About 15 years ago, I was the lead programmer for a virtual reality ride prototype for Disney. We had added pterodactyls flying overhead.<p>The night before the demo presentation, I created a good pterodactyl scream by taking a recording of dolphins, reversing it, and dropping the frequency. Sounds strange, but I didn't have much time, and the effect was surprisingly good. A woman from marketing was trying the ride and raved that we got the pterodactyl scream just right.
I think foley too often gets short shrift as an art. You would think that in a medium where people are so eager to drop huge wads of cash on pseudoscience and marketing hype, the people who make sound effects that are even more believable than real-life noise would be heroes and legends.<p>Think about what good foley means to you. The arrival or departure of the TARDIS. Godzilla's roar. The sweepy red light on KITT. The "pew pew" of a laser gun that shouldn't really make any noise at all. The incongruous farty buzzing sound of a GAU-8 taking apart a tank. The crackle and hum of a light saber in motion. The "errr aka-chicka aka-chicka tullet-peppa tullet-peppa" of Ripley entering the Nostromo's computer core. The signature sound of a modem handshake. The ringtone of the very first mobile phone you ever owned.<p>It's just as important as the visual portion of a story, but gets much less respect.
While I think the bass rumble at the end is more true-to-life (if a 50 meter tall radioactive lizard can be said to be real..) the earlier films from Toho didn't have it.<p>Perhaps Toho would have added it if the recording & reproduction systems of the time could have produced it, I don't know.
Pretty cool video of the different Godzilla's roar throughout time dating back to 1954:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORSvf8eVa0g" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORSvf8eVa0g</a>
If you're interested in motion picture sound design, you'll want to read about the groundbreaking work done for The Exorcist way back in 1973 <a href="http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/silencebottom.html" rel="nofollow">http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/silencebottom.html</a>