How can you use sound to create continuity in an audio story?

1 What is continuity?

Continuity is the sense of coherence and consistency that makes your audio story easy to follow and understand. It helps you establish the time, place, mood, and tone of your story, and link different elements together. Continuity also helps you build suspense, tension, and emotion, and keep your listeners engaged and curious. Continuity is not only about the content of your story, but also about the form and style of your sound design.

4 How to use music

Music is a vital component of any audio story, as it can be used to set the mood and atmosphere, create a sense of identity and style, highlight key moments, and create harmony or tension. It can also help evoke feelings and emotions in listeners, establish a brand and voice, emphasize the importance and impact of scenes, and support or challenge the expectations of listeners. Original, licensed, or royalty-free music can be instrumental, vocal, or mixed to create a musical score, soundtrack, or background music.

5 How to avoid sound discontinuity

Sound discontinuity is the opposite of sound continuity and can create a sense of confusion, inconsistency, or disruption that can make your audio story hard to follow and understand. This can be caused by technical errors such as poor quality, mismatched levels, or abrupt cuts, or by creative choices such as inappropriate, excessive, or contradictory sounds. Sound discontinuity can have various negative impacts on your audio story; it can distract, annoy, or bore your listeners and make them lose interest or trust in your story. It can also create confusion, ambiguity, or misunderstanding and make your story unclear or illogical. Moreover, it can break the immersion, suspension of disbelief, or empathy which makes your story less engaging or believable. Finally, it can undermine the theme, message, or point of view of your story and make it less effective or persuasive.

6 How to check sound continuity

Creating sound continuity is not something that you can do without careful planning, editing, and testing. Prior to recording, be sure to have a clear vision and goal for your audio story. When editing, pay attention to detail and use consistent levels, fades, transitions, and effects. Test your sound with different devices, headphones, and speakers and make sure it is optimized for different platforms and formats. Lastly, listen to your sound with a critical ear and evaluate it from the perspective of your target audience and purpose.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?