Sound effect

A sound effect is a sound (excluding dialogue or music) made for use in a play, movie, game, or other broadcast production. In a professional production, dialogue, music, and sound effects are considered as separate elements.

Four main types of sound effects include hard, Foley, background, and design.

Hard sound effects include sounds such as car beeps, door slams, punches, cracking bones, and gunshots. These sound effects are connected with a specific event happening at a certain moment.

Foley sound effects are recorded live by Foley artists. Foley is the process of synchronizing sounds with characters’ movements in post-production. It can cover up annoying, distracting noises captured on the set during filming. A vast amount of objects, textures, and surfaces are utilized to recreate noises. This technique is much more efficient than manually editing sounds.

Examples of events that might need Foley sound effects/Foley artists are: Horse galloping noises, footsteps, chewing noises.

Background sound effects, also called ambiance sounds or ambient sounds, do not have to synchronize with the picture or an event but establish the setting/environment. Examples include bird chirps in a forest, crickets chirping, rushing rivers, buzzing of lights, and chatter in the background (if unintelligible).

Design sound effects are sounds that do not usually occur in nature and are artificial. Examples include noises from futuristic technology in a science fiction game.