ABSTRACT

Sound effects add vital cues for listeners and viewers across a range of media content. In this chapter we provide a comprehensive overview of sound effect synthesis, including definitions, classifications, techniques and examples. The contextual reason and importance of sound effects are presented, including how these are subcategorized as well as the importance of Foley artists. An in-depth review of the wide range of sound effect synthesis techniques is given. Evaluation techniques are described along with reasons why evaluation is essential when deciding on which sound effect synthesis method to use and how research will develop in the future. We also look at the definition of procedural audio, drawing attention to why this is an active development area for games and virtual reality environments.