Sound Design Tips For Beginners (How To Design Sound Effects)

If you're new to sound design or want to know some different approaches to it, this video is for you. These will help you get the results you're after, whether it's sounds for video games, film, or music production. Stick around, I think you'll learn something new. Hey everyone, it's Jake from Transverse Audio. Let's get into some of the techniques you can use to design better sounds, and most of what we're going to be doing can be done in any DAW that has the least basic stock plugins. First, let's go over some of the most important effects that a sound designer can take advantage of when crafting unique sounds. After that, we'll go over some of the tips you might want to put into practice, so stick around for that too. The first effect I want to talk about is phasing. Using a phaser effect can help create a dynamic progression for your drones or longer sounds, and even shorter sounds too. For an example, this is what a phaser can do to a constant note. Adding a chorus effect to electrical sounds and drones can really thicken up the dynamic range, filling up your sounds to make them seem bigger than they were before, and the chorus effect can be used for many more things as well. Using a bit crusher or saturation effect can make something sound much more vibrant in the higher frequencies, helping you fill up the frequency range of a sample. These types of effects can also help with designing pseudo chiptune sounds, essentially low-bit sounding, but not truly 8 or 16-bit. Adding a reverb to your effect chain can make a completely different sound out of what you have already. Now, this may seem like a completely obvious solution, but using reverb can not only add depth and a feel for the environment around the sound, but it can also give the sound an ambient or hollow feel. With all the effects on the table, let's move into some of the techniques to get a hang of when dealing with your sound. Taking multiple sound effects and forming them into one by positioning them correctly can really make a sound much more powerful. This is known as layering. Pay attention to the frequencies of each sample and try to find ones that complement each other by filling different parts of the spectrum. Stretching or squishing a sample's original time can result in some pretty weird sounds. Reversing a sample can be used to build up to another one, or really any situation. Changing certain parameters over time automatically is a powerful way to introduce a new perspective on your sound and can help match it to the events on screen. Some common things to change with automation are volume, panning, pitch, and frequencies. You can even automate the intensity of plugins that affect your samples to give them more motion. In most DAWs, there isn't much you can't automate. Now, I've got a bonus tip for you. When designing sounds, it's important, but not critical, to get high-quality samples to work with. By using something that sounds good from the get-go, you'll have an easier time in the studio. If you liked the video, subscribe and hit the bell button to stay up to date on future videos. And as always, thanks for watching.