Sound design: Difference between revisions

'''Sound design''' is the art and practice of creating soundtracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including [[filmmaking]], [[television production]], [[video game development]], [[theatre]], [[sound recording and reproduction]], [[Concert|live performance]], [[sound art]], [[post-production]], [[Radio broadcasting|radio]], [[New media art|new media]] and [[musical instrument]] development. Sound design commonly involves performing (see e.g. [[Foley (filmmaking)|foleyFoley]]) and editing of previously composed or recorded audio, such as sound effects and dialogue for the purposes of the medium, but it can also involve creating sounds from scratch through synthesizers. A '''sound designer''' is one who practices sound design.

Possibly the first use of recorded sound in the theatre was a phonograph playing a baby's cry in a London theatre in 1890.<ref>{{cite book | last = Booth | first = Michael R. | year = 1991 | title = Theatre In The Victorian | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 0-521-34837-4 }}</ref> Sixteen years later, [[Herbert Beerbohm Tree]] used recordings in his London production of [[Stephen Phillips]]’ tragedy NERO. The event is marked in the Theatre Magazine (1906) with two photographs; one showing a musician blowing a bugle into a large horn attached to a disc recorder, the other with an actor recording the agonizing shrieks and groans of the tortured martyrs. The article states: “these sounds are all realistically reproduced by the gramophone”. As cited by [[Bertolt Brecht]], there was a play about [[Rasputin]] written in (1927) by [[Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy|Alexej Tolstoi]] and directed by [[Erwin Piscator]] that included a recording of [[Lenin]]'s voice. Whilst the term "sound designer" was not yet in use, some stage managers specialised as "effects men", creating and performing offstage sound effects using a mix of vocal mimicry, mechanical and electrical contraptions and gramophone records. A great deal of care and attention was paid to the construction and performance of these effects, both naturalistic and abstract.<ref>{{cite book | last = Napier | first = Frank | year = 1936 | title = Noises Off | publisher = Frederick Muller }}</ref> Over the course of the twentieth century the use of recorded sound effects began to replace live sound effects, though often it was the [[Stage management|stage manager]]'s duty to find the [[sound effect]]s, and an [[electrician]] played the recordings during performances.

Between 1980 and 1988, Charlie Richmond, USITT's first Sound Design Commissioner, oversaw efforts of their [[Sound Design Commission]] to define the duties, responsibilities, standards and procedures expected of a theatre sound designer in [[North America]]. He summarized his conclusions in a document <ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20070308153444/http://www.richmondsounddesign.com/txt/sound-design.txt</ref> which, although somewhat dated, provides a succinct record of what was then expected. It was subsequently provided to both the ADC and [[David Goodman Croly|David Goodman]] at the Florida USA local when they were both planningplanned to represent sound designers in the 1990s.

[[Musical Instrument Digital Interface|MIDI]] and [[digital audio]] technology have contributed to the evolution of sound production techniques in the 1980s and 1990s. [[Digital audio workstation]]s (DAW) and a variety of digital signal processing algorithms applied in them allow more complicated soundtracks with more tracks as well asand auditory effects to be realized. Features such as unlimited undo and sample-level editing allows fine control over the soundtracks.

In [[theatre sound]], features of computerized theatre sound design systems have also been recognized as being essential for live [[show control]] systems at [[Walt Disney World]] and, as a result, Disney utilized systems of that type to control many facilities at their ''[[Disney's Hollywood Studios|Disney-MGM Studios]]'' theme park, which opened in 1989. These features were incorporated into the [[MIDI Show Control]] (MSC) specification, an open [[communications protocol]] usedfor to interactinteracting with diverse devices. The first show to fully utilize the MSC specification was the [[Magic Kingdom Parade]] at [[Walt Disney World]]'s [[Magic Kingdom]] in September 1991.

The rise of interest in game audio has also brought more advanced interactive audio tools that are also accessible without a background in computer programming. Some of such software tools (termed "implementation tools" or "audio engines") feature a workflow that's similar to that in more conventional DAW programs and can also allow the sound production personnel to undertake some of the more creative interactive sound tasks (that are considered to be part of sound design for computer applications) that previously would have required a computer programmer. Interactive applications have also given rise to a plethora ofmany techniques in "dynamic audio" which loosely means sound that's "parametrically" adjusted during the program's run-time of the program. This allows for a broader expression in sounds, more similar to that in films, because this way the sound designer can e.g. create footstep sounds that vary in a believable and non-repeating way and that also corresponds to what's seen in the picture. The digital audio workstation cannot directly "communicate" with game engines, because the game's events often occur in an unpredictable order, whereas traditional digital audio workstations as well as so called linear media (TV, film etc.) have everything occur in the same order every time the production is run. Especially, games have also brought in dynamic or adaptive mixing.

The terms ''sound design'' and ''sound designer'' began to be used in the motion picture industry in 1969. At that time, The title of ''Sound Designer'' was first granted to [[Walter Murch]] by [[Francis Ford Coppola]] in recognition for Murch's contributions to the film ''[[The Rain People]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ondaatje |first1=Michael |last2=Murch |first2=Walter |title=The conversations: Walter Murch and the art of editing film |date=2003 |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London |page=53}}</ref> The original meaning of the title ''Sound Designer'', as established by Coppola and Murch, was "an individual ultimately responsible for all aspects of a film's audio track, from the [[dialogue]] and [[sound effects]] recording to the [[re-recording (sound/film)|re-recording]] (mix) of the final track".<ref name=reeves>{{cite web|last1=Reeves|first1=Alex|title=A Brief History of Sound Design|url=http://www.theawsc.com/2014/01/31/a-brief-history-of-sound-design/|website=Advertising Week Social Club|publisher=Advertising Week|access-date=13 October 2015|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084311/http://www.theawsc.com/2014/01/31/a-brief-history-of-sound-design/|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> The term ''sound designer'' has replaced monikers like ''supervising sound editor'' or ''re-recording mixer'' for what was essentially the same position: the head designer of the final sound track. Editors and mixers like Murray Spivack (''King Kong''), George Groves (''The Jazz Singer''), James G. Stewart (''Citizen Kane''), and Carl Faulkner (''Journey to the Center of the Earth'') served in this capacity during Hollywood's studio era, and are generally considered to be sound designers by a different name.

* The [[Association of Sound Designers]] is a trade association representing theatre sound designers in the UK.

* [[United Scenic Artists]] (USA) Local USA829, which is integrated within [[IATSE]], represents theatrical sound designers in the United States.

Sound is widely used in a variety of [[human–computer interface]]s, in [[computer game]]s and [[video game]]s.<ref>{{cite conference | first1 = Viviane | last1 = Gal | first2 = Cécile | last2 = Le Prado | first3 = J. B. | last3 = Merland | first4 = Stéphane | last4 = Natkin | first5 = Liliana | last5 = Vega | title = Processes and tools for sound design in computer games | book-title = Proceedings of International Computer Music Conference | location = Goetborg | date = September 2002 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.78.5543 }}.</ref><ref>{{cite web | first1 = Olivier | last1 = Veneri | first2 = Stéphane | last2 = Natkin | first3 = Cécile | last3 = Le Prado | first4 = Marc | last4 = Emerit | title = A Game Audio Technology Overview | url = http://www.smcnetwork.org/files/proceedings/2006/10-A_Game_Audio_Technology_Overview.pdf | access-date = 2011-02-22 | archive-date = 2011-07-28 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110728031826/http://www.smcnetwork.org/files/proceedings/2006/10-A_Game_Audio_Technology_Overview.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref> There are a few extra requirements for sound production for computer applications, including re-usability, interactivity and low memory and CPU usage. For example, most computational resources are usually devoted to graphics. Audio production should account for computational limits for sound playback with audio compression or voice allocating systems.

Sound designers have been recognized by awards organizations for some time, and new awards have emerged more recently in response to advances in sound design technology and quality. The [[Motion Picture Sound Editors]] and the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]] recognizes the finest or most aesthetic sound design for a film with the Golden Reel Awards for Sound Editing in the film, broadcast, and game industries, and the [[Academy Award for Best Sound]] respectively. In 2021, the 93rd Academy Awards merged Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing into one general Best Sound category. In 2007, the [[Tony Award for Best Sound Design]] was created to honor the best sound design in American theatre on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]].<ref>{{cite news | title = Starting in 2007-08, Sound Designers Will Be Recognized by Tony Awards | url = http://www.playbill.com/news/article/108956.html | date = 19 Jun 2007 | first = Kenneth | last = Jones | work = Playbill.com | access-date = 2008-06-23 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070626051746/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/108956.html# | archive-date = 2007-06-26 | url-status = dead }}</ref>