Hi,

I am an aspiring sound designer, not aiming for film business but as a freelancer, in the future, mostly for motion and animation.

I've been composing and mixing my own music for a good decade, i have soft of soft mastering skills but don't consider myself any more efficient than that, i know what compressors and eqs do and my ear knows what sounds bad or good using them but that's about it.

I'm pretty good at matching sound to picture, i do it as a hobby, it's been going on for years, i've entered a few small competitions and was told that i was pretty natural at it.

The thing is i know there is a whole world out there filled with professionals and clever techniques that will pose a strong competition, i just don't know where to dip in and what i should learn now to make myself reach the level of polish i see on Behance for example.

I have the complete Boom Library and use Soundly for what i don't find so the initial sound quality is pretty neat, what i lack i think is a more technical approach, i work by instinct to figure out what the world sounds like in the picture, i apply various concepts that i've picked up with music like space in the mix and using most types of plugins and effects, but i feel like i should be knowing more ?

I don't know, i need some perspective. What do you think is essential, what set of tools should a Sound Designer have in his skillbox for most situations ?

 

I see you have outlined your version of this phrase, but I still feel you may want to define this phrase better.
I relate to your usage of the phrase in relation to film, because it's a word I've heard within that medium since the 80s.
I imagine you may get a few different points of view due to this.
You also sound like dubbing mixer or editor. And foley.

 

well, as a sound designer judging by this you are at Level 1 out of say 666 hypothetical levels,

and artists output under approx Level 350 is not "professional", not worth listening to, doesn't do anything meaningful for anyone

Pretty rough, but if you were the only person interested in it the bar would be set much lower, of course as its a popular field to play in

 

What i meant is that i don't use badly recorded sounds made by myself with cheap gear.

Otherwise i'd love to hear how you came by these numbers.
Also i'm unsure about what tone your comment wished to convey.

 

Hi. I'm currently studying as a motion picture sound editor and mixer in Italy, with 10 years of location sound experience.
IMHO, your essential toolset should be your ears, ONE good EQ, ONE algorithmic reverb (check out PhoenixVerb), ONE fully featured IR-based reverb, ONE of every fx (delay, distortion, etc), Waves (MondoMod. maybe the Renaissance and L plugins), iZotope RX (especially for Ambience Match) and Loudness Control, anything that can do paulstretch (I use Audacity for it and I'm not ashamed of it), and the biggest possible library of your own recorded sounds. I can't 100% suggest you do, but I try avoiding commercial libraries when possible. Actually, it's shocking just how much you can achieve with Pro Tools and little more than the stock plugins. And if you can't afford surround, at least an LCR sound system.
What I'm trying to say is, you probably already have what it takes to do the job right.
You should just focus on what YOU can add to your sound.
Got any links for listening to your stuff?

 

I thought it was a precise term, when i watch a motion project they always refer to Sound Design in the credits next to the person who worked on it. How should i call it ?

 

Usually sound designer means designing sounds from scratch for projects.

 

What i've been doing as a hobbie combines this as well as the editing into the project.

 

It IS sound design then.

 

This is a helpful thank you.
I do share music i make but the sounds edits on video have always been a hobbie so it's just on hard drive. I could yes.
I admit i always glanced over surround thinking that it was only important for movie/tv pros.

 

Almost every modern 3D game supports surround sound. Maybe not everyone has a surround system (I don't), but it's definitely a plus.
Also, even if you want to work in animation, streaming services like Netflix and the likes already require products to deliver in 5.1 by default, and they're steadily approaching standard ATMOS delivery. You got channels. Might as well use them

 

How is is "sound design"? It would be like me making a video montage of computer gameplay footage for youtube and calling myself a game developer. In the context, the OP is describing (using Boom samples to match video and adding effects) is often done by the video editor who is editing the show.

 

I know. He did say he does sound from scratch too, though. Don't know if I read it wrong.

 

What you are describing is part of the film editors job and they also do not mix or master. In the real world, these jobs are broken down between many people.

For sound design you can make libraries of sound effects that can be licensed for advertising and film through TV libraries and this can pay well, but you never deal with footage or you can make custom sound design for composers or for media projects which you may or may not get to see footage. In many cases because of leaks the studios are very protective of the footage and how many people get sent it.

 

He mentioned Boom library (samples) and not recording sounds himself. I'm pretty sure recording would be a huge part of sound design.

 

I'm not saying i'm already doing the full job, that's the point of my post as well, knowing what i lack. I'm thinking of people like Mangini (not really interested in the movie industry but i like the way he sees sound design's philosophy).

Recording the sound is not everthing though and yes i do lack that experience for now (the thing is i don't have the budget to record properly and i've seen a lot of pros or talked to people on Behance who told me that for to learn and hone my skills i'd be better served using high quality sound libraries than sounds i would have badly recorded)
, in the meantimei feel like you're focusing on movie/tv post-prod, i'm more interested in animation/graphic motion, sounds there tend more to less realistic and more abstract, there is a huge work of sound mangling, texture and pure creation, i don't just take sounds and slap them synced to picture...

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2020

You can start recording - in mono - for pretty cheap. Rent any decent recorder (if you're just starting out try a Zoom H6 or Sound Devices 744T) and something like a Sennheiser 416 (or a Schoeps 41). Also I would suggest reading Michel Chion's books on sound and studying acoustics. Once you've mastered mono you can go stereo, but in the real world most sounds start as single sources, it's our ears that give us stereo information.
Also, reference sound designers you like. Listen to their works.

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2020

Boosire - in the context you are describing this is editing and that's fine. And believe it or not even for high-end Disney animations, the sound design team may have to make sounds for the editor that are then put to footage meaning the sound designers don't see the footage at all, they may just work from briefs of things that are needed and deliver a huge amount of sounds that 5% might actually get used in the film.

 

And I agree with Stefanonimo, you can do a lot with portable recorders to get raw sounds and then layer and blow them up in your DAW etc. You don't need a $5,000 mic to end up with something that sounds great, especially if you are doing a lot of work afterwards to the sounds.

 

Most important I think is affinity for sound design and love & interest in weird sounds. Your weird brain will make the difference. I design weapon & explosion FX, atmospherics and creature sounds for games, plus all graphics that comes with it. Same was done in the middle ages, when painters - besides teaching people how to use color - also taught music.

Once my sister prepared a pre-made noodles. "The Thing" - as I called it - she took out of a supermarket plastic bag, before my eyes. That whole toxic "noodles"-mess stank up the kitchen. It looked icky and absolutely repulsive. I remarked it would be excellent for torturing prisoners for they would spill any secret they knew, if that horror-goo was put before their noses.
BUT, after microwaving, when sis put it into a bowl and stirred The Thing, it made such a wonderfully excellent, heartfelt, true-to-nature sound of "Large White Worm Monsters Moving Around on an Alien planet" that I wanted to record it, since I never heard anything such amazingly weirdly alien, like how That Thing sounded, when stirred! :D

Then the other time us, "the two cohorts" - the younger brother of my wife and me - made a pact to scare the living hell out of my beloved. So we each grabbed a large kitchen knife and called her in. When wifey entered the kitchen, we each raised our big knifes in true Jason Voorhees fashion and made crazy faces. Wifey saw us and let out such a bountifully super-excellent, heartfelt long scream, that I never heard such an amazing sound effect of "a female soldiers last seconds before the alien monster eats her" recorded since then! You can imagine how happy she was.. :D This is how amazing content is made! :D

 

Last edited: Dec 16, 2020