# Sound hook

Edit / Sound / Hook and effects. Checked 2026-11-13.

Catches the viewer who has the sound on, in the same second as the picture.

- Use when: The first second of every feed video.
- Phrase: one sound event in the first second: a whoosh on the push-in, or an impact as the text lands
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/sound/sound-hook
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/sound/sound-hook.json

## Watch out

- One sound per visual event. Sound supports the voice and never competes with it. (practitioner; The Director Chair hook framework (our 2026 synthesis of @marco.thecreative's TikTok series, OpusClip's hook formulas, a Brandefy article, Meta retention research and a Gemini research report))
- Check it muted as well: the text layer has to carry the message with the sound off. (practitioner; Director Chair field notes on hooks and ideas)

## Prompts

### Any chat model

```
Give me a sound brief: what to record or pick, where it sits on the timeline, the levels, and what to check before export, for a short video about [your product], for [your audience]. The technique is sound hook: catches the viewer who has the sound on, in the same second as the picture. How it works: one sound event in the first second: a whoosh on the push-in, or an impact as the text lands. It is right for: the first second of every feed video. One sound per visual event. Check it muted as well: the text layer has to carry the message with the sound off. Be concrete: numbers, seconds and settings, no theory. Ask me one question first if something you need is missing.
```

## Goes well with

- Three-layer hook: https://directorchair.ai/hook/three-layer-hook
- Which sound for which event: https://directorchair.ai/sound/sfx-vocabulary
- Text on screen first: https://directorchair.ai/hook/text-first-hook

## Source

Own words from the Director Chair hook framework (our 2026 synthesis of @marco.thecreative's TikTok series, OpusClip's hook formulas, a Brandefy article, Meta retention research and a Gemini research report)

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.