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Sound Effects

Sound Effect Sources

Almost every single show that has a sound design will require sound effects at some point. These can be anything from the sound of a door closing, to ambient rain right through to incidental music. Thus, the sound designer needs to be able to find, build and create sound effects for use during the show

The easiest place to find sound effects is from sound effect CD's. There are many out there so almost every sound effect you could want can be bought. These can however be quite expensive so it is only worth splashing out on one if you are going to use several sound from it.

The other common places to find effects is the internet. There are several sites out there which will let you download single effects for use. Some are free, some you will have to pay for, but it is still often quicker and cheaper to look on the web if you only require a couple of noises. See the Links Page for links to some sites.

A quick word of warning when dealing with both sound effects and particularly music during a production. Copyright laws are a very complicated business, as was highlighted by the case of Napster, so it is worth checking that the music you want to use is not protected by copyright law, and that the venue is licensed as well.

Using Computers to Build Sound Effects

Sometimes, rather than being able to simply use a sound effect from a CD, you have to create a new one. I have had to do this to combine two pieces of music, and to create very long soundscapes of wind and rain noise. To combine sounds on computer you can either use a sequencer, such as Cubase, or an audio program such as Wavelab or Soundforge.

Sequencers can be used to combine different sounds together to produce things which would otherwise be very complicated to do live, and audio editors take the actual sound wave itself and can be used to chop sounds up or add effects such as fades, echoes and distortion.

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