55 Add Sound Effects to Your Movie

Before You Begin

48 Add a Soundtrack to Your Video

See Also

56 Change the Movie's Volume

Creating sound effects is more of a craft that you learn by doing, not by reading about it. Many of Hollywood's sound effect engineers were hired for blockbuster movies only after years of apprenticeship working for others in the field.

This task focuses on adding sound effects that you've already recorded or obtained from other sources.

Adding sound effects requires only that you locate the place on the timeline where the sound is to go (you might need to increase the timeline's interval setting; see 37 Zoom a Timeline Clip for help with this) and add the sound to the Audio/Music track on the timeline.

TIP

Several Web sites offer free and inexpensive sound effects ” http://www.A1FreeSoundEffects.com/ provides several hundred. Be sure to purchase royalty-free sound effects if you plan to use them in movies you produce to sell, such as training videos .

1. Zoom into Timeline
   
   If you need to zoom into the timeline to place the sound effect more accurately, press PageDown until the time interval is small enough that you can see the location you want to place the sound effect.
   
   
2. Click Target Location
   
   If you did not locate the sound effect's insertion point by playing the timeline, and you can accurately locate the time interval where you want to insert the sound effect, click the time interval where you want the sound effect to go. The timeline's status line will appear at that location.
   
   

   NOTE

   

   This task assumes you've imported the needed sound effects into your Collections pane before you begin. If you have not imported the sound effects, see 47 About Importing Existing Digital Files if you need help doing so.

   
3. Scroll Toward Top
   
   

   NOTE

   

   You can play the timeline and pause the playback at the point where you want to place the sound effect. Click the Monitor pane's Next Frame or Previous Frame buttons to locate the exact position where your sound effect is to go.

   Scroll to the top portion of your Contents pane where sound clips are located.
   
   
4. Drag to Audio/Music Track
   
   Drag the sound effect clip to the timeline's Audio/Music track. When you get close to the insertion point, release your mouse button. The sound effect will now rest on the timeline's Audio/Music track. If you need to move the clip slightly left or right, nudge the clip left or right a frame at a time ( see 45 Nudge a Clip to Adjust its Start Time ).