KVR Audio

Adambomb337 · Post by **Adambomb337** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 4:49 am

Are there programs in college to learn sound design or is it just something you teach yourself?

C00kie · Post by **C00kie** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:03 am

I doubt there's an actual course that's not a total rip-off for ignorant wanna-be's.
There probably are good books (ehm, "how to make a sound" ??) and articles online. Just search...

To break it down, this is what you need:
1) learn what the components inside a synth actually do
2) learn how to apply that knowledge in practice, how to construct the sound you envision.
3) bonus: using effects (what they do, when/how to apply)

So teaching yourself is very doable me thinks...

If you've tried before but still "don't get it", there's no shame in being a preset junky. I'll probably never learn to speed-read music scores, but I don't let that influence me at all. I'll get by fine without

MaliceX · Post by **MaliceX** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:34 am

Sound design is very similar to making anything else really, only it focuses on a bit more wave physics, and the importance of your listening ear is greater than the eye. (But you still need to use it of course.)

As for an understanding, it's best you start off with memorizing how certain simple sound waves "sound," what happens when the sound changes pitch (does it become wider/narrower), determining where sound goes in a spectrum, fundamental differences with sharp and soft waveforms, a brief study on Amplitude and Frequency modulation, and the significance of inverted sound waves when compared to its positive counterpart. (ie: they sound the same at first glance, but they're entirely opposite. Why?)

And most importantly, the basic synthesizer functions. (Oscillators, Filters, ADSR Envelope Generators, and understanding of basic effects such as Delay, Distortion, Reverb, Chorus, Flanger, and Phaser. There's more to it, but the basics should be enough for starters.)

I've never taken any courses, but by random experimenting with sound editors and stuff was how I gained an interest to the construction of sound in general.

joshhunsaker · Post by **joshhunsaker** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:41 am

Adambomb337 wrote:Are there programs in college to learn sound design or is it just something you teach yourself?

of course there are. most notable colleges with a really good electronic music program have a sound design course. It's kind of crucial if you're getting into deeper level synthesis...

for example:
http://mixonline.com/news/headline/full ... cs-082807/

johnny2johnny · Post by **johnny2johnny** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:43 am

berkly in calif... they use Virsyn synths!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

joshhunsaker · Post by **joshhunsaker** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:46 am

there are so many well equipped colleges for that kind of stuff it's almost ridiculous. They don't call it the "liberal" arts for nothing i guess.

johnny2johnny · Post by **johnny2johnny** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:49 am

yeah i did a quicky, on music production and sound design. but it was a cheep course, not like berkly or sea? sae? whatever it is...

jamesmcfadyen · Post by **jamesmcfadyen** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 7:54 am

SOS has a series of articles on synthesis which I would highly recommend.

Outside of that going to college to study music production can help but is not the end all and be all. I did a HND in Music and Audio Technology and this has given me a good kick start.

However, a lot of it comes down to experience and getting to know your gear; if you know the basics of synthesis and learn how to get the best outof your synths then I think that is enough.

noiselurker · Post by **noiselurker** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:01 am

What happend to my giant post, it looks like it was deleted?

What happend?

EDIT: I did put it in another thread that was basically the same thing, so oops sorry my fault.

MaliceX · Post by **MaliceX** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:12 am

Either you posted it on a different thread or it didn't come through the posting process.

Yipes. I've had that happen before. Oh fun times.

Adambomb337 · Post by **Adambomb337** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:13 pm

Here's a link to that post:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=

Thanks for all the advice everyone

Adambomb337 · Post by **Adambomb337** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 6:42 pm

What was the main thing you learned that really made you a professional sound designer?

Patch2006 · Post by **Patch2006** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 5:44 pm

dude cookie, there are good schools and programs and classes dont be like that man. i am an educated musician. you should be too. dont underestimate school for music. also college can help you alot if you are done with high school go for your SRT certificate. i live in the states that is what im going for.

zircon · Post by **zircon** » Wed Oct 10, 2007 6:22 pm

Just to be clear... "Berklee" is the well-known school for music, and it's not in California, it's in Boston, Massachusetts. "Berkeley" is a campus of the University of California and has no particular music specialization.

jdiduch · Post by **jdiduch** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:54 pm

I studied sound design with Berklee. It wasn't cheap but it got me through several humps that had stumped me for a long time. When things get difficult and you are learning on your own, you tend to shy away from that area (I do, anyway)- when you have an assignment due at the end of the week so you have no choice but bend your brain around FM synthesis, and you have access to a person who is coaching you and commenting on what you are doing and whom you can ask questions about particular things, as well as quizzes and assignments that show how much of it you actually didn't get right the first time, I had more progress in twelve weeks than I had had in 3 years. The twelve week course covers subtractive synthesis in depth using the Subtractor, as well as the fantastic Korg Legacy collection, looking also at wavetable and FM. If you want to speed up your learning it's worth a go.

going to school for sound desgin?