come at the right moment :D
Do you have a recorder which you can use for this? Trust me, purchasing my portable recorder was one one of the best purchases I ever did. It really gives you a unique chance to explore new sounds and experiment. Just scan the online ads daily for a bargain price and get one ASAP if you’re like to get into field recording.
Sure ! I have a Zoom H4, bought the year it came out (2006 !), I use it all the time but I don’t have heavy fur/dead-cat for it, so it’s a bit inconvenient for windy environment.
I tested the new Zoom H6 and I have to say that I liked it, the Zoom H4 is not ultra performing (that’s why they made the Zoom H4n few years later), it tends to be a bit squeaking when hand-hold.
What field recorder do you have ?
Zoom H4 looks nice! Have you tried their new cheap H1 and H2 models?
I’ve used Edirol R-09 for this, bought at a bargain price second hand. It’s one of my favorite pieces of gear ever. Awesome little thing.
H4 is nice, indeed, but there is better for same price now ;)
I didn’t test the H1 H2 cause I definitely need a couple of XLR inputs :)
I have to say that the edirol has a pretty good sound for its size/price !
Thanks for making this recordings available!
Please help me understand your licensing… “The sounds included in the library may not be re-distributed. ” and “You can use them for free in your music, as well as audio and video projects” looks orthogonal to me, but IANAL.
If I use any of them in a video or in a music, can I redistribute the derivative work? Can I publish my video under a more permissive license that allows redistribution and the use of the work for a virtual instruments, sound libraries and everything else (cc-by-sa or cc-by for example)?
Hi Fabricio! IANAL either, but I’ll try to explain.
You are absolutely free to use the samples from Rain And Thunder in a music video, a song, as a backing track for a dialogue, etc. The non-distributing part refers to taking the samples themselves and re-distributing them as your own.
It is to prevent people from taking these sounds and using them in commercial or non-commercial sound libraries as a sound source. There are websites out there who take other people’s free samples and sell them for profit.
Please let me know if you need any further details about this. Thanks for visiting!
I have made an Article for our German Readers http://audioengines.de/soundlibrary-regen-und-donner/ Many thanks for this awesome Sound Library. Carsten – Audio Engines –
Wow, that looks great! I’ll translate it and check it out. Thanks so much for spreading the word.
Hvala brate :) Pozdrav iz Svedske.
:D
:) Posto nikad nisam bio u Begeu pa bar da cujem kako zvuci kad ga kisa pere.
I can imagine rainy narrow Belgrade streets :) Thanks!
Hi, Those are great recordings, thanks a lot. I´m glad you went inside to take shelter! And I really like the umbrella samples too. They do sound like vinyl :-)!
Woohoo!
Thank you so much for your “Generosity and Benevolence”.
Hi, I experimented with the vinyl effect you mentioned. You can hear it (exaggerated) here, if you want to: https://soundcloud.com/charlesvk/vinyl-test (without and with the effect).
Very nice example Charlie, thanks for posting this!
Kicks A$$….Thanks so much…..
WHERE DO I DONATE?
There are no donations, but thanks for asking. Support is more then appreciated though, so please spread the word about 99Sounds. Tell your friends!
Sound isn’t just about music, but can also be about entertainment. Regarding this soundbank and bits of your others, this is a goldmine for effects to use in Halloween haunts. I have linked this page to some haunt forums (for people who think about haunts all year). Great work! Keep the weird, creepy, and atmospheric gold coming.
Thanks a lot for these very useful sounds! Keep up the great inspirational flow :-)
thank you!
Amazing samples. Thank you so much! Thanks for the sharing. :)
thanks for sharing :) amazing samples !!!!
Thankyou! :)
Linked via Reddit /r/eFreebies…. thanks for the collection, and looking forward to working with the all goodness!
Thanks for visiting!
Again, about the license: am I allowed to use it in a song I’ll release on a CD album? It won’t be for free then. Should I credit you?
Yes, you are allowed to use these sounds in both commercial and non-commercial releases. Crediting 99Sounds is not required. However, if you find these sounds useful, it would be awesome if you could help us spread the word about the site.
Good luck with the release!
Made a chilled out track with your samples, hope you enjoy! :)
https://soundcloud.com/drekbones/droplets
Hi Lee, that’s awesome! Nice chilled out tune, thanks for sharing!
Cheers to your efforts
Used a few of these in this composition (linked above).
Beautiful recordings. Thanks!
Sounds cool, thanks for sharing! :)
Hi! thanks for the samples, is there a tutorial on how to install them?
You just made the internet a better place, Sir.
Hi, awesome work man!
But, aren’t this rain and thunder sounds copyrighted by God?
I don’t wanna get sued by the Big Boss… you know.
Thnx for the awesomeness.
I’ll spread the word.
Wow that’s awesome!
This is really nice! :D
I used some of it in here: https://soundcloud.com/baumarius/cicada
Finally I can sleep
Thank you so much
This is undoubtedly a great app. It delivers all it says!
Keep improving it!
Awesome Sound!
Nice, thank you. Heavy Thunders are golden :)
Thanks! :)
Hello!
The info says that we can use these files in Music, Video and Audio projects. Does this include Video games also? This would be used in commercial use.
Hi Juha, yes this also includes video games!
That sounds awesome. i’m glad you took the care to keep your ass safe back in the day, hehe. I just wanted to say that I felt really bad by downloading these sounds without donating, I don’t have a bank card so I just can’t go on that :/. But I’ll link your site to every music I use them!
Thanks for your work, man!
Hey, don’t worry about donations. Enjoy using these recordings in your music! :)
Thanks!!!!!!!
Hey,
i wanted to buy rain and thunder pack, but paypal doesn’t want to accept my payment. Are payments not acceptable right now , or is is something wrong on my end?
Cheers!
lot of thanks
nice thanks
That’s so nice, thank you very much, I really love it!
Thanks whoever you are, love you.
Hey! Thanks for the awesome sound library! I had tried to find good rain samples before with no luck, but thanks to this, I can finally put some in my song! I haven’t actually listened to them yet, but I have high hopes it will be just what I need! I mean, after all, having a song to do with a thunderstorm kind of sucks without rain effects to go along. Well, at least for this one. Thanks again, I’m looking forward to using this in my songs!
Cheers, I hope you’ll find them useful!
Rly fantastic. Excellent quality recordings!
Awesome ! Maybe it’s just what I need to add a bit of atmosphere to the intro I’m writing for my band’s next album.
Thank you very much! I love nature sounds, insects, water and others! Amazing work!!!
Guys, I really need thunder and rain for some of my track! Thanks!
Wonderful. Thanks to the original creator of the sample pack and thanks to 99sounds for facilitating distribution. Excellent source of sounds :)
used some rain and thunder in a project. Rain and Thunder #5. Thank You.
Glad to hear that! :)
Can i use these sound in my mobile app. I am planning to create a mobile app. if you want i can place the link in credit section. Please send me an email if you are allowing me to use these sound in mobile app.
By the way very good collection.
Thanks
Yes, as long as it’s not a music or audio app (for example a relaxation app which plays rain and thunder sounds). Feel free to contact us for any further questions.
Thanks very much for sharing these recordings, the heavy thunder ones are fantastic!
Well, unfortunately i was planning to create a relaxation app. But now i will to looking for other options.
Thanks for your reply.
IT’S MAGIC!!
I’m currently building a website where you can simulate Thunderstorms. May I use the heavy thunder tracks for this?
Please send us a message using the contact form on the Contact page. Thanks!
I have made a small donation but I didn’t let me download the rain and thunder pack. What should I do?
Hello, sorry for the late response. Have you managed to download the library?
Thank you for good material.
Can I use this sound for free in my app?
The app I’m developing is a free app(relaxation app which plays rain and thunder etc sounds) and some ads are inserted.
Thank you.
Sorry, but these sounds can’t be used in commercial apps of this type. We do allow use in video games and many other types of software, but not in relax/noise/rain type commercial apps.
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH
These are awesome, thanks!
We don’t have PayPal in Pakistan…
Anyway to donate you people great job??
And also wish to download rain and thunderstorm effects …
Please
Thx!!!!!!!
very good work ! but can u reupload plz?
Salut la famille. je suis actuellement en Afrique (Congo).
je ne peux pas télécharger ce pack “Rain And Thunder” en raison de ma région.
y’a t’il un autre lien genre Media-file ou un bienfaiteur qui l’a pu télécharger pourrai me l’envoyer svp.
mon mail c’est: [email protected]
merci.
How can you say it’s free but require a donation (payment) for it to be downloaded? What if a person cannot use your payment methods in their country?
Hi Richard, sorry for the inconvenience. It should be free to download, the starting price is $0 with optional donations. Can you please share a screenshot?
I want to you the sound effects and music for my short films. I will upload the films on youtube with monetization. can i do that
Yes.
Great song. Can I use it for a game I’m playing that has commercial purposes?
Hi, I want to use them inside my app? Am I allowed to do so? I will be happy to give a link back and attribution!
Sorry, using these sounds in noise (rain sound) apps is not allowed.
Thank you :)
Download link is not working
Link fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Please fix the link! :)
Fixed! :)
can i use all free sample packs on this website are commercial use
Yes. You can find more info in the license.
Hi
How can I download this?
Gumroad gives an error and does not let you download
Sorry for the inconvenience. What kind of error do you get?