A Video Editor’s Guide to Sound Design

• February 21, 2014

• Film Editing Pro

Sound design and mixing is an important part of the editorial process that is becoming an essential skill to have in the editing room.

In years past, the picture editor was responsible for editing picture, dialogue, music and maybe a few sound effects here and there. Then they would pass the cut to a Supervising Sound Editor, Re-recording Mixer and others to add all of the wonderful, polished audio goodness.

While that still holds true to some extent, more and more the picture editor is expected to flesh out the audio bed during the rough cutting process and add some sound design elements like drones, hits and rises to really make the scene as intended. This trend is most certainly due to the speed and tools now available to them in most digital video editing programs. Additionally, in smaller productions and independent films, many editors find themselves wearing multiple hats — responsible for both video and audio editing.

No matter the reason, it is definitely worthwhile for an editor to familiarize him or herself with the basic types of sound design and learn some of the common uses for each. Please note that this article is focused on sound design, not all sound effects. Below is my layman’s definition.

Sound Design  is artificially-created or enhanced sound used to manipulate the mood of a scene or simulate the audio of non-existent things such as lasers, alien roars, etc. Sound design is just one of several categories that exist under the umbrella of “sound effects”.

Heavy use of sound design.

Some other categories of sound effects are:

• Hard Sound Effects  – Common sounds heard on screen  – door slams, traffic going by, gun shots etc.

• Background Sound Effects  – Ambience used to create immersion in the scene – bird