Sound Effects Glossary

In your search for sound effects you may have come across strange acronyms, terms or abbreviations.

Here are some more common definitions for words and phrases that sound recordists, editors, mastering engineers and sound librarians use while working with sound effects.

General

• air tone - a recording of an outside space, characterized mostly by just wind or air. Usually does not include detail
• AMB - ambience
• ATM - atmosphere
• booster - a sound effect that is meant to be used to supplement another, usually to add power to it
• city hush - a recording of a city at a distance. It is usually characterized by a distant and faint traffic drone with no particular close details. Used as a background track. Sometimes called city drone. See also skyline and industrial skyline
• const - constant, sound doesn't change much over time
• drone - a constant, unchanging sound effect. Typically used to describe sound design textures, but may also be applied to other real-world consistent tones
• Feet, FS, F/S or FTS - footsteps
• Foley - live recording of sound effects performed in timed relation to video
• industrial skyline - a city hush track with a raw, gritty or industrial feel (ex. train yards, factories, etc).
• moves - minor foley activity, like shifting or shuffling or handling
• MS or M/S - mid-side, a recording technique
• PZM - pressure zone microphone, a type of microhone
• room tone - a recording of the 'air' or 'space' of a room with little or no activity
• skyline - another name for city hush, above
• sound design - manipulated or created sound effects. Contrasted with real-world recordings. Often sound design is the product of samplers and software plug-ins
• sweetener - see booster, above
• walla - crowd, usually recorded in a theatre, or ADR
• wash - distant, airy and sometimes reverberant crowd. Does not contain specific or close detail
• wild - sound effects recorded without timed relation to video. Used in contrast to Foley or in comparison to sync recorded dialogue on a film set
• vox - voices

Perspective

• BG - a background sound, not the main subject of the recording
• dist - distant perspective
• ext - exterior perspective, outside
• FG - a foreground sound, the main subject of the recording
• int - interior perspective, inside
• cs - close shot, same as close up perspective
• cu - close up perspective (same as close shot)
• ecu - extreme close up perspective
• els - extreme long shot
• ls - long shot perspective, same as distant perspective
• ms - mid shot, same as medium distant perspective
• mcs - mid close shot, same as medium distant perspective
• mcu - medium close up perspective, same as medium distant perspective
• med dist - medium distant perspective
• POV - point of view i.e. perspective. How the target sound is affected by the position of the microphone including distance, breadth, angle, or whether the recording is made inside or outside relative to the sound recorded

Vehicles

• accel/decel - accelerate/decelerate
• drive/ride - recording of a vehicle with mic in cockpit/cabin, etc
• onboard - recording of a vehicle with the microphone placed on the frame or engine (as opposed to inside or drive/ride perspectives)

• away - car departing, sometimes "out" is also used
• by - car passing by the microphone
• up - car approaching, sometimes "in" is also used