Sound Design
Sound Design is “is the craft of creating an overall sonic palette for a piece of art, especially media like film, TV shows, live theater, commercials, and podcasts.” (Descript) This may include voice-over, ambiance, foley sounds, audio effects, music, and the use of silence.
Transom has an excellent collection of sound design for beginners.
In an interview, sound designer Jonathan Mitchell offered some great reflective questions on incorporating sound design into audio work:
- What point of view do you want your story to convey, and how can that best be expressed through sound?
- How do you want your listener to feel, and how can sound support that?
- Does your story call for an “objective/literal” approach to sound effects? Or would it be better served by using a more “subjective/interpretive” approach?
- Is location important, and if so how will that be conveyed?
- What about time — how can sound be used to expand or contract your listener’s perception of time?”
Source: Jonathan Mitchell, 2018 (Transom)
Further Reading:
Explore available sound archives here.
On Sound Design:
- Sound Design Archive. (Transom)
- Jad Abumrad. “Avoiding Cheesy Sound Design” 2017. (Transom)
- Brendan Baker and Kaitlin Prest. Sound Design 101. 2014 (Third Coast International Audio Festival)
- Tal Minear. Sound Designs: Interview with Caroline Mincks of Seen and Not Heard. 2022. (Medium).
- Rob Rosenthal. Sound Design Basics. 2017. (Transom)
On using music:
- Score! Best practices for using music in audio storytelling. 2016. (NPR Training)
- Using Music Series (Transom)
On Copyright/Licensing:
- “Why Can’t Music Be Played In Podcasts?” by Steven Goldstein (Amplifi Media)
- “Are Transformative Fair Use Principles Foul To Musicians?” by Marc D. Ostrow (New Music USA)