Sound effect

A sound effect is an enhanced sound (excluding dialogue or music) made artificially for use in a play, movie, game, or other broadcast production. It is reproduced to create an effect in a dramatic presentation. In a professional production, dialogue, music, and sound effects recordings are considered as separate elements.

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

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

Foley sound effects are recorded live by Foley artists and added to enhance the movie's audio, creating a better experience for the audience. 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 as it mimics real-life sound effects.

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

Background sound effects, also called ambiance sounds, do not have to synchronize with the picture or 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 or are artificial (impossible). Examples include noises from futuristic technology in a science fiction game.