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October 19

Whooshy low-pitched sound used in film trailers

It seems like every modern film trailer uses a particular auditory trope. Cuts from one clip to another are accompanied by a subwoofery whooshy noise, like a subway train rushing by. Not every cut has a whoosh; it's some kind of punctuation used to give a rhythm to the trailer. Does this sound effect have a name? How long has it been used? Lantzy : Lantzy 02:51, 19 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See flanging. 41.165.67.114 (talk) 05:48, 19 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is the sound you are referring to the same as the sound heard in this trailer clip preceding the cuts at 0:11, 0:45, 1:20, and 1:24? The pitch is basically constant, so the effect is different from flanging. The volume rises quickly but gradually, and then drops suddenly at the cut, at least for the first three of these instances. At the fourth, it morphs into more auditory scariness. --Lambiam 20:59, 19 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The term for a sound growing in volume, instead of changing pitch, is called crescendo. --Jayron 32 12:12, 20 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The term crescendo in its non-figurative sense is applied to a musical passage, in which the pitch may – and usually does – change. Whooshiness in such passages is rare if not nonexistent. If this specific sound effect has been named, it will be by another term. --Lambiam 09:13, 21 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but crescendo doesn't refer to the pitch change. Crescendo as a term refers to the increase in volume, irrespective of what the pitch is doing. --Jayron 32 10:56, 21 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]