How to Improve and Balance Sound Effects to Your Movie

Without sound, you're left with a silent movie, and even if you've been digitizing old silent movies it's very likely that you'll be inspired to add music, sound effects, or commentary (or a combination of all three) to your sequences at the editing stage. This is entirely possible; not only can you add music from your favorite CD (if you have permission, of course), but you can draw upon a program's built-in utilities to add sound effects and even so-called "instant music" loops and phrases to add spice to your project and provoke a favorable reaction from family members and friends. If your vacation movie or expedition video requires explanation, then write, record, and mix in your own commentary! Professional results are surprisingly easy with today's software, as you'll discover almost as soon as you start to explore the possibilities.

When you capture your footage from digital tape, or import video clip files from DVD, HDD (Hard Disk Drive), or SD card cameras, you'll also transfer the sound tracks that accompany the pictures automatically. That's because the two are embedded into the video stream. Once the clips appear in your clip bin and are available for inclusion in the edited project, the mere action of dragging each one to the timeline will result in both elements being added in combination. Most programs keep the video (the pictures) and the two parts of the stereo sound track locked together unless you tell the program otherwise. It also makes it easy to modify the sound levels, perhaps by changing the characteristics of the sound by applying limiters, increasing its overall level, adding echo, or adding filters that will help to reduce background noise such as hiss and so on.

Not only can you manage the audible characteristic of an individual clip (or group of clips in combination), but you'll be able to "bend" and reshape the visible audio waveform in order to increase and decrease its intensity. This technique is often called "rubber-banding."

Look at any popular video-editing program and you'll see that you're given the opportunity to manipulate the content of more than one pair of stereo sound sources. The main source is, of course, the one that is associated with the camcorder footage itself (called the "synch sound source"), but extra tracks will be available for the addition of music, commentary, and sound effects according to the application in use. Each of these tracks can be used to build up a complex and professional sounding audio track that will enhance your movie project no end and will certainly impress your viewers! Sound is vital to a video production, as a viewing of any mainstream movie, TV show or even commercial will tell you. Take away the sound and you're not left with much at all.