*promote
The art of foley outshines the science of sound editing. If this art dies, we'll be left with what has been digitized and little more. Every scream a Wilhelm, every roar a T-rex.
Computers can't paint with sound, they can barely print with sound files.
I certainly hope new directors understand that.

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Wednesday, March 21st, 2018 3:28pm PDT - promote requested by newtboy.

Simply not true. Will you get some directors using cookie cutter sound templates? Of course... bad ones. Hell, Bay reuses entire shots in his movies (often in the same damn franchise).

But good filmmakers will hire good sound designers and they will create good sound with what they have available.

Computers are a tool, nothing more. Digital sound is no different to digital imagery... people say they hate it, but they only hate BAD examples of it.

Can foley survive? Short term, maybe; long term, unlikely.

Fundamentally, it'll come down to the same question as any other technique in any commercial artform... cost vs quality. If foley remains the best way to get a sound, you will find people willing to pay for it. As digital sound creation gets better and better, there WILL come a point where no-one can tell the difference.

If you don't believe me look at guitar amplifiers. For decades, guitarists have preferred old vacuum tubes (known as valves) to generate the sound they want in a guitar amp. Digital (commonly referred to as solid state) amps are cheaper and generally pretty crap.

But these days, even people who love valve amps (and I include myself in that) have to admit that it's almost impossible to tell the difference between a genuine valve amp and a good computer model of the same (side note for guitar techy people... I know modelling != solid state).

And that's not just in playback, it's in live performance too. A kemper or an AxeFX FEELS like a valve amp, and you can vary the settings like a valve amp.

I believe that foley will ultimately go the same way. People like Wes Anderson will continue to use it, but for most filmmakers on a budget, they'll go with the sound creation software.

Some day purely digitally created sound will be better than foley, but not yet in most cases, imo. If foley dies before it is better, we're left with a limited set of recordings to edit together or crappy pure digital sound. I prefer the randomness of reality in sound. That's all I mean.

wiki link to Foley Sound

I was going to say; I wonder if it is a continuation of old radio show sound design, and it is!

I think there will always be a place for it just like the acoustic piano. There are too many variables and our subconscious is too in tune with sound that a digital sample will ever be enough to trick us. MAYBE they will get there but I can always hear when they use digital instruments in music.