Get FREE Sound Effects

BOOM Library Logo White

SOUND DESIGN MATTERS

  • Login / Join BOOM Library

Flag DE
Germany
  • Afghanistan
  • Åland Islands
  • Albania
  • Algeria
  • American Samoa
  • Andorra
  • Angola
  • Anguilla
  • Antarctica
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Argentina
  • Armenia
  • Aruba
  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Azerbaijan
  • Bahamas
  • Bahrain
  • Bangladesh
  • Barbados
  • Belarus
  • Belau
  • Belgium
  • Belize
  • Benin
  • Bermuda
  • Bhutan
  • Bolivia
  • Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Botswana
  • Bouvet Island
  • Brazil
  • British Indian Ocean Territory
  • Brunei
  • Bulgaria
  • Burkina Faso
  • Burundi
  • Cambodia
  • Cameroon
  • Canada
  • Cape Verde
  • Cayman Islands
  • Central African Republic
  • Chad
  • Chile
  • China
  • Christmas Island
  • Cocos (Keeling) Islands
  • Colombia
  • Comoros
  • Congo (Brazzaville)
  • Congo (Kinshasa)
  • Cook Islands
  • Costa Rica
  • Croatia
  • Cuba
  • Curaçao
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Djibouti
  • Dominica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador
  • Egypt
  • El Salvador
  • Equatorial Guinea
  • Eritrea
  • Estonia
  • Eswatini
  • Ethiopia
  • Falkland Islands
  • Faroe Islands
  • Fiji
  • Finland
  • France
  • French Guiana
  • French Polynesia
  • French Southern Territories
  • Gabon
  • Gambia
  • Georgia
  • Germany
  • Ghana
  • Gibraltar
  • Greece
  • Greenland
  • Grenada
  • Guadeloupe
  • Guam
  • Guatemala
  • Guernsey
  • Guinea
  • Guinea-Bissau
  • Guyana
  • Haiti
  • Heard Island and McDonald Islands
  • Honduras
  • Hong Kong
  • Hungary
  • Iceland
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Ireland
  • Isle of Man
  • Israel
  • Italy
  • Ivory Coast
  • Jamaica
  • Japan
  • Jersey
  • Jordan
  • Kazakhstan
  • Kenya
  • Kiribati
  • Kuwait
  • Kyrgyzstan
  • Laos
  • Latvia
  • Lebanon
  • Lesotho
  • Liberia
  • Libya
  • Liechtenstein
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Macao
  • Madagascar
  • Malawi
  • Malaysia
  • Maldives
  • Mali
  • Malta
  • Marshall Islands
  • Martinique
  • Mauritania
  • Mauritius
  • Mayotte
  • Mexico
  • Micronesia
  • Moldova
  • Monaco
  • Mongolia
  • Montenegro
  • Montserrat
  • Morocco
  • Mozambique
  • Myanmar
  • Namibia
  • Nauru
  • Nepal
  • Netherlands
  • New Caledonia
  • New Zealand
  • Nicaragua
  • Niger
  • Nigeria
  • Niue
  • Norfolk Island
  • North Korea
  • North Macedonia
  • Northern Mariana Islands
  • Norway
  • Oman
  • Pakistan
  • Palestinian Territory
  • Panama
  • Papua New Guinea
  • Paraguay
  • Peru
  • Philippines
  • Pitcairn
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Puerto Rico
  • Qatar
  • Reunion
  • Romania
  • Russia
  • Rwanda
  • São Tomé and Príncipe
  • Saint Barthélemy
  • Saint Helena
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis
  • Saint Lucia
  • Saint Martin (Dutch part)
  • Saint Martin (French part)
  • Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Samoa
  • San Marino
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Senegal
  • Serbia
  • Seychelles
  • Sierra Leone
  • Singapore
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Solomon Islands
  • Somalia
  • South Africa
  • South Georgia/Sandwich Islands
  • South Korea
  • South Sudan
  • Spain
  • Sri Lanka
  • Sudan
  • Suriname
  • Svalbard and Jan Mayen
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Syria
  • Taiwan
  • Tajikistan
  • Tanzania
  • Thailand
  • Timor-Leste
  • Togo
  • Tokelau
  • Tonga
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Tunisia
  • Turkey
  • Turkmenistan
  • Turks and Caicos Islands
  • Tuvalu
  • Uganda
  • Ukraine
  • United Arab Emirates
  • United Kingdom (UK)
  • United States (US)
  • United States (US) Minor Outlying Islands
  • Uruguay
  • Uzbekistan
  • Vanuatu
  • Vatican
  • Venezuela
  • Vietnam
  • Virgin Islands (British)
  • Virgin Islands (US)
  • Wallis and Futuna
  • Western Sahara
  • Yemen
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

0
  • Products
    • All Products
    • BOOM ONE – General Library
    • Signature Series – Theme-based
    • BOOM Software & Plug-Ins
    • Quiet Planet® – Nature Ambiences
  • Blog
  • Credits
    • Trackrecord
    • Clients
    • Testimonials
  • Support
    • FAQ
    • Tutorials
    • Educational Discount
    • Loader
    • Contact
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Product Registration

Generic filters
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Search in excerpt

TOP TIPS FOR TRAILER SOUND DESIGN

Jul 30, 2021 Credit, News
BOOM Top Tips Trailer Sound Design Thumbnail

BOOM Library has a rich collection of ready-to-use trailer sounds, as well as sounds that are ready for you to twist and mangle further until you get just the right tone that you are looking for. Either way, our sounds serve as a great baseline to getting the modern trailer sound design that you hear in movie theatres today.

From getting the right samples, to adding that raw edge, here we look at some trailers that contain BOOM Library effects. We also asked two highly experienced trailer sound designers, Michael Schwendler, lead sound designer at Dynamedion, and David Philipp, Studio Head at Formosa Interactive UK, about some of their top tips.

Finding the right samples

It’s not just about having the right samples on your hard drive, you’ve got to use them. You also have to be able to find them on your drive, layer them the right way, and add the right effects, without maxing out your computer resources. “I spend much more time choosing the right sounds rather than throwing everything into a session and seeing what sticks,” David tells us.

You can find and organize your sounds a number of ways. But to shave off time, many sound designers have resorted to third party library programs. “My workflow starts with Soundminer,” Michael says. “Soundminer allows to me to listen to my sounds in different pitches through different VSTs. Then I can render the VST into the sounds before sending them to my DAW, saving me a ton of processing power. In the latest version of SM they added the Radium Sampler, which can load up to 8 tracks. Each track comes with a ton of effects, it’s even possible to load VSTs and all parameters can be automated. It’s absolutely amazing what you can do with it.”

Mangling and layering

There are a lot of ready-to-use sounds on the market, including our own “Designed” libraries. However, to create real unique, signature sounds you’ll want to mangle them any way you can (start with, for example, one of our Construction Kits). One way to do that is to add effects chains, like those that can easily be created using ENRAGE. Another is through layering, which can be done very creatively with SOUNDWEAVER.

The Forever Purge  trailer, for example, has a lot of gritty and grinding sounds from BOOM Libraries. You can easily find good designed sounds like this that are ready to go (such as with libraries like MUTATE ORGANIC).

When creating new sounds, “think in layers (frequency, sustain, tail, transient),” advises Michael. “Don’t use too many layers over each other.” You don’t want to crowd the same layers, but rather spread them out through those four definitions, otherwise your sound can become muddy.

Dynamics – Impacts

Using impacts alone isn’t the only way to use them, either. With the Cruella  trailer, the composer brings in the hits and stings in order to build tension over the remix of the Doris Day song, “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.”

Another technique that can be highlighted in this trailer is the use of silence. Notice at 0:20 the music cuts off, leaving a massive auditory space to amplify the quote: “Whether you have the killer instinct is the big question”, with the loud crunches of Emma Thompson’s chewing afterwards.

In the same light as Cruella, the Army of the Dead  trailer takes a “The Gambler” by Kenny Rodgers and adds impacts over it to hit that additional edge. The scene cuts are matched to the beat of the music, to give the impacts an almost “light switch” effect with each change – a very common practice in trailer design.

Risers and tails

The Suicide Squad  trailer uses impacts in an even more musical way, replacing the entire original congo drumline for “Na na hey hey Kiss Him Goodbye” by Steam with BOOM Library slams and impacts (mostly found in our CINEMATIC TRAILERS pack). No need to mention the hilarity of using that song in a Suicide Squad trailer.

More interesting to note is the use of risers and tails. To make the switch to silence even more impactful, the composer uses long, drawn out tails to carry us a little forward and keep that attention a little longer.

Getting that big, raw boom

“That big fat trailer sound is maybe the hardest to get right,” Michael says. “It takes a long time to practice… it’s all about experience and practice. Maybe a couple of thoughts: Get the layers you’re using already maxed up, clean unnecessary frequencies, and create space in between the elements by sidechain ducking.”

The trailer for Land  has many pure bass rumbles and loud booms, mastering dynamics to raise the tension and get viewers to the edge of their seat even in a trailer for a more mellow drama. Listen for how they created room in these sounds:

Compare with references

Even when you’re a master sound designer, it’s still good to use references. Find the sound you’re looking for and see if you can imitate that shape, “to get a feeling of how ‘things should sound like’,” says Michael. “Try hard, always compare, always find things to improve. Grab some videos on YouTube which sound great and try to recreate that sound.”

Final tips

David adds: “Be an active part in the audio/game-audio community and try and learn as much as you can from others. When sending reels to companies, keep them short and focus on the best sounding scenes. Anything over 2 mins is definitely too long. When criticizing the work of others, be constructive and try to see both positives and negatives.”

“Also good to hear the work you did the day before after a long break,” Michael says. “It’s very easy to get used to how something sounds when you hear it all day, even if its sounding not right.” And he concludes with a sage bit of German wisdom: “The journey is the destination.”

See other trailers featuring sounds from BOOM Libraries:

Spirit Untamed

Without Remorse

Trailer 1:

Trailer 2:

 

Safety

 

News of the World

CINEMATIC SOUND FX PACKS

Check out all the sound effects packs from our Cinematic series, perfect for cutting-edge trailer sound design.

  • Cinematic Impacts

    Cinematic Impacts

    From: €119,00
  • MATTER – SCI-FI ELEMENTS

    MATTER – SCI-FI ELEMENTS

    €119,00
  • Sci-Fi – Momentum

    Sci-Fi – Momentum

    From: €119,00
  • Cinematic Motion

    Cinematic Motion

    From: €119,00
  • BOOM ONE

    BOOM ONE

    From: €499,00 — available on subscription
  • Cinematic Expressions

    Cinematic Expressions

    From: €119,00
  • Brute Force – Aggressive Elements

    Brute Force – Aggressive Elements

    €119,00
  • NEON – SCI-FI Elements

    NEON – SCI-FI Elements

    €119,00
  • Cinematic Strikes

    Cinematic Strikes

    From: €119,00
  • Cinematic Metal – Titan

    Cinematic Metal – Titan

    From: €119,00
  • Signature Series Bundle

    Signature Series Bundle

    From: €990,00 — or from From: €990,00 From: €980,10 / year
  • Cinematic Elements: Fire & Water

    Cinematic Elements: Fire & Water

    From: €119,00
  • Cinematic Trailers Designed 2

    Cinematic Trailers Designed 2

    From: €179,00
  • Cinematic Horror

    Cinematic Horror

    From: €119,00
  • Cinematic Darkness

    Cinematic Darkness

    From: €119,00
  • Free Sounds – Cinematic Series

    Free Sounds – Cinematic Series

    €0,00
  • Cinematic Hits

    Cinematic Hits

    From: €119,00
  • Cinematic Trailers

    Cinematic Trailers

    From: €119,00
  • Cinematic Metal

    Cinematic Metal

    From: €119,00
Boom libraryCINEMATIC TRAILERSDynamedionEnrageMUTATE ORGANICNoiseworksSound DesignSOUNDWEAVERTrailer
MAGNUS CHIRGWIN / MUSICIAN • SOUND DESIGNERPrevious post
ALIBI MUSIC USES BOOM LIBRARY SOUNDSNext post
BOOM Library Sound Effects
LEGAL
CONTACT
ABOUT
PRIVACY
NEWSLETTER
SSL SECURED PAYMENT OPTIONS
©2024 by BOOM Library GmbH
All Rights Reserved
All prices are net prices, additional VAT (7%) may apply. The products are only available for commercial customers.
More Sounds Than Files - How's That?

Improved workflow

We differentiate between sound FX and sound file. Each sound file can contain multiple variations of a sound (up to 6 variations based on the product).
That way, we assure to provide you with different styles of a single sound in one file instead of multiple files, keeping your database nice and clear and speeding up your workflow as you have multiple variations available by dragging only one file to your audio host software.

One File, Multiple Variations

Less repetitive sound design

Having multiple variations of a single sound effect also guarantees you a less repetitive overall soundscape when using the effect multiple times in a row or over and over again in several projects.

BOOM Library Logo Black Round

Your benefits of joining the BOOM Library Newsletter:

Monthly FREE SOUNDS delivered directly to your inbox (commercial use allowed)
Be the very first to know about brand new BOOM Library sound FX
Never miss
a BOOM Library introductory discount
Be the first to know about new job openings in the audio industry

By clicking the blue button, your email address will be added to our newsletter list and you will receive emails with free sounds as well as emails with the latest news and product releases. Each email contains an unsubscribe link so you can opt-out from this list at any time. Read more about how we take care of your personal data in our Privacy Policy.