Hi there, I´m Freddy Wong, and I´m excited to share with you
some awesome ways to use sound effects to make your videos even better.
Using sound effects can allow you to take your videos to a whole new level,
by transporting your eyes to another dimension,
a dimension of sound.
It can also significantly increase your production value,
without spending any more money on a camera.
We probably spend equal, if not more time doing sound effects
and sounds on our videos than we do on visuals and visual effects.
So, I would say, sound effects are probably one of the most important things
that you can do to up the production value of your video.
And also, also the cheapest way, to up the production value of your videos.
Keep in mind, with any video that you create,
that the experience of your show is 90% sound driven.
I mean, take a look at this shot here.
No sound effects.
Boring.
Now, watch this one!
Let´s start by talking about what are sound effects.
Sound effects refer to the things you hear
that establish the world of your video.
These can be either made by using various sound libraries,
or intentionally recorded and later edited in to make it feel real.
The most exciting thing about sound effects and sound design
is that there are virtually unlimited possibilites
in terms of what you can do.
For example, a library sound effect could be using rain
in your background stem. Ah, hear that?
To create a mood.
Another example could be adding the sound of a dog.
Or food oozing out of a can,
which is actually the sound effect that they used for the T1000,
Terminator 2, the one that passes through the steel bars--
that sound of dogfood, coming out of a can, which is weird,
and gross.
One of the videos that we´ve done, that has a boatload of sound design
is one called Beach Justice.
This one was just shot, on the roof of a building.
Normally that´s a pretty cheap video,
But we spend a good two, three days just on the sound design,
and I think, I really think it adds quite a bit to the video.
What we shot, super cheap, super fast.
But what really makes that video stand out,
and what makes that video I think have that sort of professional sheen to it,
is the amount of time and work put into the sound design.
Sound design starts with your script, not with the completion of your video.
You should be asking yourself, where should you put sound effects,
and why in the script stage,
not when it´s too late.
Look at your script and think about how sound effects can help you convey your story.
How can sound effects increase your production value?
Or, how can sound effects simply fill in the gaps,
in areas where you can´t or won´t spend money?
Instead of shooting a big explosion,
maybe, this could be a chance for you, to use a sound cue, off in the distance.
So, if you know that you won´t actually need to create an explosion or if you can´t,
legally, create an explosion, you won´t need to actually spend any time worrying about it
because you´ll let the sound do all the work for you.
The sound design and talking about sound design
is something that happens in every step of the process.
It´s no different than talking about the look of what you´re doing,
or, you know, the visual effects.
Or, what...or any part of the movie
because this is something you should be thinking about
every step of the process.
From the script writing stage, you´re thinking about what will this scene sound like,
and maybe there´s a mood we´re trying to go for
sound-wise with that scene when we´re shooting it.
A lot of times you´ll have ideas, or even if you´re on location,
you´ll hear some cool sound somewhere,
and we´re like, oh we gotta include this somehow.
Like in the last season of Video Game High school--
there´s a lot of stuff, where there´s the sound of a train
in the distance, and we realized that that is a cool sound.
And it actually worked to sorta fill out, and sort of liven up the outdoor space.
So it wasn´t just the sound of say like, traffic, blowing by in the background,;
it actually had a sense of an environment,
and the world you were sort of sitting and watching.
Once you create your blueprint/plan for sound design,
you will begin collecting sound effects.
There are a lot of ways to get sound effects.
A lot of us are using online pay libraries or pay-by-sound bases
or purchase the entire library for a set amount.
Additionally there are a bunch of sites out that offer free-to-use or royalty free sound clips,
which are a great way to start building your own library.
The key to searching for sounds though is to think outside the box.
So, for example, if you´re doing a search for gravel steps,
and you don´t think that that sound that you have really works,
try expanding your search to include words like "crunch" or "rock steps",
you know, things like that.
If you´re really not finding the sound that you like, well, that´s on you.
It´s time to start recording your own sound effects.
The most fun you can have with sound effects is actually going out in the field and recording
your own sound effects and then manipulating those sound effects to make them fit your own scene.
So now that you´ve made, or found some cool sound effects,
what do you do with them?
Organizing your sound effects well will really help you create a strong soundscape
in your video, but there´s a lot of things going on, when you edit this stuff,
so you have to know what´s what.
A video sound design is comprised of several layers or stems.
This is an organizational tool, used for separating sound elements,
that can easily be manipulated, in the mixing session.
Dialogue, or DIA:
this stem can be comprised of ADR, which is any dialogue you record off screen
and any spoken words, by actors.
This stem will also include any voiceover by actors, as well.
Effects, or FX stems,
and depending on the type of film that you do,
the effects tracks will probably be the most effects that you have.
Foley, or FOL,
which is a track composed of recorded info production,
sounds or footsteps,
close wrestling or any sort of on-screen movement that´s really hard to capture
when you´re shooting and it adds a lot of dimension and life,
whenever the action is on screen.
Musik, or MX is your music or score tracks,
or backgrounds, BG, are usually one continuous sound,
that runs throughout the duration of the entire scene.
A background can be the sound of a rainstorm outside,
or cars blowing by, traffic.
The BG , if used effectively, can really texturize the world of your show.
Sound effects done right can sell your world and story in a way that visuals just can´t do.
Sound design is actually very important for what we do,
because what we have is our action driven,
visual effects driven stuff.
So visual effects, sound design is the most important part of visual effects,
because without it, it´s just some thing, on the screen, there´s no reality to it.
Almost every visual effect that we see, is sold by that sound effect.
Anything from the CG Troll monster in VG Justice 3
to the gunshots and the punches and the fight sounds, that we do a video like
Whose plane is it anyway?
Once you´ve cut your show, it´s time to watch everything several times,
and jot down notes of what you need, and at what time code.
Then, you can start throwing in sound effects.
You need to find the perfect sound right away
and I found the best method is just throw down several similar sound effects,
play them one by one, and then see which one is the most effective.
This is a process referred to as Auditioning those sounds.
Once you laid your sound effects and listen to your track several times
to see if the sound is both effective and believable,
I found, a lot of times, just having the right sound effect in there is way less work
than trying to get a sound effect that doesn´t quite work.
And like, try to tweak it, digitally, to make it sound right.
Now you can think about layering multiple sound effects to get your rich and real feel
for your sound design.
A lot of the sounds you hear in movies
are actually made up of a bunch of different sounds
instead of just one single sound effect.
And that´s why you would say it´s a layered sound effect.
For example in this scene, where Indiana Jones runs away from the boulder,
they didn´t just find one boulder sound effect.
There are multiple layers of the boulder sound.
There´s a low rumble, there´s a light crunch of sand underneath it.
There´s the driving sound of the boulder itself,
a rock itself, rolling after him.
All of these things layered together creates the full feel
and sound of the giant rolling boulder.
And most importantly, sounds don´t necessarily have to follow real life
if that´s the mood that you´re going for.
Sounds can be exaggerated and manipulated for shows.
You can get away with creativity when you´re talking about sound design,
especially if you´re working within the narrative genre.
Last up here is going to be mixing your sound effects with music and score.
Now, of course, music can make your audience feel whatever you want them to feel,
however too much music, and too loud of music,
can completely obliterate all the work that you just did,
creating all this awesome sound design.
This is where mixing comes into play.
So, lower your sound design, lower your music--
play around with the levels of each of them so you get your point across
comparatively but without having one side necessarily overpower the other.
Without sound effects and the music itself, your show is going to become too one dimensional.
Thanks for watching everybody. This is Freddy Wong.
To check out some of my videos, go to YouTube.com/rocketjump
Or just click over here if you wanna check out more videos like this one.
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