Where to start with sound design?

Rob Thomson · November 25, 2011

Hello, I'm Rob, this is my first post here and I'm a total newb.

I've just become the proud owner of a DSLR, and I made a film using only a green screen. I've become very familiar with After Effects over the past few weeks and I've completed all the visual effects, however, I've absolutely no idea where to start when it comes to sound design.

The scenes take place in many different locations and I need to know how to manipulate the audio recordings of the actors and sound effects to sell the illusion they're in all these different locations. (e.g. In a church hall, in a tiny cupboard, over the telephone etc etc).

I have audacity, but can't for the life of me find a guide or tutorial that gives such specific advice.

I have a mac and would be able to afford, within reason, a program that does what I need it to do, if anyone has any idea on what I need, that would be very helpful indeed!

Or if audacity is a satisfactory program for the job, do such guides exist?

If you can help on this issue, I'd be very appreciative.

Thanks in advance!

Rob.

Brian Drysdale · November 25, 2011

Any program that allows you to lay sound in separate tracks and allows you to keep each track in sync with the images will do the job. The sound tracks found on most higher end NLE program will do the business of track laying, rather than needing a separate piece of software. For sound design you need to break up the sound into into elements, each on a separate track so that you can adjust the levels etc and produce the final mix.

There are a number of books available on the subject of designing sound tracks for films. I should add that the process can be just as complex as photographing the film and it's more complicated than a single tutorial. Here's a book that may be useful: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Design-Expressive-Effects-Cinema/dp/0941188264/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322240274&sr=1-1

Hal Smith · November 26, 2011

You've mentioned three acoustic environments (large hall, cupboard, telephone). To a first approximation, the large hall could be emulated with long decay reverberation and a bit of frequency boost at the high and low ends, the cupboard with a little, very short reverb and possibly a bit of frequency boost in midrange, and the telephone could be a processing preset or filter it to between 300Hz and 2.4kHz, add a bit of distortion, and possibly just a little short reverb. Any good sound production software like Sound Forge will have all the effects you need.

Rob Thomson · November 28, 2011

You've mentioned three acoustic environments (large hall, cupboard, telephone). To a first approximation, the large hall could be emulated with long decay reverberation and a bit of frequency boost at the high and low ends, the cupboard with a little, very short reverb and possibly a bit of frequency boost in midrange, and the telephone could be a processing preset or filter it to between 300Hz and 2.4kHz, add a bit of distortion, and possibly just a little short reverb. Any good sound production software like Sound Forge will have all the effects you need.

Is there a mac equivalent to Sound Forge?

Hal Smith · November 28, 2011

Is there a mac equivalent to Sound Forge?

I really can't help you with that question. For better or for worse, I'm 100% a Windows guy. I have read that Audacity, a free program, is useful in the Mac world.