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The sound can be in the form of on-screen rendering or off-screen voice. The manner in which the person speaks affects the effectiveness of the spoken word. The voice itself, the emphasis on certain words, the inflection, the pitch, and the loudness all contribute immensely to the overall effect. Notice how dialogues are rendered in a melodrama or how the news presenter announces the headlines. Sound is not to be considered incidental to a programme. It requires conscious planning early on, in the pre-production stage.
Anything other than music or the spoken word is a sound effect. The creak of a chair, the bang of a door, a ring tone, falling of books, the Wang of a laser gun, etc. are all examples of sound effects.
The art of manually creating and recording sound effects in the studio is called foleying could be the use of simple recording techniques in the studio. For example, the sound of walking on dry leaves can be achieved by stamping on a few dry leaves, that of stone hitting water by throwing pebbles into a bucket of water, that of horses galloping by using dry coconut shells, munching of biscuits by actually munching them, etc.
Sound effects can be broadly classified as follows:
Contextual
Descriptive
Commentative
Contextual sound effect emerges from a sound source as a consequence of an action. In a shot that shows a person breaking a mirror in a fit of anger, the sound of the mirror shattering is contextual sound, that is, it is the result of an action and conveys literal meaning. Similarly, the sound of a hammer is the result of a person trying to nail a hook. Contextual sounds are also termed synchronous or diegetic sounds- sound that belong to the story. The emerge from within the story.
Descriptive sound effect adds to the mood of the scene, such as a person in sitting all alone on a rock and throwing pebbles into a pond. The sound of the pebble hitting the water is contextual. However, if you add the sound of the wind, it adds to a feeling of despondence. The sound of the wind enhances the person’s feeling of loneliness and sadness. Descriptive sounds are non-diegetic sounds. They do not emerge from within the story but are added to achieve an impact.
Commentative sound effect, as the name itself suggests, makes a statement and adds to the overall impact, and is often part of the narrative. In the film Apur Sansar(Bengali) by Satyajit ray, the whistle of an engine keeps recurring whenever Apu, the central charcter, is confronted with a situation. In the film, Ardh satya (Hindi) by Govind Nihalani, the hero dislikes his father for forcing him to join the police force. Whenever he recollects his father, we hear the surban train passing by outside his modest Mumbai flat. the sound of the whistle in the first example and the train in the second suggest disturbance of the mind. In another film, an aurally challenged person who has been wrongly convicted and jailed continues to hear the echoes of the yelling crowd that had followed him as he had been led away by the police. Unable to bear the haranguing echoes any longer, he remove his hearing aid, cutting himself away from the society. The sound track captures his quietude by falling silent. Commentative sound can either be diegetic or non-diegetic.
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