Sound design may be a term you’re familiar with, but do you know exactly what it is? In this feature, we take insights from a range of professionals to fully understand what sound design is. 

Like many creative techniques, sound design is something of a catch-all term that is used across so many different niches within the creative industries. And there’s a good reason for that. 

Sound is fundamental in how we communicate. It provides us with feedback and context, allowing us to perceive meaning without words. 

At dBs Institute, educating you on the art of sound and music production is what we do! With degrees tailored to the world of music production and sound engineering, or our more specialist degrees that tap into the nitty gritty of sound, our students have the tools and environment to fully explore bespoke sound design. 

With that in mind, we’re going to take a deeper look at sound design and how it is used in different ways. To help in this exploration, we’ll be hearing from the creative voices within the dBs Community on their relationship with sound design and how they utilise it within their own craft.

Contents

1. What is sound design?
2. What are the different elements of sound design?
3. What is sound design in the world of music production?
4. What is sound design for film, TV and video games?
5. The unexpected applications of sound design
6. How can I get started as a sound designer

1. What is sound design?

There’s no official definition of what sound design is. Technically, our tried and tested definition of sound design is the creation and manipulation of sound. However, we really like how Native Instruments puts it: 

“Sound design is the art of shaping audio towards a desired goal.”

From forming the building blocks of music, the iconic sounds of Hollywood films and video games, to the startup themes of your favourite apps, sound design can be found in all pockets of life. So, how does it all work?

2. What are the different elements of sound design?

Much like its applications, the process of sound design can be performed in so many different ways. We’re going to highlight the three most common approaches. 

Synthesis

This is the process of combining multiple elements to create a whole. As we’ll reveal in this piece, sound design can be a complex creative process, but a simple way of looking at sound design is how we can control and alter waveforms. 

The simplest waveform is a sine wave, which is made up of a single frequency. Adding another sine wave at a different frequency or mixing the original sine wave with an altogether different waveform (triangle, square, sawtooth) will drastically alter the original sound. 

This is one of the more basic applications of synthesis and is a great way of building your understanding of the characteristics of each waveform, how it interacts with others and where you can use them. 

Synthesis can also apply to the use of hardware or software synthesisers, instruments and effects as a means of creating original sounds. There are an infinite number of ways that sounds, waveforms, filters and envelopes can be combined to craft original sounds. 

Voice, instrument and Foley recording 

The human voice is an incredibly versatile instrument and is often the source behind some of the most memorable pieces of sound design. As an example, the chilling sounds of the clickers in ‘The Last of Us’ video game series were created through vocal performances and manipulated to create what we hear in the finished game.

Phillip Kovats (Lead Sound Designer) and Derrik Espino (Senior Sound Designer)
discussing creating the sound of the clickers

Similarly, musical instruments can provide an excellent foundation for sound design. Using a bow on strings instruments combined with lots of delay and reverb, and then additional processing in a DAW can create amazingly atmospheric sounds. 

Foley, which is the art of recreating real-world sounds using objects, voice and instruments, is also a popular avenue to explore in sound design. Recording everyday objects and running them through effects and processing can utterly transform the source sound into something otherworldly. 

Field Recording

Field recording is all about going out into the wide world and capturing the soundscape around you. This can be as granular as the sounds of opening a gate on a country walk, to the cacophony of a city centre. Whatever the source, the world is rich with sounds and is an endless source of inspiration for sound designers.

“In my sound work, I care for the identity of spaces and locations I record in, whether it’s cultural, a foundation of a memory or an aesthetic aspect. Field recording allows for incorporating those sounds into my composition and sound design, to preserve the true character of those places.” - Natalia Mamcarczyk (Walya), Immersive audio specialist, music producer and dBs tutor

3. What is the difference between sound design and music?

To some, the distinction between sound design and music is night and day, many others in the industry would admit that the lines are often blurred. Both can be used as a means to elicit an emotional response from the listener and as we’ll discuss in the next chapter, sound design can often supplant a traditional music score. 

However, where they do stand apart is in their construction. Sound design is an artificial process, though one that can use naturally occurring sounds. Music and musical content is created by instruments that do not require additional processing, though post-production effects are often used to enhance it. 

Due to this blurring of lines, sound design is found in almost every genre of modern music and much like post-production effects, is used as a means to elevate the listening experience. 

In electronic music, for example, music producers use sound design to create risers, white noise sweeps or bass drops to build tension. These techniques are not limited to electronic music, you’ll find them in any genre where the track transitions from quiet to loud sections.

Software synths like Serum, Massive, Vital, Phase Plant and Current are frequently used for original sound design thanks to their availability.

For Martin Peacock, who cut his teeth as Bar9 and has been a tutor at dBs for many years now, sound design is not simply a tool to be used amongst others, it’s an integral aspect to his creative process and sonic signature. 

“Sound design is a crucial part of an artist's identity. It sets you apart, allowing you to truly own a track or piece of music. While presets and samples can be useful, they don’t bring anything new to the table, and anyone can replicate them. To create something unique, you need to be a general, not a foot soldier.

“Although aimlessly tweaking knobs can sometimes produce great sounds, relying on random experimentation makes it difficult to build a consistent approach. Beyond creating a few lucky patches, this method lacks a structure that can be developed and refined.

“Understanding how the parameters you’re manipulating impact the sound is essential. Most will grasp the basics, like a filter cutoff, but much deeper functionality is available through detailed modulation routing. It’s not just about slapping an LFO on a parameter—it’s about tuning the LFO amount, or using a combination of modulation sources like key tracking or velocity to create a patch that reacts dynamically to how it’s played or programmed.

“Often, there’s a 'sweet spot,' which ties into the harmonic character of the sound. Everything is connected. Reaching this level of control comes down to practice, routine, and a drive to create something fresh and unique.

“Although these relationships are often rooted in complex maths, no one brings a calculator to the studio. Our ears are naturally attuned to harmonic relationships, and with experience, we become more precise.

“My aim is to refine sounds to their purest, most concentrated forms. This minimises unnecessary overtones and dissonant elements making the patches sit better in the mix, as the harmonic content is controlled and tuned to complement the production's other elements and most importantly root key.

“It’s similar to developing relative pitch. While my process is prescriptive, it’s ultimately about achieving this same sensitivity.

“Personally, I find that creating sounds as part of the production process works best. I rarely save sounds or schedule dedicated sound-design sessions, though others may find these useful. Designing on the fly enhances freedom and creativity, allowing you to vibe with the moment instead of sifting through presets or samples.

“Ultimately, while many synthesis techniques are available—whether FM, modal, wavetable, or even more obscure forms like pulsar synthesis—most are incorporated within the subtractive ‘source and modifier’ model. This shared architecture allows for efficient access to powerful sounds, as you’re always familiar with the core structure; it’s just the sound sources that differ.

“Big artists have unique sounds, which sets them apart from the masses. That level of individuality can’t be achieved by using someone else’s presets or samples. Be unique, be original, and remember—winners. don’t. use. Presets.” - Martin Peacock, dBs tutor and electronic music producer

At dBs, our students have access to our extensive collection of hardware synths for their sound design experiments, including the Prophet-8, Korg Prologue, an abundance of modular synths and the Moog Slim Phatty.

You might be asking, ‘who designs the sounds for the synths before they get released?’ Well, we can answer that partially, because Dom Kane, our Head of Campus at dBs Manchester, actually helped design the sounds for the factory content of Serum, as well as sounds for the Moog Slim Phatty, Sub37, Animoog, and the iOS remake of the Model D using Bob Moog’s very own Model D sounds.

“Designing the factory content for synths can be a hugely rewarding experience, from getting the first prototype through and having discussions around the aim of the synth in terms of expected demographics, to being able to feed back to the team on any workflow and signal flow suggestions for improvement.

"It’s important to understand the aims and objectives of music producers to know what it is they want from a synthesiser, whilst making sure that your sounds utilise the available unique features of each device, offering prompts of inspiration to the end user.” - Dom Kane, Producer, sound designer and Head of Campus at dBs Manchester

4. What is sound design for film, TV and video games?

Monster roars. Colossal impact sounds. The sonic signature of your arsenal of weapons in ‘Call of Duty’. These are just some of the sounds we associate with film, television and video games. 

While we’ve highlighted the more noteworthy examples, a sound designer strives to ensure that every single sound they create, no matter how big or small, brings the experience to life and immerses the viewer. 

Sound designers working on films, TV and video games will employ just about every tool in the box to create the perfect suite of sounds for any given project. Soft/hard synths, Foley, human voice, instruments, field recording; it’s all about experimentation, and leaving no stone unturned in pursuit of the perfect sound. 

It’s important to remember that no matter how much sound designers may want to create bespoke sounds, sometimes that’s just not possible. A lack of time, resources or both can see sound designers exploring libraries of existing sounds to fill in the gaps on their projects. Matt Owen, dBs alumnus and Technical Sound Designer at Zenos touched upon this in his recent guest lecture at dBs Plymouth.

“Let’s say Riot are creating a new game. They’ve got 20 people working in the audio team. They probably have time to make individual sounds one by one. Whereas me, apart from one another person, I’m the only person on the audio team. It can be acceptable to use libraries for certain stuff. We pay licences for different things

“It depends on the scope. It depends mainly on time, mainly application as well. If you have a lot of time, yeah I could go out and find a UK gun range and record some gun sounds. Or if I’ve got an hour before the presentation, I’m probably going to pull a gun sound from a library pack.” - Matt Owen, dBs alumnus and Technical Sound Designer at Zenos

Sound design often forms part of the musical identity. You only have to look at scores like Limbo/Inside (Martin Stig Andersen), Chernobyl (Hildur Guðnadóttir) or DARK (Ben Frost) to hear how sound design is used with more minimal musical arrangements to create a distinctive mood.

5. The unexpected applications of sound design

We’ve said it already, but sound is all around us. The ‘woosh’ sound as you send an email or message. The indicator tone in a car. The startup beep of your PlayStation console. These sounds often fade into the background - maybe not the PlayStation beep, if you know you know - and yet we are exposed to them wherever we go. 

The more you think about it, the more aware you become of how many creative avenues sound design can open up for you. One of our favourite examples is in electric cars. Due to the almost silent operating noise of an electric motor, sound designers have been tasked with creating sonic profiles for electric vehicles to ensure the driver gets aural feedback and pedestrians are aware of a vehicle in their vicinity.

6. How can I get started as a sound designer?

Sound design doesn’t require a lot of fancy tools and equipment to get started. If you have a smartphone with a voice recorder, a computer and internet connection, then you have everything you need to begin. 

With your phone, you can record all manner of sounds to manipulate into something original. This process can be done in a Digital Audio Workstation - Tracktion Waveform or BandLab are both free options that provide a great starting point. 

Alternatively, you can download the free wavetable synth, Vital, which works in DAWs or as a standalone app, and either import audio files you’ve recorded, or synthesise your own sounds using its suite of sounds and effects. 

These sounds don’t need to have a destination, just start by making sounds that you think sound cool and learn the tools available to you. Once you build your understanding and confidence, you can then start to consider how you use sound design, be that in your own music, for sample packs, redesigning trailers, etc. 

If you really get a taste for sound design, then you may want to consider studying it more formally. At dBs Institute, learning sound design is a key part of all our industry-standard audio courses, but special mention should go to our BA (Hons) Music and Sound for Film & TV degree. 

Sound design plays a key role in your studies on the BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production degree, too. During the first year, our module on synthesis and sound design will introduce you to a variety of sound manipulation and generation techniques, using both software and hardware tools. 

Using the best tools available and tutelage from our incredible team of expert tutors, you’ll hone your sound design skills in record time. 

You only have to look at our graduates to see how their passion for sound design, coupled with the teaching at dBs has led them on an exciting path into the creative industries. 

In our interview with game audio graduate Tom Smart (Audio Designer at Expression Games) he said, “Everything that I studied at dBs… I've used in some way since graduating. That’s compositional and FMOD skills for my portfolio, techniques on how to present myself professionally, talking about Wwise with my boss, audio design skills that I use every single day in my job. That experience has been invaluable.” 

If you’re interested in learning more about sound design, we recommend checking out our Career Spotlight: Sound Designer feature on our website. In it, we speak with professional sound designers to learn more about the ins-and-outs of their work, their insights into the role and what they love most about it. 

Keen to find out more about how you become a music producer or sound designer? Our open days are the definitive way to get an insight into studying with dBs and the opportunities for a career in the music industry. Check out our upcoming events on our website.

FIND OUT MORE

VIDEO: 5 tools you need to be a video game sound designer

VIDEO: Bjørn Jacobsen - Working in Game Audio and Sound Design

VIDEO: Creating the score, sound design, ADR & Foley for short film ‘Muntjac’

VIDEO: Snare sound design in Phase Plant with DC Breaks

Already feeling like a music/sound course is the best choice for you? Sign up to one of our upcoming open events to get a better feel for life as a student at dBs.