The Sonic Society

Showcasing the very best in new Audio Drama

It’s not Foley, but it’s still great Sound Effects!

| November 16, 2022

A Sound Effect Blog has a very interesting post on how to create horror sound effects. It’s a detailed discussion from sound designer/re-recording mixer Joe Dzuban who has worked with some great horror masters of film today like James Wan and Guillermo del Toro. While I bristle at the word “foley”- a term that’s used for […]

Ride in an Audio Stagecoach

| August 22, 2019

As we move closer to next Sonic Summerstock Playhouse’s release- Stagecoach! We look back to the days when you could just listen to the soft coasting of the old stage moving along the trail…

To Foley or NOT to Foley

| December 3, 2018

For the longest time I’ve held a secret dislike for the term “Foley”. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a perfectly good description for someone who makes sound effects for a movie. But since radio drama and thus audio drama has been around for a lot longer than sound in movies, I think we […]

Nothing like the Real Thing?

| August 16, 2018

Every once in a while we find an awesome article on the benefits between real sounds and Foley creation. Trento Stefano gives a clear analysis between the real and the simulated in this pdf article Foley Sounds Vs. Real Sounds. Considering how Foley is used to describe motion pictures, maybe we need a term to represent […]

Shepard Tones

| August 3, 2017

Just watched Dunkirk with my colleague and I was interested in how this tension was developed through the ticking clock. According to nofilmschool this is all about a Shepard Tone. Do you use Shepard Tones in your audio drama? Maybe it’s time to start ratcheting up the tension!    

Foley Secrets

| June 16, 2016

While the art of Foley tends to be a term used for Film exclusively, those of us in audio drama have a special place in our hearts for the amazing practitioners. Sound makes and breaks movies, just like a good musical score, and no differently than the main focuses of story, acting, and cinematography. Foley […]

The Sonic Pioneer Ora Nichols

| March 8, 2016

From kuow.org: Being the first sound effects woman came with its challenges. Actors and directors were still learning to value her trade as a much they valued their own. Ora Nichols worked with Orson Welles frequently, but there was an ongoing tension between the two over how sounds were created. Ora Nichols thought that the […]

Master of Mayhem in Warner Brothers

| February 15, 2016

The genius of Carl Stalling has long been accepted. Often considered to be one of the most innovative composers of the 20th century. Sometimes forgotten is the Costello to Stalling’s Abbott- that of Tregoworth Edmond Brown . “Treg” as he was called (although I’d be tempted to call him “Doc Brown” myself), was a brilliant composer […]

The Sounds of the Wild!

| October 16, 2015

As reported in Chart Attack: The Macaulay Library at Cornell University, home of the world’s largest and oldest collection of nature recordings, just uploaded the whole, totally searchable, archive online for free. 9,000 species from across the world are documented in 150,000 audio recordings, totaling 10 terabytes and a run time of 7,513 hours. The […]

Voom Voom! Shkkkksh!

| August 28, 2015

As we get closer to the latest Star Wars epic movie, it behooves us to look at sound engineer Ben Burtt’s explanation on how the iconic sounds to the universe are created. As we get closer to Biff Straker’s launch in the Sonic Society with Year 0, the question is how will Josiah Ambrose produce […]