3 Sound Design Secrets 99% of Editors Don't Know — Transcript

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1. 0:00Think about the last movie that really
2. 0:02made you feel something.
3. 0:05And I mean like really feel it. Like
4. 0:07when you get goosebumps down your arms.
5. 0:11And when you feel completely indulged in
6. 0:14just pure passion for filmmaking for
7. 0:16what's in front of you. Eyes locked,
8. 0:18glued to the screen. Now, take away the
9. 0:21sound.
10. 0:24Watch that. You see it loses so much
11. 0:27feeling and depth when you simply take
12. 0:29away the sound.
13. 0:30>> The sound drove the VFX in this case.
14. 0:32>> picture is only half the story, but
15. 0:34sound's the other half. It's that piece
16. 0:36that turns a a shot into a feeling.
17. 0:39>> But the way to bring more uh some kind
18. 0:41of more uh
19. 0:42psychedelism, if such a word exists in
20. 0:44English, is with sound.
21. 0:46>> And most filmmakers are putting this art
22. 0:48on the sidelines. Not because they don't
23. 0:50care, but because nobody really ever
24. 0:52showed them how the puzzle actually fits
25. 0:55together. Today, I'm going to be giving
26. 0:56you three pieces of that puzzle. The
27. 0:58kind of puzzle pieces that you can use
28. 1:00in your very next edit. third one I'm
29. 1:02going to be revealing to you, well, that
30. 1:04one changed my workflow completely. And
31. 1:06that secret will make the difference
32. 1:07between a video that people watch and a
33. 1:09video that people feel. So, let's start
34. 1:11with the first piece of the puzzle.
35. 1:13Let's say you drop a whoosh in your
36. 1:15timeline, but it just feels weak. So,
37. 1:17you swap it for another one, but wow,
38. 1:18that one sucks even more. So, you end up
39. 1:20dropping in a third, fourth, fifth, so
40. 1:23on and so on. And 20, 30 minutes later,
41. 1:25you've cycled through half your sound
42. 1:26library and nothing still lands. But
43. 1:28here's the thing, you can swap that
44. 1:30whoosh sound effect 50 more times and
45. 1:32get the same result because the sound
46. 1:34was never the problem. Every piece of
47. 1:36music has a key. If your sound effect
48. 1:38isn't in that same key, your brain flags
49. 1:41it as wrong, as as something's feeling
50. 1:43off. You won't know why, you'll just
51. 1:45feel it. It's the same reason when a
52. 1:47singer goes flat, it makes you kind of
53. 1:49step back and take a second before you
54. 1:50even understand what happened. Your ear
55. 1:52catches it faster than your brain can
56. 1:55explain. [music] And that's secret one.
57. 1:56It's to match the key of your sound
58. 1:58effect to the key of your music. And
59. 2:00here's exactly how to do it. See, some
60. 2:03sound effect packs write the key note
61. 2:05right on the file name. But if yours
62. 2:07doesn't, then drop your music into a
63. 2:08free key finder tool, which I'll show
64. 2:10you which one is my favorite in just a
65. 2:12second, and then it will tell you the
66. 2:14key note automatically within seconds.
67. 2:16So, it's really easy when you do that to
68. 2:17match sound effects in the same key note
69. 2:19as your music. Now, if it's not, all you
70. 2:21need to do is open up your sound effect
71. 2:23in whatever software you're using and
72. 2:24use something called a pitch shifter.
73. 2:26And all you need to do is slide it up or
74. 2:27slide it down until your sound effect
75. 2:29locks into that same key that you're
76. 2:31going after. Now, each small step here
77. 2:33on that slider is called a semitone. One
78. 2:35step up or down is essentially the
79. 2:37equivalent of one piano key. Now, don't
80. 2:39worry, you don't need to be able to read
81. 2:41music to do this. You just need your
82. 2:42ears and that slide. But let's say that
83. 2:44you are the most tone-deaf person ever,
84. 2:46like I used to be. If that's you or if
85. 2:48you just want to speed this up
86. 2:50exponentially, then I built a completely
87. 2:52free tool to help you do that. It
88. 2:54basically listens to your music and
89. 2:56tells you what key it's in, and then it
90. 2:58also [music] tells you what key your
91. 2:59sound effects need to be in in order to
92. 3:01match that song. In addition to that, I
93. 3:03also built a completely free cinematic
94. 3:05sound effect pack in different keys. So,
95. 3:07if you guys want that whole thing for
96. 3:08free, the link is right in the
97. 3:09description below. Now, just a quick pro
98. 3:11tip before getting into secret two, and
99. 3:13here's where it gets really fun. So, the
100. 3:15same exact sound effect, or in this case
101. 3:17whoosh, that we used from earlier, it
102. 3:18can become two totally different sounds
103. 3:20just by where you pitch it. So, you can
104. 3:22take any sound like a cinematic hit and
105. 3:24you can keep it high, but maybe it feels
106. 3:26too light or playful, then try to pitch
107. 3:28that same file down but make it go low.
108. 3:31And then when you do that, suddenly it
109. 3:32it'll feel heavy, dramatic, almost a
110. 3:34little bit scary. So, it's really the
111. 3:35same file, but with a tiny bit of
112. 3:37tweaking and having some fun along the
113. 3:38way, you get two different [music]
114. 3:40feelings. And once you know this, you
115. 3:41stop hunting for new sound effects every
116. 3:44single time because you realize that,
117. 3:45well, now you have the power to just
118. 3:47reshape the ones you already have. Okay,
119. 3:49so now every single sound you drop into
120. 3:50your project actually fits your feeling
121. 3:52for what you're going. But key matching,
122. 3:54it does nothing for the moment that your
123. 3:56whole entire song has to change to a
124. 3:58different song. And that's where a lot
125. 4:00of edits fall apart completely. So,
126. 4:02let's say that you have a song that's
127. 4:03perfectly playing underneath your edit.
128. 4:05It's working, the energy feels good, and
129. 4:07then you hit the point where you need to
130. 4:09switch to the next musical track. So,
131. 4:11you just cut it. Song one stops, and
132. 4:14then song two starts. But even with
133. 4:16perfect timing, it still feels like
134. 4:18slamming the brakes at 70 mph.
135. 4:20>> [music]
136. 4:20>> The viewer feels that jolt, even if they
137. 4:22can't say why. So, you see, you don't
138. 4:24want to transition between two musical
139. 4:25tracks with the music itself. You want
140. 4:28to transition with your sound design.
141. 4:30And here's exactly how. All you need to
142. 4:32do is take that very first beat of the
143. 4:34new song, copy it, reverse it, and now
144. 4:37play that reverse beat right before the
145. 4:39new song starts. And it sounds like a
146. 4:40riser build-up into the song because
147. 4:42it's made from the song itself. It's
148. 4:45already in the right key, it's already
149. 4:46in the right rhythm. And it when you do
150. 4:48this, the viewer eases into the new song
151. 4:49instead of getting shoved into it, and
152. 4:51it makes the whole thing feel way more
153. 4:53polished. Now, you can do the same thing
154. 4:55to leave a song super smoothly as well.
155. 4:57Find the last beat before the part you
156. 4:59want to cut, copy that beat, and then
157. 5:01reverse it, and place it right where the
158. 5:03song actually ends. [music] And then
159. 5:04what happens is it sounds like the song
160. 5:06is is settling down instead of just
161. 5:08stopping. But if you want it to feel
162. 5:09even smoother, another pro tip for you
163. 5:11is to add reverb on the last beat of the
164. 5:13musical track. And this pro tip can
165. 5:15apply to sound effects as well. What you
166. 5:17want to do is basically just let them
167. 5:19echo out instead of cutting off hard
168. 5:21because it creates a feeling of of
169. 5:23space, like the sound is fading into a
170. 5:25room instead of hitting a wall. And that
171. 5:27one move is the difference between a
172. 5:28[music] cut and a smooth, polished
173. 5:30transition. Also, to add even more
174. 5:32depth, you can add in a super subtle hit
175. 5:34sound effect, and then that paired with
176. 5:36the riser into the next song, all in the
177. 5:38same matching keys, and you have the
178. 5:39world's smoothest auditory transition
179. 5:41[music] between two musical tracks that
180. 5:43has ever existed. Here's the thing, you
181. 5:45can match every single key and
182. 5:46transition every single song perfectly
183. 5:48and your video can still feel empty
184. 5:50because the biggest secret isn't about
185. 5:51the sounds that you're picking, it's
186. 5:53about the sounds you're not even
187. 5:55thinking to add. Let's say that you have
188. 5:56a scene where someone in your video
189. 5:58picks up a coffee cup and then a door
190. 6:00opens and then someone walks across the
191. 6:02room. And in the scene there's dialogue
192. 6:04and there's music but that's it. But
193. 6:06when you play it back something still
194. 6:07feels off. It feels like hollow. It
195. 6:09feels like a home movie set instead of a
196. 6:12real place and you can't just you can't
197. 6:14figure out what it is. You can't figure
198. 6:15out what's but your gut knows
199. 6:17something's up. Well, that's because
200. 6:19your brain expects the cup to clink. It
201. 6:21expects the door to creak. When those
202. 6:23small sounds are missing your brain
203. 6:26notices even if you're never consciously
204. 6:29aware of it. And that takes us to secret
205. 6:31number three. For this secret you need
206. 6:33to stop asking what sound effects should
207. 6:35I add here and start asking what would I
208. 6:38actually hear if I were standing in this
209. 6:40room right now. Would it be the hum of
210. 6:42the lights or the AC, the creak of a
211. 6:43chair, fabric moving when someone
212. 6:45shifts, would it be cars outside of a
213. 6:47window that's open that nobody in the
214. 6:48shot is even looking at? See, none of
215. 6:50these sounds are the the point of the
216. 6:52scene but all of them make the scene
217. 6:54feel real. They add depth.
218. 6:56>> There's a a spider, human spider in the
219. 6:58film. The detail that makes that thing
220. 7:00really creepy is the way it's pushing a
221. 7:03bowl around on a concrete floor. You
222. 7:05know, I went down to the carriage and
223. 7:06spent half an hour recording me pushing
224. 7:08a bowl around.
225. 7:09>> [laughter]
226. 7:10>> And this is what builds atmosphere. This
227. 7:11is what builds that depth. This is what
228. 7:13makes someone feel like they're standing
229. 7:16in the room with you instead of just
230. 7:17watching a screen. Another pro tip for
231. 7:20this and here's what separates the good
232. 7:22from the great. These background sounds
233. 7:23should be quiet enough that nobody
234. 7:25consciously notices them while they
235. 7:27watch it but if you muted them or took
236. 7:30the sound away it should suddenly feel
237. 7:32like something's [music] missing or
238. 7:33invisible when it's there, obvious when
239. 7:35it's gone. That's really the whole goal.
240. 7:37So, there you go. Stop swapping sounds
241. 7:39and start matching keys. Transition with
242. 7:41sound effects instead of hard cuts,
243. 7:43>> [music]
244. 7:43>> and design your quiet moments for the
245. 7:45atmosphere that you would actually hear
246. 7:47in the room if you were there, not what
247. 7:49looks or I guess sounds cool. But,
248. 7:52here's the thing, none of this saves an
249. 7:53edit that was never built [music] to
250. 7:55hold attention in the first place. Sound
251. 7:57design is only half of it. The other
252. 7:59half is understanding that editing isn't
253. 8:01about making something look cool, it's
254. 8:03about controlling [music] exactly what
255. 8:04your viewer feels cut by cut. If you
256. 8:07skip that part, then everything I just
257. 8:09showed you was just polishing a video
258. 8:12that nobody's really going to watch. So,
259. 8:13go watch this video next right here
260. 8:15where I break down exactly how editing
261. 8:17controls human emotion and attention.
262. 8:19I'll see you there.