Can we talk about Sound Effects?

[Kamikaze]

Sound effects can be really fun, but man, some of them are really challenging. For me it's figuring out the sounds of things or people hitting difference surfaces. Like my husband and I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out what a bullet going through a rain barrel would sound like. Another time the team had a way too long conversation over whether we even NEEDED to add certain sound effects. And then when you have to create new sound effects? Ugh...

I've found a few guides and links for some things that my prove helpful for people. Of course there's Written Sound, then there's this article, ComicBookFX, and this one totally focused on Manga. However, a lot of these are...well either way too dated (PWINNG for a bullet? For real?), completely bizarre (I just don't know what DKOFP even is y'all), or way too over used (I can't bring myself to use 'bang', I just can't).

So, let's talk about the written sound we use to tell stories! What are ones you use a lot? Are you like me, and sit at your computer making bizarre noises with your mouth? When do you know to use them? When do you decide not to use them? What are your faves or pet peeves when it comes to the old SFX?

[Doubtcent]

I enjoy making new sound effects. Obviously there are plenty out there, but I like to make them up as I go along. A gun shooting a barrel? "Pauwb!" or "Kishhh"

[Kamikaze]

Loving the "Kishhh" one!
The 'Pauwb' sound reminds me of a rocket launcher with a barrel.

[Zannen00]

I love sound in Manga.
Japanese Onomatopoeia is the most simple I have ever seen.

Don! DO-KAN! Shu-DON! BISHI! GOGOGOGO!! ZUPAN! KA-CHING! Cha-RIN! Ka-CHA! Kiiii!

Wan Wan! Nya~ Gera-Gera. DOKI-DOKI! GIRO! Niii! ZU-ZUU! Pachi-Pachi!

....I'm quite sure those are not accurate of the sound used...

[Cielle]

ugh sound effects are the bane of my existence. I mean don't get me wrong, I like them, but trying to figure out when to use the and what to use drives me crazy

the only one I've come up with so far is "fwmp!" for sitting down abruptly. Fortunately I haven't needed them much in my comic, but when I do...yikes. I guess you know a good sfx when you don't notice it or have to think too long about what sound it's trying to convey. I envy the Japanese. They have a whole lexicon of sound fx that are common enough to be part of standard conversation.

[joannekwan]

Ahaha, my sfx for sitting down is "sit" xD
I've also used "place" for setting down a glass. Usually I can come up with something like "kshh" for bus doors opening or "crunch" for a bag of frozen peas, but other times I'm lazy and I'll just use a regular word. lol
How do the Japanese even come up with some of those sfx?

[justjezz]

One of my pet peeves with SFX is how it tends to sound unnatural, especially in traditional types of comics. (I feel really weird saying 'Ka-pow!' or 'Thwack!') I never really understood it, but hey. Let's face it. Some people just get really creative with these things.

But, It's also pretty interesting how language plays a part with SFX. One sound could be interpreted in many ways because of different cultures. I can read a bit of Japanese and Korean (but I can't understand it for the life of me), so it's fun to follow along and read the SFX because of how different it sounds compared to English.

And about the bullet thing, what about 'Pfhuu!'?

[Cielle]

I don't know how they did it, but I wish English had as many onomatopoeia as Japanese. Here is an interesting article describing all the different sounds, and here's a forum post theorizing why they have so many. We never studied them in class, but when I got to Japan everyone was using them. It was very confusing at first lol.

[UzukiCheverie]

Ahaha, my sfx for sitting down is "sit" xD

oh thank god i'm not the only one

i'm so ashamed of myself

[RiverKai]

I do that thing with regular words too...writing the action like
GRAB
GRASP
BUMP
Whatever else...but I also DO make up my own, like when my character threw up a bunch of blood he was like HUUGHEH (and I was like oh god please.no.gottalookaway)
I keep noticing people on here keep saying they hate to see authors writing out the word but I like it and also have met a lot of people who do. It's an enhancer and the author's choice in my opinion

[aspiderjonny]

In fight scenes I usually add "KA" to random letters , like "KA-BISHHH" or "KA-PSAHH". Everything sounds like it has "KA" to me. And when characters move fast I just use "SWOOSH" because it's simple and easily understood.
You just have to "say" the sounds out load and write what letters you hear. It's werid, but it works.

BTW, bullets sound like "PPESUUW!" to me

[AnnaLandin]

I'm pretty sparing with SFX, and I always have been.

Perhaps it's because I grew up reading all sorts of comics - ranging from Thorgal all the way to Beetle Bailey - and I got it into my head that written SFX's are inherently comedic. I know that's not really the case, but it kind of stuck in my head, so since I don't draw comics that are comedic in nature, I don't tend to use them much.

I do know that they're sometimes useful, though, so I've been working hard at incorporating them in a good way. When I do use them, I try to go for the simpler ones. If something crashes to the ground, I write "CRASH". If something clangs, I write "clang". If something explodes, it goes "BOOOOOOM!". And so on. But I only use them either when something big happens (a wall collapses! Something explodes! A very significant bell is tolling!), or when something happens "off-screen" - like a twig snapping behind the protagonist.

Since I use them so sparingly, I rarely have to worry about inventing new and interesting ways to write out specific sounds; I don't need to come up with a sound-effect for sitting, or for, say, placing a glass on a table, because I just don't use sound effects for that (but in the latter case, if pushed, I might use "clack"). Personally, I believe that you should make your visuals work as hard as possible for you; convey as much as possible through body language, facial expressions and speed lines and stuff, and you won't need as many SFX.

.

The thing about "overused" SFX is that they're overused for a reason. They are, in a way, a shared language. If you write BANG!, everyone knows what kind of sound you're implying. Same goes for boom, crash, smack, snap etc., etc. The moment you start getting more phonetic, you're pushing your boat out into deeper waters - while we might all get what the KRACK-A-THOOM! in a Thor-comic sounds like, if you start digging too deep in there, you might end up with a DKOFP! (and no, I have no earthly idea what sort of sound that is, either). The same way that writing "he said" or "she said" in a novel becomes kind of invisible, because you know exactly what that means, using "overused" SFX means the reader can read your comic without ever having to stop, re-read a sound-effect and go "Wait, what is happening here?".

I find it difficult to read certain older American superhero comics, because some of them seriously over-use SFX. Since when I read, I do "hear" the sounds they're describing in my head, some of those old comics do get too noisy for my liking. It's like trying to read a book while someone is shouting in my ear all the time.

[J.Z.Castillo]

OH MAN DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED! The other day I was trying to figure out what sound fire that turns into fire chains makes. I usually just start sounding it out loud and go with whatever sounds best. For the example I gave above I went with "FWOOSH" for the fire "FWLANK" for fire turning into chains, and "CLANK" for the chains themselves. But it is hard coming up with sounds for laser beams ("PIU PIU"?) and nature sounds, like waves ("KROOASH"?). Oh, man, this reminded me I have to come up for a sound for waves -___-

My comic

[Nikolai]

i usually just use whatever action verb the character is doing. is the character punching somebody? then the sound effect is going to be
punch.

grabs
reaches
screams in a mildly irritated tone

all valid sound effects to me, unless i want my work to be more serious or something.

[ArtistHan]

Nice topic~

I....actually really don't like sound effects. i like how a lot of manga use sound effects for visual impact.... but maybe it's because I can't read Japanese and because I got into comics via manga, I never really cared too much about sound effects (could never read them haha). Even when I got into American comics, I found the sound effects to be distracting. I don't know what half of them even mean and I end up staring at the sound effects wondering what the hell "skriiii" exactly means instead of paying attention to the story. I just personally find them more distracting than contributing and always just skim past them in any form of comics now :/ I do like the use of "Ong" though for some reason haha it was always clear to me what it would convey. sound effects also help to relay things and save space on a page by reducing things that need to be drawn and can be explained simply via sound effects, so i think sound effects are pretty necessary....but maybe what i'm trying to say is that i feel like they can be overused and are often seem unnecessary or confusing to me.

[monotone_ink]

Just like the person above me, I really don't like sound effects. It's something about english letters that make them hard to use. Whenever I put in a sound effect for concrete smashing, something like 'kraaassshhh,' it just looks plain ridiculous.
I only ever us sfx when I really, really need to. If I can't represent it visually, then I'll have to do it. For example, if there's a page where a giant explosion happened, I don't really have to put sfx in, since everyone knows what an explosion sounds like.
But if a door bell is ringing, that's when I have to use sfx; I can't really represent the sound visually.

[Luie]

I think everyone uses their own "kind" of wording with onomatopoeia.
I have like, a gajillion different "ksh" sounds.
Kssssshhhh
K-tissssh
K-chang
Kchkchkchkch
Kshaw
Kssstch
Whatever
I think if after you've decided what letters will best convey the sound and you still don't think it's good enough, try shaping the words in different ways to convey how they sound would be. Jagged lettering conveys a harsh or bold sound, stretched tiny letters convey a long, but distant or muffled sound, cascading letters with progressing sizes can convey a sound getting louder, squashed letters conveys an abrupt, quick sound, etc. It's sort of like drawing expressions to convey emotion, only it's letters/words to sounds.

Also...

GASHUNK

[alakotila]

I love SFX and think they are necessary. I am pretty relaxed about sound effects when reading comics, even if I see well-used ones like 'bang' or 'knock.' However, the ones that do get me are the weirdly descriptive ones. Sound effects are the result of an action that has happened or is happening; they should not describe it literally. I wrote some musings on SFX awhile ago, but my blog is currently unavailable, so in short ...

If you have sound effects that are sentence fragments, or include an adverb, such as 'sadly sighs,' 'stands up,' or 'breathes heavy,' they will probably be read comically. I also find verbs that describe actions that make no sound (thrust, smile, touch, look) to be mostly unnecessary. Serious, beautiful, comics have made me giggle with sound effects like that -- it takes a bit to push forward with the story and try to tune out the SFX.

I also find that if your sound effect has to describe what your character is doing rather than assign sound to your comic's world, your art is not getting the point across. I love sound effects -- but they should be just that. Sounds! Don't add the non-SFX 'stops bullet' to an image of an OC stopping a bullet as well as adding another character gasping, 'He just stopped that bullet!' A little much, in my opinion! I tend to see SFX as sounds rather than read them as words, so seeing something that is supposed to be an SFX that really isn't … is a bit jarring.

Use them a lot, use them boldly, use them well. Think about the object making the sound, how long the sound lasts, what the items making the sound are made of, how important the sounds are, etc. You can show the sounds by thinking about the font or impact of the written SFX as well as what you actually write -- so don't be afraid to experiment with that. (Don't get stuck using a single font!) For example, if a sound is really loud or jarring, show it with a scratchy, bold writing. If it is a quiet, unobtrusive sound, try a little, neat font.

Here's an easy tip I read somewhere (source escapes me -- will edit if I find it!) on turning some of those old favourite SFX into more of a sound and less of a word to be read. Instead of using 'click' for example, switch out some letters, remove some, and maybe go with 'klik.' Instead of 'bump' try 'bmp.' You can make SFX sound harsher, shorter, more precise. You can also drag them out by adding vowels. So, perhaps a door creaking open might be more effective with an SFX such as kreeeeeeeee.

I think SFX are necessary. But think about what ones are important. You wouldn't write out every single sound in a noisy baseball stadium, for example, so choose the ones that matter most. Similarly, not adding a sound to a significant action can come off as weird and impact the mood or feeling of the scene. Decide which sounds are most important. A possible use for SFX-overload might be if your character is feeling overwhelmed -- in that case, write out all those sounds, press them in around your character! Or perhaps your character can't hear anything after a nearby explosion; in that case, the SFX would be absent. SFX can do a lot more than give sound to your story.

One of my favourites I have seen is 'frask,' in a comic where a character was crunching through snow. The fresh, crisp kind of snow that happens on a clear night after a warm day and it has iced over with a slight crust. 'Frask' is perfect for that sound!

SFX are fun. I pretty much just sit around making noises, trying to figure out how sounds can be written. I do like some of the old favourites (boom, bang, etc) but I tend to use my own. Even if you do use your own, be aware of well-used SFX so you can avoid misunderstandings (which might end up unintentionally hilarious). Don't be afraid to bend the rules now and again: you can give sound to soundless actions if the mood of the scene suits it. All in the best interests and feel of your comic!

[revisionstudios]

SFX are definitely hard, but necessary! I agree a lot with what @alakotila is saying. For me personally, while figuring out how to make an onomatopoeia for a sound is important, it's even more important to visually convey the sound you want to make. Use different fonts, different sizes, vary the color/tones you use... there's a million different ways to do it. Once you marry the visuals with the spoken sound, your sfx will read a lot more like the sound itself rather than being distracting.

Like anything, it's about finding a balance when it comes to the frequency. We're all gonna trip up on them at some point, but don't let it dissuade you from adding them at all. They fill out a scene when done well!