Effective Sound Effects

When start composing a song, I’m not interested in only the notes and beats; I’m even more interested in the mood I’ll be creating. And as a person who relies heavily on loops to compose my music, I’m also interested in how I will set this piece apart from those others might create with the same core loops.

To help set a mood while adding an original flare, I regularly rely on a large sound effects (SFX) collection in addition to my normal sample CDs. I use these both as features of the final piece, and as band aids to cover up the bits I don’t want a listener to hear.

When presented with the hundreds or thousands of sounds in a typical SFX library, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. To make it easier to parse the sounds as well as what I might use them for, I typically group them into roughly four categories - hits, events, ambiences, and rhythmic sounds. Here are some ideas on how to use these various types of sounds in a composition.

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