Claude Code already builds videos with code (Remotion, HyperFrames…), but it cannot hear what it makes. So it picks sounds by file name and ends up adding cheap whooshes, off-beat and too loud.
These three free tools give it ears and a sound library. This very reel was scored with them: the hit kit and the riser were made in code, and the whooshes at the end are real CC0 downloads from Openverse.
How Claude scores a video
List of moments
Cuts, entrances, hits and text, each with its exact frame.
Search
On Freesound (Sound skill) or Openverse, CC0 first.
Make what is missing
With Earshot, which creates the sound in code.
Place and level
By each sound’s attack or peak, under the voice.
Review
Master to −14 LUFS and run earshot critique.
The 3 tools at a glance
| Tool | What it does | Price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earshot | Ears for your agent: describes, compares, makes and reviews sounds | Free, MIT | github.com/Leonxlnx/earshot |
| Sound (vibe-motion) | Skill that searches and downloads Freesound effects ranked by downloads | Free (paid full version sold separately) | github.com/vibe-motion/sound |
| Openverse API | Search engine for more than 5 million openly licensed audio files | Free | api.openverse.org |
Data checked on November 8, 2026.
1. Earshot: ears for your agent (and sounds made in code)
- Repo: Leonxlnx/earshot, MIT license, 4,229 stars. Runs on CPU, locally, as a CLI, a Python API and an MCP server.
- Listen:
describe,match,rankandfindtell Claude what a file sounds like, whether it fits what you want and which is the best part of a long recording. - Make:
forgecreates a new sound in code and improves it by listening;kitrenders a whole effects kit for your project;sfx renderpulls sounds from a bank of 252 recipes, aimed at the moment in the video. - Review:
timelineandcritique“listen” to the finished video and check whether each hit lands on its cut. - Included skills:
skills/earshot(how to listen with Earshot) andskills/real-sound, which builds the full soundtrack from real licensed recordings: sourcing, placement, mixing, mastering and credits.
Install (needs uv and ffmpeg):
uv tool install "earshot[mcp] @ git+https://github.com/Leonxlnx/earshot"
earshot doctor --fetch
claude mcp add earshot --scope user -e EARSHOT_THREADS=3 -- earshot mcp
earshot doctor --fetch downloads the two audio models (about 1.1 GB) once. The skills live in the repo’s skills/ folder: copy them to ~/.claude/skills/ or to your project’s .claude/skills/.
Note
Do the made sounds sound real? In the author’s own blind test (5 kinds of sound, 15 trials) he picked the made one correctly 8 times out of 15: a coin flip. Only the impact gave itself away. It is a small test, but it suggests they are already hard to tell apart.
2. Sound (vibe-motion): Freesound effects picked by people
- Repo: vibe-motion/sound, about 320 stars. It is a Claude Code skill that only uses the Python standard library (no dependencies). The repo does not declare a license.
- How it picks: it searches Freesound and ranks by downloads and ratings (with vote counts), reads the uploader’s description, checks the duration and filters by license (
--license cc0or--license by).
Note
Heads up: the free version now only searches Freesound. Since October 29, 2026 the repo kept Freesound only. Pixabay and Mixkit (plus the other extra libraries, background music and voice mixing) moved to a paid full version the author sells separately. The skill will offer it once after finishing a task: you can say no. For sound effects, the free part works just as well.
Install (from your project root):
git clone https://github.com/vibe-motion/sound.git .claude/skills/sound
Use it in Claude Code:
Using the sound skill, find me a short whoosh (0.3 s) on Freesound for when a card slides in, CC0 only. Show me the candidates with downloads, vote count and a preview link, and download the best one to sfx/.If you prefer to run it by hand:
python3 .claude/skills/sound/scripts/sfx.py freesound "soft whoosh" --license cc0 --urls
python3 .claude/skills/sound/scripts/sfx.py get sfx/ "fs:<id>"
It downloads Freesound’s MP3 preview, not the uploader’s original file. For a reel, that is plenty.
3. Openverse API: more than 5 million free audio files
- Site: api.openverse.org, a WordPress.org project. Free and no key for basic use (rate limited; if you need more, register a free application).
- 5,223,435 audio files indexed: Wikimedia (~3.99 million), Jamendo (~645,000) and Freesound (~592,000), among others. Note: a lot of it is music and archive recordings, not just sound effects.
Search example (this is what your agent does for you):
curl "https://api.openverse.org/v1/audio/?q=whoosh&license=cc0&page_size=5"
Each result includes url (download), license, creator and attribution, the credit text ready to paste.
Use the Openverse API: find 3 punchy whooshes with a CC0 license, download them to sfx/ and write the title, author and license of each one in sfx/CREDITS.md.Licenses in 20 seconds
| License | Can I use it? | What I need to do |
|---|---|---|
| CC0 | Yes, for anything | Nothing, not even credit |
| CC BY / BY-SA | Yes | Credit it (author + license + link) in the description |
| NC (non-commercial) | Not if the video sells something or is an ad | Find another one |
The workflow we use at Blackdark
Paste this into Claude Code once your video is edited:
Add sound to this video. 1) List every moment that needs a sound (cuts, entrances, hits, text) with its exact frame. 2) For each moment, search first with the sound skill or the Openverse API, CC0 or CC BY only; if nothing fits, make it with Earshot. 3) Place each sound by its attack (hits) or its peak (whooshes on the cut) and level it under the voice. 4) Master to −14 LUFS and review the result with earshot critique. 5) Write the credits for each sound in sfx/CREDITS.md.What they do not do
- Earshot is not magic: its author warns that its models can be “fooled”; judge made sounds by listening and comparing them with real recordings.
- Sound does not audition for you: downloads and votes are a hint, not a guarantee that it fits your picture.
- Openverse does not check licenses for you: every file has its own. Filter by it in the search and keep it in your credits.