/ 01 — The core difference
Pick a sound,
or describe one.
Same goal — find the sound you already own. Two different ways in, and it decides which tool fits your head.
/ Sononym
Pick a sound. Find its neighbours.
You start from a sample (one you like, or even live audio from a mic) and Sononym surfaces the closest matches, letting you dial in which acoustic aspects define "close": spectrum, timbre, pitch, amplitude. It's precise, hands-on, and excellent when you already have a reference in front of you.
/ Sample Vault
Describe the sound. Get the sample.
You type what you're after, "warm dusty vinyl kick" or "airy pad with a long tail in C minor", and Deep Search pulls it from your library by matching the audio, not the filename. When you don't have a reference to point at, words are faster. An AI assistant, curated collections, and library-wide organisation sit on top.
/ 02 — Sample Vault vs Sononym
Feature comparison.
The twelve rows that actually decide it. Both run locally and read your own files. The differences are in how you search and what sits on top.
| Feature | Sample Vault | Sononym |
|---|---|---|
| Search by describing the sound | Yes, Deep Search | No |
| Similarity search from a sample | Yes, refine by approve and reject | Yes, with tunable aspects |
| Search from live audio (mic, synth) | No | Yes |
| Search by reference track (X-Ray) | Yes | No |
| Auto genre, mood and instrument labels | Yes | Limited |
| AI assistant and curated collections | Yes | No |
| Reads your files in place, offline | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | No | Yes |
| Cloud sync and browser app | Yes, on paid plans | No |
| Tempo and key locked preview, Ableton Link | Yes | No |
| Free tier with no time limit | Yes | 30-day trial |
| One-time license option | Yes, Lifetime | Yes, €89 |
Footnote: Sononym details verified against sononym.net and its manual as of July 2026. Check their site before you decide.
/ 03 — Who each tool is for
Two good tools,
two ways of working.
Pick by how you reach for a sound: with a reference in hand, or with a description in your head.
/ Choose Sample Vault if
You think in words.
- You'd rather type what a sound is like than dig up a reference sample first.
- You want an AI assistant and curated collections, not just a browser.
- You want to match sounds against a full reference track with X-Ray.
- You want to start on a free tier, or sync your library across machines.
- You audition in your DAW and want Ableton Link and tempo-locked preview.
/ Choose Sononym if
You think in references.
- You think in reference sounds: pick one, find its neighbours, tune the match by hand.
- You want fine manual control over which acoustic aspects define 'similar'.
- You work on Linux, or want one platform-agnostic license.
- You prefer a single one-time purchase with no cloud and no subscription ever.
- You lean on deep, exotic descriptor filters and a fast, mature browser.
They read the same folders in place without moving anything, so running both on one library is entirely reasonable — Sononym's aspect-tuned similarity next to Sample Vault's describe-in-words search.