Article:		Digital Media Insider Podcast 11: Synth Mania, Part 1
Subject:		cliche sfx, too!
Date:		2007-04-21 10:18:57
From:		pdx
excellent podcast! that the sound produced by a synth patch is subordinate to performance is an idea that resonates very well with my view of composition in a digital world. the synth sound is not *un*important; it's just *less* important than what you DO with it (or in musician speak: dude! stop twiddling your knobs and PLAY something! :) but it's not only cliche synth patchs you hear over and over again ... it's cliche sound effects too: there's this one dolphin chirp from the Sound Ideas library that i hear *every*single*time* any dolphin is displayed on TV or in a movie (i think it may have originated with "Flipper" in the 60's). there's also a chimp ooh-ooh-aah-aah sound from that same library that gets used over and over again. and let's not even talk about the "Wilhelm scream" ...

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• cliche sfx, too!
  2007-04-21 22:31:31  David Battino | [Reply | View]
  
  
  Great point, PDX. My original Top 20 list (reprinted at www.synthmania.com/Famous%20Sounds.htm) had a few sound effects.
  
  I remember sitting in a bar with a game audio programmer and seeing him suddenly wince. He explained that he'd just heard a tire screech on the TV hanging behind him and recognized it as the one everyone uses — I think it was also from the Sound Ideas sample library.
  
  As I was reading your examples, I was going to chime in with the Wilhelm Scream, but see you beat me to it! Here's a compilation of clips from movies featuring it:
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio