Sound Terminology:


Foley: Foley is the reproduction of everyday sound effects that are added to film, video, and other media in post-production to enhance audio quality. These reproduced sounds can be anything from the swishing of clothing and footsteps to squeaky doors and breaking glass.

Diegetic sound: Diegetic sound is any sound that the character or characters on screen can hear. So for example the sound of one character talking to another would be diegetic.

Non-Diegetic sounds: Non-diegetic sound is any sound that the audience can hear but the characters on screen cannot. Any appearance of background music is a prime example of non-diegetic sound.

Pitch: The quality of a sound governed by the rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of highness or lowness of a tone.

Rhythm: A strong, regular repeated pattern of movement or sound.

Sound Bridge: Sound bridges are one of the most common transitions in the continuity editing style, one that stresses the connection between both scenes since their mood (suggested by the music) is still the same.

Sound Motif: A sound effect or combination of sound effects that are associated with a particular character, setting, situation or idea through the film. 

Score: A film score (also sometimes called background score, background music, film music or incidental music) is original music written specifically to accompany a film.

Crescendo: A gradual increase in loudness in a piece of music.

Ambient sound: Ambient sound (AKA ambient audio, ambience, atmosphere, atmos or background noise) means the background sounds which are present in a scene or location. Common ambient sounds include wind, water, birds, crowds, office noises, traffic, etc.

Asynchronous sound: Where the sound track is deliberately out of sync.

Dialogue: Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange.

Timbre: also known as tone colour or tone quality from psychoacoustics, is the quality of a musical note, sound, or tone that distinguishes different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments, string instruments, wind instruments.

Hyperbolic sound: Sound that is over exaggerated.