Sound effect
Also known as: SFX, effect sound
A short added sound that marks a moment the camera recorded badly or not at all, from an impact to a whoosh on a transition.
Updated
What it means
A sound effect replaces or reinforces what the microphone got. An action camera in wind records almost nothing usable, so the impact a viewer hears is normally added afterwards. The ear accepts the substitution without ever questioning it.
Three kinds do most of the work. An Impact hit on a landing, a Whoosh on a fast transition, and a low boom under a drop. Everything else on top of those is decoration.
They are not a substitute for a mix. Effects sit on top of a music bed and whatever Ambient sound survived, rather than replacing either of them.
How it works in practice
Placement is to the frame rather than to the beat. An effect a few frames late reads as a mistake, which is why these get nudged after the picture is locked. Sound follows picture.
Less is more by a wide margin. One effect per section is deliberate; one per cut is a template, and a viewer stops hearing any of them entirely. Restraint is the whole technique.
Level matters more than choice. An effect sitting above the music fights it, so Sidechain compression or a simple dip under the hit keeps both of them audible at once.
What to watch out for
Library effects are recognisable. The same whoosh appears in thousands of edits, and an audience that watches action video hears it as a stock choice. Familiarity cuts both ways.
They can also contradict the picture. A heavy impact on a soft landing reads as dishonest, and the mismatch undermines the clip it was meant to support. Weight has to match what actually happened in the shot.
Licensing applies to them as much as to music. A Music license usually covers only the track, and effects from a free pack can still trigger a claim later.
How RawClip handles it
Music and the usable parts of the original audio are what an assembled sequence runs on, with sound effects kept to the few places they genuinely help. Adding more afterwards is easy in any editor and rarely improves a short edit by much.