Ambience

Ambience, also called atmosphere or atmos, is the continuous background sound that defines where a scene takes place, such as distant traffic for a city street, birds and wind for a forest, or the low murmur of an office. It sits beneath dialogue and effects, filling the silence so a scene feels like a real space rather than a sterile void. A sound editor lays a consistent ambience bed under each scene to smooth over edits, since cutting between takes with different room tones is jarring, and a steady bed hides those seams. Matching ambience also helps blend ADR and disparate sources into one believable environment. The craft is keeping it present but unnoticed: loud enough to establish place and cover cuts, quiet enough that the audience never consciously hears it.