Tutes for Sound Designing Real World Sounds

[Ambrosio]

Hi.
Does anybody know about some good sites / Youtube channels with sound design tutes on how to design real world sounds with synths and samplers (ex: sound designing an elephant sound from a trombone sample, a car horn from a trumpet sound, a helicopter from white noise and so on).
All I keep finding is tutes on designing presets for music, which is good also, but I want to deep dive in the creation of real world sounds from synths or samplers. Yes I know, I could download samples from Splice and so on, but I want to design them myself.

Thanks.

[vurt]

try searching "movie sfx design" rather than sound design.

or foley sound design.

[Ambrosio]

I'll try that. But Foley is more recording the sounds isn't it? Using props to emulate the sounds of other things.

[vurt]

true, but it might give some ideas of real world sounds that give you inspiration?

[2:43AM]

Two pieces of advice from me, FWIW:

• Limit your time watching someone else do something, IF you can even find tutorials on such a topic. In many respects YouTube videos are a major time-suck.

• Assuming you know your synthesizer like the back of your hand, and understand synthesis reasonably well, find a source of the sound you're looking to create and use it as a reference, listening to it over and over. Really listen to what makes up the sound in YOUR ears and YOUR brain. Someone else may hear it differently. Then try to recreate each component of the sound, piece by piece all while going back and listening to the original sound. You'll find that sounds that occur in the environment (or nature) are quite complex, but breaking it down into parts (or characteristics) helps immensely.

[whyterabbyt]

I'll try that. But Foley is more recording the sounds isn't it?

Strictly speaking, Foley is performed sounds, done to match the onscreen action.

However you do find that its often 'misused' to refer to any recorded sounds, so as vurt says its worth using as a search term.

(Also strictly speaking : 'sound designer' isnt about creating the individual sounds, any more than 'set designer' is about creating the props for the set. Its derived from 'production designer', the person responsible for the visual concept of a film. As an example what's said at the 1min30 mark for this video http://soundworkscollection.com/videos/ ... maleficent)

Most film sounds are still created from real-world recordings. Look for YT videos of Walter Murch, Ben Burt and the like, that'll be a good jumping-off point. And the main site for the Maleficent video above https://soundworkscollection.com/ website, as well as http://filmsound.org/sections/

some sample and plugin vendors oriented towards game/film/TV, like A Sound Effect, Boom, and Krotos provide a lot of useful interview or how-to type resources as well. What's been left up on https://designingsound.org as well, and Tim Prebble's blog on Hiss and a Roar.

I also point students at this set of YT videos on radio play sound effects...

If you're specifically interested in synthesising this stuff, though, get hold of Andy Farnell's book 'Designing Sound'


If you're interested in the field recording angle, I'd mention Ric Viers' YT videos. Though I find his presentation style a bit annoying in a very particular way (ie reminiscent of that Guy wossisname who does the 'diners and dives' TV show) the information and behind-the-scenes stuff is very good.

[Ambrosio]

[quote=2:43AM post_id=8728882 time=1692365222 user_id=381798]
Assuming you know your synthesizer like the back of your hand, and understand synthesis reasonably well, find a source of the sound you're looking to create and use it as a reference, listening to it over and over. Really listen to what makes up the sound in YOUR ears and YOUR brain. Someone else may hear it differently. Then try to recreate each component of the sound, piece by piece all while going back and listening to the original sound. You'll find that sounds that occur in the environment (or nature) are quite complex, but breaking it down into parts (or characteristics) helps immensely.[/list]
[/quote]
That's what I do. I put a reference sound one one track and I keep referencing to it.
Thanks.

[Ambrosio]

@ whyterabbyt I did Andy check out Andy Farnell's book, and I designed a screaming sound with my mouth. 136$ (CAD) for the kindle edition. Ouch.
I'll check out your other recommendations.
Thanks everybody.

[whyterabbyt]

@ whyterabbyt I did Andy check out Andy Farnell's book, and I designed a screaming sound with my mouth. 136$ (CAD) for the kindle edition. Ouch.
I'll check out your other recommendations.
Thanks everybody.

Hmm, the paperback is about £35 here, which seems to be around $60CAD. For a 700 page book, that feels reasonable to me, twice that admittedly a bit harsher.

FWIW, the example code and some sample chapters and a 100-page intro extract are here:

http://aspress.co.uk/ds/about_book.html

[kidslow]

I have found Iain McGregor's book, Sound Design, a good entry point, with a mix of historical and practical that really contextualizes the process for me.

The advice here seems pretty fair. I still prefer a good book to a shoddy video, but as far as Youtube goes, and if you want to use a synthesizer to generate the sounds, decide which synth and then narrow to videos related to sound design with that specific synthesizer. Take a long hard look at something like Vital, which has a low entry price and a vibrant community.

[whyterabbyt]

I have found Iain McGregor's book, Sound Design, a good entry point, with a mix of historical and practical that really contextualizes the process for me.

Interesting, not read that, cheers. Kindle'd.

[Ambrosio]

[quote=whyterabbyt post_id=8729437 time=1692447591 user_id=1041]
[quote=Ambrosio post_id=8729418 time=1692445982 user_id=177105]
@ whyterabbyt I did Andy check out Andy Farnell's book, and I designed a screaming sound with my mouth. 136$ (CAD) for the kindle edition. Ouch.
I'll check out your other recommendations.
Thanks everybody.
[/quote]

Hmm, the paperback is about £35 here, which seems to be around $60CAD. For a 700 page book, that feels reasonable to me, twice that admittedly a bit harsher.

FWIW, the example code and some sample chapters and a 100-page intro extract are here:

http://aspress.co.uk/ds/about_book.html
[/quote]
My mistake. It's 77$. That was another book. Not cheap but reasonable. I'll check your link.
Thanks

[Ambrosio]

[quote=kidslow post_id=8729759 time=1692485896 user_id=446863]
I have found [url=https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Design-Dr- ... B08GL5P5GS]Iain McGregor's book, Sound Design[/url], a good entry point, with a mix of historical and practical that really contextualizes the process for me.

The advice here seems pretty fair. I still prefer a good book to a shoddy video, but as far as Youtube goes, and if you want to use a synthesizer to generate the sounds, decide which synth and then narrow to videos related to sound design with that specific synthesizer. Take a long hard look at something like Vital, which has a low entry price and a vibrant community.
[/quote]
I do have Vital. Fantastic synth. One of my go-tos along with Phase Plant and Serum.
Bought the book you suggested. It seems to be more about the application of sound design in different disciplines than designing sound itself, but interesting nonetheless. It seems I say, because I just read the TOC.

[kidslow]

I do have Vital. Fantastic synth. One of my go-tos along with Phase Plant and Serum.
Bought the book you suggested. It seems to be more about the application of sound design in different disciplines than designing sound itself, but interesting nonetheless. It seems I say, because I just read the TOC.

The designing sound itself components are buried there in the text. I had to go read a bit to be sure I hadn't misremembered. Maybe not exactly what you asked for, but ask yourself, sound design to what end? Who is the audience for your elephant trumpets and car horns?

You're not wrong what the book seems to be, but there is a lot of knowledge in that text. You appear to have the inspiration, so the rest is just time and fiddling and googling how to make a very specific sound using vital, serum, vcv or whatever tool and then developing enough knowledge where you don't need to google anymore. I did say practical + historical about that book. The psychoacoustic principles and deep knowledge about human perception of sound have tens of thousands of years of study behind them. The discipline of sound design in theater, radio, and film has accumulated a lot of wisdom that is just as relevant today as it was when it was developed. Even if future audiences wear whatever yet to be developed media technology the future of sound design will augment.