How To Use AI In Audio (without Making Yourself Redundant)

Posted February 11, 2025 by Asbjoern Andersen in Sound Opinions

What does AI mean for us in sound? Many are understandably worried that it might take our jobs away, but in this Sound Opinions piece, sound designer and recordist Ana Monte argues that AI offers plenty of ways we can use it creatively - without making ourselves redundant:

By Ana Monte, with additional research by Wieland Müller

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AI is not here to replace us. It’s a powerful tool that, when placed in the right hands, unlocks new creative possibilities

As a sound designer, I’ve been fascinated by the growing role AI is playing in the world of audio.
But here’s my 2 cents: AI is not here to replace us. It’s a powerful tool that, when placed in the right hands, unlocks new creative possibilities.

AI can assist in a variety of ways:

– Restoring damaged audio: AI can remove clicks, hums, and background noise automatically, saving you time on tedious manual fixes. (Examples of tools to explore: Accentize dxRevive, Supertone, iZotope RX)

– Generating sound sketches: AI can create sketches based on prompts, giving you a quick starting point for sound design. (Examples of tools to explore: Krotos Studio Pro, Sonic Alchemist)

– Smart EQ adjustments: AI can analyze your audio and suggest custom EQ settings, streamlining the mix process. (Examples of tools to explore: Soundtheory Gulfoss, Sonible Smart: EQ 3, Oeksound Bloom)

– Editing audio through text: AI lets you edit audio by editing text, making dialogue editing faster. (Examples of tools to explore: Descript, Spext)

– Finding similar sounds: AI can analyze your sound library and help you discover similar sounds quickly, saving time on browsing (Examples of tools to explore: Sononym, Waves COSMOS Sample Finder)

– Isolating stems from a mix: AI can separate individual stems from a full mix, allowing you to extract elements for remixing or editing. (Examples of tools to explore: audioshake.ai, Audionamix ADX TRAX, LALAL.AI)

– Simulating reverb environments: AI can recreate realistic reverb spaces, allowing you to apply different acoustic environments to your audio without complex manual adjustments. (Examples of tools to explore: Accentize Chameleon, Zynaptiq Adaptiverb)

– Processing voice recordings: AI can process voice recordings, refining clarity, adjusting tone, and improving intelligibility in real-time. It can also adapt to different voice profiles, creating personalized audio outputs. (Examples of tools to explore: Auphonic, SoundID VoiceAI, Supertone Shift)

But here’s the thing, AI doesn’t have the creative intuition or understanding of human emotion that we, as sound engineers and sound designers, bring to every project (for writing, editors have seen this as well). It’s our artistry, vision, and expertise that guide these tools to produce something special.

Let’s embrace these technologies, not fear them! This way we can focus on what really matters: creativity, storytelling, and emotional impact. If you have suggestions for AI audio tools that empower us, be sure to share them in the comments!

About Ana Monte:

Ana Monte, co-founder and sound designer at DELTA Soundworks, is a leading expert in spatial audio. She specialises in creating immersive content for Fulldome, XR, and Themed Attractions. Learn more about her here

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THE WORLD’S EASIEST WAY TO GET INDEPENDENT SOUND EFFECTS:

A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

User Interface (UI) Sound Effects Kawaii UI 2 Play Track 625 sounds included $50

Level up with Kawaii UI 2 the perfect companion to Kawaii UI.
Kawaii UI 2 follows up with more charming, modern, rounded user interface sounds designed to make your projects pop.
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The designed folder of Kawaii UI 2 gives you a selection of ready to use UI sounds. You’ll find sounds for button presses, cursors, notifications, swipes, errors, bootups, app opens, loading loops, etc.
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Footsteps Sound Effects Ultimate Footsteps Play Track 1176-3056+ sounds included
Rated 5.00 out of 5
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Need footstep sound effects? Get 5 Shoes, 25+ surfaces, 15+ variations – created by Foley Supervisor Joshua Reinhardt and professional Foley walker Lara Dale.

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Highlights:

• 17 different Performances – From slow walk to RUN, 5 scrapes, bodyfall/land, stomps and more
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Specs:

Foot wear type:
Boots, Dress Shoes, Flats, Heels, Sneakers.

Performances:
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Surface Types:
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City Life Sound Effects Sounds & Ambiences of London Play Track 101+ sounds included, 264 mins total From: $60

Get the sounds and ambiences of London: Here are 101 authentic recordings from the English capital.

Featuring crowd sounds, traffic, general ambience, underground / tube, church bells, emergency and much more, this library is the perfect backdrop to any film / theatre project in need of that lively, living city sound. Detailed file names plus Soundminer, ID3 v2.3.0 and RIFF INFO metadata embedded.

In total, this library gets you more than 4 hours of atmospheric London sounds!

Sounds captured at famous (and some not-so-famous) London locations and landmarks such as:
Alexandra Palace • Borough Market • Bricklayers Arms • British National Gallery • Buckingham Palace • Cardington Street • Carnaby Street • Chelsea Wharf • China Town • Courtyard Gallery • Covent Garden • Euston Station • Festival Pier • Gough Square Warwick Court • Greenwich Foot Tunnel • Hyde Park • Islington Green • Joseph Grimaldi Park • King’s Cross underground station • London Eye • London Underground • Old Compton Street • Palladium Theatre • Piccadilly Circus • Pubs around London • River Thames • Royal Horticultural Halls • Seven Dials • Shaftesbury Avenue • Soho • Somerset House • Southbank • Southbank Skatepark • Southbank Tower • Southwark Street • St Paul’s Church gardens • The Strand • Theatre Royal • Trafalgar Square • Warwick Court • West End • Whitechapel

A special bundle opportunity:
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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:

Hand Combat Sound Effects Massive Punches Play Track 505 sounds included, 1 mins total $29.99

MASSIVE PUNCHES – 505 files of punch sound effects, from several sparring sessions. From quiet taps and hits to thudding and cracking impacts. Massive Punches comes in at over 1 minute, of real skin on skin body and head shots. Bring the power of bare knuckle to your next project. Recorded at 192kHz and 32bit, using microphones capable of recording ultrasonic frequencies. Massive Punches filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.

Don’t need a Massive amount of Punch sound effects? We offer ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

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Hand Combat Sound Effects Mini Punches Play Track 60 sounds included $6.99

MINI PUNCHES – 60 files of punch sound effects, from several sparring sessions. From quiet taps and hits to thudding and cracking impacts. Mini Punches comes in at over 15 seconds, of real skin on skin body and head shots. Bring the power of bare knuckle to your next project. Recorded at 192kHz and 32bit, using microphones capable of recording ultrasonic frequencies. Mini Punches filenames are in the Universal Category System format with additional Metadata baked-in.
Looking for a Massive amount of Punch sound effects? We offer ‘Massive’ sound effect libraries as companions for all of our ‘Mini’ sound effect libraries. All recordings are unique to each library with no overlap. Go Mini today, and upgrade to the corresponding Massive library later, when you need more of that particular sound effect.

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Environments & Ambiences Textured Rain Play Track 116 sounds included, 135 mins total $41.30

Textured Rain features meticulously recorded rainfall on a wide variety of surfaces and objects. Each sound is delivered as a seamless loop, with three distinct intensities per surface for maximum flexibility.

Captured in a controlled environment using mainly a DIY rain machine, this collection was recorded in both stereo and mono, ranging from light drizzles to heavy downpours and offering consistent, adaptable textures without unwanted background noise.

The library includes performances on car interiors, metal and plastic props, umbrellas, vegetation, fabric, debris and more. Perfect for layering in film, games, or other audio projects, these rain loops are ideal for crafting atmospheres, enhancing ambiences, and adding realistic environmental detail.

‍Loops in mono and stereo

This sound pack have been recorded using multiple mono and stereo microphone configurations and exported as seamless loops for easy drag and drop in your project.

‍Props and textures recorded

Aluminium plate • Car interior • Fabric • Galvanized container • Galvanized tub • Glass plate • Green and dead leaves • Metal barrel • Metal roof • Metal sheets and plates • Metal scrap • Mud puddle • Newspapers • Plastic container • Plastic roof • Plastic sheet • Plastic tarps • Reed screen • Roof tiles • Shopping bags • Stainless steel sheet • Steel box • Tent • Trash bags • Trash can • Umbrellas • Water • Wheelie bin • Window skylight • Wood floor • Wood planks

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‍Gear used

MixPre-6 II • F6 • MKH8040 • MKH30 • C411 • MKH416 • LOM Usi Pro • Oktava MK012

‍Metadata

This sound library is UCS compliant and comes with fully embedded metadata compatible with Soundly, Soundminer and Basehead.

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Destruction & Impact Sounds Extra Crunches Play Track 74 sounds included, 27 mins total $9.99

EXTRA CRUNCHES – is an auxiliary sound library containing 74 unique sound effect files of crunches. From close up scratching and popping to loud and rough breaking and chomping. Whether it’s crunches or crumbs you’re looking for; This Extra sound effects library will help supplement the snacks and cracker needs, of your next project. Extra Crunches comes in at over 27 minutes and was recorded at 192kHz / 32bit using an ultrasonic microphone. All of our libraries comply with the Universal Category System naming convention standard, allowing for accurate and easy granular searches.

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Industrial Ambiences Airflow Collection Play Track 36+ sounds included, 157 mins total $48

Moody wind drafts for game & cinematic sound design can always give depth and realism to your production. This collection of airflow sounds covers structural air pressure, howling and whistling wind through doors, rattling frames and cracking stuff. Perfect for creating bunker-like atmospheres, tense survival settings, or immersive environmental layers, these sounds bring authenticity and emotion to your projects. Whether you need subtle drafts creeping through an abandoned shelter or violent gusts shaking a refuge, this library delivers a versatile toolkit ready for games, trailers, and film sound design.
Only acoustic recordings are used, no designed sounds. UCS compatible file names and embedded file descriptions for your comfort.

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