Chapter 15 Main Points
►Sound design is the process of creating the overall soniccharacter of a production and is ongoing throughout theproduction process.
►The sound designer is responsible for creative control ofthe audio—for putting a coherent sonic stamp on a production—although all members of the audio team makecreative contributions to the soundscape.
►In the parlance of audio, having “ears” means havinghealthy hearing and the ability to listen perceptively.
►Having educated ears means being able to listen withcareful discrimination to style, interpretation, nuance,and technical quality in evaluating the content, function,characteristics, and fidelity of sound.
►Learning how to listen begins with paying attention tosound wherever and whenever it occurs.
►Analytical listening is the evaluation of the content andthe function of sound.
►Critical listening is the evaluation of the characteristics ofthe sound itself.
►In considering sound design these days, the paradox inthe audience’s listening habits has become a factor. Withthe potential to hear high-quality sound through greatsystems, too many listeners are listening to compressedaudio through mediocre headphones or earbuds on mobilemedia or through a less-than-sonorous computer speakeror computer loudspeaker system.
►There are three domains to work with in creating a sounddesign: speech, sound effects, and music. Paradoxically,silence and the ability of sound to evoke a picture in themind’s eye may be considered two other domains.
►All sound is made up of the same basic components: pitch,loudness, timbre, tempo, rhythm, attack, duration, anddecay.
►Sound also has a visual component in that it can createpictures in the “theater of the mind.”
►Sound has several functions in relation to picture: soundcan parallel picture, sound can define picture, picture candefine sound, sound and picture can define effect, andsound can counterpoint picture.
►There is no set procedure for designing sound. At the outsetthe most important thing to do is study the script andanalyze the auditory requirements line by line to determinethe overall sonic approach to various scenes, for an entirework, or both.
►Determining a sound design involves consideration of howthe audience is to think or feel about a particular story,scene, character, action, or environment; from what pointof view; and whether that is to be carried out mainly in thesound effects, the music, or both.
►Determining a sound design also requires the awarenessthat doing so is often tantamount to defining a production’sconceptual and emotional intent.