movie trailer sound Asbjoern Andersen


There are few places where music and sound design intertwine as much as they do in movie trailers. And when it comes to trailer sound, Jan Hoeglund and the trailer sound team at Audio Imperia really know their stuff – so I was really curious to hear their insights on what defines the sound of the modern trailer. Here’s Jan’s overview of 10 signature sound elements in today’s trailers, complete with examples:

The right trailer can set the success of a film, a video game or a tv show before they are released. It is a major element in the big marketing machine of studios’ release plans and the music that goes along with the visual part of a trailer plays no small part in that. There is a lot of players in the game that have this formula down to a tee: Extreme Music, Two Steps From Hell, Immediate Music, Audiomachine, Brand X, Ninja Tracks, Really Slow Motion, Confidential Music, Hi­Finesse, Sencit, Riptide Music, just to name a few. And each of them bring a different flavor to the table.

One of the more exciting things in the modern trailer music world is the incredible phenomena where a single sound can make a trailer track stand out. Writing trailer music is a very different style of music and different style of writing as a composer to begin with. Here are some of the most recognizable trailer sounds of the recent years:

1. The “Alarm” in the Prometheus Teaser Trailer:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFfhttZYoEw
Original Track: Audiomachine “Judge and Jury”

 

2. The “Braaam” in the Inception Trailer:



'Inception' Trailer 2 HD


Original Track: Zack Hemsey “Mind Heist”

 

3. The “Distortion Booms” and “Stutter Downers” in the Elysium Trailer



ELYSIUM - Official Trailer (HD)


Original Track: Hi­Finesse “Radius”

 

4. The “Pulsating Atmospheres” in the Titanfall trailer:



Titanfall - Free The Frontier Trailer - Gamescom 2014


Original Track: Danny Cocke “Sinister Intent”

 

5. The “Distorted Drum Kits and Synthesizers”:


– that you can hear in a lot of the music by Ninja Tracks, such as “Tension Ratio” or “Exposure” (below):



Ninja Tracks - Exposure ("GODZILLA" - Asia Trailer Music) (2014)


 

6. The “Distorted Risers” at the end of Twelve Titans Music’s “Artifice”, used in Avengers: Age of Ultron:



Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron - Trailer 3


 
[tweet_box]The 10 Signature Sound Elements of Modern Movie Trailers:[/tweet_box]  

7. The “Filtered Guitar Alarm” in the Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation Trailer:



Think Up Anger - 'Mission Ready'  Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation Trailer


Original Track: Think Up Anger “Mission Ready”

 

8. The “Bowed Metal Sounds” in the Interstellar Trailer:



Interstellar Official Trailer #2 (2014) - Matthew McConaughey, Christopher Nolan Sci-Fi Movie HD


Original Track: Confidential Music “View From The Voyager”

 

More powerful trailer sounds:

 
There’s a growing number of trailer sound libraries out there – here are some of the most popular new ones:

  • BRAAMS make everything feel bigger, more satisfying and dramatic. This library is totally dedicated to that vibration that enhances slow-motion shots, intros and outros in trailer sound design and soundtrack scores.

    Featuring a whole spectrum of BRAAMS in designed and single element version with pitch information, this collection offers 130 sounds of dramatic low-end musical tones, distant horns, massive low brass, bass morph and low key sound effects which doesn’t yet have a name.

    If you are building signature sounds or if you looking for “ready to use” designed BRAAMS, the material contained in this collection cover many aspects of the BRAAMS production.

    Also contained in the pack an extra folder of single hit/impact, woosh, passby which are great to enrich your custom sound design.

  • Need trailer sounds? BOOM is back with a new pack to help you with that – available in two versions:

    CINEMATIC TRAILERS DESIGNED 2 – STEREO:

    The goal with CINEMATIC TRAILERS DESIGNED 2 was clear: To create a professional sound set that is easy to use and has the perfect amount of “punch” to shine through all other trailer sound sources (music, voice-over, etc.) and that will put a smile on your face when listening to your BOOM-Library-spiced project.

    The source sounds for this library are all other BOOM Library Construction Kits that we have ever created. Our designers chose their favourite sounds and layered, processed and designed them – always in mind to create a sound effect that surpasses everything they have ever heard.
      
    CINEMATIC TRAILERS DESIGNED 2 offers you a great selection of more than 450 ready-made whooshes, hits, cracks, bounces, slams, transitions, rises – basically everything you need to instantly draw attention to your movie, trailer, teaser, presentation, podcast or promotion video.

    • Library ships in 96kHz/24bit High Definition Audio
    • 450+ royalty free state-of-the-art sound FX – Whooshes, hits, cracks, bounces, slams, transitions, rises

    CINEMATIC TRAILERS DESIGNED 2 – STEREO & SURROUND:

    CINEMATIC TRAILERS DESIGNED 2 is unique. It’s the first sound effect library of the Cinematic Series where you can get powerful trailer SFX in Stereo and 5.1 Surround. This package contains both the Stereo and the Surround version. You will get more than 9GB of fresh sounds in perfect 96 kHz / 24-bit HD audio quality.

    Why should you spend countless moments of your life panning and placing your sounds in a 5.1 surround environment when you can just drag and drop our BOOM Library surround files into your projects and everything just sounds fantastic? It's really that simple.

    During the production process, there was never any up- or downmixing applied. Our sound designers worked really hard on each stereo and surround mix to achieve the maximum surround effect for each and every layered element. Oh, and you will again fall in love with your subwoofer as the LFE channel is just charming ;-)

    You are highly motivated to beef up your next project with some fresh sounds? Then it’s about time to let CINEMATIC TRAILERS DESIGNED 2 be part of your personal sound effect pool. It is the perfect tool kit for every sound designer who counts on professional sound design.


    • Library ships in 96kHz/24bit 5.1 surround WAV files
    • Track Layout: L•R•C•LFE•Ls•Rs
    • Stereo version also included

  • This library delivers a super-versatile collection of Whoosh and Impact sound effects. And yes, as the name suggests, this is the sequel to the very popular “Whooshes & Impacts“ Sound Effects Library from SoundBits. Two versions are available + a bundle:

    Whooshes & Impacts 2:

    It features everything you need to give your projects the sonic impact they deserve, from fantasy-style battles to intense sci-fi space combat. You get fireballs, magical projectiles, asteroids, space ship pass-bys, missiles – and of course a vast variety of designed impact sound effects from very organic metal hits to abstract, distorted, screaming strikes.

    All sounds are 100% dry. No reverbs were applied.

    This pack contains 266 files split in 116 Impacts with at least 2 versions of one sound per file and 150 Whooshes with at least 3 versions of one sound per file. Giving you total amount of 607 sounds.

    Whooshes & Impacts 2 – ELEMENTS:

    The ‘Whooshes & Impacts 2 – Elements’ Sound Effects Library features a re-designed and further processed selection of the sound layers from ‘Whooshes & Impacts 2’.

    Split into 3 frequency bands, this composite collection brings you production elements to spice up your own whoosh and impact sounds, or easily create new ones from scratch. You have a transition that sounds good but just needs some interesting movement in the low end for that extra weight? Just choose from 1 of 50 low frequency whooshes and layer it with your existing elements.

    You get 150 Impacts and 150 Whooshes. The Whooshes come with one variation per sound, giving you a total of 450 design elements for your productions in this library.

    Whooshes & Impacts 2 – BUNDLE:

    You can also get both versions in a bundle – with a great discount.

More trailer sound libraries here

9. The remix of Cat Stevens’ Wild World in the Mad Max: Fury Road trailer:



Mad Max: Fury Road Official Comic-Con Trailer (2015) - Tom Hardy Post-Apocalypse Movie HD


Original Track: Confidential Music “Shepherd” (the track was also used on the The Martian campaign)

 

10. And of course the very iconic machine gun style electric guitar sound of Attila Ats track “Shredder”

– used in the Oblivion, World War Z, Star Trek Into Darkness and many other trailers.

The focus on these individual marker sounds will only become more important. We live in a world where technology progresses faster by the minute and there is so much noise that is trying to get our attention. To cut through that, you need to create something that is truly memorable and instantly recognizable, because as unappealing as this may sound, trailer music is music for advertising and is there to help sell a product or to help sell tickets. Since there is only a very short amount of time in which you can sell a story to the audience you need those “Musical USPs”.


Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:


Trending right now:

  • Cinematic & Trailer Sound Effects Abandoned Oil Tank Play Track 327 sounds included $40

    On a recording trip to the smaller Danish port town Struer, I came across an abandoned empty oil tank. Inside I found two giant wires attached to the floor and the ceiling of the tank, almost like a huge 2 stringed double bass. I’m telling you the reverb in there was longer than the Eiffel Tower on a cloudless day !

    On the outside this was just an empty abandoned building, but it turned out it was not empty at all because it was full of sound and a few dead birds. I’m glad I was curious enough to go inside for a closer investigation and not just pass by.

    After several hours of concentrated recording, it was nice to get my ears back out in dry air. I’m happy there are no open sends to Valhalla in real life but experiencing the eternal resonance on the low frequencies from the wires was absolutely amazing.

    Abandoned Oil Tank was recorded with a LOM basic Ucho stereo pair, a Zoom H6 and the LOM Geofon. All files are in 96 kHz/24 bit and contain the original recordings.

    The result is a unique sound effect library including balloon pop impulse responses from a truly unique location that very recently became even more unique since word says that the oil tank is no more and has abandoned this world.

    327 individual sounds – all tagged with Universal Category System (UCS) metadata.

    www.katrineamsler.com

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  • Electricity Sound Effects Polarity Play Track 975 sounds included $72

    Polarity delivers more than 950 sounds of electricity, science and technology – captured in several locations around the world, from electricity museums to science labs. About 50% of the library is all about electricity, with various types of Jacob’s Ladders, Tesla Coils, Ruhmkorff lamp and all sorts of impactful bursts of energy.

    Then we go through welders, plasma spheres, 3D printers, starting to cover a more broad technology theme – like old phones, telegraphs, dynamo wheels, rotary dials, whirling watchers, alarm, lab centrifuges, something scientists call a roller and a rocker, servo sounds, neon lights, a wimshurst machine and sparklers.

    Many sounds in this section were captured from vintage equipment, from a 1928’s tram to old telephone switchboards, high voltage levers and control surfaces.

    All content was recorded at 192KHz with a Sanken CO100K, a couple of Sennheiser 8040 and a Neumann 81i, translating into final assets that have plenty of ultrasonic content, ready for the most extreme manipulation.

    Bonus: Two extra libraries included for free:
    This library also includes two additional releases from Mattia Cellotto - for free: Crunch Mode delivers 230 crunchy sounds made with a variety of vegetables, fresh bread, pizza crust and a selection of frozen goods. The Borax Experiment gets you 158 squishy, gory, slimy and gooey sounds.
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  • Trench Rammers is a one-of-a-kind sound library, created by sound designer Barney Oram. It features recordings of two 20th century Trench Rammers, some of the last operating machines of their kind in the world. The library features 48 files in total, capturing the Trench Rammers using a variety of microphones and perspectives, supplied in 192kHz 24bit WAV file format.

    This library contains multiple recordings of two antique Trench Rammers, the Pegson ER5 and the Warsop Benjo, and also features additional recordings of four antique stationary engines, the Amanco Hired Man (1920s), the JAP 1947, the Lister D (1940s) and the Norman T3000.

    Recorded in Leeds, UK, this library features multi-mic coverage and a range of distance positions captured on all included source content. Microphones used include; Sanken, Sennheiser, Neumann and DPA, captured with Sound Devices and Tascam recorders.

    This library includes detailed SoundMiner metadata and utilizes the UCS system for ease of integration into your library.

    Behind the Scenes Video:


    Trench Rammer


  • Kawaii UI Trailer

Latest releases:

  • Trench Rammers is a one-of-a-kind sound library, created by sound designer Barney Oram. It features recordings of two 20th century Trench Rammers, some of the last operating machines of their kind in the world. The library features 48 files in total, capturing the Trench Rammers using a variety of microphones and perspectives, supplied in 192kHz 24bit WAV file format.

    This library contains multiple recordings of two antique Trench Rammers, the Pegson ER5 and the Warsop Benjo, and also features additional recordings of four antique stationary engines, the Amanco Hired Man (1920s), the JAP 1947, the Lister D (1940s) and the Norman T3000.

    Recorded in Leeds, UK, this library features multi-mic coverage and a range of distance positions captured on all included source content. Microphones used include; Sanken, Sennheiser, Neumann and DPA, captured with Sound Devices and Tascam recorders.

    This library includes detailed SoundMiner metadata and utilizes the UCS system for ease of integration into your library.

    Behind the Scenes Video:


    Trench Rammer


  • The cozy natural rhythms of hums, scrapes, splashes and thuds soundtrack the pottery workshop where the earth meets art. Find the true sound of it with Vadi Sound Library.

     

    About Pottery Workshop

     

    84 sounds that are clean, subtle and capture pretty much every object and action of the magic of fire and earth.

    From the rhythmic hum of the spinning potter’s wheel, to the splash of water, the scrape of clay with the tools shaping and smoothing surfaces, listen up for the symphony of creation.

    You will hear the tapping and thud of ceramic pottery, wooden ribs, wire cutters, loop tools, and sponges, all kinds of rummage, and mud actions on the potter’s wheel. The clicking and whirring of mechanisms during firing cycles add a mechanical counterpoint to the workshop’s natural rhythms.

    You will get variations of sounds in different proximity, size, and style of action. This collection is handy due to the clarity and diversity of the raw sounds. They have both Foley and practical usability and room for further sound design.

    You will get intuitive, detailed naming, UCS compatibility and the usual Vadi Sound craft and attention to detail in 84 pristine sounds. Recorded in 24bit-96kHz.WAV format on our favorite Sennheiser MKH 8040 stereo pair and Zoom F6.

     

    Keywords

    Pottery, workshop, electric potter’s wheel, wheel, oven, heat gun, mud, clay, ceramic, glass, wooden, metal, cup, handle, push, pull, move, remove, shape, tap, shake, clank, level, lid, tool, organizer, toolbox, rummage, fiberboard, button, bucket, sponge, plate, Dremel.

     

    What else you may need

    You may also want to check out Drag & Slide for 477 sound files of dragging, sliding, scraping and friction sounds of different objects made of wood, plastic, metal on various surfaces. Our bestseller Crafting & Survival is another good choice to get access to 1000+ survival, gathering, movement and crafting sounds.

  • All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with Shure KSM 137, Line Audio Omni1, FEL Clippy XLR EM272, Sonorous Objects SO.3 and JrF C-Series Pro+ microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II & Zoom F3 recorders. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is also available in UCS.

  • Introducing Devils Bane Trailer, a chilling symphony of horror encapsulated in 533 meticulously crafted sound files, ready to unleash terror upon your audience. Dive into a nightmare realm where every creak, whisper, and shriek is meticulously designed to send shivers down your spine.

    • 533 files
    • 3.5 GB of game audio assets
    • All in 96k 24bit .wav
    • Dark Horror Movie Trailer Sound Effects Library
    17 %
    OFF
  • Birdsong from the countryside of the Swedish rural region of Värmland.

Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:


It is very hard to predict trends or predict which tracks will work with the audience. Things that have shown to be quite popular are piano intros with a lot of reverb (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, etc.) and of course the trailerized covers of songs (see #9 on the list above). The last category in particular seems to be becoming more and more popular and prominent in trailers of all types and genres, so keep an eye out for those.

Other great reads on trailer sound:

Behind the excellent Star Wars Battlefront trailer sound design – ft Charles Deenen, Csaba Wagner, Thomas Brewer

Exclusive Insights From A Trailer Sound Design Expert – featuring trailer sound designer Bryan Jerden

Behind the cinematic sound of Blizzard’s spectacular Overwatch trailer – featuring Paul Menichini

 
I talk a lot to up and coming trailer guys and if there’s a list of things that you could hand out to people who are interested in getting into writing for trailers, I would say:

• Production value: Almost more important these days than proper orchestration is the quality of your track. You need to be able to deliver a high­quality, polished track.
• Be loud but be reasonable with your mastering and your compression. It is totally fine to use things like New York compression and multi­band distortion on the master bus, but do it within reason. Things can always be made louder at the end, but it is difficult to bring things back down from an overly normalized and compressed track.
• Write for the trailer editor and make that a priority: Provide a number of sections in each track that are easy to cut while still providing a great and cohesive piece of music.
• More than ever it is important to find your own voice as a composer. There is a lot more competition and it is very easy for trailer companies to find young composers. So take your time, do your research and find the style that suits you best. You won’t be able to do a lot of styles well, so really be honest with yourself and focus on your own style.
• Melody is still important. Despite the fact that knowing synthesis and sound design well is very important, being able to write a catchy melody still means a lot. There is only a few composers that can do that well. So you could be one of them.
• Song titles actually do matter, so keep that in mind. You want to catch the eye of trailer editor, so tailor your song titles to what movie genre you think clients could use it in.

Most importantly, if you decide to go for a career in the trailer music industry bring a lot of patience with you. It takes time to get your first placement, so don’t get discouraged if you don’t land an international blockbuster trailer within your first two months.

 

Please share this:


 

A big thanks to Jan Hoeglund and the team at Audio Imperia for the insights on trailer sound today!

The Audio Imperia Producers & Developers
Valentin Boomes • Danny Cocke • Joshua Crispin • Histibe • Dylan Jones • Bryan Leach • Darin Leach • Tomás Lobos Kunstmann • Paul Ortiz • Jeremiah Pena

About Jan Hoeglund
After finishing his graduate degree in Chinese, Jan moved to the US from Germany in 2010. “Fresh off the boat” he got got job working at an artist management agency handling the day-to-day management for bands such as Periphery, The Word Alive, We Came As Romans, and others. Being very passionate about cinematic music, trailer music in particular, he eventually switched over to working in the field of sampled instruments where he started working for 8Dio first, before joining the amazing team at Soundiron. He’s also involved in the Audio Imperia label, which was created to provide talented trailer music sound designers a creative platform to showcase their talents.



 
 
THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:
 
A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Metal Sound Effects MetalMotion Play Track 2000+ sounds included, 239 mins total $110

    MetalMotion is a sound design construction kit that contains four hours of moving metal mayhem: clicks and clanks, rolls and drags, wronks and squeals, scrapes and rattles, ranging from from tiny to monstrous. Nathan Moody’s unique performances with unusual combinations of props produce everything from Foley-like movements to intense groans and howls.

    Whether you’re covering a robot’s movements, sweetening weapon Foley, making crafting or pick-up sounds in a game, placing unusual layers beneath a kaiju’s roar, or crushing a submarine with undersea pressure, this collection covers the full range of subtle to raucous. Each file has many performance variations for creative choice and game audio asset creation.

    While there are some tasty impacts within, this library’s true focus is on characterful movements: handling, rummaging, opens, closes, ratchets, swirls, rolls, drags, drops, spins, rubs, zuzzes, and bows. Metal containers, filing cabinets, modern appliances, vintage (and very rusty) tools, cymbals, bells, grills, plates, bars, rods, and tubes, and many other props lent their voices to this collection.

    This UCS-compliant library was recorded with a combination of standard, contact, and ultrasonic-capable microphones through Millennia preamps. Sample rates vary based on the amount of ultrasonic content in each file. The audio files are mastered for realism, ready for extreme processing and pitch shifting of your own, but still useful in more grounded contexts.

  • Kawaii UI Trailer
  • Ice Sound Effects Ultrasonic Dry Ice Play Track 635+ sounds included, 71 mins total $38.40

    Ultrasonic Dry Ice is a library containing over 600 sounds themed metal resonances, scrapes and all sorts of weird.
    All the content has been recorded at 192KHz with a Sanken CO100K, a couple of Sennheiser MKH8040 and a MKH416.
    The resulting ultrasonic spectrum is rich and allows for truly extreme manipulation of the content.

    Bonus: Two extra libraries included for free:
    This library also includes two additional releases from Mattia Cellotto - for free: Crunch Mode delivers 230 crunchy sounds made with a variety of vegetables, fresh bread, pizza crust and a selection of frozen goods. The Borax Experiment gets you 158 squishy, gory, slimy and gooey sounds.
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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • Trench Rammers is a one-of-a-kind sound library, created by sound designer Barney Oram. It features recordings of two 20th century Trench Rammers, some of the last operating machines of their kind in the world. The library features 48 files in total, capturing the Trench Rammers using a variety of microphones and perspectives, supplied in 192kHz 24bit WAV file format.

    This library contains multiple recordings of two antique Trench Rammers, the Pegson ER5 and the Warsop Benjo, and also features additional recordings of four antique stationary engines, the Amanco Hired Man (1920s), the JAP 1947, the Lister D (1940s) and the Norman T3000.

    Recorded in Leeds, UK, this library features multi-mic coverage and a range of distance positions captured on all included source content. Microphones used include; Sanken, Sennheiser, Neumann and DPA, captured with Sound Devices and Tascam recorders.

    This library includes detailed SoundMiner metadata and utilizes the UCS system for ease of integration into your library.

    Behind the Scenes Video:


    Trench Rammer


  • The cozy natural rhythms of hums, scrapes, splashes and thuds soundtrack the pottery workshop where the earth meets art. Find the true sound of it with Vadi Sound Library.

     

    About Pottery Workshop

     

    84 sounds that are clean, subtle and capture pretty much every object and action of the magic of fire and earth.

    From the rhythmic hum of the spinning potter’s wheel, to the splash of water, the scrape of clay with the tools shaping and smoothing surfaces, listen up for the symphony of creation.

    You will hear the tapping and thud of ceramic pottery, wooden ribs, wire cutters, loop tools, and sponges, all kinds of rummage, and mud actions on the potter’s wheel. The clicking and whirring of mechanisms during firing cycles add a mechanical counterpoint to the workshop’s natural rhythms.

    You will get variations of sounds in different proximity, size, and style of action. This collection is handy due to the clarity and diversity of the raw sounds. They have both Foley and practical usability and room for further sound design.

    You will get intuitive, detailed naming, UCS compatibility and the usual Vadi Sound craft and attention to detail in 84 pristine sounds. Recorded in 24bit-96kHz.WAV format on our favorite Sennheiser MKH 8040 stereo pair and Zoom F6.

     

    Keywords

    Pottery, workshop, electric potter’s wheel, wheel, oven, heat gun, mud, clay, ceramic, glass, wooden, metal, cup, handle, push, pull, move, remove, shape, tap, shake, clank, level, lid, tool, organizer, toolbox, rummage, fiberboard, button, bucket, sponge, plate, Dremel.

     

    What else you may need

    You may also want to check out Drag & Slide for 477 sound files of dragging, sliding, scraping and friction sounds of different objects made of wood, plastic, metal on various surfaces. Our bestseller Crafting & Survival is another good choice to get access to 1000+ survival, gathering, movement and crafting sounds.

  • All files are recorded 32bit, 192 kHz, with Shure KSM 137, Line Audio Omni1, FEL Clippy XLR EM272, Sonorous Objects SO.3 and JrF C-Series Pro+ microphones, Sound Devices MixPre-6 II & Zoom F3 recorders. Library contains wav files of driving, interior and exterior foley, mechanical and electrical sounds. It is also available in UCS.

  • Introducing Devils Bane Trailer, a chilling symphony of horror encapsulated in 533 meticulously crafted sound files, ready to unleash terror upon your audience. Dive into a nightmare realm where every creak, whisper, and shriek is meticulously designed to send shivers down your spine.

    • 533 files
    • 3.5 GB of game audio assets
    • All in 96k 24bit .wav
    • Dark Horror Movie Trailer Sound Effects Library
    17 %
    OFF
  • Birdsong from the countryside of the Swedish rural region of Värmland.


   

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