Bulk downloader for bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk
This program downloads all 16,000+ sounds from BBC’s Sound Effects library, found at [Login to see the link]. The samples downloaded by this program are BBC copyright and subject to the [Login to see the link]. BBC also offers [Login to see the link] for commercial usage of these samples.
This program requires [Login to see the link]. Download and extract the repository ZIP and with Python installed, run download.py by double-clicking the file or entering python download.py or python3 download.py in a command prompt or terminal window. The downloaded samples will be saved in the sounds/ directory of the folder containing download.py.
The total size of the sample library is 284 GB.
By default, the program will download 10 samples at a time. This amount figures to be a safe value to avoid sending too many simultaneous requests to BBC’s servers, but the value can be easily modified by changing the value of THREAD_COUNT in the code. When determining what to download, the program first checks what already exists in the sounds/ directory to avoid redownloading samples (i.e. if any downloads fail or the program is stopped without downloading the entire library).
Tested on Windows 10, macOS High Sierra, and Ubuntu 18.04. Uses only Python’s standard library—no additional packages need to be installed. I have only tested this program up to a few hundred downloads, so please report any unexpected bugs/problems by opening Issues.
Download BBC Sound Effects using Python
git clone https://github.com/FThompson/BBCSoundDownloader.git
cd BBCSoundDownloader
python download.py
📥 Download BBC Sound Effects Complete using Torrent
Feeling kind to BBC’s servers? Use this torrent instead. Thanks [Login to see the link] for creating and seeding the files.
[Login to see the link]
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:277UI76DIYAAPS2LQC3R3XF4PXCS5X5H&dn=BBCSoundEffectsComplete
