Editing Sound effect (section)

{{short description|Artificially created or enhanced sound}}
{{About|the usage in plays and movies|the usage in electric guitars and other instruments|Sound effect (musical instruments)}}
{{distinguish|Sound Affects (album)}}
{{how-to|date=October 2019|reason=only needs a few relevant examples, at most}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2024}}

[[File:Various hard sound effects devices.JPG|thumb|Various acoustic devices in a Greek radio studio]]
[[File:SoundFX Wabern.ogg|thumb|Deep, pulsating digital sound effect]]
[[File:Ja and Reverb.ogg|thumb|Voice saying "Ja", followed by the same recording with a massive digital reverb]]
[[File:Birds Polyphonic.ogg|thumb|A blackbird singing, followed by the same recording with the blackbird singing with 5 voices]]

A '''sound effect''' (or '''audio effect''') is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media.

In motion picture and television production, a sound effect is a sound recorded and presented to make a specific storytelling or creative point ''without'' the use of dialogue or music. Traditionally, in the twentieth century, they were created with [[Foley (filmmaking)|Foley]]. The term often refers to a process applied to a recording, without necessarily referring to the recording itself. In professional motion picture and television production, [[dialogue]], [[music]], and sound effects recordings are treated as separate elements. Dialogue and music recordings are never referred to as sound effects, even though the processes applied to such as [[reverberation]] or [[flanging]] effects, often are called ''sound effects''.

This area and [[sound design]] have been slowly merged since the late-twentieth century.