Questions tagged [sound-design]
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829
questions
34
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10answers
3k views
As a sound designer, how often and when do you decide “that doesn't need a sound”?
This is a question about personal observation of designer aesthetics and taste.
As someone who is hired to design sounds for all types of moving pictures, animations, graphics and scenes, I find ...
27
votes
50answers
63k views
Films to Study for Excellence in Sound Design
Dear All,
What films are good examples of Sound Design to study and take note of?
I'm particularly looking for films which sound was used to forward the story with excellent results. Not just using ...
20
votes
47answers
19k views
Best use of Silence in a film?
In my opinion some of the best film sound is not loud or overt, and I've used silence many times in film soundtracks myself but I am interested to know what your favorite use of silence or near-...
19
votes
28answers
5k views
Awesome things to record that you would not normally think about
I think it would be cool to hear about some foley sessions that people have done that involved recording very odd things to get a desired sounds.
For example, I did a foley session with a friend of ...
19
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0answers
1k views
Washington Post covers sound design in film:
There's a nice piece by Ann Hornaday with a video in today's Washington Post here.
16
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15answers
4k views
Films which blur the distinction between score and sound design?
Can you think of films where the distinction between score and sound design is creatively or accidentally undermined?
In a lot of films the distinction is really clear: score is orchestral music, ...
15
votes
15answers
541 views
Monthly Sound Design Challenge…looking for feedback
Update (8/15/10): the first challenge is up.
UPDATE (8/7/10): It seems like Vimeo and SoundCloud are a general consensus, which doesn't surprise me at all. I've posted a bunch of info on my site ...
12
votes
23answers
3k views
Audio Postproduction/Sound Design resources you'd recommend
Hi everyone,
I'd like to create this thread that would be like a library for sound designers/audio post people. The principle is as basic as 1 post = 1 resource, so each book/webpage can be voted for ...
12
votes
13answers
7k views
What sound design books have influenced you the most?
There are so many great books on sound design. I'm interested in hearing about a book that has been your faithful companion. You can pick one per discipline you're involved in.
My selection is:
...
12
votes
3answers
618 views
Workflow: Getting sounds into your library.
Sound design is like cooking in a lot of ways. When you cook a giant meal, it's a lot of fun. But the clean-up is boring. What they say when you're learning to cook is that you have to clean-up as you ...
12
votes
5answers
7k views
Linux tools for beginning electronic music production
Ok I want to start music from the beginning.
Just computer, mic, midi keyboard and nothing else.
What programs should I use to:
Create electronic samples
mix them, modulate and add effects
Create ...
12
votes
4answers
1k views
Foley artist leather toolkit!
Good morning from Greece guys! I was surfing the internet today and i found something very interesting indeed! A toolkit created for foley artists dedicated for making the classic Swoosh, thud, bash, ...
11
votes
21answers
4k views
Why did you choose sound design as a career?
I know quite a few studio recording engineers who wanted to be musicians and "fell into" the job.
When I was about 15 I went to a school rock concert and was fascinated by all of the PA equipment. ...
11
votes
6answers
2k views
“Stoker” - sound design moves background to foreground
I've just come back from seeing Stoker - what a great film. Very strong, and potent storytelling. One of the features was a forensic-style magnification of detail, and lots of space and time for ...
10
votes
11answers
569 views
What's your best story about repurposing a sound?
I have some great stories about sounds that I originally used for one thing, then was able to completely change, and re-use as a completely different sound.
For example: I recently did a bunch of ...
10
votes
3answers
399 views
Randy Thom Interview Question.
http://soundworkscollection.com/howtotrainyourdragonpanel
I watched the great video on sound works collection that was on the sound of "How to Train your Dragon". I have two questions about some of ...
10
votes
5answers
2k views
How do you create Single Sideband Modulation (SSB)?
We've heard this sound before (think Star Wars), and I've never tried to create it but have wondered about how it is done. Then I heard it again today here and stumbled upon one person's explanation:
...
10
votes
3answers
332 views
Retaining High Frequencies when Varispeeding
Aside from recording at 192kHz with the highest quality mics and recorders, how do you reinvigorate your slowed down/varispeeded sounds after they've lost most (or all) of their airy top end? (...
9
votes
22answers
2k views
Tension sounds like…
What does tension sound like? Tension, in the case, meaning the feeling that if you don't complete your task in time, you will fail or be attacked. You have :05 to sell it.
(This is one of those ...
9
votes
16answers
688 views
Do you play an instrument?
How important is musical training to a sound designer? What, if any, instruments do you play, and has this affected the way you 'compose' a design? I play the cello and piano,nowhere near as well as ...
9
votes
7answers
602 views
If you're a Sound Designer of a movie, do you have total supervision over what the trailer sounds like?
I have heard that there are post production facilities that specialize in trailers and only trailers.
Does this mean they have their own sound teams that do the sound for trailers totally separate ...
9
votes
5answers
709 views
How would you design the sound of a submersible propeller?
POST-MORTEM: Using a variety of tools and manipulating them underwater while recording with a 3 different pairs of hydrophones (for a total of 6 different perspectives) yielded truly wonderful results!...
9
votes
3answers
846 views
Music Makers: Do you find your Sound Design skills influence your compositions?
With regards to myself, I started making music first before discovering sound design and now find that this is in turn working its way back and influencing my compositions: my choice of timbres, how I ...
9
votes
1answer
347 views
Another Discovery of Wind in the Studio
It's Sunday.
Here's another recording I just did.
This time I took the same Kleenex box I used before and without any air flow, I stuck it on the ground, placed the hole right next to the U87 and ...
8
votes
22answers
964 views
What is your dream job? [closed]
Now that you're in the entertainment industry, what would be your most ideal job to work on?
I grew up watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel so I wouldn't mind sound designing and mixing that ...
8
votes
6answers
673 views
What's your favorite, personally-stashed 'money' sound?
Hey fellow SSDers! I've been doing some library cataloging today, digging through some recent shows to finish some much-overdue mastering (who am I kidding though, I'm nowhere close to finished hah). ...
8
votes
15answers
2k views
What's your favourite way to “stereoize” a mono file?
I've created a drone that I'd like to use as a spacecraft engine bg, but right now its in mono, and I thought I'd crowd source some favourite methods of "stereoizing". Because the sound is sci-fi in ...
8
votes
15answers
3k views
Who's designing sound with an iPad?
One of these magical gizmos has found its way into my life and now I'm wondering what else it can do besides check email and play Angry Birds. Have found a few interesting apps out there for creating ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views
“13 Ghosts” voice effect
I just want to find out if anyone knows how to create the "ghostly dialogue" in 13 Ghosts. What effects are used and how did they mix it together?
8
votes
3answers
480 views
Why Are Professional Sound Libraries So Noisy?
I just started field recording about a year ago. I initially took a tech course on GameAudio, that's what initially sparked my interest. While in the class we were encourage to listen to and study ...
8
votes
5answers
419 views
Crossroads: Requesting some career advice
I hate to post a question that i can't see being of benefit to others as well, but i'm rather stuck and i have a lot of respect for the perspectives of you all.
I finished a MA in sound design at ...
8
votes
13answers
14k views
How to make money with sound design.
I've enjoyed recording samples and playing with audio as a hobby for quite a while now. Recently I purchased a zoom h2 and the quality of the recordings are just great. What I'm curious about, is how ...
8
votes
4answers
290 views
What is our responsibility to authenticity?
Scanning through the questions I find there has been this allusion to "authenticity."
Bird calls showing up in parts of the world where the species would never migrate.
Recording sound ...
7
votes
16answers
11k views
How to make nice whooshes??
Hi! I'd like to start thread to share some secrets on how to create nice whooshes, everyone has their own technics and methods so how do you make fresh, new whoshes???
7
votes
10answers
17k views
How do you create the deadliest sounding gunshots?
I have been experimenting with different layers to create a perfect gunshot but they all fail and sound like toy guns. What do I have to layer in order to create a deadly sounding gunshot?
7
votes
10answers
8k views
Composition versus sound design, what's the difference?
A documentary maker called me a sound designer. At first I thought he forgot to mention my composer role. I told my girlfriend about it and she was like sound design is what you do, a composer feels ...
7
votes
8answers
2k views
What sounds can be effectively recording using just one channel (mono)?
Due to my seemingly more restricted budget (life is as it is and things keep popping up) I am still left very much with my current setup as is, and it looks like I cannot really purchase much else for ...
7
votes
7answers
2k views
Do you design sound for video games as well as film and television?
How much of an overlap is there between the two industries? Some games companies promote the fact that their sound designers worked in the film industry. If you work in both industries what are the ...
7
votes
3answers
514 views
As a sound designer/Location Audio Recordist, what would you like a Director to know before production?
Hi guys,
This Tuesday, I will be attending a filmmaker's meetup group to talk about sound. The current speaker had a conflict arise and had to bail. I was asked to do the presentation. I have my own ...
7
votes
10answers
5k views
Removing Reverb
is there any technique of removing reverb from a sound clip with out altering the original clip?
7
votes
4answers
6k views
What's the shortest sound perceptible to the human ear?
How long would the shortest perceptible sound last?
I'm guessing there'll be a frequency at which we can hear short sounds best but I don't need to find that. Admittedly this is also completely ...
7
votes
2answers
3k views
How do you reverse engineer a sound?
You heard some sound (sound effect from the cinema, some interesting tone from the recording, whatever).
What steps do you take to reproduce the sound you liked?
7
votes
3answers
262 views
Re-micing via a Piano
I've heard stories of people re-micing a voice or instrument with certain keys of the piano open so the strings sympathetically vibrate with the sound, thus adding more harmonics and another timbre to ...
6
votes
10answers
5k views
Jurassic Park - Classic Roar
Curious. Do any of you know exactly what went into that sound? I've heard a variety of things, namely elephants, lions and washing machines; I imagine it might be a combination of all three.
~Cheers
...
6
votes
12answers
2k views
Female Sound Designer/Engineers/Editors????
I have just read this article from the BBC: Why are female record producers so rare? I do know of a few female sound people in the UK, but from what I can see it does seem to follow this trend and in ...
6
votes
8answers
7k views
“Underwater” sound tricks!? How do you make it sound underwater-y
Hey folks,
You can skip the italicized section if you're in a hurry - that's background for the question.
I'm working on the second iteration of an art game. It's a cool project, you should check it ...
6
votes
7answers
2k views
What does warm mean?
It seams like there is one magical word in post production, sound design and music production that describes everything from compressing and distorting signals to expanding and filtering signals:
...
6
votes
5answers
1k views
Creating Large Animal Breathing Sounds
Hey all.
I'm currently working on a short film adaptation of a children's book called 'There's a Hippopotamus on the Roof Eating Cake' (Here's a link to a teaser if you're interested: http://vimeo....
6
votes
7answers
257 views
Thinking outside the “box”
When faced with a design challenge, what is your first instinct: To reach for a mic or a piece of software?
Of course it often depends on the project or task at hand, but in general, where does your ...
6
votes
10answers
694 views
Sound Design Documentation
I've met sound designers who meticulously write down every little thing that they do, and I've met sound designers who get done with a project and have no idea how they arrived at the final product.
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