Sound Designer
Career Overview
Sound Designers create sound effects and immersive audio experiences in the worlds of film/TV, theater, concerts, and video games.
Alternate Titles
Audio Designer, Audio Artist, Sound Artist, Creative Sound Designer, Technical Sound Designer
Salary Range
$30K – $100K
How To Become a Sound Designer
People also ask
Career Description
What does a Sound Designer do?
At its basic level, a Sound Designer creates and/or arranges different kinds of sounds, most often in some form of media. On the more innocuous side, think of that sound effect when your computer starts up. A Sound Designer made that. On the more exciting side, think about the sounds of the Transformers in those Transformers films or Godzilla’s roar in those recent films as well. Sound Designers [created those effects.]
Somewhat recently, in a funny twist of fate, Sound Designers were hired to recreate car sounds for electric cars because the electric cars were too quiet for people to hear them coming down the road.
Sound Designers both synthesize as well as record all sorts of sounds and manipulate them in hundreds of different ways to create the aural illusion needed for whichever gig they are doing. One of my favorite classic tricks is recording the sound of celery being snapped in half, which has been used for decades as the sound of bones breaking. Psychologically, Sound Designers truly have a lot of influence.
The term “sound design” has spread out to be used over a variety of disciplines. In theater, there will be a Sound Designer, and that’s an important role. In the musical instrument world, there are people who are called Sound Designers who work with electronics and make new sounds for instruments and for software. But the title has also found its way into film.
The work that I do is as part of a sound crew doing post-production audio for a film. A lot of times, there are things happening in films that don’t necessarily have a real-world parallel. So, part of the task is deciding what a spaceship might sound like or what some alien species might sound like when they talk.
There will be a crew that works on the entire sound job: dialog, music, foley, and more generic sound effects like cars, guns, or doors opening and closing. I’ll often carve out a little part of the project to work on that’s more of the design-related aspects, whether it’s a creature, a spaceship, a weapon, or anything else that needs to be built from scratch with sounds.
On a film sound crew, the jobs are split up into departments, with the Foley Department, the Music Department, Dialog, and Sound Effects. The Sound Designer is often thought of as part of the Sound Effects Department.
The way these jobs are typically done now is by taking from libraries of recordings you already have, libraries that you can either buy or you can go out and record. Say there’s a helicopter in your movie, so you go record a helicopter. A lot of times, what a Sound Designer is tasked with are those things that you can’t simply find a recording of and plug it in. If it needs to be a helicopter eighty years in the future or something, that’s more of a design task.
I do sound design for musical theatre which is just one of the many disciplines of sound design. I spend a lot of my time making music and singing sound good, creating sound effects, and playing with lots of cool gadgets.
In the mornings I go through emails, bug tracking notifications, attend lead meetings if I’m a lead on the project or sometimes I need to just immediately jump into content development.
Issues will come and go during the day; we may get news that makes us reorient the entire department’s priorities. Other times I’m just head down working on a creature, maybe a voice processing chain, or implementing a number of sounds into a boss fight.
Occasionally I’ll spend entire days in meetings, speaking with Composers, developing outsourcing plans and schedules. Some of my favorite days are when I’m head down, working on music and everything is just coming together nicely and no fires popped into existence!
In a low cycle, I’ll have fairly normal 8 hour days at a relaxed pace. In a peak cycle, I’ll have 8 hour high-intensity days for a while and then 9-12 hour high-intensity days for a week or two preceding a major milestone. Depending on the milestone, I’ll sometimes work a couple of Saturdays or a weekend or two in a row. When that happens, though, it usually comes with comp time afterward.
Note that the kind of hours you experience can vary wildly from Developer to Developer though. A lot of this depends on the internal culture at a studio.
A sound designer is an audio professional responsible for creating and manipulating audio elements in film, television, video games, theater, and any other context that requires sound.
They work closely with directors, producers, composers, and other members of the creative team to ensure that the audio elements align with the overall vision of the project. This involves tasks like creating sound effects, editing dialogue, integrating music, ambient sound design, and Foley artistry.
What is a Foley artist?
A Foley artist is responsible for creating and recording custom sound effects that match what’s happening on screen, like in a TV show or movie. This involves working in a recording studio with tons of different props that re-create the sound of footsteps, door creaks, rustling clothing, and anything else that might be in a show or movie.
What does a typical day look like for a sound designer?
While every day can be different depending on the stage of the project and specific responsibilities, here’s what a typical day for a sound designer might include…
- Project Meetings and Planning: meetings with the director, producer, and other members of the creative team to talk about the project’s progress, upcoming deadlines, and any changes in the vision.
- Sound Editing and Mixing: editing and mixing audio is the main thing a sound designer does.
- Foley Recording or Review: Foley artists create custom sound effects to match the on-screen action, and the sound designer ensures these effects seamlessly integrate with the rest of the audio.
- Music Integration and Scoring: if the project needs original music or licensed tracks, the sound designer may collaborate with composers and/or music supervisors to put music into the mix.
- Ambient Sound Design: the sound designer might also focus on creating ambient soundscapes to establish atmosphere and immerse the audience in the world of the story. This could involve layering background noises like city traffic, natural environment sounds, or interior room tones.
- Problem-Solving and Troubleshooting: the sound designer encounters many types of technical and creative challenges that require them to solve the problem on the spot. They might need to troubleshoot software or hardware issues, find creative solutions to get specific sounds, or address feedback from the creative team.
To learn more about the different facets of sound design and how to start an audio career in the field, we talked to Sound Designers working in several different fields. In this article you’ll hear from:
- David C. Hughes (Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange)
- Matt Lange (Ford v. Ferrari, Ready Player One, Blade Runner 2049)
- Gareth Owen (Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s CINDERELLA, Spring Awakening)
- Raison Varner (Borderlands 1-3)
Why is sound design important?
The sound design in theatre is critical to the show–without it, the audience would not be able to hear the orchestra or the singing. Also, many of the sound effects are important for telling the story and for putting the audience in the right acoustic place.
Where do Sound Designers work?
I work almost exclusively in theatres, but some Sound Designers work creating sound for games, or for movies.
Salary
Breaking into the highly competitive business of sound design is very challenging and usually requires working as an Intern or Assistant on teams or with established Sound Designers at low or no pay in the beginning. Sound Designers report being able to earn $30,000 to $40,000 in the first few years of employment, later moving up to salaries around $100,000 per year or slightly higher.
An entry-level position with a well-known company might pay $75,000 annually. Some Designers might also work on an hourly or per-shift basis (a shift is about eight hours) earning between $200 to $800 per shift. This might sound like a lot, but most of the jobs are in places like Los Angeles where the costs of living are also quite high.
The most successful Sound Designers command large fees from major studios or companies and typically also manage teams of people working on all aspects of audio production. In general, the more responsibility they have, the more money they can earn. Large budget projects have sufficient money earmarked for music and sound design and big studios may sub-contract (hire) smaller specialized sound design companies to work on a production or a game.
The Sound Designers working for those companies may be on salary, as long as there is enough money coming into the company to support their work ongoing. Sometimes a big studio or game company will buy a smaller sound design company to bring the operation in-house and prevent the Sound Designers from working with the competition.
Smaller projects will have a more limited budget and the Sound Designer will have to bid on the job in a competitive environment. The competitive bidding process is designed so that the client can choose a Designer they think will be able to complete the work to their specifications at the best possible price. The bidding process usually begins with the client soliciting a “request for proposal” (RFP) from the sound design company or Designer interested in doing the work. Once a proposal is approved by the client, a contract will be executed.
Most contracts are for a flat fee, also called “work for hire,” meaning the Sound Designer doesn’t receive royalties from the future revenues generated by the project. In some cases, the Game Music Composer might have an opportunity to sell their music within a game to generate publishing revenues.
How much do Sound Designers earn?
The union rates for sound editorial work are pretty locked in. This is a union job I’m working on, and I think the Sound Editor rate is $63 an hour. Plus there’s usually some overtime. So those are your union jobs.
It can be all over the place; I work on non-union jobs that pay a rate that’s more like $40 an hour. The pay scale is usually a weekly rate. So you’ll start and they’ll say, “This is a little low-budget drama that’s shot in upstate New York. Can you work for six weeks on it for $3,000 a week?”
The union jobs, on the other hand, are a lot more spelled out. There’ll be protection for you. If they ask you to work on the weekend, there’ll be overtime.
I don’t know anybody that’s just, like, rolling in the dough. But the people I know who work steadily are able to buy a house, have a family, and make $100,000 a year. There’s a huge range. I mean, my income probably went from $30,000 a year when I was starting, to up to $100,000 a year. But that took 5–10 years to get there.
A busy sound post facility will bring on [entry level Sound Designers] because they want to keep bringing new talent in. So you might get a chance to live in northern California, work on film sound, and make $40 an hour as an Assistant; which sounds awesome except that it’s so expensive to live there.
That’s gonna be true in L.A. too where most of this work is. Like, it looks good on paper until you try to live there for a couple of years, and you realize it’s okay, but it’s not the same as if you were making that same money and living in someplace more normal.
So, yeah, the differentiation between getting started and being established was tight for me for the first five years or so.
Like almost all trade jobs, this varies wildly from person to person. There are so many different avenues in sound design, whether you’re working as a freelancer vs. salaried for a studio, what kind of media you’re working within, etc. One person’s entire annual salary could easily be another’s backend quarterly royalty check.
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Career Outlook
The career outlook for aspiring sound designers can be promising, given the increasing demand for high-quality audio in all different types of media, like film, television, video games, virtual reality, and podcasts.
The demand for sound designers is expected to remain strong as the entertainment industry continues to grow and diversify. With the rise of streaming platforms, virtual reality, and interactive media, there are increasingly more opportunities for sound designers to showcase their skills. On top of that, businesses are recognizing the importance of high-quality audio in branding and marketing, creating additional avenues for sound design work.
While competition can be fierce, sound designers who demonstrate creativity, technical proficiency, and professionalism are likely to find success in this dynamic field. Continuously updating your skills, staying current with industry trends, and fostering strong professional relationships can help you thrive as a sound designer in a competitive market.
What is the difference between sound engineering and sound design?
Sound engineering focuses on recording, mixing, and producing audio. And sound design emphasizes the creative process of crafting and manipulating audio elements to enhance the narrative and emotional impact in visual media, like movies, TV shows, and video games.
Career Path
How do you get into sound design?
Here’s an overview of how to start your career in sound design and find work…
Getting into Sound Design
- Education and Training: While formal education is not always required, many aspiring sound designers pursue degrees or certifications in audio engineering, sound design, or related fields. These programs provide hands-on training with industry-standard equipment and software, as well as opportunities for networking and internships.
- Build Skills and Portfolio: Developing a strong portfolio showcasing your work is crucial for landing sound design gigs. This may include projects completed during school, personal projects, or freelance work. Building skills in sound editing, mixing, recording, and Foley artistry is essential for success.
- Networking: Networking is key to finding opportunities in the competitive field of sound design. So attend industry events, join online forums and communities, and connect with professionals in the field to learn from their experiences and potentially find job leads or collaborations.
- Gain Experience: Starting out, you may need to take on unpaid or low-paying projects to gain experience and build your reputation. Consider volunteering for student films, indie game projects, or local theater productions to expand your portfolio and network.
Finding Work
- Freelancing: Many sound designers work as freelancers, taking on projects on a contract basis. Online platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, or SoundBetter can be useful for finding freelance opportunities, as well as networking with potential clients.
- Production Companies and Studios: Production companies, film studios, game studios, and advertising agencies often hire sound designers for their projects. Research companies in your area and reach out to inquire about potential job openings or freelance opportunities.
- Networking and Referrals: Word-of-mouth and referrals can be powerful tools for finding work as a sound designer. So maintain good relationships with clients, colleagues, and industry professionals, as they may recommend you for projects or refer you to others in need of your services.
How do you become a Sound Designer?
I’ve seen people come out to a facility where I’m working, they’re trying to get their foot in the door, and they come with a DVD. Or they send an email and say, “Hey, here’s a link to my Vimeo page,” or whatever. That’s totally valid.
It depends on what kind of jobs your readers might be looking for. If you’re talking to a Director or to a sound facility where you might get a job as an Assistant Designer, I think it’d be great to have your own personal Soundcloud or Vimeo page, or your own little splash page website that you can direct people to and say, “Here are a few examples of my work.”
I’m coming to this from the perspective of somebody who’s been in the very specific niche of sound design for film for the last 20 years. But stepping back, if I were in my 20s, I’m not so sure I would go in and say, “I want to do sound design for film.”
I think this is a really exciting time where there’s so much content being made that’s not going up on movie screens—and really good content. Very soon, I think there’s gonna be an even tighter exploration of the VR/game/film experience. I think that’s where we’re headed as technology continues to develop. It’s still too expensive to shoot a film with VR technology, but I think we’re headed that way.
So, if I was an 18-year-old and thought I might want to get into sound design, there’s just so much right now with VR, and with game audio design, and with all the streaming content the studios like Netflix and Amazon are doing. It really seems like a lot more things are opening up that could make really good jobs and really good career paths.
Like anything, you choose to. You’ll only choose to if you truly love sound, the concept of sound, the science of sound, the emotional response of sound. It’s a truly exciting world where the only real limitation is your imagination. The rest is up to you.
As far as job opportunities go, sound design is everywhere. Some of my earlier sound design gigs were doing little interstitial sounds for indie video games 12 years ago or so; that later evolved into sound design in movie trailers, and sound design-based music in bigger games. Personally, my own music is quite sound design-based, so even when I’m in a Composer kind of role, sound design plays a big part in my compositional process.
By working on independent game projects, film and animation projects, student projects, whatever you can find that is work to picture or interactive mediums. Stay active on projects that give you deadlines and/or structured goals.
Work according to images, movies or scenarios in games so that even while practicing, you’re also training yourself to try and fit a scene or objective. Also keep diversity in mind so make sure some of your projects push you out of your comfort zones regarding music style.
Experience & Skills
To succeed as a sound designer or Foley artist, you’ll need a combination of technical skills, creative abilities, and relevant experience. Here are the key skills and experiences you should focus on
Required Skills
These skills are a combination of audio recording, editing, microphone placement, and overall creative instincts…
- Proficiency with digital audio workstations (DAWs) like Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, or Adobe Audition
- Knowledge of audio editing software for cutting, layering, and manipulating sounds
- Understanding different types of microphones and their appropriate uses
- Skills in recording techniques to capture high-quality sound effects and ambient noise
- Experience with effects processing, like reverb, delay, equalization, and dynamic range compression
- Ability to create and manipulate sounds to fit the narrative or emotional context of a scene
- Ability to sync sound effects with visual elements, ensuring precise timing and seamless integration with the on-screen action
- Strong creative vision to design unique and appropriate sounds for various media
- Ability to think outside the box to create innovative soundscapes
- A keen ear for subtle nuances and the ability to detect even the smallest imperfections in sound
- Understanding of narrative techniques and how sound can enhance storytelling
- Ability to convey emotions and create immersive environments through sound
- Strong communication skills to understand and execute the creative vision
Recommended Experience
To give yourself a leg up as a prospective sound designer, here’s the education and experience you should consider…
- Formal education in sound design, audio engineering, or a related field can be beneficial
- Specialized courses or workshops in foley art and sound design
- A strong portfolio showcasing a range of projects, demonstrating versatility and skill
- Experience working on various types of media, such as films, video games, television, and theater
- Staying updated with the latest trends, tools, and techniques in sound design and foley art
- Understanding of industry standards and best practices
- Regular practice creating and recording sounds in different environments
- Experimentation with various objects and materials to produce Foley effects
- Gaining experience through internships or assistant roles under established sound designers or foley artists
- Real-world experience working on sets and in studios to understand the workflow and challenges
- Building connections within the industry to learn from others, find opportunities, and collaborate on projects
By combining these technical skills, creative abilities, and relevant experiences, you’ll be on your way to building a successful career as a sound designer and/or Foley artist.
What skills do Sound Designers need?
Knowing their way around a DAW. As for which one, it doesn’t really matter these days. Pro Tools is as common as Ableton Live and others when it comes to the creative process of sound design, although it should be acknowledged that in post-production, Pro Tools is still the standard.
Experience with field recording is hugely helpful as well, not to mention exciting, dare I say joyous. Knowing your way around synthesizers and samplers as well is certainly necessary. So much sound design, in general, is a combination of recorded sounds layered with synthesized and processed sounds.
Most important of anything, however, is your creativity. When you’re given the task of creating the sound of an esoteric object that might not have a distinct sound attached to it, that becomes your job to give it a unique sonic identity. Prime example: Quite literally everybody remembers the sounds of R2D2. R2 didn’t arrive with those sounds. Ben Burtt, the Sound Designer on Star Wars created those, which are so expressive that they in turn truly created R2’s identity.
Having a passion and knowledge of video games, of course, comes first. For the Freelancer, that’s about the only game-specific requirement I can think of. Although practicing or learning what’s needed for delivering assets intended for vertical stem arranged music systems is also something a bit unique to games. But in the end, the bottom line is that the quality of your music and your mixing is far more important.
For someone interested in an internal position at a game studio, they absolutely must have experience building games. Running into technical or resource walls during that production process as a student or hobbyist and then finding solutions to get past those walls is basically the same process we go through in an AAA development environment.
Every day spent on a large-scale project is an exercise in creative problem solving, so being able to do that while remaining calm, relaxed and intellectually agile are all qualities that successful long-time veterans have. Ultimately these are the qualities you are trying to demonstrate you have as a new entrant into the field.
Since technical aptitude and artistic skill/quality is assumed, the better you’re able to express and demonstrate these qualities, the easier it will be to surmount the industry’s catch-22 of needing to have already shipped a game to get hired as a Game Developer.
I tried to build my own bridge over that catch-22 by forming teams with other like-minded people and then collaborating on projects. Those efforts are what ended up allowing me to get my foot in the door. Look for local game development communities like IGDA chapters, campuses with game development curriculums, etc. Start making friends and then as a group, start trying to make things. Small things.
This career only really works if it’s what you’d be doing anyway with your time. Without that level of interest, the sometimes chaos and long hours/intensity at the end of milestones may not be worth it long term.
In the end, we’re an entertainment industry and we share similar high stakes, high-stress cycles as other entertainment industries, so it’s your passion and love of the medium that make those cycles worth it.
For design specific to film: being familiar with the classics of film. A lot of times, Directors will reference other films when they’re talking about what they want and what their ideas are. They might talk about specific sounds in films, or they might just talk about a scene and use it as a frame of reference.
If you really want to be able to work in film for years, it’s important to have a grounding in what’s been done before and what are revered as the touchpoints. In every genre, there are some classics. For war movies, it would probably be Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket. In sci-fi, maybe the first couple of Star Wars movies. Being able to reference that stuff and talk to filmmakers about it is one thing you need.
I don’t think a Sound Designer needs to be a musician by any stretch, but I like to try to think of sound in a similar way to how I think of music. I mean, it’s just organizations of sound, right? So, think about how things affect you and the world around you sonically. A lot of the work I do is taking stuff that happens in the real world and altering things somehow to tell the story better.
What kinds of sounds make you feel lonely? What kinds of sounds make you feel scared? What kinds of sounds make you feel apprehensive like something’s going to happen? If you listen in your day-to-day life, you can sometimes hit an idea that you can use in the film.
[David] Lynch was one of the reasons I got curious about this work. Like, Eraserhead is a hard movie to watch, but I remember every time I would watch bits and pieces of it, the sound treatment was so fascinating to me. It sounded very musical somehow.
I’m working on a film that Marvel’s making right now. It’s very much about spaceships and lasers and crazy monsters. That’s design of sound. But to me, an interesting part of the work is when it’s not so fantastical; when there aren’t spaceships or anything, but you’re still trying to find ways to use sound as a subconscious text for the storyteller, for the Director. Lynch is brilliant with that. You can step back from it and go, “Wait, why am I hearing that in this scene?” He finds those ways to sort of touch a nerve with sound.
So, my long-winded answer is familiarity with film, with the catalog of what’s been done and what’s being done, and being interested in really listening.
Education & Training
Most Sound Designers attend college or university music and audio engineering and production programs. It’s possible to earn a degree in sound design, and there are courses and certificate programs.
They might be musicians, DJs, or Audio Engineers who are especially adept with music technology. Many begin by studying film scoring, music synthesis, electronic music, and audio engineering. Students initially learn how to set up and run a home studio, use DAWs (digital audio workstations), and learn basic sampling, digital signal processing, MIDI sequencing, synthesis, mixing, and other techniques central to sound design and electronic production.
College programs teach the current music technology and compositional techniques used in film scoring and sound design, as well as the business skills needed to go out and get the work. Students will be required to assemble a portfolio before graduation and will have access to the facilities and resources to do so. This is one big advantage of attending a school.
Students also study the history of film scoring, sound design, and electronic audio for visual media, which goes back about sixty years. (One of the first films to incorporate electronic audio effects used a theremin and tape delay in the soundtrack for the film Forbidden Planet.) More modern applications for sound design in film might include creating sounds for CGI animation effects, animated logos, streaming VR movies and video games, and even virtual social media influencers. Studying the history of electronic music and sound design provides a context, and awareness of prior influential scores offers a useful framework for creating the soundtrack of the future.
In school, more advanced courses focus on using sound as texture within visual media, learning to work with software synthesizers and samplers, and using raw and electronic sound sources to create unique sounds and musical soundscapes. Students learn how to apply audio effects to enhance and customize sounds, to generate audio loops, create original instruments, and apply these sonic textures to a mixed score.
They might also study techniques for creating EDM music, learn to DJ, practice turntabling, perform live on synthesizers, learn new ways to play and compose music, learn advanced techniques for using Pro Tools music production software, or create music for body and mind relaxation or wellness.
Other more advanced subjects taught in sound design and electronic music production programs include sound design for game audio, sound design for VR (virtual reality), use of Ableton Push for performing live, use of modular synthesizers for performing and sound design, EDM production, use of Csound (free software for audio programming), training for advanced DSP (digital signal processing), electronic sampling, mixing, circuit-bending, physical modeling, use of Roli Seaboard Rise (an innovative newer kind of keyboard MIDI controller), and use of software programs and real-time tools such as MAX for Live, Logic Pro X Sculpture, and Native Instruments Komplete. Students also learn to use various DAWs and audio implementation tools such as Wwise and Fmod Studio for both linear and interactive media.
Many of these courses are taught in cutting-edge labs and studios with state-of-the-art facilities. Being enrolled also comes with student discounts for hardware and software bundles, and access to labs and studios where students can experiment and learn on their own. There is a lot of material to learn, and the technology is constantly evolving, so the Sound Designer needs a mindset of constant learning to keep up with the trends.
As the use of electronic-based sound has grown and opened more opportunities for expression, Composers and Sound Designers must learn to use the new technologies to create sounds that no one has heard before. Using synthesizers, samples, and audio effects combined with traditional instruments to engage, entertain, and excite listeners, Sound Designers explore new realms in the world of creative audio and produce innovative and unique soundtracks to enhance the listener and viewer experience. With the right mix of training, skill, and creative abilities, experienced Sound Designers will continue to shape the aural world for generations to come.
What qualifications do you need to be a Sound Designer?
Beyond normal composition and orchestration training, it’s very important to get a solid education in audio engineering and music mixing. I would also stress exploring and developing your craft in areas like electronic music production, guitar-based bands, etc.
It is not uncommon for Contractors to have to handle live recording, session direction, composition, and final mixes for games. That means that it will be important for you to have solid skills in all of those areas and [you] would likely have a very difficult time if you tried to stay within a particular music style, like orchestral scores.
Practical experience at places like recording studios is a huge boon to anyone pursuing music production as a career. Having experience at a studio not only teaches you to think about your compositions and production quality from an engineering perspective, you will also have access to equipment and methods that will help educate you on tools (that are very hard to obtain access to on your own) and a skillset and mindset that will help you create great mixes.
Some studios and/or Publishers will be able to offer you services like mixing and Recording Engineers to handle live recording sessions or small ensembles, but it’s a good assumption that most of the time, you will have to rely on your own skills due to budget or time constraints.
So don’t be afraid to take some time for yourself after college (or ideally during college) with gaining this kind of practical experience. Even in a situation where it may feel like you’re putting your career off, the older you get, the harder it is to be able to get that kind of dedicated time and focus on developing yourself.
Once you become career-oriented, the time will be difficult to find and you’ll accrue enough life and/or financial overhead that it will be nearly impossible to take a break for training. So get in early, stay focused and experiment when the cost of experimentation is low.
The people I work with seem to come at this work from a lot of different angles. I don’t think there’s necessarily a track. But there are some very good schools. I know that a lot of universities have post-production programs, and there are also programs like Full Sail’s audio production degree in Florida.
So, there are places to go if you’re sure that you want to get into sound for film. There are legit schools and ways to study, which I think would be a really good idea.
I studied music in college. This was back before computers were being made, being used to make and edit sound. This was back in the analog days. To make that leap into the work world, I had to go and work for a facility because you couldn’t just buy that kind of machinery and have it at your house.
But now we’re in a situation where technology has evened out the playing field. Now, with a good laptop and a little bit of money, you can be using the same software as professionals—we use Pro Tools.
Once you’ve figured out what you want to do, try to see what kind of higher education opportunities there might be. But also, get your hands on the tools that people are using. If you read about people doing sound design work and you’re interested in how they did it, you can get your hands on some of those tools and start to familiarize yourself with them.
There’s also a huge aspect to this business that’s just being comfortable with data management and assets, files in general, because, especially since COVID, more people are working remotely and there’s more need to use stuff on the web to move data back and forth. I know that’s not as big a deal for people in their 20s because they’re already very familiar.
Getting familiar with software and going to school to not only learn about the technical stuff but to learn about film is a really good idea. Also, the people that you meet in college, as you get out into the world and get older, will be how you get work in this field.
I don’t mean to say you only get work by sticking with the people you went to college with. Obviously, you don’t have to go to college to do this work. But it’s a good way to start to forge relationships.
For me, this work had a very slow growth curve. I started doing some of this kind of work during college, I was able to get an internship out of college, and then I was able to work for several years as a freelancer—sort of the extra person who would get called in every once in a while.
Finally, after maybe five or six years, I started to get more frequent opportunities. There are definitely ways to go to, say, the game studios that make the big games—companies like Blizzard—and get a job as a Sound Designer.
But most of the work is making connections, talking to people, and finding a project. That’s what all of my work is. I go from project to project. The only way that’s possible is having done the work for a while and gotten to know enough people, and they know people, and they connect you to people.
So, building a network is a huge part of being able to support yourself in this kind of work. And it didn’t come quickly for me. I probably wasn’t doing this work full-time to support myself until I was about 30.
It’s not the easiest career path. I haven’t seen as many opportunities to get out of college and send your resume out and get interviews. It’s more like you get out of college and start trying to meet people who are doing the work so that you can get hired as an Assistant.
One thing I would really recommend is, if you go to film school, to work with a lot of the Directors. Say, “Hey, I’ll do the sound for your short film,” because that’s a good way to get experience. Then some of those Directors, hopefully, their careers will continue to grow, and you can start to forge relationships that way.
While I went to Berklee College of Music myself, truthfully I don’t believe any institutional qualifications are needed. What matters most, like most trade jobs in Hollywood/multimedia, is your skill/experience, your work ethic, and frankly being a pleasant person to work with.
Is being a Sound Designer a good job?
It depends on what you mean by “good,” but it can be a rewarding and well-paid career. To be a successful sound designer, you have to be creative yet familiar with the technical aspects of recording and editing audio. If you’re interested in software and recording equipment as well as creatively recording sound effects and atmospheric noises, this could be a great career for you.
FAQ
What is the single biggest suggestion you would give to someone wanting to get into this career?
Make sure you’re familiar with games and focus on developing your workflow to be as fast and original as possible.
Is there anything else that you think aspiring Sound Designers should know?
Be sure it’s something you really want to do because it can be a bit hard to find a path into it as a career. One thing I didn’t bring up is just how important it is to be pleasant to work with.
You have to be able to do the work, but they’ll also be saying, “Okay, this pool of people can do this work. Now, of those people, which one do we want to spend 50 hours a week around?” And that comes down to just being a nice person.
There’s definitely a personality factor to the people who seem to stick on a crew. A lot of times, we’ll refer to it as a crew if it’s a group of six or eight sound people that do a film. Then when we finish, we tend to line up the same group of people to do the next film or another film.
If there are 100 people that can do the work, maybe 50 of them are not gonna be fun to have lunch with every day. So that’s really important. There’s a lot of interpersonal stuff.
What’s the #1 mistake people make when trying to get into this career?
Thinking about networking as a specific activity can sometimes get people focused on the wrong goals. Remember that networking is really just a result of creating good rapport and friendship.
Conversation and building rapport with people is about pleasant interactions and engagement. If you’re worried about how to get your business card in the mix or treat your conversations like stepping stones to networking objectives, it’s going to make it hard to be relatable and personable. Just have enjoyable conversations and try to relate to others in a positive way and people will remember you.
Then successful networking just happens as a result of people having those positive memories. If someone might need your services or may be interested in you as a candidate, and they’re enjoying interacting with you, they’ll ask you for your card/resume and now you’re making them happy instead of trying to convince them that your card means more than the other 25 they got earlier in the day.
Even if they don’t have any opportunities to present to you, they are far more likely to recommend or mention your name to someone who can. And sometimes, that’s far more important.
Sources
David C. Hughes
David began working at Skywalker Sound in 1996 and has worked on over one hundred feature films in his career at Skywalker. Originally from Texas, David has a degree in music performance and composition from NTSU. At the age of 30, David sold all his belongings and moved to San Francisco after reading that George Lucas had just purchased fifty digital audio workstations. Three months later David started working at Skywalker Sound.
To date, he has received 19 Golden Reel nominations and 3 Golden Reel Awards. He has worked on films by David Fincher, Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg, Robert Redford, Ryan Coogler, and Mamoru Oshii, to name just a few. He has been able to continue his lifelong study of film sound under sound design greats such as Ben Burtt, Gary Rydstrom, Randy Thom, Chris Boyes, and many others.
Matt Lange
Sound subsists in a constant state of transition. In fact, it morphs and multiplies so fast it might be the closest thing we have to evolution incarnate. Matt Lange bends, blends, recombines and reassembles live instrumentation, electronic production, and ethereal vocals into unpredictable and undeniable anthems with the heft of a sonic boom and the intimacy of a nocturnal orchestra. The New York-born and Los Angeles-based multi-platinum Producer, Composer, Songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and artist progresses at the speed of sound on his 2020 full-length album Isolated. As life changes, his music does as well.
A dynamic and diverse trip ushered him to this point. Since 2007, Lange has left his mark on music, video games, film, and television. His production discography spans everything from BT’s Grammy® Award-nominated These Hopeful Machines to Thirty Seconds To Mars’s America, which bowed at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 in 2018. Beyond producing projects for Blake Lewis and Tania Zygar, Lange co-produced Glenn Morison’s Juno Award-nominated platinum-certified hit “Goodbye” [feat. Isolove].
Expanding his influence as both a composer and sound designer, his imprint resounds through blockbusters such as Ford v. Ferrari; Ready Player One; and Blade Runner: 2049 in addition to major video games including Counter-Strike Global Offensive; Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege; and Dota II. Not to mention, he delivered official remixes for the likes of The Crystal Method, deadmau5, Above & Beyond, and more.
Beyond performing at some of the biggest festivals in the world, he continues to prolifically build an immersive and innovative solo catalog comprised of several EPs in addition to albums such as Ephemera [2015] and Patchwork [2016]. Most recently, the 2019 EP, Space Between, received widespread critical acclaim. Of the title track, Billboard wrote, “He reaches a new melodic pinnacle with something downright danceable with a strong, infectious foundation.” However, Music Radar put it best, “To call him a triple threat would be to undersell him.”
The state of the world pushed Lange into new creative territory in 2020. As humanity slipped into Lockdown, he retreated inward. For eight weeks straight, he wrote, recorded, and dropped a pair of tracks in seven-day intervals. Plucking titles like “Morbidly Obese,” “Truth Over Facts,” and the starkly bleak “The Children Are Dying Too” right from the headlines, this undertaking siphoned the hysteria of cable news, the fear of a terrified society, and unrivaled loneliness into what would become Isolated. Typically sleeping only four hours per night, he’d chug coffee and create past sunrise with an unparalleled turnaround time. Moments like “But The Loneliness Is Killing Me” reflect his headspace at the time with its icy and distant production and slow drip of clean guitar and organic percussion.
“When the Pandemic hit, Hollywood shut down,” Lange recalls. “Any film work was gone. Live shows were gone. Isolated was how I kept my sanity. I was scared to visit my friends, so I was absolutely and unequivocally by myself. I obsessively channeled everything into this. It was incredibly cathartic though. Creating this concept record kept me going. I’m so relieved and proud of this.”
Isolated arrived October 27th- on the eve of the 2020 election.
Gareth Owen
Gareth Owen Sound is an eight-time Tony and Olivier-winning and nominated Sound Designer.
Led by Gareth Owen, our sound can be heard all over the world including on Broadway, in Las Vegas and in London’s West End. Over 30 million people have enjoyed a show with our sound design.
Our shows have won over a hundred awards including major Olivier Awards for Come From Away, Memphis and Merrily We Roll Along and Tony Award nominations for A Little Night Music and End of the Rainbow. Our sound for Come From Away recently won the inaugural What’s on Stage Award and Outer Critics Award. Gareth himself is the proud recipient of the prestigious Sound Engineer of the Year Award at the annual ProSound Awards.
We count the best Associates, Engineers and Operators as part of our team, in London, New York and across the globe.
Raison Varner
Raison Varner is a Senior Sound Designer and Composer at Gearbox Software. Games he has worked on include Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderland 3, Prey, Red Faction: Guerilla, Saint’s Row 2, and Aliens: Colonial Marines.
His work as a Composer and Sound Designer has been profiled by Your Classical and his work as Music Director on Borderlands 3 was profiled by WSHU Public Radio.
