I feel like everyone always mentions freesound (myself included). It is a great resource, but it is just one resource and it doesn't have everything. I'd like to see what else is out there... surely there must be other options? Most of the time when I've gone browsing around there've been too many hoops to jump through with other sites (or poor quality, hidden fees, watermarks), and I end up going back to freesound or making my own. I have on rare occasions pulled from youtube, but I always try to get my sounds in as high quality as possible.
Download thousands of free sound effects and royalty-free music available in .MP3 and .WAV format. Access our professionally recorded sound library today!
soundscrate.com
This is the sound side of Productioncrate, which I use but don't talk about much. As with all PC offerings, there's free mixed in with paid, and you can download five free elements per day with an account. Any element from any PC branch will count towards the five, so you don't get five free sound effects AND five free stock footage clips, AND five free pieces of music, for example. But you can go back every day and your limit resets so eventually you could have everything they freely offer if you visit enough.
Very high quality because they want you to want the paid stuff.
I suspect most viable free resources that are not free sound will be somewhat like this, by which I mean slightly complicated to recommend/ requiring explanation/ navigating around a commercial component.
Another area to explore is free VST sound packs and instrument packs intended for making music:
1. BBC and Spitfire Labs have a free full orchestra set including all those weird percussion instruments you might use during tense horror moments, and they're all sourced from real orchestra instruments. (
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover/ if you want this free, click the link that says "OR FREE" it's under the listed price. You tell them your email and they send you the download link later. You'll need a DAW program like Cakewalk, which I recommend because it is also free)
2. There's also a wicked free synth VST instrument called Vital that I recommend if you want to do literally anything with synth sounds.