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Super Sound Design List

Looking for strong sound design resources? We're glad to give you this in-depth collection featuring numerous exclusive sound design stories, interviews, guides, resource lists, tips, sound effects, books, jobs, community pages, and much more. It's of course a living list, so we'll continuously be updating it with sound design related content. Happy exploring, and be sure to share with your friends and colleagues, so more people can benefit from these resources!



Sound design guides and resources:

Newest sound design stories:

Here are the latest sound design-related posts from the A Sound Effect blog:

Sound design guides:


Film sound design:


Television sound design:


Game sound design:

See more new sound design posts

Shortcut:

You’ll always be able to find the Sound Design Power List at asoundeffect.com/sounddesign


Sound Design Resources:

If you’re looking for insights to make your sound design shine, here’s a small selection of the sound design resources we’ve shared on the A Sound Effect blog over the years:


10 Second Technique: Tips to Improve Your Sound Design by Barney Oram

Sound designer Barney Oram shares the 10-second technique he uses to improve his sound design skills:

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5 surprising sound sources for interesting sci-fi engine sound design – by Paul Stoughton:

Paul Stoughton shares some of the surprising sound sources for his Advanced Propulsion sci-fi library:

Read the story here



5 Useful Tips for Upcoming Sound Designers and Sound Editors

Sound designer Philip Moroz shares five useful tips for those of you just starting out as sound designers and sound editors (+ includes three bonus reads):

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Charles Maynes’ 10 Inspiring Notions For Great Sound Design

Sound designer Charles Maynes has worked on blockbusters like Spider-Man, Total Recall, After Earth and many more – and here are his 10 essential notions for great sound design

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Creative Sound Design: When Glitches Are A Good Thing

Sound designer Stuart Keenan introduces the concept of Databending, a creative way of getting some unique new sounds

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Defining Your Creative Goals with Audio Storyboards:

Bryan Higa shares inspiring insights on how to use audio storyboards in your creative process:

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Designing The Sound Of Sports

The sound of sports is a much more designed experience than most people think. Find out what goes on behind the scenes:

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How Darren Blondin takes sound to the next level – with sonic contraptions, experiments and custom tools:

Sound designer Darren Blondin shares his unique and inspiring approach to sound design:

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How to be a successful sound designer – exclusive video featuring Scott Gershin:

Veteran sound designer Scott Gershin shares his insights on what it takes to succeed in sound design:

Read the story here



How to create horror sound effects that are truly scary (and gory!)

Find out how to create your own horror sounds, brutal gore sound effects, scary ambiences and ghoulish monster vocalizations in this exclusive guide:

Read the story here



How to create impressive fire and ice magic sound effects

Learn about tools, techniques – and surprising props – for creating magic sounds in this in-depth video tutorial:

Read the story here



How to create sound for commercials – insights from an award-winning sound team:

Discover how the team at Factory Studios creates their critically-acclaimed sound work:

Read the story here





How to Design Awe-Inspiring Robot & Mech Sound Effects

Learn how to create robot and mech sound effects – and get 22 free SFX in the process:

Read the story here



How to Design Fierce Creature Vocals

Chase Steele returns with an excellent new tutorial on creature vocalizations (and he throws in 26 free sound effects for you too as a bonus!):

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How To Design Futuristic Vehicle Sound Effects

Sound Spark’s Chase Steele shares his approaches and ideas for designing futuristic vehicle sound effects:

Read the story here



How To Design Stellar Spaceship Sound Effects – an Essential Sci-Fi Sound Design Guide:

Find out how to create fantastic spaceship sound effects in this special, in-depth guide – complete with examples, free sounds to design from and much more:

Read the story here





How To Design Superb Sci-Fi UI Sound Effects:

Discover the key to excellent Sci-Fi UI sounds in this guide by Ruslan Nesteruk – with additional insights from veteran sound designers Mark Camperell, Jason Cushing and Ivo Ivanov:

Read the story here



How To Design Supreme Sci-Fi Weapon Sound Effects:

How do you design awe-inspiring sci-fi weapon sound effects? This in-depth sound design guide will show you how:

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How to get (much!) more out of your existing sound design projects

Useful tips, tricks and approaches for reinventing your existing content to strengthen your sonic arsenal:

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Inside the Creative Mind of Documentary Sound Designer Peter Albrechtsen

Check out this talk with inspiring documentary sound designer Peter Albrechtsen:

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Make the most of NUENDO as a sound design tool – an in-depth guide:

Make the most of NUENDO as a sound design tool – an in-depth guide:

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Make the most of REAPER as a sound design tool – part 2: Workflow

Find out how to get the optimal workflow in REAPER, in this new guide by Anne-Sophie Mongeau:

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Make the most of REAPER as a sound design tool – part 1: Getting Started

Learn how to get started with REAPER for sound design, in this special guide by Anne-Sophie Mongeau:

Read the story here



Randy Thom, On Being Creative:

Film sound legend Randy Thom on the creative process, inspiration, discovery – and what sound design is all about:

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Randy Thom: Designing A Movie For Sound

Here’s Academy award-winning sound designer Randy Thom’s insightful plea for sound to be taken as seriously as visuals in film storytelling:

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Recording and Designing the Winter Sound Effects for SNOW

How do you create great winter sound effects? Here are the clever ways Swedish sound designer Max Lachmann did it:

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Rule of Thirds: A Sound Design Approach by Barney Oram

Sound designer Barney Oram shares his approach to making the creative process easier:

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Sound Advice: The Key to Outstanding Animation Sound Design

Experienced animation sound designer Jeff Shiffman shares his tips, tricks and insights for outstanding animation sound design:

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Sound and the Internet of Things

Here’s how sound can greatly enhance how we experience and interact with the Internet of Things:

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Sound Designer Tormod Ringnes’ 4-Step Approach to Great Film Sound

Here’s why (and how) Tormod Ringnes applies his 4-step approach to all sound design projects, no matter the size of the production:

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Sounds for Robots: An in-depth guide to great robot sound design

Dr. Iain McGregor explores the opportunities, considerations and challenges we face when designing sound for robots:

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Ten Creative Ideas for Sound Effects Creation with the No-Input Mixer Technique:

Stuart Keenan shares 10 useful tips for creative – and surprising – sound design results, using the no-input mixer technique:

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The Essential Guide To Recording Weapon Sound Effects – With Watson Wu

Few people on this planet have more experience with weapon sound effects recording than Watson Wu, and in this exclusive guide he shares how you do it right:

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The Essential Primer to Recording Car Sound Effects

Max Lachmann and the team at Pole Position Production have spent a decade perfecting their car recording methods. This is how they do it today:

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The Psychology of Sound Design – with Ai-Ling Lee, Will Files & Craig Henighan:

Insights from Ai-Ling Lee, Will Files & Craig Henighan on the fundamentals of film sound:

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UI Sound Design: Henry Daw, on The Small Sounds That Make A Big Difference

Henry Daw presents a clearly defined set of principles for successful UI sound design in this interesting talk – and much more:

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See more sound design posts

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Sound Design Story Highlights:

Here are some of our favorite stories on sound design for film, games and television – hand-picked from the huge number of sound design-related stories we’ve run on the A Sound Effect blog over the years:


Behind the horrifying sound of ‘Alien: Covenant’

Go behind the scenes on the sound for Alien: Covenant – the latest installment in the genre-defining sci-fi franchise:

Read the story here



Checking out the Sound of ‘The Queen’s Gambit’

Here’s why The Queen’s Gambit is so satisfying from a sound perspective:

Read the story here



Crafting Ghost of Tsushima’s Tremendous Sound

Go behind the gloriously grounded sound of Ghost of Tsushima – with Audio Director Rev. Dr. Bradley D Meyer and Senior Sound Designer Josh Lord:

Read the story here



Creating the crystalline sound of Frozen 2:

How Frozen 2’s sound design, songs and score were woven into a fluid, immersive soundscape:

Read the story here





Constructing the Soaring Sound of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020:

Find out how the stunningly-realistic sound of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was made in this huge interview:

Read the story here



Crafting the sound of the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’:

Go behind the multi award-winning sound of Game of Thrones – with Tim Kimmel, Onnalee Blank, Mathew Waters, and Paula Fairfield:

Read the story here



Designing Half-Life: Alyx’s Superb VR Sound:

How the Valve sound team expanded the sound of the beloved Half-Life 2D-game into the VR realm:

Read the story here



Dark and gritty: The sound of Joker – with Oscar-winning Sound Supervisor Alan Robert Murray:

Sound Supervisor Alan Robert Murray on creating a symphony of sound for Joker’s descent into madness:

Read the story here





Designing the deeply disturbing sound of ‘Midsommar’:

How Midsommar’s discomforting and disorientating sound was made:

Read the story here



Delightfully vintage: Shaping the sound of ‘Cuphead’ – with Samuel Justice

Samuel Justice takes you behind the scenes on the sound for this striking indie game:

Read the story here



From Gladiators to Bog Bodies: How inventive, evocative museum sound design is created today:

Sound designer and composer Soren Bendixen shares the inside-story behind the evocative sound of museums today:

Read the story here



Go behind the Wildly Creative Sound of ‘Raised By Wolves’

Sound designer Jamey Scott takes you behind the creative sound of ‘Raised By Wolves’ here:

Read the story here





Handling the Sound of The Handmaid’s Tale:

Jane Tattersall, David McCallum, and Brennan Mercer discuss the sonic details of Season 4 of The Handmaid’s Tale:

Read the story here



How The Last of Us Part II’s incredible sound was made:

The Naughty Dog sound team gives you the full story behind the sound for The Last of Us Part II here:

Read the story here



In-depth: The story behind Tim Nielsen’s brilliant sound design for The Little Prince

‘The Little Prince’ is the biggest success ever for a French animated film abroad, and here’s Supervising Sound Designer Tim Nielsen’s story behind the sound:

Read the story here



Making Mank’s vintage Hollywood-magic sound – an in-depth interview with Ren Klyce:

Ren Klyce shares the surprising stories & methods behind Mank’s vintage sound:

Read the story here





Making the weird, wonderful sound of ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’ – with Dean Hurley and Ron Eng:

Venture into the brilliant/mad sonic world of David Lynch and ‘Twin Peaks: The Return’:

Read the story here



Perfecting Parasite’s award-winning sound – with Ralph Tae-Young Choi:

Go behind the sound for Parasite, the most-awarded film at the 2020 Oscars:

Read the story here



Richard King on Inventing Inverted Sounds for ‘Tenet’:

Oscar-winning Supervising Sound Editor Richard King shares his approach to designing inverted sounds for ‘Tenet’:

Read the story here






Shaping the spectacular sound of ‘Dunkirk’ – with Richard King:

Get the full story on how Dunkirk’s rich, dense, and immersive sound was created:

Read the story here



The edgy sound of Netflix’s ‘Dark’

Here’s how the edgy and unsettling sound of Netflix hit series ‘Dark’ was made:

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The growing, evolving sound of ‘Stranger Things’ Season 3 – with Craig Henighan, Will Files and Mark Paterson:

Craig Henighan, Will Files and Mark Paterson take you behind the sound for the ‘Battle of Starcourt’ episode:

Read the story here



The Poetic Sci-Fi Sound Of ‘Arrival’:

Get the full story behind the elegant – and surprisingly poetic – sound of ‘Arrival’:

Read the story here





The Secrets to Creating Jurassic World Evolution’s Excellent Game Audio:

Interested in what goes into creating outstanding sound for games? This interview on the sound for Jurassic World Evolution is a must-read:

Read the story here



The sound of ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark’ – with Ben Burtt, John Roesch, & John Williams

Don’t miss this feature on the sound for ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of The Lost Ark’ – with film sound giants sound designer Ben Burtt, Foley artist John Roesch & composer John Williams:

Read the story here



What Made ‘Moana / Vaiana’ Sound So Good:

Discover how the impressive sound of ‘Moana’ was made:

Read the story here



Why ‘Chernobyl’ sounds so sublime, authentic – and haunting:

Here’s how Chernobyl’s haunting – and eerily accurate – sound was made:

Read the story here



See more film sound design stories

See more game sound design stories

See more television sound design stories

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Independent sound effects:

New & popular sound effects libraries:

If you need sound effects for your sound design work, here’s an overview of some of the most popular releases from the independent sound community:

Newest sound effects libraries:


Most popular sound effects libraries in the last 30 days:



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Need specific sound effects? Try a search below:

If you’re looking for something in particular, try this custom sound effects search box:



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More sound design resources:

AUDIO JOBS

– find audio jobs around the world:
Soundlister is home to 1000s of Audio Jobs, and we continously share new openings for sound designers each week. We’ve also added a new search tool to help you explore past opportunities + a way to see all posts tagged with a specific job title – effectively allowing you to browse by title.

Visit the Audio Jobs page on Soundlister Get the Audio Jobs Newsletter Join the Audio Jobs Group on Facebook Search for audio jobs

Bonus: Want an easy-to-remember shortcut to those audio jobs? The url audiojobs.org will always take you straight to the latest audio job posts on Soundlister


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AUDIO PODCASTS

– find great podcasts about sound

The newly-formed Audio Podcast Alliance features a carefully-chosen selection of the absolute best podcasts about sound out there. Discover the cream of the crop of what the community has to offer when it comes to audio-related podcasts below:

Click below to jump straight to your chosen podcast (and hear their newest episode):
AMPS PodcastCAS In ConversationField & FoleyImmersive Audio PodcastLA Post Production Sound DesignLevel with Emily ReeseLocation Sound PodcastSound BusinessSoundbytes PodcastSoundGirls PodcastSoundtrack ShowSoundworks CollectionThe A Sound Effect PodcastThe Dolby Institute PodcastThe Game Audio JourneyThe Sound Architect PodcastTonebendersTwenty Thousand Hertz

Visit the full Audio Podcast Alliance page
Bonus: Want an easy-to-remember shortcut to those podcasts about sound? The url audiopodcast.org will always take you straight to the podcast overview

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AUDIO PROFESSIONALS

– find talented audio professionals from around the world for your projects:

If you’re looking to grow your audio team or you’re looking for people to collaborate with, Soundlister offers an overview of 1000s of audio professionals from all over the world – including everything from sound designers, audio directors, composers, field recordists, foley artists, sound editors, sound designers, re-recording mixers, voice actors and more:

Find sound designers on Soundlister

Bonus: Want an easy-to-remember shortcut to those audio pros? The url audiopros.org will always take you straight to the 1000s of audio pros on Soundlister


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SOUND DESIGN BOOKS

– find great books about sound design:

There are lots of great books about sound design out there – here are a few examples:

100 Unusual, Novel and Surprising Ways to be a Better Sound Designer in Video Games – by Rob Bridgett (get the book here)

Designing Sound for Animation – by Robin Beauchamp (recommended by Aakash Kulkarni – get the book here)

Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design – by Jean-Luc Sinclair (recommended by Dave Raybould – get the book here)

Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema – by David Sonnenschein (get the book here)

Studying Sound: A Theory and Practice of Sound Design – by Karen Collins (recommended by Dave Raybould – get the book here)

Tales of a Technical Sound Designer – by Damian Kastbauer (get the book here)

The Game Audio Strategy Guide– by Gina Zdanowicz & Spencer Bambrick (get the book here)


More books about sound:

If you’re looking for more books on sound design for games, film and television, check out Julien Matthey’s excellent list, enhanced with ongoing suggestions from other members of the worldwide audio community:
Find many more books about sound here

Bonus: Want an easy-to-remember shortcut to those books about sound? The url booksaboutsound.org will always take you straight to the book overview


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Please share these resources:

If you’re finding these resources useful, please share a link to this page with your network so more people can benefit from them – thanks in advance!


SOUND DESIGN ON SOCIAL MEDIA

– find groups and conversations on sound design:

LinkedIn and Facebook:
Sound Designers GroupSound Design OnlySound design
Twitter hashtags:

#sounddesign#GameAudio#filmsound
Discord:

The Audio Community Discord Server


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SHOWCASE YOUR AUDIO WORK

– showcase your skills and be discovered by those who need them, completely free:
As an audio professional, Soundlister lets you showcase your skills and be discovered by those who need them. It offers an easy way to present your showreel, highlight your favorite projects and let visitors know where to find you on social media:

Set up your free profile on Soundlister here


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THE AUDIO EVENTS CALENDAR

– find audio-related events around the world – and online:

Looking to find audio-related events such as audio industry conferences, community meetups, special events, Q&As, online courses and more? Check out the Audio Events Calendar, where we’ve shared more than 800+ events since its launch.

Browse the Audio Events Calendar

Bonus: Want an easy-to-remember shortcut to those audio events? The url audioevents.org will always take you straight to the Audio Events Calendar


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BONUS: Expand your skillset with the free Sound Success Guide:

Sound Success GuideWant to branch out beyond sound design? Learning new sound skills can open up opportunities for additional revenue – and with the (entirely free) 60+ page Sound Success Guide, you get insights from 20 industry experts on how to get started and succeed in 18 different types of audio jobs:

Click to download (.zip)
Click to download(.PDF)



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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:
Explore the full, unique collection here