Noise and other FX to turn your project into a rich audio experience
We use noise in video and audio projects in a variety of ways: to signal transitions, to build tension, to fill in the gaps of music and dialogue. It is true that silence can be golden, but a little bit of buzzing or crackling ear filler can make for some real high-quality silver.
Transitions and underscore are two great examples of abstract sound effects and how they can be used. Both rely on matching the movement or stillness of the video with the audio to maintain the viewer’s attention. Transitions focus on the movement and change, while underscore focuses on building a mood or tension in a still setting.
Transitions
Transitions are the art of changing from one scene to the next, either smoothly with little interference or profoundly with a heavy bookend, proudly announcing the change from one part of the show to the next. Despite the preference in style, it’s always best to make sure that everything flows together, that the sound and the video move as one.
Usually, transitions are typified by a static sound. Just a short dab of noise. White noise, pink noise, blue noise – noise somehow makes for both the perfect dose of tension and the swiping away of something. Perhaps because we associate transformation with sliding a picture across a table, moving away from us and letting it fall to the floor. Or perhaps it’s reminiscent of a strong gust of wind blown across the mic?
Underscore
Sometimes the best thing in the background of a video is not music. Music can be very distracting, especially when there’s dialogue, or when it’s better to add up a tense mood. Rather, it can be better to use drones and soundscapes to add growing tension on the screen, or to use some soft palettes to not drown out any important dialogue.
Or you can take the Christopher Nolan route and use underscore to drown out all the audio. That’s of course your call as a director.
Read more on how to use underscore in a blog here.
About the sounds
Our last upload focused on mechanical sounds, a pack that included nearly 500 clicks, ticks, and tocks. This time, our sound engineers hit dark underpasses and old sound boards to produce some of the most interesting crackles and buzzes that they could manage.
Now we present you 500 various abstract sounds to fill in the cracks of audio in your video. From high tech to low tech, science fiction to horror, these sounds will help round out your projects’ soundscapes. We’ve got electromagnetic sounds, distorted digital glitches, acoustic feedback, digital crackling, low pass filters over noise, static mechanical noise, ghostly soundscapes, howling wind, and whooshes that range from cars passing to speeding mystic particles.
What can you use these sounds for?
These sounds can be used for underscore and transitions, as well as various digital effects as there are more than enough glitch noises for most sound design needs.
Noise can also be used to add flavor to a snare or hat, and with a filter sweep it can make for great musical transitions as well. Transitions aren’t just for video!
Stay tuned for the next upload when we’ll be bringing you loads of impacts!
We release new sound effects for Smartsound Cloud every two weeks. Sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date with each new release.
