AI Media

AI Sound Effects and Foley Prompt Terms

A guide to one-shots, ambience, Foley, impacts, whooshes, risers, synchronization cues, duration, intensity, sound perspective, acoustic space, and seamless loops.

12 matching terms

Sound types

One-shot sound effect

Meaning

A short, self-contained sound designed to play once for a specific event.

When to use it

Use it for clicks, hits, door closes, alerts, and other discrete actions.

Prompt fragment

single clean camera shutter click, close perspective, no background ambience

Sound types

Ambience

Meaning

A continuous environmental sound bed that establishes location, time, and atmosphere.

When to use it

Use it beneath dialogue or visuals to make a scene feel inhabited and coherent.

Prompt fragment

quiet nighttime city ambience, distant traffic, light wind, no sirens

Sound types

Foley

Meaning

Performed or generated everyday sounds synchronized to visible character and object actions.

When to use it

Use it for footsteps, clothing, handling props, and surface contact.

Prompt fragment

soft leather shoe footsteps on a dry wooden floor, synchronized to six steps

Sound types

Impact

Meaning

A strong transient sound that emphasizes a hit, landing, reveal, or edit point.

When to use it

Use it to add weight and focus without filling the entire scene.

Prompt fragment

deep cinematic impact with a short metallic tail, powerful but not distorted

Sound types

Whoosh

Meaning

A fast movement sound that follows an object, camera move, gesture, or transition.

When to use it

Use it to make motion or transitions feel faster and more legible.

Prompt fragment

short airy whoosh moving left to right, synchronized with the title transition

Sound types

Riser

Meaning

A sound that grows in pitch, loudness, density, or tension toward a target moment.

When to use it

Use it to build anticipation before a reveal, cut, drop, or transition.

Prompt fragment

three-second tonal riser building smoothly into the logo reveal, clean ending

Timing and intensity

Sync cue

Meaning

A precise visual or timeline event that a sound should align with.

When to use it

Use it to describe the triggering action and exact moment instead of only naming a sound.

Prompt fragment

start the glass impact exactly when the cup touches the floor at 00:03.2

Timing and intensity

Effect duration

Meaning

The total time occupied by the sound, including its onset, body, and tail.

When to use it

Use it to fit a shot, transition, interface state, or loop boundary.

Prompt fragment

1.5-second mechanical power-down sound with a short final tail

Timing and intensity

Intensity envelope

Meaning

Describes how the energy of a sound rises, holds, and fades over time.

When to use it

Use it to control whether a sound feels abrupt, sustained, swelling, or gently fading.

Prompt fragment

fast attack, strong brief peak, smooth half-second decay

Distance and space

Sound perspective

Meaning

The perceived distance and direction of a sound relative to the listener or camera.

When to use it

Use it to match the visual scale and position of the sound source.

Prompt fragment

distant train horn from far right, softened high frequencies, wide outdoor perspective

Distance and space

Acoustic space

Meaning

The reflections, reverberation, and tonal behavior that make a sound belong to a particular environment.

When to use it

Use it to place dry effects naturally inside rooms, streets, halls, or open landscapes.

Prompt fragment

small tiled bathroom acoustics, short bright reflections, no long hall reverb

Output

Seamless loop

Meaning

An audio segment whose ending connects to its beginning without a noticeable click, gap, or change.

When to use it

Use it for ambience, machines, weather, game states, and repeating interfaces.

Prompt fragment

eight-second seamless rain ambience loop, stable intensity, no distinct thunder events