Escape Artists
The Lounge at the End of the Universe => Podcast Pedantry => Topic started by: FNH on January 23, 2007, 10:10:02 PM
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When listening to Audio Fiction how do you like your sound effects?
1) Theme music at the beginning and end only.
2) Constant ambient noise/music/effects.
3) Two or three incidents for dramatic effect.
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I would say option 3 for most situations (some audio dramas like the Silent Universe need alot of sound effects to work well), though maybe a little more often then 2-3 incidents because then the sound effects might seem foreign and may become a distraction. I think that transition sounds are very important to audio stories because I've listened to a story that had no sound effects and I sometimes would miss the transition that was just a long pause or no pause at all. When that happened, it took a couple of seconds to realize what had happened, which hurt the story value to me.
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Depends on the form. If it's a radio play with actual acting then #2 is fine. If it's narration ala audiobook then #1 with a caveat that #3 can work in certain situations.
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well sometimes constant audio is done wrong. I think that the best example of full background noise that ive listened to is EP 64: Head of State read by Wichita Rutherford. (man i love that guy's readings!) I found that the background noise didnt intrude into the story too much, and when it did, it felt appropriate.
by the way, "Connie, Maybe" (EP 36) is definately my favorite EP episode.
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well I too think that it depends on the form...
For instance The Immortals uses background music, and sound effects quite excellently, even though it's not a radio drama per se.
It's just a narration with sound effects thrown in.
But other stories don't use sound effects or rarely and those work well too.
I guess it's not the question whether or not to use it, but how it is used.