While it takes a lot of skill to use a camera and record high-quality footage for your films and videos, the real magic of video production comes in the edit. The post-production process is where mistakes are corrected and narratives and stories can truly be discovered and told.
Yet, while editing can solve a lot of problems and create a lot of interesting opportunities for the story of your videos, there’s more to editing than just the cutting and rearranging of clips. For those who really know what they’re doing, music and sound design is perhaps even more so, where the magic happens.
One of the most powerful tools in a video or audio editor’s arsenal is the all-important cinematic riser sound effect. But what are these awesome cinematic riser sound effects, exactly? And how can you use this powerful SFX to work its magic on your edits?
Let’s go over everything you need to know about cinematic riser sound effects, plus give you several different high-quality, royalty free cinematic riser sound effect tracks to use in your projects today.
What are cinematic riser sound effects?
Before we dive into giving you a solid list of royalty free cinematic riser sound effects to consider using in your videos, let’s go over some basic definitions and insights into what cinematic riser sfx are and how they can be used for your projects.
Basically, if you’ve ever seen a cinematic trailer for some blockbuster movie, or if you’ve ever watched a YouTube video that tries to make everything as dramatically epic as possible, then you’ve probably heard cinematic risers in action.
Cinematic riser sound effects are audio elements used in sound design to create anticipation and build tension. Cinematic risers are often used in films, trailers, video games, and other types of videos to create a dramatic effect, building tension and excitement before a significant event or climax.
A cinematic riser can take many different forms, styles, or combinations of instruments. Still, they all typically begin quietly and slowly, gradually ramping up in volume and intensity before culminating in a loud and epic finale.
Best cinematic riser sound effects for your videos
To give you a better idea of what we’re talking about here, your best bet to understand what cinematic riser sound effects are would be to simply listen to some examples yourself. In the list below, we’ve not only included several great examples, but we’ve also hand-picked some of our top selections for the best royalty free cinematic riser sound effects to consider using in your videos and projects.
Please note that all the cinematic riser sound effects featured below are fully licensable and safe for use in commercial, corporate, and social media projects, including YouTube.
If you’re using music or sound effects that you haven’t licensed, you're liable to have your videos flagged or even face possible copyright infringement takedowns—so be careful where and how you find sound effects for your videos and projects.
1. Shimmer White Cast Large Buildup Sound Effect
Description: Casting and shooting off a large white magic spell. A long, bassy, and sparkly rise leading to a heavy whoosh with a sparkly tail.
2. SciFi Synth Fall and Rise Filtered Sound Effect
Description: Stuttering, falling, and rising synth swell with a high ringing.
3. Tonal and Noisy Synth Riser Sound Effect
Description: Short rising tonal synth sound mixed with a noisy woosh.
4. Electric Cast Medium Sound Effect
Description: Casting and shooting off a medium electrical spell. Medium electrical sparking rises in pitch, leading to a heavy zap hit.
5. Mystery Swell Short Sound Effect
Description: Mysterious magical spell swell. Short.
6. Friction Dry Ice Coin Pressure Ascend Sound Effect
Description: Pushing coins onto to slab of dry ice. Small, short takes with ascending pitch. Squealing, hissing, and rattling.
7. Short Noisy Riser Sound Effect
Description: Low and noisy outgoing synth whoosh rising towards the end.
8. Glitch Rise With Sequence Sound Effect
Description: Humming with increasing intensity and electrified glitches.
9. Hum Swell Single Sound Effect
Description: Futuristic humming sound swelling shortly.
10. Rise Modern Single Sound Effect
Description: Modern electrical alarm rings.
These are just a few of the top recommended royalty free cinematic risers for you to explore. We have thousands more sound effects for all other types of videos and projects in our complete Soundstripe library.
Royalty free cinematic riser sound effect playlists
In addition to the selections highlighted above, we offer a range of high-quality sound effects suitable for various film and video projects. These sound effects can be great tools to help your content feel more epic, cinematic, and professional.
To further explore more cinematic risers and other cinematic sound effects for your videos, check out these additional sound effects from our Soundstripe app.
Swells and risers to raise the tension on your next project.
Cinematic SFX & Sequences Playlist
This bundle includes epic sound effects and music sequences for cinematic scenes, intros, trailers, and more.
Cinematic sound effects, pre-arranged into powerful sequences, you can cut your footage to
Soundscapes, transitions, and hits designed for epic films and TV.
Cinematic transitions and textures that really fly by.
Transitions and whooshes are reversed to add cinematic textures to your project.
Electrical hums, buzzes, and sparks signal the device's activation.
Again, this is just a tiny sampling of what the Soundstripe sound effects library has to offer. Feel free to explore the Soundstripe app to familiarize yourself with its features and discover additional sound effects for your projects.
What are royalty free sound effects?
Let’s also go over how licensing and copyright rules apply to sound effects. If you aren’t familiar with the term “royalty free”, it basically means that it is music or audio that has had its copyrights licensed adequately for you.
That’s why your top option for music or sound effects (or other video or photo assets, for that matter) is royalty free audio that can be licensed from music licensing websites like Soundstripe.
This is because sound effects, like songs and other musical tracks, are created by artists who deserve compensation. Companies like Soundstripe compensate artists who create music or sound effects, providing complete protection and coverage for creators to use their music and sound effects on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, and others.
Tips for using cinematic riser sound effects
Now that we’ve gone over some of our top picks for the best cinematic riser sound effects available for your videos, let’s go over some helpful tips and tricks for using these royalty free sound effects in your projects.
- Look for the sound effects that match the genre and style of your videos.
- Consider downloading previews of your selected sound effects to ensure they sound just right in your edits before licensing them.
- If you haven’t already, try out Soundstripe’s extensions to streamline how you find and use music and sound effects directly in your edits.
To wrap things up, always remember that while cinematic riser sound effects can be a great way to add a cinematic and epic feeling to your videos, unless you’re going for a comedic effect, you probably don’t want to use them too often in your content.
Find the right moments when your videos could use that extra push, and let these cinematic risers give your content that extra level of cinema magic.
For more advice for working with sound effects in your projects, check out these additional articles from the Soundstripe blog.
- The Best Sci-Fi Sound Effects: Iconic Lightsaber Sounds & More in Homage to Star Wars & the Sci-Fi Classics
- Download Multiple Songs or SFX from My Playlists
- Scream Sound Effects for When You Don’t Want the Wilhelm Scream: Download the Best Scream Audio for Any Genre
- Vloggers Rejoice! 10 Best Royalty Free Sound Effects for Vlogs to Instantly Elevate Your Content
- The Best Royalty Free Sound Effects for YouTube - Hassle-Free SFX to Make Your Videos Stand Above the Rest
