Sound Design Basics & Theory.....???

C

Chew_Bear

New member
1. If you have no sound design experience and/or theory to fall back on or reference against.....How would you tell if the sound you 'stumbled' upon is 'good' or 'bad'....??? Would you just reference against another song's sound/design...???

2. How would you tell if what you 'stumbled' upon is unique, new and has not been used before....??? Or worse....How would you tell if what you stubled upon...has already been discovered and used already....???

3. What if...what you 'stumbled' upon is nothing more than a 'preset' that you could have just as easily downloaded somewhere but obviously did not know or could not find/buy....???

4. How do you protect your hearing/ears when sound designing....??? (i.e. too high pitched or loud sounds that might damage ear drum)

Sorry for the newbie-ness.
 
Gain staging.
Moderate volumes.
Maybe a limiter on master channel, to prevent stuff like that and remove it after but usually not necessary at all.


All in practice. And much research.
Basically moderate volume headphones that do not kill lobes. Or speakers.
 
^That's all there is to it. Whether or not the sounds are "unique"...well, you'll just have to listen to a lot of music.
 
If the sound you make is unique, then good for you. It's not too hard to make a unique sound because there are lots of parameters to change and it's very hard to make something sound exactly the same as an existing preset.

If it's not, then who cares? You've saved yourself some cash and learnt something in the process, rather than spending money on the preset. No-one's going to have a go at you for making a sound that happens to sound quite like a sound that someone else used once.
 
Well, theoretically almost everything is going to be "unique" in the sense that unless you just push out a completely unprocessed preset, it's gonna be somewhat different than the original...the point being that even if you know your way around a synthesizer, most of that ground has been trodden over and over sonically over the years - actually making a sound that somehow stands out as "new" is quite a feat these days. Which is why it's pointless to worry about it and just make music you want to do with the sounds that appeal to you.
 
The new frontier of sound design is manipulation.....it's not just limited to the fundamental basics like creating a synth patch or samples there are also a creative possibilities with the actual software itself.....as in you can create custom interfaces etc.
 
I havent tried it but, the review seems solid. The site synthtorial is suppose to help you learn how to make your own sounds from a synth. I plan to giving it a shot in the future, well maybe. We shall see
 
Learning how to use a synth from experimentation alone gets you to a comfortable point if you ignore that jargon, oh lord.

Like the regulars:
filters
lfo
adsr
some synths have a little preshackled area for extra modulation capabilities as well where everything's already internally connected but not routed to whatever.
Equalizers just being fully controllable filters.

Now physical modeling or Fm? trying to understand that would be nuts imo lol but turning knobs is turnin knobs tho.
The concept of those is wow.
 
1. If you have no sound design experience and/or theory to fall back on or reference against.....How would you tell if the sound you 'stumbled' upon is 'good' or 'bad'....??? Would you just reference against another song's sound/design...???


- If it sounds good to you, or sounds similar to the genre you are trying to make, use it. Over time making hundreds of beats and listening to the sounds of that genre, you will know what will fit. Referencing other songs is a good way to start. Try to save up for some good quality VST's and sample packs, at first just use what you can there are plenty of good free vsts and sample packs for beginners just google top 10 free vsts.

2. How would you tell if what you 'stumbled' upon is unique, new and has not been used before....??? Or worse....How would you tell if what you stubled upon...has already been discovered and used already....???

-If you think its unique then use it! we all use the same vsts for the most part, sylenth1 nexus2 etc. so it doesnt matter if you have heard it before in a song, use it who cares no one notices this type of thing except for producers.
With experience in sound design youll be able to use these same sounds but beef them up or change them up a little to make them "yours"

3. What if...what you 'stumbled' upon is nothing more than a 'preset' that you could have just as easily downloaded somewhere but obviously did not know or could not find/buy....???

-Presets are ok to use, only douchebags say that people who use presets are noobs or whatever lol the pros all use presets it really doesnt matter, but i recommend learning basic sound design so you can edit these presets or make similar sounds from scratch with your own twist on them.

4. How do you protect your hearing/ears when sound designing....??? (i.e. too high pitched or loud sounds that might damage ear drum)

-Dont use headphone at loud volumes when doing sound design, one wrong knob turned and your ears will bleed from that high pitch shrieking lol




Watch youtube tutorials on the basics of synthesis and sound design, read a book about sound design and practice and soon youll get the hang of it, but at first just use presets, i know a lot of people that say learn sound design first but to me that seems like a waste of time, first you have to learn music theory, understand groove and rhythm and melody, use the presets to get your ideas out there and use your knowledge of sound design to edit those presets if you want.
 
Looks like I need to research some more on sound design and also start messing around with my VST's.

Thanks guys for all the opinions and tips. Appreciate it.
 
One more thing.....since we are on the topic of sound design and virtual synths.......

1. Should I buy a Software Synth that has built-in FX parameters/settings already...??? (Xfer Serum, NI Massive, Waves Codex etc.)

2. Is it easier to just use the native FX plugins that come with your DAW....???

....or.....

3. Is it better to just get some 3rd party FX plugins....???
 
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Most synths now days come with built in FX anyway, so its up to you to use the built in ones, your daw's effects or 3rd party effects. It all really depends what you want honestly. But i do recommend learning your daw's fx and buying some 3rd party FX for more creativity.
 
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Here's a short disclaimer before my reply: I read most (but not all) the current replies to this thread so forgive me if this has been said.

When end it comes to sound design, there are some important elements to think about in addition to "do I like it." This is because a single sound isn't a song, but rather, it has to fit within the context of the song and , even more, within the context of the production. So before you begin see if you can answer these questions:

What type of sound do I want to create (bass, lead, pluck, percussion, etc...)

How important in the context of the production will this sound be (we don't want it to cover the important things or, if it IS the important thing, we don't want it to be covered by other things).

What register will this be playing?

How abruptly should the sound start and end (attack and release)?

should this sound evolve or remain predictable?

Will this sound be polyphonic or monophonic?

And finally - "if I had to pick an acoustic sound to replace this, what would it be?"

I think ink that last one is crucial because it can help you conceptualize what KIND of instrument you're making. I'm not saying it has to sound at all realistic, but if you can imagine the musical part it will be playing being played by an acoustic instrument it'll often help inform many of the decisions about spectrum, register, envelopes, filters, reverb/effects, etc...

And with regard to third party effects... Let me say that there IS a difference in quality to pre-bundled fx and 3rd party ones, but I still often use the bundled ones (for example - I love logics built in overdrive effect). But their delay is less than intuitive and I prefer something like SoundToys Echoboy (kind of a standard among delays). And reverbs make a big difference in quality. It's akin to the difference between playing in two equally sized rooms with differently shaped walls and different acoustic interiors. I love waves Manny Reverb, and Valhalla is very good too. Lexicon is a standard for a long time as well. Compressors and eq are also based on taste and I usually use 3rd party ones, but I find my bundled versions adequately usable.

Good ode luck on your sound designing quest. Just remember that a production as a whole is like a whole world inside the speakers. There's only so much room and often times when a sound becomes immense and impressive on its own it may be a bit too big to fit in context.
 
Chew_Bear......think of sounds as colors of paint. There are lots of colors that come right out of the tube ready to go (presets?)...AND you can mix them to create your own new colors. Some of the colors you mix might look like crap...some of them may be gorgeous and rich. Yup, somebody else might come up with a color that looks a lot like yours. WHO EFFING CARES!! It's the painting you are making that counts. What are the sounds that YOU like? and, are they the sounds you want, which will help you create the "painting" you want?

Nobody else can tell you the answers to those questions....you have to figure them out for yourself, by just getting into it...experiment, make mistakes, make gold, make more mistakes, enjoy the process. And keep asking questions (but don't replace the process with questions, that will get you nowhere)
 
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