6 ms·

The Weird, Analog Delights of Foley Sound Effects

39 points by tintinnabula 4y ago

peterlk 4y ago
I absolutely love foley in music. I haven't updated it in a while, but I have a playlist of music that contains foley that I like: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41uMIYCFV2XXaFtPWSNo9V?si=89fa2467877d41dd https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41uMIYCFV2XXaFtPWSNo9V?si=... I find that adding foley to music makes it easier to engage in active listening of the song. For anyone who has ever produced or thought of producing music, adding foley to tracks is _really_ fun. Replace a snare hit with a capacitor pop or a noise build with an airplane taking off. It really adds depth to whatever you're making. It often forces me to step up my production game too because natural sounds come with all kinds of undesirable frequencies and spiky amplitudes that need to be smoothed out in order to cohesively fit into a track.
- Minor49er 4y ago
  You might enjoy albums like Amon Tobin's ISAM, Einstürzende Neubauten's Kollaps, Nurse With Wound's Sugar Fish Drink, or Chu Ishikawa / Der Eisenrost's soundtrack for Tokyo Fist
unwind 4y ago
Very interesting, would love a video documentary of their processes, when you can cut to the final sound in the movie. Also, had to look it up since I realized I didn't know: In filmmaking, Foley[1] is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.[2] These reproduced sounds, named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley, can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. From Wikipedia [1] of course. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)
WalterBright 4y ago
I enjoyed the movie Ronin, then made the mistake of watching the "making of". They showed how they added sound effects in the car chase, like shaking gravel in a coffee can, etc. Then when I watch the movie, and hear the sound effects, in my mind I see the foley artist shaking the coffee can. It ruined the movie for me :-) P.S. I watched "Night Sky" yesterday. In one scene, the truck screeches to a halt on a dirt road. Sigh.
- Gordonjcp 4y ago
  In the car chase they dubbed the Citroën XM's lovely 90° V6 growl with a rather boring Chevy smallblock V8 sound effect.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- m463 4y ago
  In the movie airplane the jet makes the sound of a propeller plane. :)
  - mhh__ 4y ago
    They actually swapped the engines and then drew the jets back on on afterwards
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    And the radar screen opened and you took your washing out!
Stratoscope 4y ago
One of the many wonderful Jam Handy videos in the Prelinger Archive is Back of the Mike, showing a combination of Foley and voice acting techniques in an old time radio broadcast: https://archive.org/details/Backofth1938 https://archive.org/details/Backofth1938 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjemv7RypkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjemv7RypkA (Same film on both; the one on YouTube seems to be a slightly higher quality transfer.)
at_a_remove 4y ago
Several years ago, musician Thomas Dolby attempted a documentary about a lighthouse from his childhood which turned out to be influential in his work. However, he hadn't the expertise and ended up losing most of the audio that was outside because he didn't know how to mike it properly (which would be especially tough given the weather there). So what did he do? He toured a special evening performance (The Invisible Lighthouse) with the video only in the background, him narrating, and then a helper, Blake Leyh (sound design for The Abyss and such) across the stage, providing live foley effects where appropriate, with just a handful of props, instruments, and the like. Really fascinating to see in person.
novosel 4y ago
On a (slightly) tangent note, check out a Peter Strickland film --- Berberian Sound Studio. Foley artist caught in a horror movie/reality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berberian_Sound_Studio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berberian_Sound_Studio
dieselgate 4y ago
The article forgot to mention: you can pet a dog, you can pet a cat, but you can’t Petaluma

39 points by tintinnabula 4y ago

I absolutely love foley in music. I haven't updated it in a while, but I have a playlist of music that contains foley that I like: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41uMIYCFV2XXaFtPWSNo9V?si=89fa2467877d41dd https://open.spotify.com/playlist/41uMIYCFV2XXaFtPWSNo9V?si=... I find that adding foley to music makes it easier to engage in active listening of the song. For anyone who has ever produced or thought of producing music, adding foley to tracks is _really_ fun. Replace a snare hit with a capacitor pop or a noise build with an airplane taking off. It really adds depth to whatever you're making. It often forces me to step up my production game too because natural sounds come with all kinds of undesirable frequencies and spiky amplitudes that need to be smoothed out in order to cohesively fit into a track.

Minor49er 4y ago
You might enjoy albums like Amon Tobin's ISAM, Einstürzende Neubauten's Kollaps, Nurse With Wound's Sugar Fish Drink, or Chu Ishikawa / Der Eisenrost's soundtrack for Tokyo Fist

unwind 4y ago

Very interesting, would love a video documentary of their processes, when you can cut to the final sound in the movie. Also, had to look it up since I realized I didn't know: In filmmaking, Foley[1] is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to films, videos, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality.[2] These reproduced sounds, named after sound-effects artist Jack Foley, can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass. From Wikipedia [1] of course. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foley_(filmmaking)

WalterBright 4y ago

I enjoyed the movie Ronin, then made the mistake of watching the "making of". They showed how they added sound effects in the car chase, like shaking gravel in a coffee can, etc. Then when I watch the movie, and hear the sound effects, in my mind I see the foley artist shaking the coffee can. It ruined the movie for me :-) P.S. I watched "Night Sky" yesterday. In one scene, the truck screeches to a halt on a dirt road. Sigh.

Gordonjcp 4y ago
In the car chase they dubbed the Citroën XM's lovely 90° V6 growl with a rather boring Chevy smallblock V8 sound effect.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
m463 4y ago
In the movie airplane the jet makes the sound of a propeller plane. :)
- mhh__ 4y ago
  They actually swapped the engines and then drew the jets back on on afterwards
- WalterBright 4y ago
  And the radar screen opened and you took your washing out!

Stratoscope 4y ago

One of the many wonderful Jam Handy videos in the Prelinger Archive is Back of the Mike, showing a combination of Foley and voice acting techniques in an old time radio broadcast: https://archive.org/details/Backofth1938 https://archive.org/details/Backofth1938 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjemv7RypkA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjemv7RypkA (Same film on both; the one on YouTube seems to be a slightly higher quality transfer.)

at_a_remove 4y ago

Several years ago, musician Thomas Dolby attempted a documentary about a lighthouse from his childhood which turned out to be influential in his work. However, he hadn't the expertise and ended up losing most of the audio that was outside because he didn't know how to mike it properly (which would be especially tough given the weather there). So what did he do? He toured a special evening performance (The Invisible Lighthouse) with the video only in the background, him narrating, and then a helper, Blake Leyh (sound design for The Abyss and such) across the stage, providing live foley effects where appropriate, with just a handful of props, instruments, and the like. Really fascinating to see in person.

novosel 4y ago

On a (slightly) tangent note, check out a Peter Strickland film --- Berberian Sound Studio. Foley artist caught in a horror movie/reality. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berberian_Sound_Studio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berberian_Sound_Studio

dieselgate 4y ago

The article forgot to mention: you can pet a dog, you can pet a cat, but you can’t Petaluma