The difference between "Sound Effects" & "Foley"

Sound Effects

Sound effects are created artificially or by enhancing a sound. They are used to depict the mood, simulate reality or even create an illusion in a video. For example if a glass bottle smashed, that sound of the glass breaking is recorded separately and enhanced to sound realistic as possible. Another example of sound effects could be when two people are having a conversation in a  restaurant full of other people, the sound of the other diners in the background is added to create the illusion of a realistic restaurant environment. A further example of sound effects could be to create a mood. For example, a cowboy sitting by a small fire in the middle of the desert, that instantly gives of the mood to the audience a sense of warmth, add a sound such as an owl hooting can change the mood to lonesome, a wolf howling could change it to a darker mood, or even gun fire could signal a sense of danger.

Foley

Unlike sound effects, foley are the sounds that are added near the end of production of a video. These sounds are caused by human interaction, such as footsteps, picking up or dropping an item. the sound of clothes rustling, cutlery sounds etc.

These sounds are added to give a video more of a realistic sense, they can be separated into three categories; Feet, Props and Cloth.

Examples of foley used to create common sounds are techniques like;

• Cellophane creates crackling fire effects
• A selection of wooden and metal doors are needed to create all sorts of door noises but also can be used for creaking boat sounds
• Corn starch in a leather pouch makes the sound of snow crunching
• A pair of gloves sounds like bird wings flapping
• An arrow or thin stick makes a whoosh

A famous example of foley being used (in an over-dramatic way) is from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, were coconut shells are cut in half and stuffed with padding to make horse hoof noises.

Even though foley is a crucial part to the videos final audio track, it is often the best foley track goes unnoticed because it is well mixed.