Sound Effects facts
While investigating facts about Sound Effects, I found out little known, but curios details like:
Planet Earth series has almost no authentic audio. Most of the sounds you hear are audio library effects or tailor-made studio sounds added on the editing table.
The lion roar sound effects used in The Lion King are not actual lions, but voice actor Frank Welker growling and screaming into a metal trash can.
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Sound Effects I managed to collect.
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The "whistling" noise used to indicate bombs falling in movies and TV shows is almost always the wrong way round. Anyone underneath a bomb that made such a sound (only specific WW2-era bombs) would hear the pitch increasing as it got closer, not decreasing, due to the Doppler effect.
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Nestled within the ubiquitous Law and Order "dun dun" sound effect, which combines roughly six to seven different sounds, is the sound of 500 Japanese men stomping their feet on a wooden floor
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Dogs laugh.When a recording of a dogs laugh is played to puppies they instantly show signs of joy and the same sounds have a calming effect on dogs in an animal shelter
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Dogs laugh. They make laugh-like sounds when they are tickled or playing, and these sounds have a positive effect on puppies hearing them.
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That, due to the Doppler effect, a musical piece being emitted from a source traveling twice the speed of sound would be heard in correct time and tune, but backwards.
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Our minds have the ability to "override" a sound depending on what you see while hearing the sound. This audio illusion is the McGurk effect and occurs regardless of whether or not you are aware of it.
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Out of thousands of Frog species, only one goes "RIBBIT", But it has become a global cliche of how a frog sounds because that particular frog specie resides in the West Coast of USA, where Hollywood is, and were recorded for sound effects in classic Hollywood movies.
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Hero of Alexandria, in the 1st century AD, built a computer that ran a ~10 min long program. Built of ropes and cogwheel, he programmed it in binary via knots into the ropes. It even had a sound system to produce effects.
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Scientists in Tel Aviv have found that soon after a bee flies past an Evening Primrose, the flower increases the sugar content of its nectar by 30%. Playing bee sounds has a similar effect, but there is no effect on the flower when other vibrations are emitted.
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One time on The Price Is Right the sound effects for the big wheel were not working so the audience provided them.
What is true about sound effects?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
A person had their faced smeared with Peanut Butter and then a cow licked it off just for our enjoyment of Toy Story and the sound effects for Woody's horse, Bullseye.
"Nintendocore", a musical genre that combines elements of video game theme music and sound effects to modern punk rock or metal. - source
One of the animators from Robot Chicken and PES uses a modified Nintendo Power Glove to help him animate. Its sooo 'bad' that it even has a fist bump sound effect for when he has to meet with the director. - source
Closed captions and subtitles are not the same thing (subtitles contain only dialogue, closed captions contain dialogue, music, sound effects, etc)
The sound effect in the opening line of the song Iron Man, "I am Iron Man", was made by having Ozzy Osbourne sing from behind a fan. - source
The most famous sound effect from the cartoon series Tom and Jerry -- Tom's leather-lunged scream -- was created by recording Hanna's scream and eliminating the beginning and ending of the recording, leaving only the strongest part of the scream on the soundtrack.
Monster Mash" used low-budget sound effects for the recording: the sound of a coffin opening was made by a rusty nail being pulled out of a board; the sound of a cauldron bubbling was water being bubbled through a straw, and the chains rattling were simply chains being dropped on a tile floor.
Marvel Comics G.I. Joe #21 (1984) was a completely silent issue. Writer/Artist Larry Hama wanted a complete story - beginning, middle, end, conflict, characterization, action, solid resolution - without the word balloons, captions, and sound effects.
Scientists believe dolphins can effectively send each other "images" via echolocation by recreating the sound profile an object.
The classic bald eagle screech sound effect we hear in most movies and tv shows is actually the sound of a red tailed hawk screech dubbed over. Bald Eagles make more of a little cackling type of a laugh sound.
The Mushroom upgrade sound effect from Super Mario Bros is just a highly-sped up arpeggio similar to the end-of-level celebration theme. (Watch at about 0:57 to 1:08).
