Free Cricket Sound Effect
Crickets chirping slowly in an empty field: the cricket sound effect for the joke that didn't land. Four takes, from one lone cricket to a busy summer night.
Updated · Tested by the Facecam team
Crickets
4.0 s · MP3 · 40 KB
Play it into your mic
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4 crickets sound effects to download
Main take4.0 s · 40 KB
Crickets chirping slowly in an empty field: the cricket sound effect for the joke that didn't land. Four takes, from one lone cricket to a busy summer night.
One cricket3.1 s · 31 KB
A lone cricket in total silence: the awkward pause at its most awkward.
Busy field4.0 s · 40 KB
A dense chorus of crickets, louder and fuller than the main take.
With wind4.0 s · 40 KB
Crickets plus a dry gust of wind, for tumbleweed-level silence.
Where it fits
- After you ask "any questions?" and nobody unmutes.
- When your pun gets zero reactions in Discord.
- The pause after chat is asked to vote.
- Night ambience under a story, a game scene or a sleep video.
Related sounds
- That's crazy1.1 s
- Sad trombone2.6 s
- Ba-dum-tss1.5 s
- Crowd boo2.8 s
- Record scratch1.2 s
How we made it
“Awkward silence: a few crickets chirping slowly in a quiet field at night”
The variations
- One cricket
- “A single cricket chirping slowly in total silence at night”
- Busy field
- “A loud chorus of many crickets chirping together in a summer field at night”
- With wind
- “Crickets chirping with a soft gust of wind blowing through dry grass, empty and quiet”
- Loudness
- -18.6 LUFS
- Peak
- -2.1 dBFS
On these boards
Play it in Discord, OBS or Zoom
Press Use these sounds in calls, then pick Facecam Virtual Mic as your mic. Step by step: Discord, OBS and Zoom. For games, the Facecam desktop app.
- Short enough for Discord's own soundboard (5.2 s max): Server Settings → Soundboard.
More about this sound
About our version
Four seconds of slow, sparse chirping with plenty of quiet between. It's meant to be heard under a silence, so it plays softer than the hits on the board.
The other takes: One cricket, alone in total silence (the most awkward of all), Busy field, a loud chorus on a summer night for real ambience, and With wind, crickets and a gust through dry grass for the full tumbleweed moment.
Why crickets mean silence
Film and radio used crickets as shorthand for a quiet night in the country: if you can hear crickets, nothing else is happening. Comedy took the next step. In a 1957 Looney Tunes short, Daffy Duck finishes his act and hears crickets instead of applause, and "crickets" became stage talk for a joke that dies. Online it means the same thing: you asked, and nobody replied.
Questions
What does "crickets" mean?
Silence where a response should be: no laughs after a joke, no answers to a question, no replies to a post. The chirping is what you'd hear if the room were truly empty.
Why is the crickets sound quieter than the others?
Crickets are quiet by nature, and the gaps are the joke. Push its pad volume up if your call is noisy.
Is there a night ambience version?
Yes: Busy field is a loud chorus of crickets on a summer night, good under a story or a sleep video. Loop it in your editor for longer.
Is there a sound of crickets chirping all night?
Busy field is the loudest crickets chirping take, a full summer chorus. For a quiet, sparse chirp, use the main take; loop either one in your editor for longer.
Do real crickets chirp faster when it's warm?
Yes. Crickets chirp faster as the temperature rises, so a slow chirp sounds like a cool night. Our main take is the slow, sleepy kind.
