So what is Sound Design?

I get asked this question quite a bit, so I thought I would flesh out a blog post with an explaination of what it is all about.

Sound design is a technical/conceptually creative field. It covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, computer game software or any other multimedia project.
In film, sound design helps with the realisation of the director's audio vision. This normally entails the creation of sound elements for unusual sources. Whilst this utilises creative skills, the process can be long and drawn out without the fundamental understanding of how sound works. Expertise in the fields of acoustics and psychoacoustics, play a crucial role in creating a soundtrack which goes beyond mere sound effects, to the creation of a sonic experience. (Ooo what a definition!)

Sound design is also used to describe the proccess of designing patches for synthesizers and sound modules. So next time you turn on your Yamaha DX7 or Korg M1, remember all those fantastic patches that make you sound fantastic were designed by someone. I guess they must laugh when they here those patches used on 'hit records'. I guess patch recognition is a really nerdy thing to do, but sometimes you can't help it. The patch 'Solar Flare' which is 00 on the Korg XD5 has been used so many times! Most lazily on the beginning of Spaceman by Babylon Zoo (don't worry if you missed it....you didn't miss much!). I guess that is one benefit of playing the guitar, each player sounds differently when playing the same gear, that also applies to all acoustic instruments.

I have been busy sound designing an number of banks (bank is a group of patches) for Native Instruments Absynth. Once the complete bank is finished I will be giving some of these banks for free. Most are designed from patches I have used in the short films I have been working on. They have a very filmic quality to them and I have tried to make them as organic as possible. Absynth is great for this, by being able to use low frequencies oscillators to oscillate the main oscillator (Hmm!) you can great sound which seem to be alive! I love that synth.

I am also preparing a soundbank for Kontakt, but this is going to take a considerable amount of time as I have to crate and construct all the samples I want to use...and knowing me, they will be some strange samples. Who needs another piano!

Sound design can also be linked into the creation of soundscapes (what I like doing best and have been struggling to do for many years!), where you build up an aural experience using every day sounds (exactly what you do when you do sound for a film, as most of the sound you hear is added after the event (and sometime all of the sound) as location sound is notoriously bad (especially in shorts....although there are some great guys out there)

So how would I know sound design?

The classic examples of sound design are films like Star Wars. Just think of the sounds which make it the film it is...the sound of a lightsabre, the sound of a tie fighter, R2D2's voice and so on. All of these sounds had to be dreamed up to represent items which don't exist and make them real. Walter Murch was the man behind it and is the 'man' when it comes to sound design. Other films like The Matrix, feature amazing sound design details. But the one that strikes me is the genius of Stanley Kubrick to commit the ultimate sin.....have complete silence.

Any film without sound causes the audience to freak out, yes you can't cope with hearing silence...total silence. In all films there is wall to wall sound, most of the time when there is silence on screen, you are hearing room tone. This is the general tone of the room, the natural ambience. If you hear silence, most people would start to complain that the cinema sound system was broken.

But how did Kubrick get away with it? Well he just followed science! in 2001 : A Space Oddessy he used silence...why? because space is silent...sound can't travel in a vaccum! He made it real! Forget the huge sound of the Nostromo in Alien, or the afore mentioned Tie Fighters. If you were in space...you would hear nothing! Including any screaming! Just goes to show how in general film enhances everything, and in general the job of a sound designer is to great a soundtrack which will suspend disbelief in reality!

So what is Sound Editing?

Sound editing is ultimately responsible for all aspects of a film's audio track, from the dialogue and sound effects recording to the re-recording of the final track. The Sound design role was born out of the sound editing role, when sound editors were asked to create more an more 'out there' sounds. In fact Star Wars was the first film to credit the use of a sound designer.

Peace

Neil