What Is SFX? A Guide to Sound Effects

Sound is a huge part of any video. It is the invisible element that tells you how to feel. Most of your favorite movies wouldn't be half as good without the sounds. Many of the most effective sound effects are the ones you never notice, but you would only notice them if they were missing.

But what exactly are SFX, and how do they make everything from YouTube videos to movies so much better?

What Does SFX Actually Mean?

SFX stands for sound effects - you know, all those noises that make videos actually watchable. Without them, action scenes feel like interpretive dance class, horror movies become accidental comedies, and gaming videos sound like they're coming from the world's quietest parallel universe.

What Does SFX Actually Mean?

SFX is the common abbreviation for sound effects. A sound effect is any sound that is artificially created or enhanced to be used in a video, film, or game.

Without them, action scenes feel like interpretive dance class, horror movies become accidental comedies, and gaming videos sound like they're coming from the world's quietest parallel universe.

The Different Types of SFX

Before we go further, you might want to bookmark Flixier's video effects editor because it's about to become your new homepage, right next to Uber Eats.

1. Basic Noises

These are your everyday sounds: doors closing, cars starting, phones ringing. You'd think recording a door closing would be easy, right? Wrong. Try it yourself, and you'll end up with something that sounds like a haunted house sound effect or your upstairs neighbor at 3 AM.

Some basics you'll probably need:

• Footsteps
• Door sounds
• Car noises (starting, idling, honking)
• Phone sounds 
• Keyboard typing (from gentle tapping to angry email writing)

2. Background Ambiance

Ambient sound is the sound that occupies a space. These sounds are not related to any action. If a scene is set in a completely silent room, it can feel jarring or hollow. When you add the appropriate ambient sound to a scene, it breathes life into the world.

Popular background noises you'll need:

• Coffee shop ambiance
• Office sounds (printers, water cooler gossip)
• Nature noises (birds, wind, leaves rustling)
• City sounds (traffic, construction)
• Party atmosphere (people laughing, music)

Fun fact: Most restaurant background noise in movies is just the sound team saying "watermelon" and "peas and carrots" over and over.

3. Fancy Sound Effects

Those completely fake sounds for things that don't exist in real life… Like laser guns, dragons, or Starship Troopers shooting at a Jedi. This is where sound designers earn their money by mixing random stuff together and hoping it sounds cool.

What you might need to fake:

• Sci-fi weapons
• Monster noises
• Magic spells (swooshes, sparkles)
• Future technology
• Explosions

4. Environmental Sounds

These are the sounds that seem simple but will drive you crazy trying to get them right. They're not fancy. They're not basic. They just exist to make your life difficult.

Examples include:

• Rain
• Fire
• Breaking glass
• Ice cubes in a glass
• Punches

5. Digital SFX

Maybe it’s due to so many AI advancements in recent years,but half of your sound effects need to sound like computers doing computer things. Every keystroke needs a beep, and every error message needs to sound like the world is ending.

Modern must-haves:

• Text message alerts
• Social media notifications
• Video game sounds
• Error messages
• Loading bars

6. Human Sounds

This is any type of sound made by a human, from speaking to sneezing. An important part of this is a unique process called Foley. Foley is the performing and recording of everyday sounds for the video in post-production. 

It’s named after Jack Foley, an early film sound artist. Foley is needed because the sounds recorded on-set are rarely very clean or detailed enough. On set, your main goal is determining whether the speaking dialogue is clear or not; all the little sounds like shoes on the ground or movement of clothing get lost in the shuffle.

You'll probably need:

• Coughs
• Sneezes
• Laughing
• Gasps
• Sighs

SFX Best Practices

Here are some best practices for using SFX.

• Don't Go Overboard: Use sound effects sparingly. Having a “whoosh” noise with every camera movement will not be entertaining to viewers.
• Match the Sound to the Scene: The sound has to match the action. A closed door should have a quiet click, not a loud crash. Footsteps should sound different depending on the surface they are on.
• Control the Volume: The sounds should not be blaringly loud. Make sure they mix in well with the sound of the other audio. The sound of a door closing should be quieter than an explosion. If your audio quality isn't quite there, try running it through our audio enhancer.
• Timing is Everything: Timing should be spot on. The sound of a punch should hit at the time of contact, not later.
• Layer Your Sounds: For sounds with multiple actions, layer the sounds. An explosion sound could consist of a boom, crackle and debris falling.
• Use Backgrounds: Use some kind of background noise. Avoid silence. Use quiet background sounds to give life to your scene. It could be a room’s hum, or far away city sounds.
• Check Your Tech: Consider where your audience will be watching. The audio may sound different on a mobile device, as opposed to headphones or TV speakers. An audio converter can save you hours of headaches.
• Test Your Work: Play your video for someone else. If they notice the sounds are too loud or distracting, you will know it needs adjusting before you show it.

How to Add SFX with Flixier

Adding sound effects (SFX) to your videos can make them more engaging and professional. Flixier is a user-friendly online video editor that makes this process simple, even for beginners.

Here's how to enhance your videos with sound effects using Flixier.

Getting Started

1. Click the blue Get Started button to open Flixier in your web browser. 

Pro tip: Need to grab audio from an existing video? Our audio extractor tool is your new best friend.

Import Your Media

2. Upload your video file from your computer, cloud storage (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox), or by pasting a link.

3. Go to the Audio section on the left side of the screen and browse the Sound Effects menu.

Adding and Editing SFX

4. Choose your desired sound effect and drag it onto the timeline.

5. Position the sound effect by dragging it left or right to sync with your video.

6. Adjust the volume using the slider in the properties menu (default is 100%).

Enhance Your Sound Effects

7. Change your SFX using these tools:

• Adjust the gain to modify the volume (starts at 0%)
• Use the Equalizer feature to boost bass or tweak the treble
• Apply fade-in or fade-out transitions for smooth sound blending
• Enable the audio levels visualizer by clicking the rectangles in the right corner of the preview canvas

Final Adjustments

8. Use the AI audio enhancer to:

• Clean up the audio quality
• Remove background noise
• Fix volume levels

Export Your Project

9. Click Export when finished and choose your preferred sharing option or download format.

Common Mistakes in SFX

When you’re just starting out, it’s easy to make a few simple mistakes. It can be easy to argue that more sound gives you a better video, but it is often the opposite. What builds confidence in sound design is knowing when to underplay it.

• Filling Every Moment with Sound: One of the worst mistakes is forgetting about the power of silence. One moment of silence can create tension or enable the sound that follows to have a much greater effect. You don’t need to have noise in every second of the production.   
• Overusing Effects and Layers: Excessively layering too many sounds (like multiple footsteps sounds, footsteps, character’s dialogue, and sound effects centered on the action happening, will muddy everything) is one of the common mistakes. This usually comes from the creator being insecure and wanting to add more to make it feel “full.”   
• Ignoring the Mix: Don’t let the sfx be loud enough that it completely engulfs the dialogue. The human voice is the cleanest sound element. Always work to allow your SFX to stay in the background and support the scene rather than lead it.   
• Thinking Louder is Better: It’s pretty easy to convince your ears that a sound is good because it is just loud. You should always adjust your sound levels to make sure it “works” at each particular level.   
• Using Low Quality Samples: Starting with a bad audio source will always leave you with a bad result. And since we're talking about quality issues, if you're working with voice-overs or dialogue, the convert audio to text feature can help you spot timing issues before they become timing disasters.   
• Thinking Too Literally: You will notice that the sound of an object being recorded can feel flat or underwhelming on screen. Making creative replacements can create a much more dramatic and satisfying moment.

How to Make Your Own Sounds

You don't need a huge sound library to create amazing sound effects. You can create many yourself using everyday household items. This practice, known as DIY Foley, is a fun way to get creative:

• Breaking Bones: For the sharp, clean sound of a bone breaking, snap a celery stalk or a lettuce head near your microphone. For the heavier sound of skull crushing, try crushing walnuts in your hand.   
• Rain: The sizzle of bacon being cooked in a pan is a surprisingly similar sound to rain.   
• Crackling Fire: You can create a convincing fire sound by slowly crumpling cellophane or aluminum foil.   
• Thunder: Use a thin, large sheet of metal, or a flexible baking sheet. Hold it up and shake to rattle and create a rumbling thunder sound.   
• Punches and Body Hits: Slap a slab of raw meat or hit an old phone book.   
• Horse Hooves: Tap two coconut halves together over something soft to imitate the sound of a trotting horse.   
• Arrow Whoosh: Grab a thin bamboo garden stake or a wooden dowel. Swing it quickly past your microphone to get the whooshing sound.   
• Footsteps in Snow: Get a leather pouch or heavy sock and fill it with cornstarch. Start squeaking and pressing to resemble crunching in snow.   
• Heartbeat: Take a plastic trash can and turn it upside down. Push the bottom back in to create a heavy, rhythmic thumping sound.

If you don’t know exactly where to start or just want to learn more, here are a few YouTube channels to help you get started:

The Sound Design Channel

Dedicated to demonstrating how to create sounds using synthesizers, this channel is a fantastic point of reference for any creators interested in crafting electronic music or creating designed sound effects.

Aftertouch Audio

Aftertouch Audio is a channel that provides tutorials based around very specific and tailored sound design works for film or video games, such as creature sounds or weapon sounds.

Busy Works Beats

Busy Works Beats has a full course for beginners that comprehensively shows you basic sound design from square one.

Andrew Huang

Andrew Huang has really creative videos and demonstrates amazing production techniques, and is definitely a source of a lot of inspiration to be unorthodox in your sound design methods.

Pensado's Place

Pensado’s Place is hosted by Grammy-winning mix engineer and is a guide for anyone who wants to master audio professionally.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does SFX stand for?

SFX has two main meanings:

• Special Effects - practical/physical effects created on set (explosions,  prosthetics, animatronics) 
• Sound Effects - artificially created or enhanced audio elements

The abbreviation is context-dependent. In film production, it means special effects, whereas in audio/gaming contexts, it means sound effects.

What is SFX vs VFX?

The main difference is when and how they're created:

• SFX (Special Effects): Real  effects created during filming on set (real explosions)
• VFX (Visual Effects): Digital effects added after filming in post-production (CGI)

What is SFX in gaming?

In gaming, SFX specifically refers to sound effects: every audio element that isn't music or dialogue:

• Weapon sounds, footsteps, ambient noise
• UI sounds (button clicks, notifications)
• Environmental sounds (wind, water, explosions)
• Character sounds (jumping, taking damage)

What do SFX artists do?

This varies depending on the type of SFX artist:

Special Effects (SFX) Artists:

• Create prosthetic makeup, wounds, creature effects
• Design and build animatronics and mechanical props
• Handle pyrotechnics and practical explosions
• Make molds, casts, and prosthetics

Sound Effects Artists/Foley Artists:

• Record custom sound effects synchronized to video
• Use props and some creative ways to recreate sounds (celery for breaking bones, coconuts for horse hooves)
• Work in specialized studios with different surfaces and materials
• Edit and time sound effects to match on-screen action perfectly

You're Ready to Make Some Noise

Sound effects seem so simple on the surface… It's just about making things sound natural enough that nobody notices your work, which is ironic, considering how much time you'll spend on it.

Remember: The best sound effects are like good plastic surgery. If people can tell you did something, you probably did too much.