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There are sites to find free pre-recorded sound effects.

But how are new SFX created when designing a reality for a scene?

  • Could you recommend some resources (books, videos, tutorials, etc.) for learning this skill?

  • Or could you provide your own explanation and/or examples?

  • Are there any recommended "making-of" or "how it was made" type of resources?

By the way, is this more a skill, a craft or an art?

MOTIVATION As a complete beginner, I understand that existing sounds are collected and then montaged into each other. This sounds like great fun and a creative process, but I'm seeking for some ideas to "boot" me into it. Currently I would be doing this as a hobby, so I would prefer resources that I could learn/use/practice at my own pace.

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migrated from avp.stackexchange.com Jan 24 '14 at 12:01


Hi Naxa, as per the FAQ this question is too broad to be answered in it's current form. It might require a book to answer fully. Can you rescope your question to ask for a specific piece you need an answer to. –  Rory Alsop Nov 5 '12 at 10:19
@DrMayhem thanks, I will try to rewrite it in the week then. Maybe it's enough to ask for recommend resources like books? –  naxa Nov 5 '12 at 10:25

1 Answer 1

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Audio effects could be considered a smaller part of audio synthesis.

A quick google search got me this, which seems like a good start for recording special effects.

The main problem is that there are zillions of ways of creating sound effects, it depends if you want to record or synthesize the sound. When I got started with music production SFX was my major interest and somebody recommended me this book called The Sound Effects Bible: How to Create and Record Hollywood Style Sound Effects

I know it's not much, but it's a step in the right direction.

What I would recommend is that you get started on audio synthesis - at least learn about audio effects like compression, distortion, reverb, chorus, flanger, delay, echo and etc. - those are incredible powerful for sound creation that are essential to any sound designer and incredible important for sound effects creators.

If you think about it, a shotgun fire sound is rather useless by it self if you can't add some reverb to match the ambient it's being fired in - also, excessive compression and harsh filtering can mimic the effect of vintage telephones - so there's a gigantic source of awesome possibilities speaking of audio effects alone.

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