Sound design is the art of creating sounds for a specific purpose, though the definition can differ depending on who you ask. Read on to learn what sound design is and what sound designers do.
An EDM music and sound producer might think of it as creating a stabby bass for a house track. In contrast, someone working in film and TV production might think of it as creating the landscape of a foreign sci-fi environment, complete with the sounds of alien lifeforms and spaceship engines.
While the term itself might sound quite technical, it’s pretty safe to assume that almost everyone who works in audio production will work as a sound designer to create sound effects at one point or another.
Of course, with a definition that leans heavily on context, it can be confusing for anyone looking to start a career in creative sound design.
We already covered what SFX is.
With this guide, I hope to define some of the main sound design elements, explore the fundamental concepts of sound design, and provide insights into various tools employed by professional sound designers in different fields to create sound.
What Is Sound Design?
As I said before, sound design in music is relatively broad, which makes it difficult to define.
Typically, the sound design process starts with a project, and the sound designer works on identifying what that project needs.
Whether that project requires the creation of a real-world environment using samples and field recordings or a slew of FX and risers is up to the sound designers and creative team to decide.
Sound Design Elements In Different Forms of Media
Though real sound design as an art form is relatively diverse, let’s look at a few mediums where you can find it.
TV and Film
First and foremost, many of us think of sound design in film and television.
In this context, sound design is a post-production art in which a sound designer must create audio from scratch or manipulate given audio to accompany whatever happens on screen.
This can range from cinematic sound effects to Foley, drones, underscore, and ambiance.
Sound has a wonderful way of supporting the mood or tone of a piece of visual media, which is why sound designer’s jobs are so important.
Advertising
Sound design in advertising is very similar to that of video production, television, and film in that it’s used to create a mood.
Sound design can range from audio effects, such as a swoosh when text moves across the screen, to memorable jingles, such as the infamous “ba da ba ba ba” McDonald’s jingle.
Theater
You may not think of sound design as something used in live environments, but sound designers play a major role in live theater performances.
In this instance, sound design may include pre-recorded voiceovers, background effects like rain sounds, sonic textures, complex sounds, and music appearing on television production or radio on stage.
Many unique sound designers use sound reinforcement in theater productions and film school, which is a huge deal in musical theater. At certain points in a production, for example, incidental music might appear, which is the job of the sound designer.
Music
While we often think of sound design in recorded music as prevalent in experimental and electronic genres, it’s everywhere.
Jim O’Rourke and Brian Eno are two great examples of rock artists who were big into sound mixing and designing, combining traditional instruments, such as synths and guitars, with sound to create tapestry-like recordings.
Field sound recordings began appearing in more experimental records during the mid-twentieth century. By the 21st century, when VSTs began popping up, the capabilities of sound designers in modern electronic genres exploded.
From the ambient of classical artists like Steve Reich to the dubstep wobble bass of Skrillex, all of these special effects are part of sound design.
Video Games
Digital sound design might have more of an important role in video games than anywhere else.
Modern gamers want immersive experiences, and while visual designers provide a fictional escape by developing high-quality graphics, sound designers do so by creating supportive audio and sound engines.
From the sound of an M6 Spartan Laser in Halo to the water sounds in a fishing sim and the crowd’s roar in the latest iteration of FIFA, sound design can take us into a digital world.
What Do Sound Designers Do?
Though some sound designers need to work solo in professional productions, they often collaborate with a creative team to decide where their work is needed.
It’s also often the case that sound designers will take the audio and work separately from those writing the music.
For example, sound designer Ben Burtt worked on Star Wars. From the iconic movie sound of the lightsabers to the beeps and boops of R2D2, he was the one in charge.
On the other hand, John Williams composed the famous Star Wars score.
With all of that said, it’s not uncommon for sound designers to assume both roles, though it’s more typical in podcasting and live theater.
Record
Sound designers also might go out into the world to record sounds for use in the productions they’re working on. For example, a designer might bring a few microphones into the “field” to capture the sound of a city street or a small cafe.
In a studio environment, we call these Foley sound effects.
The Foley process involves recording audio to picture to match whatever is happening on-screen. It’s one of the main creative and technical skill sets a record can have.
Mix
We’re all familiar with the mixing process, though it can change pretty drastically when you’re working from a sound design perspective.
For example, a sound designer might mix together four different elements of sounds to create sound effects, such as the sound of an airlock in a spaceship opening. On the other hand, some sound designers will balance numerous audio tracks to create environmental soundscapes.
If a sound designer has separate tracks, such as the sound of people laughing, seagulls chirping, and ocean waves crashing, one of the best ways they can manipulate and mix them together is to create the sound of a beach.
Sample
Every sound designer will either create samples of music and sound effects and put them into sound libraries or use and combine existing samples to use in their projects.
Of course, samples come in all shapes and sizes. They can range from a few layers to create a massive snare drum to large, atmospheric samples to create sci-fi-style FX.
A sound designer might sample a knocking door into a MIDI sequence and program it so that each time they hit a certain key, they can make certain types of effects like a knocking sound, syncing it up to the person on screen knocking.
Edit
Editing is pretty self-explanatory, though there are many audio elements that fall under the larger umbrella of sound editing, including splicing, time-stretching, and fine-tuning.
A sound designer is responsible for creating edits in their audio workstation with editing software to make sure sound clips are free from pops and clicks, as well as make sure there’s clarity in the overall mix.
Underscore
Many large live theater productions will hire separate composers to work on the scores for their projects and sound designers to work on the underscore and incidental music.
On the other hand, when it comes to television, film, and advertising, the best sound designers create all the original music beyond any existing music found and licensed by a music supervisor.
Create
There are many special techniques that go into the process of designing sound.
When making, sound designers will often use a combination of pre-existing and original sounds and audio effects, editing and synchronizing them with the given project.
The Various Elements of Designing Sound
Now that we have a clear idea of what sound designers do let’s check out a few of the elements they work with.
Foley
Foley uses objects to create scenes in visual media that feel more believable.
One of my favorite on-screen examples is the coconut scene in Monty Python in the Holy Grail, in which the actors use coconut shells to mimic the sound of galloping horses.
Though there are still many Foley artists who work in radio, television, and film, many sound designers rely on sounds from pre-recorded libraries, such as the sound of fireworks going off or footsteps walking down a hallway.
Sound
Sound goes hand in hand with Foley in a way, though from a traditional standpoint, Foley is performed to picture, while it is cut to picture or added in later. These sound effects can be anything from a steam engine on a train to a spaceship blasting off.
Personally, I like to think of sounds as unreal sounds. In the case of Star Wars, a sound effect would be Darth Vader’s lightsaber clashing against another, while Foley would be the sound of his cape rustling against his suit.
Ambiance
Ambiance is used to create and manipulate a sense of time and place.
The idea is to transport the listener into a specific environment, from a modern-day cafe to a 10th-century castle hall. Sound designers will create sonic tapestries with different elements and glue them together using something like a convolution reverb to make them all sound like they’re in one place.
For example, the ambiance of a modern-day cafe might include a quiet murmur, glasses clinking, and an espresso machine whirring, all bussed into a medium room reverb.
Dialogue
Dialogue is one of the key elements of any great film or television show, as it helps guide the audience through the narrative.
Details about a character’s emotions, personality, or how they relate to the event in the scene can often be picked up from what that character says and how they say it.
Sound designers understand they are responsible for collaborating with sound recordists to get the sound right on location before taking that dialogue into the editing and mixing phase or using automated dialogue replacement (ADR) to remedy flawed on-set recordings.
Music
In terms of modern music, the role of a sound designer and a music producer is often blurred during the process of recording. When we think of music sound design, we think of elements like transition in EDM music (risers, drops, sweeps, etc.) or vocal (vocoders, modulation, spatial, etc.).
The process of creating cinematic music is often sped up by using cinematic loops.
However, sound designers can just as easily be part of the arrangement, sampling, synthesis, mixing, and mastering processes.
Exceptional Examples of Sound Effect Design
UX Sound Design – Jaguar I-Pace
Successful sound designer Richard Devine collaborated closely with the Jaguar team when they released the I-Pace to develop a range of sound elements for the company’s new vehicle, including a start/stop noise, dynamic driving sounds, and vehicle alerts.
The idea was to make the driving experience more pleasurable for the person who was used to a car reacting auditorily to the gas pedal and to protect pedestrians in the vicinity from an otherwise silent vehicle.
Film Sound Design – Star Wars
You might be surprised to find out that many of the sound FX in the 1977 Star Wars movie came from everyday sounds.
For example, the humming sound of the lightsaber came from the combination of microphone feedback buzz, an old television picture tube, and an aged film projector.
Video Game Sound Design – Zelda
When you solve a puzzle in a Zelda game, you get a very specific eight-note sound that rings out.
This deceivingly simple auditory moment captures the sense of wonder that the franchise embodies and, in many ways, is a key piece of the game’s historical impact. It also shows just how musical sound design can be.
Theater Sound Design – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
This play, which tells a story from the perspective of 15-year-old Christopher, whose perception of the world is skewed by his autism, leans heavily on the use of sound design to give the audience a sense of the boy’s mood.
For example, in one of the scenes, Christopher panics when a police officer touches him on the shoulder. To represent the discomfort that he feels at that moment, the sound design team muffles out his screams with the sounds of digital screeches and cracks.
Conclusion
For over a century, creators have used the creation of sounds from scratch to enhance their projects, whether in radio, television, film, video games, or live theater.
Though many modern musicians see it as an element under the umbrella of music production, hopefully, you can now see that it’s so much more, and if you’re looking to become a sound designer, the options are limitless, and everything you need is in this article to get started!
