Forgotten Sounds
Support Forgotten Sounds
Help preserve unusual sounds and keep future sample libraries free.
Every Forgotten Sounds release begins with a simple question:
What does that sound like?
Sometimes the answer is hidden inside a century-old livestock bell sitting on the shelf of an antique shop.
Other times it is found in a set of well-used kitchen storage tins that were never intended to become musical instruments.
Each release takes time to find, record, edit, photograph, document, package, and distribute. The finished sample libraries are made available free for personal and commercial music production.
If you have found the project useful and would like to help support future releases, you are welcome to leave a contribution.
Supporting the Next Forgotten Sound
Contributions help cover the practical costs involved in creating and maintaining the project, including:
- Finding unusual instruments, antiques, and overlooked objects
- Purchasing sound sources when necessary
- Recording, editing, and organizing sample libraries
- Photography and visual design
- Research and written documentation
- Website hosting, storage, and file distribution
- Future Forgotten Sounds releases
Every contribution, regardless of size, helps make another release possible while allowing the libraries to remain freely available.
Support the Project Through PayPal
Support is entirely optional. The sample libraries will remain free whether or not you contribute.
If you would like to help fund the recording and preservation of future sounds, you can leave a tip through PayPal using the button below.
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Support Does Not Have to Be Financial
There are several other ways to help the project grow:
- Share the sample libraries with other musicians and sound designers
- Link to the Forgotten Sounds articles
- Mention the project on social media, forums, or music-production communities
- Use the samples in your own recordings
- Send me music or sound-design work created with the libraries
Hearing these objects take on a new life inside someone else’s music is one of the most rewarding parts of the project.
Forgotten Sounds Releases
Forgotten Sounds No. 001
The 100-Year-Old Cowbell
A small forged livestock bell, estimated to date from the late 19th or early 20th century, preserved as a professionally recorded collection of stick and muted articulations.
Forgotten Sounds No. 002
Tin Toms
Five stainless steel kitchen storage tins transformed into a playable collection of stick strikes, mallet strikes, hand slaps, and finger snaps.
Preserving the Overlooked
Most objects are never treated as instruments.
They may sit on a shelf, remain forgotten in a drawer, wear out in a kitchen, or disappear when a building is emptied or demolished.
Yet many of those objects have distinctive voices shaped by their materials, construction, age, wear, and history.
Forgotten Sounds documents those voices before they disappear and places them in the hands of musicians, composers, producers, and sound designers who can give them an entirely new purpose.
Every object has a story.
Every sound deserves to be heard. Well, maybe not EVERY sound. :D
Thank You for Listening
Whether you leave a contribution, share an article, download a library, or simply listen to one of the demonstrations, thank you for taking an interest in Forgotten Sounds.
Your support helps turn overlooked objects into preserved instruments and makes it possible for the archive to continue growing.
Kevin Hartnell