5 sound design-focused YouTube channels worth following

AKASH THAKKAR

Akash Thakkar is an award winning composer/sound designer/public speaker who specializes in video game sound. He has an amazing backlog of short, focused sound tutorials that are a lot of fun to watch. Not only does he do great sound design but he also gives great career advice so you should also subscribe to his newsletter!

Notable videos:
Video Game Sound Design – 4 Essential Techniques
Making Horror Ambiences
Free Sound Design Tools

ROBERT DUDZIC

Robert Dudzic is a sound designer for Hollywood movie trailers (Infinity War!) as well as music libraries such as DAMAGE which he co-produced alongside Heavyocity and Native Instruments. Among his other videos, his “How I Use What I Use” series is a hands on, detailed look at how Robert records and manipulates his sounds. It looks like he’s just getting started bringing great educational content so let him know you want more!

Notable videos:
Creating organic drones
How I Use What I Use 4 – Horror trailer sound design
How I Use What I Use 5 – My creative process

INDEPTH SOUND DESIGN

Indepth Sound Design deconstructs film/TV sound (from the actual stems!) so that you can examine the intricate layers that go into quality sound design. There are also commentary layers so you can hear the various sound designers and re-recording mixers go into detail about how the different sounds and mixes were created. If you’re familiar with the Indepth Instagram page then you’ll be happy to know the YouTube videos are much higher quality and also feature 4K UHD picture.

Notable videos:
The Dark Knight Rises – “The Bat” aircraft sound design deconstruction
Terminator 2 – T-800 vs T-1000 sound design deconstruction
The Bourne Identity – Car chase sound design deconstruction
The Social Network – Trent Reznor vs. Elvis Costello music and sound design
 

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Distorted Perception

$25 $10

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Designed Fire

$35

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Organic Whooshes

$24

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Dive Deep

$40

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Latest releases:  

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  World Sounds Human Africa Play Track 46+ sounds included, 260 mins total From: $75 From: $60

  Human Africa is a collection of authentic ambiences recorded in rural and urban locations across various countries in Africa.

  The library covers a wide range of settings, from urban idyllic countryside ambiences and conversations in various languages to traffic and skyline soundscapes. Each file is carefully meta-tagged with location, time of day and language (if present) information.

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  Foley Helinä Play Track 754+ sounds included, 225 mins total $80

  “Helinä” can be translated as “the tinkling sound made by the shaking of tiny bells”.  These may be wind chimes, and some are quite large, but the meaning of the name still rings true.  Beautiful, glorious, and entrancing wind chimes, all stirred up for your designing and listening pleasure.

  We've meticulously recorded and only very lightly edited 15 different sets of wind chimes composed of varying materials, shapes, and sizes. The result is a stirring array of shimmering textures from the soft dull knock of bamboo to the brilliant crystalline sparkle of obsidian. 

  The chimes sets and performances include:
  

  Chimes: Bamboo, Glass Shards, Porcelain Bell, Cast iron Bell, Glass Bell, Stoneware, Obsidian, Buoy, Paper/Mixed, Copper, Aluminum, Bronze, Agate, Shells, Capiz

  Performances: Flowing (Short, Med, Long), Breeze (Light), Windy (Moderate), Stormy (Heavy), Quaking, Plops, Gusts, Strikes, Grabbing, Releasing

  You'll get incredible tonal depth, preciously sustained tails, and conveniently isolated strikes and “gusts” resulting in a natural representation of each chime.  All of the chime-work was recorded in 192 kHz so you can bend, stretch, and twist with the comfort of the extended harmonic content of each chime.  All of the performances resulted in 50 separate files for each of the 15 chimes, making layering and matching performances a breeze.  In addition to the chime sets, we've included four stereo wind captures, in different capacities and locations, for adding context and ambiance to any wind chime-appropriate environment you may find yourself working on. 

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  Foley The Vintage Toybox Play Track 212 sounds included, 34 mins total $20

  A collection of vintage toy sounds. From the grating noise of a balloon being rubbed, to the childhood memory evoking sounds of a pogo stick bouncing away, a toy train whirring around, a tin robot stomping along, to deliciously gross slime; these sounds may be just what you need for your game, video, film or animation.

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  Sci-Fi Fully Charged Vol. 1 Play Track 205 sounds included $50

  ‘Fully Charged Vol.1’ is a collection of 205 sound effects from the science-fiction realm. Each sound is made from an original sound source representative of energy movements, impacts, weapons and other alien sounds. Easily manipulable, these sounds are ideal for a range of sound design applications.

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  Horror Horror Cinema Transitions & Impacts Play Track 100 sounds included, 8 mins total $50

  ‘Horror Cinema Transitions & Impacts’ by Cinematic Sound Design delivers a unique hand-crafted selection of sound effects, designed for Horror films, games, apps, music productions, company logos and more.

  The sounds within this pack have been meticulously designed using both synthesis & recording techniques. In addition to a range of outboard synthesizers, a huge selection of foley sound effects were recorded using Sound Devices 702 field recorder and a pair of Neumann KM184 microphones. All sounds have been put together & processed later through an Apogee Symphony AD/DA.

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SYNTHHACKER

If you want to be a well rounded sound designer then you’ve gotta know your way around a synthesizer. Synths can give you ominous textures and 808 kick drums that can help your gunfire sounds pack a wallop. SynthHacker makes hyper focused synth design tutorials that cover a wide variety of styles. So watch that Justice style nu disco pad tutorial and then go make some serene sci-fi drones.

Notable videos:
How to make deep organic pad sounds
How to make Strangers Things style synths
How to make a Blade Runner synth lead

MARSHALL MCGEE

Marshall McGee is a sound designer at Avalanche Games that also makes videos about sound design for games, film, and TV (mostly games). His videos discuss how some iconic video games sounds are made as well as going into his own personal sound design experiments. Many of his posts have a video essay style feel and are extremely well edited and easy to watch.

Notable videos:
The sound design secrets of Horizon Zero Dawn
Making a powerful punch sound from scratch
The sounds of Uncharted