# Sound in launch films

> Pick a sound register for a launch film, place the track's structure on the picture, take sound away before the reveal, and only use recordings you are licensed to.

Module: Sound · Level: advanced · 8 min · https://school.agents.org.in/media/sound/sound-in-launch-films

Same 12-second film, five soundtracks. Click through them below. They sound nothing alike, and yet every one does two things: its structure sits on what the picture is doing, and something drops out just before the name appears.

*[Interactive demo: One picture, five sound registers. The dashed line is where the product's name lands.]*

A launch film flips everything from the first four lessons. In the product, sound is opt-in, rare and quiet. In a short film that introduces the product, sound is the emotional layer, and silence is a material you place on purpose.

## Five registers

A sound register (The overall kind of soundtrack a film uses, such as a dry reveal, a low drone with clicks, a beat track, a voice, or soft foley) is the overall kind of soundtrack. Measurements across dozens of launch films found five that read as crafted. Choose from the picture, not from taste.

| Register | What carries it | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| **A · Dry reveal** | Hits only, each on a motion peak; true silence between | Logo reveals and stings under 15 seconds |
| **B · One-key bed + clicks** | A low drone in one key, dry clicks on stepped reveals | Brand films and kinetic type (OpenAI's *Refreshed.* and GPT-5 films) |
| **C · Beat track** | A track whose drop lands on the reveal | UI motion, keynote cards, fast sizzles |
| **D · Voice-led** | The voice, with the music 10 to 13 dB under it | Founder-led and live-action films |
| **E · Product camera + foley** | A soft pad, plus foley (Everyday sounds added to match on-screen actions, like keys clicking or a button pressing. In a product film they get louder the more an action matters) louder the more an action matters | The real product, one action at a time (Linear, Raycast) |

Linear's agent film shows that last idea well: typing sits just over the pad, pressing Enter is louder, and Send is loudest of all. The level follows the consequence.

## Take something away before the reveal

**Most crafted films go quiet for a moment right before the name.** 23 of 28 films from one studio did it; so did 14 of 18 acclaimed launches. The gap is short, usually 0.1 to 0.9 seconds, often just the low end pulled out, and it ends exactly on the reveal frame.

The picture does the same thing at the same moment: a beat of stillness. Silence plus stillness is what makes the name land.

*(The gap must line up with something you can see. Phones cannot play the low end, so a bass-only gap is invisible there.)*

## Placing a music track

A track is placed by the picture's structure, not laid under it from second zero.

- **Put the drop on the reveal.** The drop (The moment in a music track where the beat and bass come in hard. In a launch film it should land on the reveal of the name) (where the beat and bass come in hard) lands on the brand or title. Move the track, not the picture: trim the file's start so its drop plays on the reveal frame.
- **Break down under reading.** When the viewer has to read (typing, a headline, a diagram), the beat thins or the bass leaves.
- **Lock only what you choose.** Pick one layer to sync, act changes or the beat grid, and land it on the beat. Or lock nothing. A cut a few frames off a strong beat reads as a miss.
- **Edit on bars, stay in key.** Shorten a track by cutting whole bars from the middle. Anything tonal you add on top, a chime or a boom, sits in the track's key.
- **Under a voice, the voice is the clock.** Time scenes to the spoken words, leave a short silence before key lines, and keep the music 10 to 13 dB below.

> **The AI default.** An unstructured bed (Music or a drone that runs quietly underneath a whole film or section. A bed laid flat from the first second with nothing placed on the reveal is the default mistake): one stock track started at 0 s, at one level, with no drop on the reveal, nothing taken away, and cuts landing wherever. If nothing in the track can go on the reveal, use register B's drone or register A's silence instead.

## Loudness, stated on purpose

There is one fixed number: **−1 dBTP** true peak (The highest point the audio wave really reaches, including between samples. Keep it at or below −1 dBTP so it never clips on playback), so nothing distorts on any device. Overall loudness is a choice per register. Acclaimed films sit around −18 LUFS in the middle; short beat-cut sizzles run hotter, around −13; long, calm product walkthroughs go much quieter. Write the target next to the register. And listen once on phone speakers before you ship.

## Can you use that recording?

A recording in a launch film is used **commercially**, **edited** (trimming and syncing counts) and **published** where platforms scan audio. Its licence has to allow all three.

*[Interactive demo: Pick a licence. Commercial, edited and published: it has to allow all three.]*

- **Yes:** CC0 (A licence that gives a work to the public with no conditions: you may use, edit and sell it without credit. The safest licence for sounds); CC BY with a full credit (title, author, link, licence, "edited"); Mixkit's and Pixabay's free licences.
- **No:** anything NC (non-commercial), ND (no edits), SA (your film would inherit the licence), "royalty free" with no licence text, and any case where two sources disagree.
- **Read the item's own page.** On Freesound, licences are per sound, not per person. Aggregator sites are not authoritative. Save the licence text, link, author and date next to the file.
- **Watch for Content ID (YouTube's system that scans uploads for registered music and files automatic claims, sometimes even when your use is properly licensed).** Some composers register their CC BY tracks, so a correct use can still get an automatic claim. Credit in the description and dispute citing the licence.

Sounds you rendered in code are yours.

## Giving your agent ears

An agent cannot hear what it makes, so it should never describe how audio sounds without a measurement behind it. Leon Lin's **earshot** is that measurement: a local tool that describes a file, finds and trims the right take, lays out a film's sound on a timeline, and renders effects from code. Let it do the listening; keep the decisions (register, placement, loudness) with the rules above. Where earshot's defaults differ, such as letting sound lead by a frame or a −14 LUFS target, the measured rules here win.

**Plan a launch film's sound (paste into your agent):**

```text
Plan the sound for this launch film before rendering any audio. Lock picture first.
1. Pick a register from the picture: A dry reveal, B one-key bed + clicks, C beat track, D voice-led, E product camera + foley. Write its loudness target next to it; true peak is always -1 dBTP.
2. Mark the reveal frame. Take something away 0.1-0.9 s before it (the low end or the whole mix) and end the gap on the reveal, with a beat of visual stillness.
3. If there is a track: trim its head so the drop lands on the reveal, break the beat down under anything the viewer reads, lock one layer to the beat or none.
4. List every recording with its licence read from the item's own page (CC0 or CC BY only; no NC, ND or SA), URL, author and date.
Show me the plan as a table of times before mixing.
```

**Check yourself:** A film uses a great track under the whole thing, from 0 s to the end, at one level. The name appears at 21 s. What is the first fix?

- [ ] Make the track louder
- [x] Trim the track's start so its drop lands on the name, and take sound away for a moment just before it
- [ ] Add clicks from a free pack over every cut
- [ ] Switch to a CC BY-NC track

*Why:* A flat bed from 0 s is the unstructured default. Move the track so its drop lands on the reveal, and leave a short gap before it. Library blips over a beat track and non-commercial licences are both mistakes.

## In the skill

- https://school.agents.org.in/skill/sound/launch-video-sound.md
- https://school.agents.org.in/skill/sound/launch-video-music.md
- https://school.agents.org.in/skill/sound/sound-licensing.md
- https://school.agents.org.in/skill/sound/earshot-reconciliation.md