An index of tropes about sound effects.
See also Stock Sound Effects.
Tropes:
- Acoustic License
- Alertness Blink: A chirping sound effect played to show a character is aware of something.
- Arcade Sounds
- Audible Gleam: An object gleaming or catching the light is announced with a pinging or tingling noise.
- Audible Sharpness: Whether from a sheath, a scabbard, or from simply being picked up, bladed weapons tend to make the same "shing!" noise when being drawn
- Audience Murmurs
- Audio Diegesis
- Automated Dialogue Recording
- Bang, Bang, BANG: Even though guns in real life make a wide variety of sounds at varying volumes, in media they'll almost always sound like shotguns.
- Big Honking Traffic Jam: When in doubt, blast your horn until the light turns green!
- Bomb Whistle: A falling bomb (or anything falling from a great height, for that matter) typically whistles for a good while before reaching the ground. Most commonly seen in cartoons and animated films.
- Bug Buzz: Insects make annoying, insistent buzzing whines.
- Ceiling Banger: Someone protests noisy upstairs neighbors by banging on the ceiling with a broom or other object.
- Censored for Comedy
- The Coconut Effect
- The Croc Is Ticking: A monster's appearance is heralded by a specific sound.
- Dead Man Honking
- Doom Doors
- Everything Is an Instrument
- Fake Loud
- For Doom the Bell Tolls
- Flashback... Back... Back...
- Flatline
- Fooled by the Sound
- Gale-Force Sound: A song loud enough to be felt as a wind.
- Glass-Shattering Sound: A sound so loud or high-pitched that it shatters glass.
- Hair-Trigger Sound Effect
- Hearing Voices
- Hell Is That Noise
- Hey, It's That Sound!
- Hollywood Silencer
- Honking Arriving Car
- Idea Ding
- Incorrect Animal Noise
- Jackhammered Conversation
- Jungles Sound Like Kookaburras
- Kabuki Sounds
- Kinetic Clicking
- Knuckle Cracking
- Kung-Foley
- Laugh Track
- Letting the Air out of the Band
- Limited Sound Effects
- Losing Horns
- Loud Gulp
- Make Some Noise
- DarthWiki.Most Annoying Sound
- SugarWiki.Most Wonderful Sound
- Nails on a Blackboard
- Noisy Guns
- Noisy Nature
- Noisy Robots
- Offscreen Crash
- Open Sesame
- Plot-Based Voice Cancellation
- Previews Pulse
- "Psycho" Strings
- Quaking with Fear
- Quieter Than Silence
- Radio Voice
- Recognizable by Sound
- Record Needle Scratch
- Repetitive Audio Glitch
- Rimshot
- Saved by the Church Bell
- Scare Chord
- Screeching Stop: Old car brakes effect when a cartoon character suddenly stops.
- Shapeshifting Sound: A character transforms with a loud, noticeable, or distinctive sound.
- Shell-Shock Silence
- Sickening "Crunch!"
- Signature Sound Effect
- Silly Animal Sound
- Sinister Scraping Sound
- Sinister Whistling
- Sound-Effect Bleep
- Sound of Darkness
- Sound of No Damage
- Space Is Noisy
- Squeaky Eyes
- Stock Audio Clip
- Stock Scream
- Stuka Scream: The terrifying sound of a Jericho Trumpet mounted to the leading edge of a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka is a particularly common sound effect in media, commonly being used in similar situations to the Bomb Whistle.
- Sound Defect
- Super-Scream
- Terrible Ticking
- That Poor Cat: An object thrown offscreen is accompanied by the sound of a startled cat yowling.
- Tick Tock Terror
- Unsound Effect
- Walkie-Talkie Static
- Wacky Sound Effect
- Whoosh in Front of the Camera
- Wink "Ding!"
- Wolf Whistle
