Add genuine human responses to your project to make it more appealing
I just finished doing a voiceover for an audio tour of Brussels, complete with terrifying stories of murder and mayhem, fires and destruction, and celebration. The audio engineer for the tour added a complete deck of sound effects. There are now people gasping in fear, angry mobs yelling for revenge, and celebrations full of merriment and laughter. It added an incredible dynamic to the tour. I can see how the human reaction effects will really draw listeners in and help them engage.
Projecting with human reactions
A lot of the action takes place off-camera in movies, television serials, and video games. We, the audience, basically know what’s happening and how to feel because of the human reactions that we hear. Because we can’t see what we’re not looking at (duh), we have to get that information elsewhere. And that’s where the sound effects come in.
That truth goes even all the way to laugh tracks. Did the broadcaster say something funny? Were we supposed to find that last joke hilarious? Laugh tracks (and other human reactions) go a long way toward broadcasting how we’re supposed to feel and think as an audience.
The importance of human reaction sound effects in both audio and video projects cannot be overstated. Especially when it comes to conveying human emotions and reactions. These often subtle, yet powerful, audio elements play a pivotal role in shaping our audiovisual experience. In this latest blog, we’ll both explore those features and talk about our latest upload of human reaction sound effects.
The Latest Upload
Our latest royalty-free stock FX upload features a wide range of vocal human reactions, capturing the essence of human emotions in various situations. It includes sound effects such as an angry woman making expressions, small and big groups of people applauding, a disappointed male, booing people (single and in a group), reactions of confusion, fear, and disgust, laughter, and at last, combat screams. Click here to discover the complete list of sounds included.
These sound effects are carefully crafted to convey the depth and complexity of human emotions, providing a rich and diverse palette for sound designers and creators to work with.
Human Reactions Set the Tone
Audiences live for those goosebump-inducing, lump-in-your-throat moments when watching movies or listening to podcasts. Skilled sound editors know how to use effects like gasps, laughs, screams, and cries to create of enhance these moments. The most impactful films and audio stories aim to make their audiences emote, react, and participate in each pivotal scene. Using the right reaction sound at the right time goes a long way towards achieving this goal and influencing how the audience experiences the moment.
A sharp inhalation can instantly transform a lighthearted scene into one fraught with tension. A poorly-timed chuckle can undermine the most heart-wrenching monologue. Like a spice that can make or break a dish, human reaction sound effects can provide flavor and set the emotional tone.
Reactions Connect the Audience
There’s also the use of human reaction sounds I mentioned earlier – using them in the fourth wall or off-camera to direct the audience’s own emotion. It’s by no means a new practice. Called “sweeteners”, sound editors have been using human reaction sound effects to shape audience reactions since the 1940s, when radio was using it to let listeners know they were actually hearing something comedic rather than something uncomfortably tragic.
Check out Friends without the laugh track and you’ll see what I mean
Later, in the 50s, television picked it up when Charles Douglass developed a machine for producing fake laughter. His “Laff Box” was basically a sampler with a whole bunch of independent laughs that he’d control with a keybed. To get lots of laughs, he’d make a “chord”, to get just a few, just press one or two buttons. A laughter composing device, if you will.
The fact that the reproduction was so clearly fake makes it come off as a bit otherworldly in older sitcoms. The laugh tracks of today, on the other hand, use more sleight of hand. The sound editor usually creates them from actual, live recordings, sometimes from the same episode.
Even shows that had live studio audiences would swap their minor chuckles out with more hearty laughs in post-production, or vice versa. Never mind the constant accusations of dishonesty. We’re not advising you to even use a laugh track, we’re just sharing the history.
The science behind sweetening
There’s some science behind this practice, too. CBS conducted an A/B test on the sitcom, Hogan’s Heroes. They broadcast one with the laugh track and the other without. The one with the laugh track did better.
University of Texas at Dallas Professor Kenneth L. Brewer in his article for Studies in American Humor, wrote: “Most situation comedies contain a mix of prerecorded laughter and studio audience laughter in the final audio mix of the episode, and few viewers can tell the difference, particularly if the pre-recorded laughs are skillfully integrated into the audio mix, as is more and more the case… in the current situation comedy practice, what we hear from our television sets (or computers or phones) is almost always a mixture of live studio audience laughter that has been edited in postproduction and prerecorded laughter from viewers who were usually laughing at a completely different situation comedy.” (Page 3-4)
He notes that laughter is contagious and we’re more likely to find something funny if we hear laughter – the essential reason to use it and one of the main moralistic complaints against using it, that is, it is a “coercive tool”. The question for audiences is how much do they want to be coerced? And isn’t that even the whole point of watching a comedy? Just look at what happens when studios don’t use laugh tracks… often we don’t know what is a joke – how many times has an anchorperson of a YouTube channel claimed they were only joking but no one could tell – or it just isn’t as funny without the broadcasted laughs, like in the Friends example above.
Still, producers began phasing it out in the 1990s, when live, multi-camera setups made it unnecessary to regulate the studio laughter to such an extent. At least, that’s what producers have said. And now the trend is to not bother with studio laughter or even with a studio audience.
Human reactions in video games
Laugh tracks or not, we didn’t really design this update specifically for television creators, even though it does contain sounds of people laughing. The best use of these sounds is for video games and comedic YouTube channels, where of course, every character, both on and off screen, needs realistic, believable effects. And that’s what we have loaded up for you, most definitely.
In video games (and other animations) the characters, of course, are unable to supply their own expressions and reaction sounds. That means you need either actors or stock sounds, like those included this week.
With this latest upload, we also want to help you create a powerful connection between your players and characters. When we encounter authentic emotional responses, such as laughter, fear, or surprise in gameplay, we mirror those emotions and further get drawn into the game. This mirror effect is a basic human instinct. We hear our characters express joy, pain, or frustration. And so we become more invested in their journey, and it makes the gaming experience richer and more relatable.
SMARTSOUND CLOUD
Crafting authentic, emotive reactions for video games, animations, film, and television is an art. It demands both skillful voice acting and hyper-attention from editors. Voice actors must breathe life into characters, capturing their emotions with nuance and precision. Whether it’s the heart-wrenching cry of a grieving protagonist or the exhilarated cheer of a victorious hero, these performances shape the audience’s connection to the presented world and experience.
With Smartsound Cloud, you can find the right gasp, chuckle, or sigh and evoke the right emotion from your audience. Sound editing is a delicate dance, and here you’re empowered to with the right shoes to take on the steps.
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We not only have sound effects, but loads of music as well. Check out this video featuring one of our trap beats and rhythms, using our app to place the right mood and length and giving the short an additional sense of power and danger.
