Frequently Asked Questions


Who maintains this platform?
Why should I contribute by annotating sounds?

For you it might be just a little while — however, via crowdsourcing annotations from a lot of people worldwide we aim to build well-curated datasets that can foster research in multiple fields. In particular, our first dataset (FSD) can be used for research on acoustic event recognition for example. By annotating sounds for FSD, you would be helping to improve a variety of tasks ranging from speech recognition to healthcare applications. Other applications include bioacoustics monitoring, identification of noise sources, or acoustic surveillance. You know, one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind!

Is the Freesound Annotator hosting third-party datasets on demand?

Currently we do not provide the service of hosting any external dataset on demand. We might consider doing it in the future.

How are new datasets added to the platform?

Currently only the administrators of Freesound Annotator can add new datasets to the platform. Do you have a dataset (based on Freesound content) that you'd like to add here? Do you have a dataset which is not based on Freesound, but whose content fits in the context of Freesound? Feel free to contact us at mtg@upf.edu.

I have a suggestion/idea about the platform or a dataset!

Great, we are happy to hear it! Please visit our Discussion page and join other users in the discussion hosted in GitHub. You can also contact us by mail if you prefer. Any input is more than welcome!

Do you provide a reward in exchange for annotation effort?

We do not provide any reward in exchange for contributions. For the time being, we trust that sound enthusiasts and people interested in sound and music computing from different communities (like the Freesound community) will want to participate without expecting anything in return. By doing this, you will be contributing to the curation of datasets that will have a positive social impact in multiple areas. On the other hand, we expect that users that benefit from the platform (by downloading, exploring or using the datasets) will want to contribute as well.