Does DaVinci Resolve Have Free Music? (Read This First!)

All post production works need different foley sounds and sound effects to enhance the production value.

Beginners who can’t afford much, rely on royalty free music, foley sounds and sound effects.

Today we’ll see whether DaVinci Resolve has any free music, ambient & foley sounds, and sound effects.

Let’s dive right in!

Does DaVinci Resolve Have Free Music?

DaVinci Resolve doesn’t have free music, but has free foley sounds which are royalty free. You can download the free sound library and install it to get started.

How to Download Free Sound Library in DaVinci Resolve?

Go to “Edit” or “Fairlight” page.
Click on “Sound Library” tab under the menu.
Click on “Download” button.

You’ll be re-directed to BlackMagic Design Support page.
Then automatically, you’ll get a screen for filling in your details and accept agreement.
Fill in your mandatory details in the screen, click next and accept the agreement after reading it.

The file will be downloaded as a zip file.
Extract the file and you’ll see “Blackmagic_Fairlight_Sound_Library_Windows.exe“.

In the next section, we’ll see how to install this exe file.

How to Install Free Fairlight Sound Library in DaVinci Resolve?

After downloading and extracting, double click on the “Blackmagic_Fairlight_Sound_Library_Windows.exe” file.
It will launch the installation process.

Click on next. In the subsequent windows, it will ask you to choose the location.
Choose a location which has enough free space. This installation will take around 1.50 GB (it might increase in the future, so having enough disk space is recommended).
Click next till you finish the installation process.

After installation, if you go to the location where Fairlight sound library was installed, you’ll find the below 2 folders:

Database – Contains “SoundLib.db” – a database file.
Media Files – Contains around 500 professionally recorded ambient and foley sound effects in wav file format.

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How to Check if Fairlight Sound Library is Installed in DaVinci Resolve?

Go to “Edit” or “Fairlight” page.
Click on “Sound Library” tab.
Click on the database icon (in the right side).
Click on the dropdown and you’ll see “Fairlight Sound Library” database. (This is what was installed).

Enter “***” or “???” in the search field to reveal all the sounds.
Play with your desired foley / ambient sounds and then drop it onto the timeline for further editing.

Why is My DaVinci Resolve Sound Library Empty ?

DaVinci Resolve sound library could be empty because of many reasons:

Didn’t download and install the Fairlight sound library.
After installing, if you don’t see any audio files, click on the database icon to reveal the databases and select “Fairlight Sound Library”. If still not visible, then restart Resolve.
Enter “???” or “***” (3 question marks or asterix) in the search field to reveal all the ambient and foley sounds.
If you selected local database (or other databases that you created), then you need to select “Add Library..” and select the media files which were downloaded (when you clicked on download).

DaVinci Resolve Fairlight Sound Library Not Working?

If after verifying all the steps listed in the previous section and if it is still not working, then there is an easy work-around.

Go to “Media Pool”.
Click on “File -> Import -> Media”.
Choose your folder which contains the “Media Files” (after downloading and installing Fairlight Sound Library).
Import all the sound effects into the media pool.
Now these files are like any other audio clips.
Choose whichever you want and drop it onto the timeline!

Since this is not part of Fairlight Sound Library, you won’t be able to use features like “Audition”. (But that doesn’t make a huge difference).

What is Fairlight Sound Library in DaVinci Resolve?

Fairlight sound library is a royalty free collection of foley and ambient atmospheric sounds like baseball bat movements, bells, footsteps, whooshes etc, which can be downloaded and installed into DaVinci Resolve.

BlackMagic Design provides this sound library for free.

This sound library will let you search for a particular sound you want, audition them, cancel and confirm them for usage in the timeline.

How to Add Fairlight Sound Library Files to Local or other Databases?

Go to “Edit” or “Fairlight” page.
Click on “Sound Library” tab.
Click on the database icon (in the right side).
Click on the dropdown and select “Local Database” (or any other database of your choice).
Click on “Add Library” button (if no library was added before).
If “Add Library” is not displayed, then click on the 3 dots from the top right corner and select “Add Library”.

Select your desired folder containing “Media Files” (the folder where you installed the Fairlight Sound Library).
The Sound Library will scan the folder and add them. It will say “Sound Library Scan Successful. Added 515 clips out of 515 clips..”.

If you want more foley sounds, ambient sounds and sound effects, you can also download from Adobe website and add them to your library inside DaVinci Resolve.

How to Add Adobe Sound Effects into DaVinci Resolve Sound Library?

Click on the royalty free audio sound effects by adobe.
Download your desired files as zip and extract them to a folder.
Go to “Edit” or “Fairlight” page.
Click on “Sound Library” tab.
Click on the database icon (in the right side).
Click on the dropdown and select “Local Database” or any other database of your choice.
Click on the 3 dots from the top right corner and select “Add Library”.
Select the folder where you downloaded the sound effects.
The Sound Library will scan the folder and add them.

In this way, you can add royalty free sound effects and build your library.

How to Get Royalty Free MUSIC for DaVinci Resolve?

Use Youtube Studio royalty free music tracks and sound effects.
Royalty free stock music websites like PremiumBeat, Pond5, etc,.

After downloading your desired royalty free music tracks, head over to DaVinci Resolve and then using “Add Library”, add all these royalty free music for your post production workflow.

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