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a sound designer goes and collects or creates all of the sound effects and background music for the production

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"You know music and sound design can be very powerful with how you use it but also the absence of sound can say a lot as well."

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"You know music and sound design can be very powerful with how you use it but also the absence of sound can say a lot as well."

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- James Wan

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they meet with the director and go over sound effects that are needed and remove or add ones that would benefit the plot

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https://www.videomaker.com/heres-the-sound-design-and-audio-info-you-need-to-know

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sounds that are made offstage are also the job of the sound designer and they need to consult the tech director and stage manager so it is cleared

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sound designers need to attend all rehearsals and take notes of the actors volume and placements on stage

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Basic Job Description:

The Sound Designer is responsible for obtaining all sound effects, whether recorded or live for a specific production. He/She is also responsible for setting up the sound playback equipment and must make sure the board operator is properly trained. Sound Design is an artistic component of the production. The Sound Designer needs to have imagination to create sound effects and not just rerecord them.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

The Sound Designer should read the script and meet with the Director in order to discuss the sound design for the show and begin to make the cue list. There are many types of sound effects and many ways they are created. There may be a composer creating music for the production. The Director may have specific pieces of music picked out or they may want the Sound Designer to make some selections. There quite possibly will be non musical effects needed. These may be recorded from other sources for playback or created live during the performance. The Sound Designer is also responsible for setting up any sound reinforcement equipment that may be needed.

After the cues and their sources are determined, the Sound Designer needs to begin gathering them. There is a very good collection of LPs and CDs in the Douglas Listening Room of the Knight Library. Included is the BBC sound effects collection. It is possible to check items out but a permission sheet needs to be signed by a faculty member. There is a sound budget for each production in case some effects need to be purchased.

The Sound Designer needs to become very familiar with the sound equipment in the booth. He/She will need to know how to record the effects onto the different types of playback equipment. Complete knowledge of the cues and their placement in the performance is very important. The Sound Designer will need to be able to decide how complicated cueing will be set up.

Often the Director will want a copy of the cues on a CD as soon as possible. Otherwise finished tapes/disks are not due until the predetermined cueing rehearsal.

Live, offstage sound effects (ie. thunder and guns) are the responsibility of the Sound Designer. The Stage Manager and Technical Director should be consulted in order to determine where to set up the effect and who will run it. The Sound Designer may also work with another member of the production team to create an effect (ie. the Props Designer and a telephone). In any case, it's important that these kind of effects be discussed in production meetings.

The Sound Designer should attend all run throughs and other acting rehearsals deemed necessary. The board operator needs to be trained on the equipment and any unusual placement of speakers needs to be determined at this time. A few days before Tech rehearsals begin the Sound Designer should meet with the Stage Manager in order to give preliminary cue placements. He/She must attend all Technical/Dress rehearsals. Volume levels, specific cueing, and changes will be made during these rehearsals. The Sound Designer must be able to complete any changes before the next rehearsal.

The Sound Designer should be familiar with a computer editing program such as Audacity. He/she should also become familiar with QLab, the program used for playback. Audacity is a free program. The basic QLab is also free but is a Mac only program. If the designer does not own a Mac, the computers in room 308 are available.

TIME COMMITMENT:

The Sound Designer must attend all production meetings and some specific meetings with the Director. Obtaining and recording sound effects can be time consuming. The Sound Designer must attend some acting rehearsals and all Technical/Dress rehearsals. The Director may ask the Sound Designer to attend many rehearsals. This schedule should be worked out early on. The Sound Designer must be able to find the time to make changes in the cues between rehearsals.

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Basic Job Description: The Sound Designer is responsible for obtaining all sound effects, whether recorded or live for a specific production. He/She is also responsible for setting up the sound playback equipment and must make sure the board operator is properly trained. Sound Design is an artistic component of the production.

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https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/recording-foley-and-sound-effects-the-fundamentals/

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no higher education is required to become a sound designer but an associates degree or certification/
award is prefered

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recording arts & broadcasting would be the path to go down

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the best thing is to teach and train yourself to be self-employed to save money & be able to travel

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sound designer employment is seen to increase by 2%-8% from 2018 to 2028

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the median salary that sound designers make is $52,390

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senior sound designers can make up to $100,000 a year and most start at $20,000/year

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Essential Information

Sound designers create sounds for film, television, theater, video games and music. Regardless of whether one plays a musical instrument, this field is well suited to a person with natural musical ability and an innate sensitivity to one's sound environment. A postsecondary non-degree award or certificate is generally required for sound engineering technician positions.

Required Education

Postsecondary non-degree award or certificate typically required for sound engineering technicians

Projected Job Growth (2018-2028)*

2% for all sound engineering technicians

Median Annual Salary (2018)*

$52,390 for all sound engineering technicians

Source: *U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Education Requirements for Sound Designers

Aspiring sound designers can develop the necessary skills and experience by earning a postsecondary non-degree award or certificate. However education options range from 1-year diploma programs to bachelor's and master's degrees in sound design. Art schools, film schools and universities offer programs in the industry. Good schools provide up-to-date training in well-equipped sound studios.

Students take courses in sound mixing, sound editing and recording techniques. They learn about Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), as well as how to use Pro Tools, Final Cut Pro and other industry-related software. Programs that focus on theatrical sound design may also require introductory classes in set, costume and lighting design.

Sound Designer Career Info

Sound designers are responsible for the overall sound for a production. They create sound effects and edit musical scores. In the post-production stage of a soundtrack, they may add or remove ambient noise. Video game sound effects can greatly enhance the realism and excitement of the medium.

Sound designers mainly work in a sound studio, either their own or that of a production company. In the studio, they may create sounds digitally, using computers and technical software, or naturally, using physical objects and props. Designers who create sounds naturally are sometimes called Foley artists.

High levels of creativity and skill are involved in determining how best to create a sound effect. After dissecting the required effect, they use real-world sounds to improvise each component. Some designers work in the field to record natural sounds to be used for a soundtrack. From these recordings, they compile a sound library to be used for future work. Designers also use sound libraries of recordings available from other sources, such as universities, or purchase them from third parties.

Sound design is a very specialized field that combines technical skill and creative ability. Because of the appeal of the entertainment industry, competition is high, especially in metropolitan areas, for relatively few positions.

Job Outlook and Salary

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), sound engineering technicians were expected to see an two percent increase in employment from 2018-2028, which is categorized as average overall. As of May 2018, the BLS reported that sound engineering technicians earned a median annual salary of $52,390.

In addition to a degree or certificate/award, a sound designer should have strong technical skills and high creativity. These tools will prepare them to work in a variety of industries, including video game design, music, TV, and movies.

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sound designer: education requirements and career info

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Sound Designer: Education Requirements and Career Info

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Sound designers create sounds for film, television, theater, video games and music. Regardless of whether one plays a musical instrument, this field is well suited to a person with natural musical ability and an innate sensitivity to one's sound environment. A postsecondary non-degree award or certificate is generally required for sound engineering technician positions.

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take small audio recorders to collect ambient or natural sounds to process

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How The Sound Effects In 'A Quiet Place' Were Made | Movies Insider

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most programs to work on sound effects cost from $20 to $200, some cheap ones are better than the expensive ones like Acid Pro Xpress, which is free

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https://alternativeto.net/software/acid-xpress/

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Being creative with sound design will benefit whatever you produce music for, from the pop charts to a Hollywood film, from creating your own sonic personality to producing the start-up sound effect for an iPad app. This is the ultimate guide to creative sound design with whatever tools you own: hardware, software, mobile, found sounds and more...
The term 'sound design' used to refer specifically to the task of producing music and sound effects for pictures, yet, while that definition still stands, with such an explosion of other media, it now covers everything from producing ringtones to game music, from synth presets to sample patches.

Even if you do none of the above, and just produce music for fun, being creative in sound design can help you shape your own character, a sound you can be identified by.

It can also help you move away from using presets which, while we endorse their use as that's what they were created for, it's always more satisfying to come up with something with your own stamp on it. Fortunately you probably have many of the tools you need for creative sound design at your disposal already.

Over the last few years we have also witnessed the release of hardware and software that, while perhaps not focussed directly at the sound designer, can be used to explore sonic areas never before thought possible or financially available. There's hardware, software and apps out now that make creating your own sonic brand as easy as one, two, tweak.

There are also some very good tools, specifically created for sound designers, that can be used to manipulate and twist sounds beyond belief.

This feature will look at all of the options above. We'll look at some of the areas that sound design is employed within, the tools you have at your disposal to cover some sound design basics and we'll feature some top five buyers guides for all manner of sound design categories.

Along the way we'll have specific guides on certain pieces of software that we've been impressed by to show you how they can manipulate sound, and we'll also cover found sound, that is field recording - one of the most natural ways of capturing a sonic signature for yourself.

We'll touch on sound for movies, TV and games, although foley use and dialogue recording is a feature in itself (there are some great packages out there that we'll cover for soundtrack and sound effect composers). Instead we're focussing on more creative sound design (or sounds that don't exist in the real world) and sound design for music producers - the majority of our readers.

So strap yourself in and prepare yourself for a sonic adventure. No matter what you create sound for, hopefully by reading this, you will start creating it in a much more adventurous way...

So just what is sound design?
Tom Holkenborg (AKA Junkie XL) is a sound designer in the true sense in that he provides effects and music for film. However, the whole sound design definition has exploded in recent years thanks to music and sound being needed for so many different types of media.
Type 'what is sound design?' into Google and you'll come up with all sorts of definitions. That's because the use of sound has exploded into so many different areas of our lives, largely down to advances in technology. Boot up a computer and you'll get a comforting chime (created with sound design); tweak a filter knob on your favourite synth (and you have designed a sound); download a sample from Loopmasters (created by a sound designer); watch an ad on YouTube and listen to a careful designed soundtrack.

Any piece of media that has had any care given to what the intended audience will hear has used some form of sound design. It could be a theatre production, a video game, an error sound because you pressed the wrong computer key. Perhaps we should simply let one of the kings of sound design explain it.

We interviewed Richard Devine a few years back and his projects pretty much covered all sound design areas. "I've done lots of sound content for iOS companies like InMusic, including the iMPC app for AKAI, where I created all the sounds, programs and sequences," he says.

"I also worked closely with Retronyms, designing samples and sequences for their Tabletop app. Outside of the audio industry I composed music and designed sound for the Audi A6 iPad app, then went on to create UI interface sounds for the entire Barnes & Noble NOOK tablet line. I designed the start-up mnemonic sound when you power on the device, and all the out-of-box animation sounds. Then I worked with LG doing sounds for the Smart TVs they released last year, which included creating music and interface sounds."

So you see sound design is pretty much anything you create sound for. However, as readers of MusicTech, we're guessing you'd like to focus on the more creative side of sound design, anything from using an arsenal of plug-ins to create music that is out of this world to creating effects never before heard of, so while we respect the film, TV and game soundtrack composers who are responsible for cleaning up audio noise, adding dialogue, and the sound of keys turning car engines, we're focussing a little more on the musical side of sound design, and hopefully on processes that are within reach of most. With that in mind, let's start with some of the easiest ways to change sound, and they will all be in the DAW you use every day...

Create with the plug-ins you already have

All DAWs come with lots of effects that can be utilised in sound design. More subtle ones like limiters and compressors should be left to the mix process, but there are plenty of meaty effects that are more in your face and suited to sound design.

Modulation is a great place to start as you can easily fatten something up with chorus or flanger with a large amount of feedback dialled in to add yet more drama. Add some delays and your source sound will already have morphed into something different.

Panning might seem like an innocent effect, used just to place elements in your stereo mix, but if you use it with panning and volume automation to create left-right shimmers with fast-paced movement, you're already exploring one of the three dimensions of sound. Third party effects like Cableguys' PanShaper ($34 from www.cableguys.com) really do show you how far you can go with panning by taking your sounds wide and fast.

1.  Cableguys PanShaper takes the humble pan and turns it into a super-movement effect that could really add dynamic to any sound. We said: "A great value tool for controlling your stereo width in new and creative ways."

2.  We recommend using guitar effects in sound design - why not indeed - and, as well as the real thing, you can also get them in software. Logic's Pedalboard features at least one pedal for every task.

3. Clever use of looping is one of the easiest and quickest ways to change a sound or to create stuttering and droning effects. Most DAWs let you zoom right in and loop around the tiniest elements - a completely free effect!

When time-stretching was first incorporated into DAWs it was quickly adopted as a creative tool but seems to have fallen slightly out of fashion, being mainly used to fit sounds with tempo rather than stretch or compress them to within an inch of their life to create something new. Perhaps, then, it's time to bring more creative time-stretching back into vogue.

It might not be considered an effect as such, but your DAW's loop mode can certainly be used to great effect. Experiment with reducing the loop length to a fraction of a bar and then move that across a longer sample to get jittering, stuttering effects or powerful drones. Early demos of Ableton Live would use this and time-stretching to create complete pieces of music from one small sample, showing just how powerful two processes can be in sound design.

For dirt - often a sound designer's filthy weapon - the obvious effects are distortion and amp simulators but bit crushers also have a place. Lower the sample rate for more distorted and crushed sounds, add a filter and you could create all sorts of heavy wooshes and sweeps.

Reverb might not be considered that creative an effect as it tends to make things sound more organic rather than the otherworldly sounds that we are arguably trying to create here. However, if you use a setting for a sound not intended it can sound unnatural and alien. Combine it with some pitch-and time-stretching and maybe add some ring modulation and, again, you're moving sonics forward at a pace.

And combining effects like this is also key and leads to another very quick sound design trick. If you use a selection of tools and effects as we have mentioned and then chain them together, you will obviously create some dramatically altered sounds, but a neat idea is to simply change the order of effects around for some very fast changes in sound.

Found sound and the art of (recording) noise

Taking a recorder out into the field (not necessarily a field) is a great way to capture sounds which you can either use as is or process further. Nature has an incredible soundtrack which you can plunder for free and you really should go for it. We saw a clip online recently of a slowed down cricket sound which sounded like the most beautiful choir imaginable (it must have been true as it was on the internet).

Mankind too provides an additional backing track which you can capture - every sound you can imagine within a city: droning machines, factory rumbles, steam vents, traffic noise, people bloody everywhere... It's all there right at the end of a dictaphone or phone, several of which we have reviewed over the years like the Olympus LSP2 (£169, www.olympus.co.uk) above.

If you want better quality, you'll want to invest in a better lightweight condenser mic and decent, well-insulated headphones. There's an excellent feature and interview with natural world recording expert Chris Watson, which features more insight into this fascinating area. At the very least, though, grab your phone, download a free recording app and get out there and get some sun on your skin.

The synth is the star

Perhaps obviously your soft synths are your sound design best friends. The very name synth means synthesise (not 'robot' if you are a fan of the popular sci-fi show Humans) as in 'to change sound' and, of course, it's easy to change a preset sound and 'design' it to be your own. Most dramatically, you'll do this with the aforementioned filter, the resonance and the envelope with which you can play with different attack and sustain times to create more pad like sounds from shorter hits and vice versa.

More in-depth synth features will introduce more in-depth design. LFOs are a great way to impart movement and can usually be assigned to almost every part of the signal chain with great effect. Changing the core oscillator wave is also usually one of the most dramatic ways to change a sound, but unless you have a fat sound using multiple oscillators you will lose a lot of the original character by changing the wave - but, heck, maybe that's what you want to do!

Synths that can process external audio signals (or, indeed use audio as oscillator waveforms) should be at the top of your list when embarking on a sound design career. With these you can take any audio and route it through the synth's architecture which usually ends in dramatic results, if perhaps unpredictable ones unless you know your synth inside out. But 'unpredictable' can be a good thing in sound design. If you can predict the results of what an effect of synth will do to your sound, maybe others will too and creative sound design is all about trying to create something completely new that no-one else will master.

The synth within a sound design role has also had something of a shot in the arm in recent years thanks to the modular scene. It's fair to say that one reason for this movement's enduring popularity is that unique hardware systems can be created from different modules with the sole purpose of creating sounds that no-one else has - pretty much the entire point of this article.

The basics of modular synthesis are the same as that described above, but in modular you really do get to process that by a factor of 1,000 as so many companies are releasing so many different bits of kit that you can bolt into your system and get creative with.

There's a book waiting to be written on creative sound design just with modular systems and you can bet that MT expert Dave Gale is chomping at the bit to write it, and we strongly advise that you read his features on modular synthesis here for sound design tips. For the moment though, we'll leave it to recent MusicTech interview star, sound designer and über film composer Junkie XL to explain how important modular is for his sound sculpting...

"Every Sunday is a 'Modular Sunday'," he says. "I start wiring up cables and that's all I do all day. I record everything into my sequencer and on Monday, thank god, my assistants come in and one of them will take that audio file and chop it down to thousands of different pieces and categorise each one in folders for future use. And that's how you have to do it. When you have time you work on your library, that's when you work on your sounds. And when you don't have time you can fall back on all of this stuff that you were doing when you did have time!"

Tutorial: Using Regular DAW PLug-ins for Sound Design

1. In Logic, start by going a little subtly with some modulation effects like the flanger and chorus. These are great for fattening up tired old loops and adding a bit of movement to breaks. Here we've also added some distortion at the end of the chain which really adds bite. The beauty with most DAWs is that you can easily change the order of the effects too.

2. Here we've gone a lot further in terms of changing a sound beyond a standard bell-like lead. A set of delays are added first and then the Always Rising Filter preset pans these hard left and then right for great effect - as we said, panning really can introduce a great intensity. We've finished it off with a large helping of distortion to really give it an edge.

3. This is a great combo to try in Live. We're taking the same group of effects used in the previous step but turning it on its head to design something out of this world from a simple bass line. First add the Notch Step Auto Filter to give some depth of movement, then throw in the Dizziness Pan effect but tone the rate down and then add the Ethereal Canyon delay.

4. Live is so good for creative sound design. Beat Repeat is the perhaps overused but still great effect that will take a drum loop well beyond its original beats. Add the Insect preset as the first in your chain, then add the Filter Flutter Analogue Filter for more movement. That's really enough but add the Munich Resonator and your original beat lop is a screaming futuristic guitar!

5. Presonus' Studio One has some pretty good tricks up its sleeve when it comes to sound design, especially in its distortion cabinet. We chained the Bitcrusher and RedlightDist distortion together for some wild effects while the Ampine simulator also has a lot of creative uses. Again we put them directly on the mixer channel and you can easily change the order.

6. There's a lot of fun to be had in Cubase too. With the Mixconsole open on a separate window you can easily drag and drop effect combinations: anything from the old school Metalizer (be subtle with it) to the Magneto Distortion, there is plenty to get your designer teeth into. We also used the Cloner Delay and Autopan to great effect together.

Sound design hands-on techniques

The previous section detailed some common sound design tools that you will hopefully have in your DAW arsenal. Now we'll look at some common techniques, again that you can do with minimal cash outlay (don't worry, there's plenty of cash outlay in our buyer's guides scatted around this feature!).

The first and most common is to combine or morph between sounds. Some synths come with vector controls to blend sounds together and it's amazing what creative results come from simply blending two sounds together or decreasing the volume of one as the other increases. With recorded audio you could try and extract different parts of a sound's envelope to replace that of another. Similarly, use slicing software like good old ReCycle from Propellerhead (£89 from www.propellerheads.se). It might be more for creating different beats but there's no reason you can't apply it to other audio for unexpected results.

Returning briefly to synths, a lot of classic analogue synths featured noise oscillators (and inherent noise come to think of it) and adding a bit of white noise to any sound gives it a certain added depth. Combine it with a little chorusing or time stretching and you get a fantastic granular feel and add a filter for some extra movement.

We've hinted that good sound design can come from happy accidents (hey, so can great tunes!) and that 'going with the flow' can take you on some great sonic journeys. Taking that theory one step further, why not try introducing a random element to your sound design? On a basic level this could simply be hitting the random patch generator on a synth (and some effects) - surely the easiest way to create your own sounds.

Actually there's almost one method as good as randomising and that is good old reversing audio. Again it's something that fell out of favour after everyone and their dog used it but since Ouput Sounds did Rev - an entire instrument concentrating on reverse engineering - the humble reverse audio effect has made a comeback, so don't be afraid to try it...

Automation is arguably the most powerful sound sculpturing tool available and here is where you can go anywhere and properly control the results. If you think that any of the processes we've described above and all of the tools before them can be automated - that is have their controls and movements recorded or drawn in - then you can take any sound on a journey over a period of time.

This could be as simple as gradually opening and closing a filter on a white noise generator to bring a calming sea sound to a layered atmosphere patch or adding controlled wobble via an LFO to any main synth parameter. Automation is one of the best tools for mixing your tunes but just as essential when manipulating sound. And the best thing is you can then go in and surgically edit any movement for precise and detailed results.

One technique suggested by many sound designers, including Richard Devine, is to try and visualise the sound you are creating. This could be on a logical level like visualising an explosion for a dramatic stab, or a sea for a pad, but more usefully think of the sound in three dimensions: panning for left and right, volume and EQ for up and down and perhaps EQ again, combined with wet/dry effects for depth. The more you visualise it like this, the more you will fill up the dimensions and the more dynamic the results.

On a more practical level, Richard also advocated the use of templates: "A tight deadline is a frequent occurrence so I have to work efficiently, and templates mean I don't have to waste precious time loading up channel strips and plug-ins.

"Having said that, don't get stuck in a rut with sound design and do continually explore new ideas and new methods. Templates are great for specific tasks but try and set yourself a new goal whenever you're in a sound design session - try some sounds from a synth you've never used before, some presets from an effect, a new chain of effects, any new technique that could result in something unexpected. And finally, do make time for that session. Maybe not an entire Sunday like Junkie, but an hour spent tweaking at the start or end of a mix session could be an hour very well spent."

Tutorial: Using Third Party Instruments for Sound Design

1. As well as using your own plug-ins - see the previous tutorial for that - there are a wealth of incredible third party plug-ins that you can buy to use for sound design. One of our favourite current ones is Output's Analog Strings, a string instrument that has loads of real-time sliders to take each of its many presets on incredible journeys to new string worlds.

2. As well as real-time shaping you also get quite a lot of other options beneath the lid including this Rhythm tab. These refine what you can do to each sound and you can drastically alter the envelope of the constituent samples to create more (or less) movement. We've shown the extra complex envelope options you can choose from.

3. As if that is not enough you also get another effects engine with Filter, Distortion, EQ and other more 'standard' effects - everything you need for more regular sound design as described in that previous tutorial. There's even a Motion effect just in case you haven't got enough motion going on already...

4. Many instruments that excel at sound design have soundtrack composers in mind, with Heavyocity's Gravity being a prime example. It's geared towards sci-fi, horror, fantasy and a lot more but along the way - you can really twist and turn its presets with a huge array of options. You get some great sounds to start with and then it's up to you where you take them.

5. Like Spitfire's Albion Tundra, Big Fish's Zodiac is not necessarily the starting point for sound design but a library created through incredible sound design, with all organic instruments being treated to form some of the best sonics on the planet. That said, there are still effects and onboard controls to shape the sounds, but, with design this good, you might not want to.

6. Finally, Reformer Pro from Krotos is one of the more unusual, but effective sound design applications out there. Recently updated, the software uses 'artificial intelligence and advanced signal analysis' so you can create sound effects with your voice by profiling it with a library of sounds to create a new effect. Sounds complex but it's actually great fun and easy to use.

Gear for sound design

We've now covered some of the techniques you can employ to get creative with sound, and hopefully with plug-ins that come free with whichever DAW you use. However, there is a whole world of hardware and software out there that can take you a lot further, some of it designed specifically for sound design, some of it not at all.

Sometimes it's this latter category that contains the most interesting and useful sound manipulators, because, really, there are no rules when it comes to sonic creativity. In this world, analogue is not always best, nor is 'clean' - distortion, dirt, noise and digital can all be welcomed back into your studio after years in the wilderness.

It comes back to that 'unique' approach again. In the same way that modular synth fans can embrace every module that comes out to make great sounds with, so a great sound designer will never discount a particular device. Ulrich Schnauss creates some of the most exceptionally lush textures in electronic music, for example, but you'd be surprised how many digital effects and synths are behind them.

"I think digital is great," Schnauss confirms. "I get sick of the analogue versus digital debates. Quite often people come to me at my gigs and talk about my warm analogue sounds and it's actually the Waldorf Microwave or whatever. I think people's perception of what digital instruments and analogue can do is very twisted. You can create really warm and beautiful colours with digital instruments as well."

The message with good sound design and studio gear, then, is not to be too obvious. Embrace guitar effects, for example, and certainly embrace second-hand gear. Chain unwanted 80s and 90s rack effects together to create a digital path that no-one else is using. Find out what the hidden gems are when it comes to gear, the ones that perhaps didn't sell in huge numbers when they were first released and you can pick up for pennies now. Even some of the old digital synths that did well at the time can now be picked up for peanuts.

The Yamaha SY range, for example, starts at a couple of hundred quid second hand and features a fantastic Vector joystick for real-time morphing. New gear should not be discounted though as, again, there are some new releases that are perhaps less obvious sound design stars.

Teenage Engineering's PO-30 series features sampling and no end of fun can be had taking them out for found sounds recording and further manipulation. The company's OP-1 is also one of the best-kept secrets in the world of synths. Elektron too, make fantastic, expensive and difficult to master gear but if you're brave (and rich) you'll (eventually) create sounds with it like no other.

So the message really is to think outside the box when it comes to cutting edge sound design, right? Well, most of the time. You'd be rather stupid to avoid some of the incredible new hardware and software which has 'creativity' written all over it, which, even if it proves popular, can take you down unique paths.

Software libraries and instruments from the likes of Output Sounds, Heavyocity, Spitfire Audio and Gothic Instruments, plus synths from Spectrasonics, Korg, KV331, Arturia and IK Multimedia... the list is endless!

And then there are specific effects that we've looked at recently that can manipulate audio to the extreme from Eventide, Heavyocity, MeldaProduction, iZotope, Cableguys and many more. We've included some of these, plus a top five for instrument libraries and great sound design apps in three buyer's guide charts in this feature.

So you want to become a sound designer?

This feature has been more about designing your own sounds for your own productions, but if you want to take it up a level and be a professional sound designer you could be doing anything from creating sound effects to scoring games. Here are some top tips to getting in on the sound design game....

Because sound design is such a varied role, having experience in a wide variety of sound scenarios is important. Studio experience is probably the most essential attribute to have, and knowing your way around popular DAWs and software. You can probably tick this one already then...

Consider a college course. Many music technology courses will offer experience in the range of sound industries mentioned above and a lot have sound design elements included within the course. Point Blank ( www.pointblankmusicschool.com) even teaches sound design online so you can study it from anywhere in the world. The most specific course though is Sound Design For Film & TV via the National Film & TV School ( https://nfts.co.uk).

Follow this feature and create your own sounds! A portfolio of your own soundtracks and effects will always help, and if you could put together a showreel with them included in the soundtrack then even better.

Sample companies like Loopmasters ( www.loopmasters.com) are always after great content, so if you have the confidence in the sounds that you have created (thanks to this feature, naturally!) then sell them as your own sample collections.

Conclusion

It's clear then that sound design in 2018 covers many areas and you can get involved on any level you wish (and at any cost). We hope that this has given you a flavour of what you can do and what is available to do it, and most of all, the inspiration to go out there and design your own sounds.

Want to learn more about sound design? Try these:

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Being creative with sound design will benefit whatever you produce music for, from the pop charts to a Hollywood film, from creating your own sonic personality to producing the start-up sound effect for an iPad app. This is the ultimate guide to creative sound design with whatever tools you own: hardware, software, mobile, found sounds and more...

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The sound designer plans and provides the sound effects in the play, including music from existing sources. In addition, a composer may write original music for the show. All the music and/or effects in a play considered as a whole make up the "soundscape."

In addition to the sounds of the words spoken by the actors, a play may also call for sound effects to recreate lifelike noises or use music or abstract and unidentifiable sounds to support the drama.

The designer's work

Sound designers and composers begin their work by studying the script, gathering as much information as they can about any sound or music it calls for. As in all other aspects of design, an early meeting with the director and the design team is essential to get a clear understanding of the production concept.

Some directors will already have very clear ideas about what the sound effects and/or music should sound like, while others may request that the sound designer/composer sit in on rehearsals to assist with developing effects and music to fit the specific contexts in which they will be used. Once they have a precise sense of what the production needs out of the music or sound, the composer begins composing the necessary musical pieces and the sound designer begins to gather and create the necessary sounds.

Sounds and music in the theatre can:

motivate actions onstage and indicate events taking place offstage

establish the time of day, season and weather

locate the action in a specific place

create mood and changes in mood

stimulate audience expectations of what is to come

provide information about the characters

build transitions between scenes

offer shortcuts that rapidly advance the plot or recall past events

The designer or composer combines and varies the five controllable properties of sound to create unique effects or music required by the production of the play.

Planning tools of sound designers and composers

Plot: A list of all the music and sound cues for each act/scene. It indicates where the sound or music occurs, the page number of the script where it appears, precisely when it begins and ends, and the equipment that will be used to produce it.

System layout: A system layout shows the type and location of speakers on stage, on the set and in the auditorium. The system layout may also include a layout of how all of the sound equipment will be interconnected.

Cue sheet: A version of the sound plot to be used by the sound technicians who will run the equipment during the performance.

Sound and music cues are often dependent on the precise timing of the onstage action and can only be set after the play's blocking has been determined. Ideally, the director, cast and crew will have several opportunities to fine tune the timing of the completed music/sound design during technical rehearsals.

Technology provides the tools for a sound designer's work, and since the technology changes and improves--often rapidly--over time, the Sound Designer must also work to stay abreast of these changes. Improvements in technology can often simplify the designer's workload, as well as provide new methods for creating effective soundscapes for productions. Two good places to begin are the Association of Sound Designers and The Starving Theatre Artist's Sound Design page

Collaboration

The sound designer will meet with the director and the design team ( set, costume, lighting and sound designers), to discuss the details of the set and the director's interpretation of the play. The set, costume and lighting designers also meet and work together to ensure the creation of a unified look and feel for the production. A lively exchange of initial ideas and first impressions helps clarify the steps that each person needs to take in this intensely collaborative process.

Once the show opens, the designer's work is essentially complete. Now it's normally the job of the stage manager and sound crew to make sure that every aspect of the production runs just as the designer intended, time after time, until the production closes.

Sound Engineer
The sound engineer works under the designer, and must take the sound design and ensure that it can be created in a given space. This involves selecting equipment to reproduce the various sound elements required, installing and testing it, and usually running the actual show.

More Resources at Your Fingertips

AACT members have access to our Resource Library covering all aspects of theatre, plus member networking, discounts on theatrical products & services and on AACT festivals and conferences.

Click here for more on the benefits of AACT membership.

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The sound designer plans and provides the sound effects in the play, including music from existing sources. In addition, a composer may write original music for the show. All the music and/or effects in a play considered as a whole make up the "soundscape."

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winner of the 2019 Tony Awards for Best Sound with Nevin Steinberg on Hadestown

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Jessica Paz: Tony-Winning Sound Designer

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has also done sound for Little Shop of Horrors and Hercules, among many others

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http://www.jessicapazdesigns.com/home/

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winner with Jessica Paz for the Tony Awards for Hadestown

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he founded the "Acme Sound Partners" which was an organization that produced a few Broadway plays

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did the sound for the popular musicals, Dear Evan Hansen and Hamilton

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Oliviver and Tony Award winner for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and many plays/musicals

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"If we turn down the design jobs which are more about facilitating the vision of the director, then we are ignoring a chance of showing a director the creative possibilities of sound."

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"If we turn down the design jobs which are more about facilitating the vision of the director, then we are ignoring a chance of showing a director the creative possibilities of sound."

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-Gareth Fry

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he wrote a book, "Sound Design for the Stage" to explain how to design sound and the effect it has on the production

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Jessica Paz Theatre Credits, News, Bio and Photos

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Jessica Paz Bio, Photos, Theatre Credits, Stage History - Paz's Broadway credits include Hadestown (2019 TONY, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk for Outstanding Sound Design nominations); Associate Designer of Bandstand (2017); Dear Evan Hansen (2016) Disaster the Musical (2015); The Assembled Parties (MCC); and Fela! (2009).

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Acme Sound Partners is credited as Designer.

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Nevin Steinberg Theatre Credits, News, Bio and Photos

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Nevin Steinberg Bio, Photos, Theatre Credits, Stage History - Recent Broadway credits include: Dear Evan Hansen, The Cher Show, Bandstand, Bright Star, Hamilton, It Shoulda Been You, Mothers and Sons, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella (Tony nomination), The Performers, Magic/Bird.

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Published by Crowood Press in April 2019.

This is the blurb:
Sound Design for the Stage is a practical guide to designing, creating and developing the sound for a live performance. Based on the author's extensive industry experience, it takes the reader through the process of creating a show, from first contact to press night, with numerous examples from high-profile productions. Written in a detailed but accessible approach, this comprehensive book offers key insights into a fast-moving industry.

Topics covered include:

how to analyze a script to develop ideas and concepts

how to discuss your work with a director

telling the emotional story

working with recorded and live music

how to record, create, process and abstract sound

designing for devised work

key aspects of acoustics and vocal intelligibility

the politics of radio mics and vocal foldback

how to design a sound system and, finally,

what to do when things go wrong.

This is the bio:
Gareth Fry is an Olivier and Tony award-winning sound designer. His recent designs include Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Complicité's The Encounter, building on years of experience designing plays, musicals, dance and opera productions worldwide, including over 20 productions at the National Theatre. He has also created work for exhibitions and events, from the V&A's David Bowie Is exhibition, to the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. He holds three Olivier Awards, two Tony Awards, two Drama Desks Awards, two Helpmann Awards and an Evening Standard Award. Gareth is an honorary fellow of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Click below for a full list of the topics covered in the book.

Click below for a review of the book from The Echo magazine

Purchase options

UK

Europe

USA

Australia

Rest of the world

Click the Purchase from Crowood Press button below to re-direct to Crowood's website and add it to your basket.

Whilst writing this book I've focused on topics that aren't typically written about. Rather than writing about the physics of loudspeakers, or recording sound effects, I've looked at how the industry works, how creative teams are put together, hot to get work, how to discuss ideas with a director, how to generate ideas to form a foundation for your sound design, and how to turn that into a reality. And rather than just talking about, for example, the different types of radio mic's, I've focused more on why and when to use them, the politics surrounding them and the often delicate issue of vocal foldback. I've had a lot of successes in my career, but I've also had lots of failures, and made many mistakes. Some of those mistakes have been technical, and I offer advice in the book on how to analyse why your show might sound bad and how to fix it. Some of those mistakes have been political or personal, and I offer advice on how to navigate them and how to deal with anger and stress. There are also interviews with sound designers Ian Dickinson, David McSeveney, Gareth Owen, and Melanie Wilson (on page 217).

Further reading

Here are some good books about the physics of loudspeakers, and other specialist topics, and some good general theatre sound books too.

Sound Systems: Design and Optimization: Modern Techniques and Tools for Sound System Design and Alignment by Bob McCarthy
The Sound of Theatre: A History from the Ancient Greeks to the Modern Digital Age by David Collison
The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation by Vanessa Theme Ament
The Sound Effects Bible: How to Create and Record Hollywood Style Sound Effects by Ric Viers
Mixing a Musical - Broadway Theatrical Sound Techniques by Shannon Slaton
The Art of Theatrical Sound Design: A Practical Guide by Victoria Deiorio (which includes a great section on styleS of music, and on effective communication, amongst other things)
Sound and Music for the Theatre by Deena Kaye and James Lebrecht (which also includes many great interviews with directors, sound designers and composers, including me!)

Other resources

If you've read the book, you'll know I mention technology becomes obsolete faster than books get printed. So here's an up to date list of things that are useful for a sound designer to have. Here's a list of commonly used equipment in the UK theatre sound industry. There are some more resources on this website too, in the Resources section, or in the Schematics section, which has some of the paperwork I generate for shows. I've also written many articles for the Association of Sound Designers' magazine, The Echo. You can read some of them in the back issues section here. Topics include Using Copyrighted Music in Theatre, Tax and National Insurance for Freelancers, VAT, Procedural Audio and VR technologies; amongst many other articles, showcases and interviews with, and by, many other talented sound designers.

Extra bits

Here's a great Twitter thread on how to send an email to someone you don't know

HOW TO APPROACH PRODUCERS:
a thread
- Michelle Barnette (@Mich_Barnette) January 21, 2019

Audio and Video clips

Here are some of the audio and video clips mentioned in the book

Here a heart-beat sound effect is being used to open and close a Noise Gate plug-in, which is across a crowd sound effect. Over the course of the track I'm adjusting the noise gate threshold level so it gradually becomes constant crowd noise.

Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa. Directed by Anna Mackmin

This play is a memory piece, and the narrator talks about his memory of his rural childhood home and music playing on the radio. I created a reverb version (pushed through two instances of a 55-second reverb) of the music that is referenced by the narrator, to use as a preshow tone in the auditorium and as an underscoring motif through the show. I also processed the song to sound as if it was on a radio, using Audio Ease's Speakerphone. I used the radio tuning module to have it 'tune out' into radio static. I also fed birdsong into the same module. I crossfaded the squawks we heard from an out-of-tune radio turned-in into the squawks of bird as if heard on an out-of-tune radio, before crossfading to the naturalistic sound of the birds singing. This gave us the music referenced in the text, an abstracted version to use as a motif, and brought us into the naturalistic world as if it had been conjured out of the same radio the narrator had conjured the music out of.

Errors and Corrections

"Styles of microphoning" - I think one of the editors didn't like the commonly-used term "mic'ing" and replaced it with the never-used term "microphoning".

p165, in the illustration caption, "we would add a delay of 2.9m" should be "2.9ms", and "We might add anywhere up to 25-30m" should be "25-30ms"

Updates

Every now and again I'll put together some updates to the text, useful audio clips and videos that demonstrate some of the concepts in the book. If you'd like to stay updated, or to tell me what you think about the book, please, fill out the form below.

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Book: Sound Design for the Stage - Gareth Fry - Sound Design

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Published by Crowood Press in April 2019. This is the blurb: Sound Design for the Stage is a practical guide to designing, creating and developing the sound for a live performance. Based on the author's extensive industry experience, it takes the reader through the process of creating a show, from first contact to press night, with numerous examples from high-profile productions.

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If you're after lots of quotes, check out my book! There are video interviews with me here and here. and some print articles here and here.
How has your training affected your work?
Whilst I was at college, I took an adult education course at a local recording studio, where I learnt a lot about recording techniques and MIDI. I wasn't interested in theatre at the time, and wasn't really aware of the potential of doing a career in sound design in it. Fortunately, by chance, I ended up helping some friends out on a theatre show when their sound engineer fell ill. I pretty much instantly knew this was what I wanted to be doing. I'd done English Lit at college, so we'd studied Shakespeare a bit, and visited the theatre, so it wasn't entirely new territory. I got a place at Central School of Speech and Drama on their theatre design course (which then was a mix of set, costume, lighting and sound design), and thanks to the adult education class, had a good understanding of how a lot of the equipment, and the theory behind it, worked. The first year of the course was a foundation year, learning all sorts of things, architecture, fine art, drawing, CAD, and various aspects of the design disciplines. This opened my eyes up to a lot of stuff that I had previously known nothing about and would prove to be a foundation for how i could discuss ideas and concepts creatively. In the following years we did lots of paper projects and the like, at which I did very badly on the whole. I looked around at the other students and realised that the work we were doing wasn't that dissimiliar but when I presented my work I usually managed to shoot myself in the foot somehow or another. It took me a while to work out that half of sound design is in the sound work and the other half is down to communicating your ideas effectively.

After graduating, I spent a few years working in an office, which paid the rent. During that time I was designing shows in fringe theatres, which didn't pay the rent, but developed my communication and artistic skills. The office I worked in was an amazing acoustic consultancy, which gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about speakers and acoustics. I then got some longer-term theatre jobs, operating and mixing shows, and more causal freelance jobs (i.e. the odd day here or there) as a lighting and sound technician. Those jobs got me contacts within the theatre industry to sell myself as a designer to. Increasingly the design work increased to the point where I could do it full-time.
When did you begin to focus on this subject? Was there a turning point for you?
I was always interested in sound & music but overlooked theatre because there wasn't a good theatre in my home town. Initially I tried music production and radio but whilst I liked listening to music and radio, I didn't particularly connect with the process of producing studio-based music and radio. I discovered theatre by chance and was hooked immediately. I then did a lot of research on the industry: looking through career packs, talking to people in the industry, reading The Stage, etc and eventually decided to take the plunge.
What is your definition of being creative? Do you always take complete creative control?
It's maybe overly-simplistic, but one way of viewing creativity is that it is simply coming up with ideas, and finding solutions to problems. Usually the director has overall creative control, and for each project I negotiate with them how much creative input I'm going to have. Sound is a developing art in theatre, so respect does not come automatically, it has to be earned. I have to be very diplomatic in earning this respect by making directors feel that they can place their trust in me. With some directors I have a lot of creative input, and with others I may work creatively but in a more technical way. Often, the more I get to know and work with a director, the more creative input they will hand over to me. Since I began work in the mid 1990's, I'm finding that directors are increasingly sound literate, and keen to use sound design in their productions, which makes for an easier collaboration.
Are we there to be artists, or tools of the directors? Would you rather give up work than get hired as a sound designer and treated like a technician?
We create the market we work in. If a director does not know what a sound designer does, or what they can do, they may assume we are technicians because they mostly see us playing with technology. If we turn down the design jobs which are more about facilitating the vision of the director, then we are ignoring a chance of showing a director the creative possibilities of sound.

Directors who expect us to be their tool are effectively designing the sound themselves because they haven't learnt to trust anyone else to do it for them. Designing the sound for a show is a responsibility, and not something that a director will easily relinquish unless it is to someone they trust. And that is down to perception. If you sell yourself as a creative then gaining that trust will come a lot easier.
What sort of advice would you give to someone who wants to enter this field?
This is not an easy industry - the hours are long and unsociable. It can take a number of years before you establish a steady income stream. The career path is variable and subject to luck. If you love it, do it, but be prepared for a long haul. Most of the learning takes place when you finish studying.
You work for yourself, what advantages and disadvantages are there in doing this ?
You have to maintain a large contact base to stay in work consistently. It's easier if you live close to a major metropolitan centre to do this, though many commute long distances in order to avoid city living. Being self-employed you receive no benefits or holiday pay, and you have to keep careful track of your finances and bookings. Work is often at short notice so it is difficult to plan long-term commitments such as holidays.

Some people might not like it, but I love the variety and unpredictability of work. It's very hard to get bored. And I mostly control my own hours, wear what I like and am my own boss.
How important have other skills, such as organisation, communication and networking, been to your career?
i have learnt to be very diplomatic as tempers can get heated during production weeks. I have to be disciplined and manage my time and resources carefully - my deadline is 1000 people listening closely to my work- you can't cover it up if you are late or your work is sub-standard. If I blow it someone else will get employed next time. So you also have to be good under pressure!
Do you have typical days?
I have no daily routine, but I work a similiar schedule often when shows are opening. I will often spend day-times of the last few weeks of a shows rehearsal in the rehearsal room watching how things are developing, and often creating sound in response and adding it into rehearsals. The first week of technical rehearsals typically run 10am - 10pm and is where we move the show into the theatre and all the elements together for the first time. At some point the show will open, which is when I leave that project and move on to the next one.

Working in the performing arts is more of a lifestyle than a job - it takes over every aspect of you. It is very demanding but can be equally satisfying. You have to make it happen yourself, you have to push yourself forward. The sooner you step into a theatre the sooner you can start working in it. You can learn a lot by watching shows, even if to see how not to do things!
Do you do plays and musicals?
Yes, though I'm known more for doing plays now than musicals. Whilst there are some sound designers who specialise in one strand or another, there are many who work in both strands. And equally there are many theatre productions that resist being easily defined into either of the above strands.

Traditionally, there have been two strands of sound design for theatre, but increasingly the demands to have more sound effects in musicals, and more music and vocal reinforcement in plays, is blurring the lines. So rather than say, this is what a musical sound designer does, and what a play sound designer does, it's better to talk about what you do when you have a live band and lots of vocal reinforcement, and what you do when you have a big soundscape to produce.

When you have a band and lots of vocal reinforcement, then there will be a lot of psychological, technical and logistical management of those elements, to get the best performance and sound out of the band and there performers, in a way that supports the sound design. There will be an often large sound system to design that provides the audience with a high level of intelligible sound across the whole auditorium, that will also provide the musicians with foldback of the cast, and the cast with foldback of the musicians. Sounds easy, but then bear in mind that the band are probably in a very confined area, the flute mic may only be 1 metre away from the Kick Drum, the mic's the actors wear usually have to be concealed in the hairline, and are omni-directional, so you also pick up the band foldback in a reverberant state, the actors move around the stage a lot so system delay time's have to be shifted as they move so the direct sound precedes the amplified sound for imaging purposes. Sound systems for theatre musicals are more complex than any other sound system you will ever come across- 100+ simultaneous inputs and dozens of outputs are common.

The creation of a pre-recorded soundtrack (which can include sound effects, a more abstract soundscape, finding music, or recording and producing a musical soundtrack), can vary in workload as every show varies in how much, or how little, sound it needs. At the simple end, this may simply be providing a few doorbell/telephone ring/dog bark style effects. At the more complex end it may be developing long running ambient soundscapes that emotionally develop with the play, along with hundreds of sound effects and music cues. A lot of time is spent working with computers, creating and montaging sound effects and abstract sounds, working with a composer to record and produce their music, and then integrating everything into the show. Again, this can result in vastly complex sound systems.

Audiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their understanding of sound, and have paid a lot of money for their ticket so they demand cinema quality sound. It's becoming far more common for shows to have sophisticated soundscapes, vocal reinforcement and live music; requiring the sound designer and their team to be able to master many skills.
What steps are there on the "career ladder" for a sound designer?
There is no formalised career ladder because there is no formalised employment process or pay scale. Once you've managed to achieve a position of being able to design full-time, there's not very far to go in a conventional sense. From then on, it's more about finding the companies, directors, venues, shows that you want to work with or on.

As a sound designer, you'll spend your time working with lots of designers, actors etc, but very rarely will you actually work with another sound designer. To create more of a sense of community between sound designers The Association of Sound Designers was formed.

For a while the big musicals were a big earner for sound designers - producers used to offer big royalties and small advances which paid out very very well on long-running musicals, but this doesn't happen so much anymore. Producers now prefer to offer an advance and a small royalty.

A lot of production companies and venues don't pay enough money for the amount of time that the director wants the sound designer to be around for, so often we have to dovetail shows to make them work economically.
Could you possibly outline some of the projects youʼve been involved in involving background sound?
One of my early projects investigating almost subliminal sound was The Oresteia at the National Theatre in 1999. We started off with a recording of a heating system to create a low rumble that played from before the audience entered. The effect was that the audience ignored the rumble, in the way that we filter out constant background sound - and theatrically, our brains try and filter out anything we think is not part of the theatrical world - we try to focus on the stage. We were then able to bring in abstract sounds - pitched down bowed violin and the like - to subtely underscore the emotional, dramaturgical shifts in the play. We were also able to very slowly increase the level of the boiler rumble over the course of the play, until at the very end of the show, when a gun is fired, we simultaneously muted the rumble creating an immense silence.

I use these sorts of sounds a lot when I'm asked to create a sense of silence, or focus in on a part of the show - I will put atmospheric sounds before and after the scenes when silence or focus is required, and take them out to create a sense of silence. This process is largely subliminal for the audience. The background sounds I use range from abstract sounds, through to naturallisitc atmospheres.
Do you find there are particular frequencies which get a stronger reaction than others?
There are certainly different frequencies that have more emotional connections. For example, bass sounds I think generally adrenalise and excite us - I think we have a primal connection between bass beats and the sound of our heart thumping, and of running. There are sounds very high up, in the 15-20kHz range that are on the periphary of our hearing, that cause us distress. Try playing a sine wave at 15kHz very quietly, and it gives us that heachache'y tinnitus feeling that I often associate with traumatic events.
You mention that the audience often filter out your work subconsciously, do you think this is reflective of our culture in general?
We certainly live in a world of noise unlike any generation before us. Think back 150 years and what would be the loudest sound anyone heard during their lifetime? For most people, the loudest thing they ever heard would be someone shouting or the crack of thunder. Now we routinely hear sounds much louder than that on a daily basis. Traffic and aircraft noise pervades our every waking moment and is almost inescapable across the globe. The techniques I use rely on our auditory perception which has been part of how our brains work for many centuries. As we can't turn off our hearing in the same way we can close our eyes, or focus them on something, our brains have adopted many low-level filters to prevent us reaching sensory overload, to bring to our attention only the sounds that are important to us, and to filter out those that aren't.
In your work you clearly use the subconscious to your advantage however are you ever frustrated because of limitations based on you by other departments of the theatre?
I do need a quiet environment to do my job, and the noise created by scrollers, moving lights, LED walls, video projectors, computers, aircon systems always cause difficulties. I can't blame people for needing to use equipment that creates noise as a by-product, but I do get frustrated when people fail to acknowledge that they are compromising my work when they use a lot of noisy equipment. If every speaker I used had a 40 watt lightbulb on the back of it that lit the stage I would get shouted at by the lighting designer instantly, and justly.
Do you feel your role is ever compromised more than it should be or that audio is under appreciated in the design process?
That depends on your relationship to the director. I'm lucky to mostly work with directors that appreciate sound design and want to integrate it into their shows. I find that the LD, set designer, video designers, costume designer tend to work together very closely, but they are all working towards the same visual look, which I don't have the same interest in. I find that my collaboration is more with the performers, the writer and director than it is with anyone else because we share the same aural world, though of course the sound design often interacts and shares cue points with other aspects of the design.
Do you consider the dynamics of sound are under appreciated by designers both in the construction of buildings and sets? Does the design of those spaces make your job easier/more difficult?
In my experience, set designers don't generally consider where speakers can go when designing a set. But, to be fair, they don't know where I'm going to need to put speakers - and often neither do I at that stage of the process. Integrating speakers into a set can be frustrating for all concerned, particularly if it has to happen after construction has been completed. Sometimes the set design takes a hit, or sometimes I don't get speakers where I'd ideally like them. But that's life! Sometimes the set design can create acoustic issues and I'll try to head these off before construction begins. Building design is another matter, but generally speaking most new theatres involve significant consultation with all departments. Though as with all things, what is good for one department is not necessarily good for another.

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Q&As for students - Gareth Fry - Sound Design

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If you're after lots of quotes, check out my book! There are video interviews with me here and here. and some print articles here and here. How has your training affected your work? Whilst I was at college, I took an adult education course at a local recording studio, where I learnt a lot about recording techniques and MIDI.