Create sound effects

Last updated: October 12, 2026

Generate a sound effect from a written description, such as a weapon draw, a footstep, a UI click or a looping ambience. Use it when you need a game-ready sound without searching a library or recording foley.

Before you start

  • Open the session you want the sound in. Results land on that session's board.
  • Each run costs Creative Units. The cost shows on the Create sound effects button before you run. See Creative Units for how it is charged.

Steps

  1. In the side panel to the right of the board, click See all tools next to Tools, then click Create sound effects in the All tools window (type sound in Search tools to find it faster). The form opens in the panel. If the panel shows a tool instead of the menu, click the back arrow at the top left of the panel first.

  2. The form opens on the default model. To try another, click the model name at the top of the form and pick one.

  3. Click in the prompt box (Describe the sound) and describe one sound: what makes it, what happens, how it ends and the space it is in, for example: Single steel longsword drawn fast from a leather scabbard, bright metallic ring with a short decay. Dry, close-mic'd, isolated, no room reverb, no ambience, no music.

  4. Set Duration under the prompt to the length of the sound, in seconds: type it in the box or drag the slider. A length close to the sound itself keeps short sounds from coming back padded with silence.

  5. Click Create sound effects, the purple button at the bottom of the panel.

  6. Wait while the sound generates. A tile appears on the board straight away and shows its progress; you can keep working while it runs.

Result

The sound replaces the progress tile on the session's board as an audio file with its waveform. Press play on the tile to listen, or open it to see the prompt and settings it was made with. To save it, right-click the tile and choose Download.

Production tips

  • Describe the event, not the feeling. Name the object, its material, the action and its scale: heavy oak door, iron hinges, swinging open slowly with a low groan, then a dull thud against stone. Scary door leaves the model guessing.
  • Ask for it dry. A game engine adds its own reverb and space, so request dry, close-mic'd, isolated, no room reverb, no ambience. Reverb baked into a sound cannot be taken out afterwards.
  • One sound per run. A footstep, an unsheathe and an impact are three assets. Asking for a sequence gives you one file to cut apart.
  • Build UI sets as a family. Generate the click, the confirm, the purchase chime and the error separately, and repeat the same character description in each prompt (soft wooden, warm, short) so the set sounds like one game.
  • Ambience and loops. For a background bed, describe a steady sound with no events that stand out (constant light rain on a canvas tent, no thunder), set a longer Duration, and check the loop point in your audio tool or middleware before it ships.
  • Generate takes to choose from. Runs vary a lot from take to take. Run the same prompt a few times and keep the best; for variations a game can randomise between, keep two or three.
  • Sound for a video? Use Add sound effects to video on the clip instead, which generates sound timed to the footage.

For how each model reads a prompt, see Prompt ElevenLabs for sound effects and Prompt Stable Audio for sound effects.

If something goes wrong

  • The sound has room echo or background noise. Add dry, isolated, no room reverb, no ambience, no music to the prompt and run it again.
  • There is silence at the end. Set Duration closer to the length of the sound, or trim the tail in your audio tool.
  • Several sounds come back in one file. Describe a single event per run.
  • The generation failed. The tile on the board shows the failure. Run it again; if it fails again, shorten the prompt or change the model. See Fix a failed or stuck generation.

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