Basehead Offers Free Package Including 18,000 Sound Effects
If you work in audio post-production, then some kind of sound effects librarian package becomes an essential tool. Basehead has released a free version of their sound effects management software and even better it comes with a bundle of free sounds. In this article, we take a look at this free package and compare it to some alternatives, both free and paid-for.
BaseHead Creator (Free) Edition
BaseHead has been around for quite a few years and recently they decided to give a little love back to the audio community. To achieve this they have produced a simplified and FREE version of BaseHead and called it their Creator Edition.
The free version has primarily been designed to help out anyone newly getting started in Game Audio or the Film and Post Production world. The free Creator Edition enables you to do all the usual BaseHead tasks like Importing and Searching metadata together with being able to Spot or Drag pitched and trimmed files to your favourite DAW or Video Editor as it’s built on the same SFX Search Engine that they use in the other paid-for versions of Basehead. As they say, “Learning is much easier and effective when you start off with the correct tools”.
One key difference to be aware of with the FREE Creator Edition is that on the first launch you will be offered the option to install a number of Free CloudPacks all at once that have been donated by the various SFX vendors, which you can see in the image on the right, which we understand will give you access to around 18,000 free sound effects.
In addition, the Basehead Creator Edition offers access to over 22,500 sound effects from the BBC Archive. However, there are limitations to how you can use this free BBC collection. In the BBC Archive FAQ, it says this…
“You can read the terms of the licence here. However, as a general rule, as long as your usage remains non-commercial, you can use sound effects for free, crediting the BBC. If the usage becomes commercial - i.e. if you monetise it, sell it, or charge for access to it, or if it is advertising-funded or commercially sponsored, then that counts as commercial use, and you will need to license the recording from Pro Sound Effects”.
That said, users of the free version of Basehead can also use Creator to preview and purchase more sound effects via the CloudPacks Marketplace without the need for a full BaseHead license. All you will need to do is to log in with your BaseHead account to see all the available paid-for CloudPacks.
Feature Summary Of The Basehead Creator Edition
Uses one of the top SFX Search Engines in the Industry used by countless Video Game and Post Production houses.
Includes Royalty Free CloudBased Streaming Sound Effects to help give your audio career kick start.
Unlimited CloudPacks can be added and also 6,900 of your own personal sound effects on local storage.
You can also Preview and Purchase SFX via the included CloudPack Manager without the need for a BaseHead License.
100% FREE! with No Subscription.
Runs as a 64-bit application on Windows 8,10, 11 or on macOS 10.13 and above.
Basehead Creator Edition FAQ
So…What’s the Catch? The true main purpose is to help out people starting in audio while giving back to the game and film audio communities. In addition, they know the Creator (YouTube) market is significant and so “instead of charging a Subscription like everyone else and fight for scraps, we decided why not just release a 100% FREE version with included SFX to shake things up a bit for own amusement”.
Is it limited? Of course, it is, it’s free. You can see how and where, by using the table below, but they say that it’s close to what BaseHead Lite was a few years back. Plus expect to be nagged a bit on the start screen and also via the separate Creator Newsletter once in a while, but apparently, they rarely send more than one newsletter a month.
Can I still use the CPM for SFX Previewing/Purchasing even if I use other software?
Yes For Sure! Anyone can use this free version and get the full benefits via the CloudPack Manager and after you have purchased them, you can download the sound effects as BWAV files and drop them into any program of choice.Can we outfit our facility or school with this edition? Unfortunately not. Basehead explains that this version is for individual and personal home use only. Educational establishments will need to purchase special EDU specific licenses.
Is a Creator database compatible with BaseHead if I decide to upgrade to a full version? It’s good news here. Creator uses the same database format but just a separate set of prefs. So after the first launching of BaseHead, just re-check the options you have set in Creator and select your database and you will be up and running.
How To Download And Install The Basehead Creator Edition
Create a BaseHead Account - You will need to create an account if you don’t have one already, and make sure that you keep your account details handy as you will need them to sign into Creator once you have installed it and run it for the first time.
Sign up for the Creator Newsletter - Make sure that you use the same exact email as above but Basehead says “don’t worry! We don’t have the time nor energy to send many emails”.
Download and Install Creator - Once you confirmed your Newsletter Subscription you can download either the macOS or Windows version, install it and then when you launch it, you will need to enter the account details you used when you set up your account and you should be good to go!
How Does The Creator Edition Compare To The Other Basehead Editions?
A Selection Of Alternatives
Soundminer is perhaps the best-known tool for managing sound effects and to help you find your way around, we have a set of tutorials available from Tim Nielsen.
Basehead comes in 3 other editions as well as the free Creator Edition and we featured a free tutorial from Jonah Guelzo on how to use the Basehead Ultra edition. You can see how the different versions of Basehead compare in the table above.
Soundly comes in 2 other editions as well as a free version and in our look at v2.5, we included some free tutorials on how to use Soundly. There is also a free version of Soundly, which like the Basehead Creator Edition is a cut down version of the full-fat version of Soundly.
How Does Basehead Creator Edition Compare With Soundly Free?
As Soundly Free is another free sound effects management system, we thought it would be helpful to compare the free versions of Basehead and Soundly. However, it’s not as easy as it might seem as the features between the two platforms don't fully overlap but there are some areas where we can make comparisons…
What We Think About The Basehead Creator Edition
This is a great way of getting a free sound effects management software package. Offering unlimited CloudPacks is a neat way to get around the 6,900 file limit on local storage for the free version.
However, it is unfortunate that they do not make it clear that the BBC library they offer access to cannot be used on commercial projects.
But other than that, for a free package that includes over 18,000 free sound effects as well as access to any sound effects in their store is an impressive offer. Then when you are ready to move on up and go for one of the paid-for options then you can migrate everything you have without any problems.