Sound Design and Sound Effects

Sound Design

The term Sound Design can often have very broad and diverse meanings. As well, the title of Sound
Designer can qualify different job roles depending on the country/system it is being used in. One
common component that spreads across all of these ideas is that a Sound Designer decides how
something should sound and how to create that sound.

Often, the Sound Design of a film refers to how the film sounds;
 is there an emphasis on music or sound fx or dialogue?
 Is there a particular timbre to all of the sounds
▪ ie. do all the sounds sound “grainy” - in order to convey a “dirty” feeling

It is important to distinguish between creating sounds for things that have not existed before (aliens
are a good example of this) and true sound design. Sound Design constitutes how the entire
soundtrack moves and changes and creates mood and emotional response over the entire soundtrack
of the film. Sound Design will not just affect the sounds effects but it will also spill over into the
ADR/Dialogue, Foley, Atmos and Music and Score. Sound Design encompasses all aspects of the
soundtrack.

In essence the sound design almost has to become one or even several characters in the film.

Sound Design Examples

Genres/Concepts
 Horror Films: Going into a dark, dangerous house will require that the sound of things
should change, doors opening should become creaker, floorboards should also creak. Wind
and random noises should also be utilised to convey a sense of space and illusion. These
elements all go together to enhance what is going on on screen and the dangerous house
itself becomes a character with its own set of noises, sounds and characteristics.
 Sci-Fi: Laser guns and other sorts of weaponry will have different timbres to them, based
upon who is using them. The “good guys” will have weapons that sound bold and full. The
“bad guys” will have weapons that are gritty, grainy and noisy. These elements help the
viewer be positioned in a certain way towards these characters.
 Soaps / Dramas: Often these genres will not utilise much in the way of sound effects and
the sound design overall tends to be very simple. The soundtrack is mostly dialogue with
some atmos and with plenty of space for music/themes/motifs to carry the emotional
weighting. eg. Neighbours, Eastenders, Home & Away.

Specific Uses
 Lost (TV Series): A large part of the first 4 seasons of the TV show Lost is the use of
flashbacks (or even flash-forwards) in order to play out more of the story of the characters.
Because no visual effects are used, it is relied upon the sound to cue when the flashbacks are
occurring. The sound used is a sweeping reverse reverb effect that cold stops when the
flashback starts. This backwards motif is also utilised in the “theme song” which just a
series dissonant notes that also have backwards reverb and sweeping reverse effects applied
to them. This serves to create aural cues to the listener that the flashbacks are important.
 Wilhelm Scream: Not so much a useful sound effect, it is more of an audio in-joke.
 Film Realism
An important concept that needs to be understood when creating sound designs is the concept of
film realism. When creating sound designs, it is important to ensure that sounds and soundscapes
are of a high quality and sound true. However, sound design is often used to draw attention to
important sound that the viewer needs to pick as part of the narrative. For example; the exchanging
of a briefcase, picking up keys or a document etc.

Normally in real life these sounds would be quite quite and barely heard at all. But as part of the
film they need to be over exaggerated and clearly heard. Again, this is all so the narrative of the film
is conveyed correctly. So in the case of the exchange of the briefcase, it should sound real, but
exaggerated for use on screen so that the viewers attention is draw to it.

Sound Design vs. Non-Soundtrack Music

In very much the same way that you conceptualise how instruments change and move throughout
the mix in order to create an enjoyable sounding song. So to do you need to work out how sounds
will move around in a soundtrack.

Motifs & Themes

Audible cues are often used to make viewers aware of the presence of a character, object or event.
Often they will also attempt to illicit an emotional response. For example, in the modern Doctor
Who series, the character of the Master was the sound of drums repeating in his head. This is
quality given to him by the writers as a motif, the way it is implemented on screen is the drum
sounds have a large, deep, tribal quality to them. These give the viewer the impression of danger.
The beat that is used also gives a sense of anticipation.

Sound Effects & Sound Special Effects

The term Sound Effects can refer to two different things. Firstly, it can refer to the Sound FX Stem,
which contains all non-dialogue and non-music components. Secondly, it can refer to all the non-
Foley effects used within the effects stem. Using this second definition, sound effects form the
elements of sounds in the film soundtrack that aren't human related. For example; car engines /
traffic, phones ringing, alarms, desk fans, cash registers, explosions, gun fire

As with Foley, layering techniques are often used to create the sounds. For more basic sounds like
fans and phones, this is unnecessary, but complex sounds like explosions require several layers to
get a “film realistic” quality.

Creating Sound Effects

 Organic recording manipulation

▪ Mix Effects
◦ Filters – to change the weight of an object
◦ Reverb – to put sounds into a specific space
◦ Delays – often utilised for dreams/hallucinations/flashbacks/memories,
usually set with no modulation but with decent feedback
▪ Foley-style
◦ Performing the sound effects in time with the vision
▪ Wild / Location Recording
◦ Often sounds will go and be recorded on location without vision and be
synched later on
  Synthetic creation
▪ Particularly in more modern films, where atmos, music and sound effects design
begin to overlap, synthesiser will be used to create mood effects that blur all the
elements of the soundtrack into a cohesive whole
▪ For futuristic sounds, often a synth is useful for creating timbres that people
associate as “futuristic”
 Design Processing
▪ Kyma

Conditioning and Aural Cues

Most Sound Designers will exploit already conceived ideas about how people expect things to
sound in order to create some sort of emotional attachment to what is going on on screen. For
example; if a rumble sound is made, this will trigger a sense of danger in the listener and create an
emotion of fear or worry.

This degree of condition is created in all humans from birth, we grow up expecting things to sound
a certain way. If this sort of conditioning is enhanced as part of a narrative, then this will help carry
the emotional context of the film. Even during the creation of new sounds for things that have never
existed before, there will be ways that people expect it to sound, even though they have never seen
it before in their lives.

Often, sound design will be used as cues to the narrative. For example, a “flashback” sequence in a
film where a character is remembering something will often have an accompanying sound as well
as a visual change

Personnel
In many cases, both the Sound Designer and the Supervising Sound Editor are the same person, but
depending on the size and/or budget of the production they may or may not be broken down into
two different roles.
 Sound Designer
▪ Should be used to describe someone who creatively generates the sounds and the
overall sound of a film
 Supervising Sound Editor
▪ Used to describe the person in charge of collating and acquiring all the necessary
components for a film soundtrack
▪ Often they will have a say in the direction of the sound design and work closely with
the sound designer
 Sound Supervisor
▪ Is in charge of organising all the components of the soundtracks and has to determine
what sounds need to be invented.

For Example, Lord of the Rings had several sound designers and a chief Supervising Sound Editor
to collate all of the designs. Because of the scope of the project there needed to be several people
designing sounds.

Mediums that use Sound Design

Although the majority of what is discussed about Sound Design refers to film soundtracks, Sound
Design can be applied in many different disciplines that deal with sound.
 Sound Design in Film / TV
This is probably the most well know and widely used application of sound design. It is an integral
part of the medium.

Sound Design in Music

Film-like musical Sound Design is actually quite a common occurrence, yet it often only takes up a
small portion of an album or a song. Often sound designs are used as transitions between songs or
as transitional tracks. As well, they will often have a theme to them.
 Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
 Pink Floyd – The Wall
 Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf

Strictly speaking everyone has to implement some kind of sound design thought process when
recording and mixing a track because there is a specific theme and genre that the work will fit into
and by emphasising changes and concepts in the mix you are creating a sound design for that piece
of music.

Sound Design in Theatre

There is a growing instance of use of Sound Design in theatre in or to enhance or assist in the
performance. Often the live mix engineer will be responsible for cueing and playing sound effects at
the correct time.

Sound Design in Radio

Probably the earliest form of sound design and can also be considered a genesis to Foley. The
earliest use of sound design in this medium was with Radio Dramas. This would involve several
actors voicing several characters and then 1 to 3 people for sounds effects. As the drama is
performed live that sound effects artists would perform various sounds along with them. Things like
doors, rain, wind, keys etc. In many instances, whole machines were created in order to create
certain sounds, like a wind machine. This style of sound creating was then picked up with the
advent of cartoons (Steamboat Willie for example). This was because no sound could be recorded
on set for a cartoon.