Sound
The vocabulary of movie sound
Half of what makes a video feel cinematic is what you hear: the voice, the music under it, the whoosh on the cut. Press a term to hear it and see how the layers sit on the timeline.
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Turn your sound on and press a term to hear it. Mixing terms play as a short multitrack: click the timeline to jump, and switch between with and without to hear what the technique does.
Voice-over personas
The same kind of line in different voices. The read (pace, energy, warmth) sets the tone before any picture does.
Music for the moment
What editors reach for in each situation, and a few words for how a cue is built.
Transitions and hits
Designed sounds that sell a cut, a reveal or a title. Often called trailer SFX.
Foley and UI sounds
Everyday sounds, recorded or made to match what is on screen.
Ambience
The sound of a place. It runs under a scene so it never feels like a vacuum.
Editing and mixing
How the layers fit together. Each one plays as a short mix; the timeline shows every part and its level.
All terms
Voice-over personas
- Warm guide
- Relaxed, smiling, a little conversational. The default for explainers and brand stories: it sounds like a person, not an ad.
- Hype announceralso: announcer
- High energy, punchy, emphasis on every other word. Launch teasers, sales and late-night-ad parodies.
- Calm explainer
- Even pace, low drama, clear diction. Tutorials and product walkthroughs where the viewer needs to follow along.
- Documentary narratoralso: storyteller
- Measured, resonant and a little grand, with room between sentences. Origin stories and brand films.
- Trailer voicealso: "In a world…"
- Deep, slow, dramatic pauses. Instantly reads as "movie trailer", so it is mostly used for drama or as a joke.
- News anchoralso: corporate read
- Crisp, neutral and authoritative. Announcements, press-style videos and corporate updates.
- Creator (UGC)also: UGC read, influencer
- Casual, fast, slightly breathless, like someone talking to their phone. The voice of user-generated ads on TikTok and Reels.
- Friendly host
- Upbeat but genuine, like a friend showing you something. Onboarding videos and product tours.
- Deadpanalso: dry read
- Flat delivery of a funny line. The humour comes from the voice refusing to sell the joke.
- Intimatealso: close-mic, soft read
- Soft, close to the mic, slow. Perfume ads, wellness and moments meant to feel personal.
Music for the moment
- Upbeat corporatealso: tech launch
- Bright, confident, a steady groove that never gets in the way. The safe choice for product launches and SaaS demos.
- Tension underscorealso: suspense, underscore
- A pulse and a rising line that never resolves. Use it while the problem is shown, before the product saves the day.
- Epic traileralso: hybrid orchestral
- Orchestra, big drums, a climb to a climax. Big reveals, or comedy when the subject is tiny.
- Lo-fi
- Laid-back beat with dusty texture. Behind-the-scenes, study or work-with-me content; it relaxes the viewer.
- Emotional piano
- Slow piano and strings. Founder stories, customer stories and anything meant to move people.
- Quirky / comedicalso: pizzicato, sneaky
- Pizzicato, bouncy woodwinds, cartoon timing. Tells the viewer it is okay to laugh.
- Inspirational buildalso: indie folk
- Acoustic guitar, claps and stomps that grow. Community, mission and "we did it" videos.
- Synthwavealso: retrowave
- Retro 80s synths and drum machines. Nostalgia, gaming and anything neon.
- Ambient bedalso: pad, underscore
- Pads with no beat and no tune. Sits under narration without competing with the words.
- Build and dropalso: build-up, the drop
- Tension rises (snare roll, filter sweep), a moment of silence, then the beat lands hard. Time the drop to the reveal.
- Button endingalso: button, hard out
- The cue ends on a clean final hit instead of fading. It gives the last frame (a logo, a punchline) a full stop.
Transitions and hits
- Whoosh
- Air rushing past. Sells fast camera moves, whip pans and things flying in.
- Swooshalso: UI whoosh
- A smaller, softer whoosh for UI elements and text sliding in.
- Riseralso: uplifter, build
- A sound climbing in pitch and intensity. Builds anticipation into a reveal or a cut.
- Downlifteralso: downer, drop sweep
- The opposite of a riser: a sweep falling away, usually right after an impact.
- Impactalso: hit, boom
- A big, short hit. Lands a title, a cut or a logo.
- Braamalso: foghorn, Inception horn
- A huge, distorted brass blast. The sound of modern blockbuster trailers.
- Sub dropalso: 808 drop
- A deep bass boom falling in pitch. Adds weight you feel more than hear.
- Reverse cymbalalso: reverse swell
- A cymbal played backwards, swelling into the moment. A softer alternative to a riser.
- Glitch
- Digital stutter and noise. Tech themes, errors, or a transition with a broken-screen effect.
Foley and UI sounds
- UI popalso: blip
- A soft click or pop as a card, badge or button appears.
- Notification ding
- A message or alert arriving. Instantly familiar, so use it for that and nothing else.
- Keyboard typing
- Foley for text being typed on screen. Real keyboards beat synthetic clicks.
- Camera shutter
- A photo being taken; also a crisp accent for freeze frames and screenshots.
- Footstepsalso: foley walk
- The classic foley sound. Recorded to picture by a foley artist, matching shoes and surface.
- Record scratch
- The needle dragged across vinyl. Stops everything for a comedic beat.
- Cha-chingalso: cash register
- A cash register: money, pricing, a sale. A cliché, so use it with a wink.
- Applause
- A crowd clapping and cheering. Wins, milestones and launch-day moments.
Ambience
- Room tonealso: presence, air
- The quiet sound of an empty room. Editors lay it under dialogue so cuts between takes never drop to dead silence.
- City ambiencealso: atmos, background
- Traffic, voices, the hum of a street. Places a scene outside without showing it.
- Walla (café)also: walla, crowd ambience
- Crowd murmur with no words you can make out, plus the clinks of a café.
- Nature ambience
- Birds and wind. Calm, outdoors, morning.
Editing and mixing
- Music bedalso: bed, underscore
- Music kept low for the whole piece so the voice sits on top of it. Quieter and simpler than a featured track.
- Duckingalso: sidechain, dipping
- The music dips automatically while someone speaks and comes back up after. The voice stays clear without the music sounding quiet.
- Fade in
- Sound rising from silence. A gentle way into a scene; a long fade in builds anticipation.
- Fade out
- Sound sinking into silence. Ends a piece softly, or hides that the music didn't end when the picture did.
- Crossfadealso: dissolve, segue
- One sound fades out while the next fades in, overlapping. Smooth changes of mood or location.
- J-cutalso: pre-lap, split edit
- You hear the next scene before you see it. The street sound starts while we are still in the office, pulling you into the cut.
- L-cutalso: split edit
- The picture cuts away but the sound carries on. The narrator keeps talking over B-roll, so the edit feels continuous.
- Sound bridge
- One sound runs across a cut and ties two places together. Here the music starts in the café and carries on into the street.
- Hit on the cutalso: sweetener, transition SFX
- A whoosh into the cut and an impact on it. The cut lands harder because the sound marks it.
- Layered impactalso: stacking
- Big moments are several sounds at once: a riser and a reverse cymbal into the hit, an impact and a sub drop on it, a downlifter after.
- Drop outalso: hard stop, beat of silence
- Everything cuts to silence for a moment just before the big hit. The silence makes the hit feel twice as loud.
- Record scratch stop
- Upbeat music, a scratch, then silence and a dry line. The comedy classic for "wait, what?".
- Diegetic soundalso: source music, futz, worldizing
- Sound that exists in the scene. This music comes from a radio on the café counter, so it is thin and sits inside the room.
- Non-diegetic soundalso: score
- Sound only the audience hears: the score and the narrator. It is full and wide, on top of the scene, not in it.
- Filling the gapsalso: room tone under dialogue
- Two lines with a pause between them. With room tone underneath, the pause sounds like the same room; without it, the sound drops out.
Voices, music and sound effects generated with ElevenLabs for this page.