Sound effects
A whoosh as a card slides in, a pop as a badge appears, an impact as the logo lands. Paraplex has a library of about 60 sounds made for motion, free to use anywhere, and it can make new ones from a description. Either way, a sound lands where its motion is.
Where to find it: the Sounds panel. Open it in any of these ways:
- Press and hold the dock's Audio track button and choose Sound library… or Sound effect from words….
- Choose Menu › Audio › Sounds….
- Right-click a layer that moves and choose Add sound to this animation….
The panel has three tabs: Library, Generate and Recent.
Add a sound from the library
- Move the playhead to where the sound should start.
- On Library, type in Find a sound, such as "whoosh" or "soft pop", or pick a Kind of sound: whooshes, swipes, pops, clicks and taps, risers, impacts, typing, ticks, glitches and more.
- Click a sound's play button to hear it in place.
- Click Use.
The sound lands at the playhead, and its clip is as long as the sound. It plays on the Effects bus in the Mixer, and it sits just above the selected layer in the Layers panel, so a layer's sounds stay beside it. Library sounds cost nothing.
Hear it in place
A play button in the Sounds panel plays the scene from a second before the sound would land, with the sound mixed in, so you hear it with the motion. Then the playhead goes back where it was. Nothing is added until you click Use or Add. Click the button again to stop.
Sounds for a layer's animation
Right-click a layer that moves and choose Add sound to this animation…. The Sounds panel opens with a For section listing a sound for each of the layer's motions:
| The motion | The sound |
|---|---|
| A slide or a move | A whoosh, centered on the move and as long as it |
| A pop or a scale-in | A pop |
| A logo or title landing | A short riser that ends as it lands, then an impact |
| Text that types in | Typing, cut where the text ends |
| A chart's bars or slices coming in | A tick on each piece |
| A spin or a fade | A whoosh, or a soft swell for a fade |
- Click a row's play button to hear it with the motion.
- Click Add to place it, or Add all to place every one. Add all is one step of undo.
- Click Make one instead to make your own sound for that motion. Its description and length are filled in for you on Generate.
With several layers selected, the section is For the selection and lists the sounds for all of them.
Make a sound from words
- Open Generate and choose Sound effect.
- Describe the sound, such as "a stack of paper dropped on a desk, close". With a moving layer selected, click one of its motions above the box to start from words for it.
- Set its length in Seconds, or leave it blank to let the sound find its own length. Check Loop for a sound that repeats seamlessly, like rain or room tone.
- Move Closer to the words or more varied: toward the words for a sound that follows your description closely, toward varied for more surprises.
- Pick how many Takes to make, from 1 to 4.
- Click Make 2 takes. The button shows what it costs.
The takes are made side by side, each with its own progress bar. You can close the panel and keep working; a message tells you when they're ready, with Open to see them.
Each take has a waveform, a play button that plays it in place, a star and Use. A take made for a motion is centered on that motion when you use it. Any other take lands at the playhead.
Tip
Describe the sound, not the scene: "a soft airy whoosh, left to right" works better than "the card moves". Short, physical words get the best results.
Another take
Not quite right? Select the sound in the Layers panel, and the Generated section of its Sound panel shows the words it was made from. Click Another take… to make one more from the same words. Click Swap in on the new take, and it replaces the old one in the same place. Undo brings the old one back.
Make music
On Generate, choose Music, describe it and set its Seconds. Check Instrumental for music without singing. Music always starts at the beginning of the piece and plays on the Music bus. See Voiceovers, sound and music.
For music that changes where the picture does, building to the logo and dropping under the voice, click Score this piece… under Music. See Score your piece.
Recent and Favorites
Every take you make is kept on Recent, used or not, so you never pay for the same sound twice. Signed in, your takes follow your account to other browsers.
- Type in Find a take to search by the words they were made from.
- Click a take's star to keep it, and check Favorites to see only starred takes.
- Click a take's remove button to take it off the list.
The newest 60 takes are kept, plus every starred one.
Ask the assistant
The assistant adds sounds too. Ask for "sound on every move" or "add sound design, punchy", and it places a sound on each layer's motion, picking from the library. It works at three levels:
| Level | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Subtle | A quiet sound on each layer's first arrival, and nothing on fades or exits |
| Balanced | A sound on every arrival, spin, chart and typing, and a riser before a logo |
| Punchy | Every motion, exits and fades too, louder, with a cinematic hit on a logo |
Library sounds are free, and the whole pass is one step of undo. If you ask for sounds made from words instead, the assistant tells you what they'll cost and waits for your OK before making them.
You can also ask for one sound: "an impact as the logo lands" or "a typing sound under the title". The assistant picks it from the library, or makes it from your words when you describe one.
Credits
Library sounds are free. A made sound costs credits by its length, shown on the Make button before you click it; each take is charged. With your own ElevenLabs key, made sounds cost no credits. See AI credits and keys.