Some may suggest that sound is subservient to the image, but I prefer the word supportive. One basic function of sound design is to enhance the narrative, whether it be for film, theater, gaming, etc. Even sports and nature are not immune to hyperrealistic sound design. Gunshots in films do not sound “realistic,” but rather they sound hyperrealistic with long reverb tails and perfectly balanced frequency spectrums. But there are expectations that are now embedded in the culture of media entertainment. There are no rules for creating something that doesn’t exist. Commonly, several animal recordings with various types of processing may be combined with synthesized sounds or even instrument samples. For example, if a sound designer is tasked with creating the sound of a fictional monster there is clearly no one sample that will suffice. The function of a sound (or lack thereof) will dictate the methods used to create it in many circumstances. Fundamental Principles and Approaches to Sound Design Purpose In this article, I will focus on some of the fundamental principles and approaches to sound design, audio processing plugins used by the pros, common applications and related career paths. Sound design is now accessible and possible for anyone with a computer. Luigi Russlo comes immediately to mind as the inventor of the intonarumori, a collection of noise-based machines for creating new kinds of sounds in the early 20th Century. Don is an original member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention and the person who created the helicopter sound on his Moog for the film.īut even before the phrase existed, people have been using all sorts of mechanical and electronic methods to “design” new sounds.
The helicopter scene is incredible! I have been privileged to collaborate with the great Don Preston in my group, TriAngular Bent.
In film, Walter Murch was the first person given the title of sound designer for his work on Apocalypse Now, a masterpiece of sound design and re-recording mix engineering. He devised ways of automatically adjusting levels to reduce feedback. Dan Dugan, of the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco, was the first person to be called a sound designer. The notion of sound design as we know it has evolved over the last several decades to include musical, gaming, theatrical as well as cinematic applications.