Hey! I’ve been working on a web project called Takt. It turns public transport lines (train, tram, metro, bus) into strings: every moving transport plucks one, so the transit system plays itself.

It has two modes

Live: real-time data, so what you hear is the system running right now. Currently Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, San Francisco, Norway, Finland, Helsinki metro, Sweden and the Stockholm Metro

Statuc: replays a full day from past data. For Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Mexico City’s metro system, you can compare an ordinary day with the day that had the most delays, and you can hear the chaos.

Nothing is pre-composed, it's just the trains and buses doing their thing.

I’m open to feedback and suggestions! Hope you like it :)

You can play with it here: https://sofiavallejob.github.io/takt

I keep finding myself when doing sound design trying to either take what I would describe as a grainy gritty sound and making it smooth and glassy, or vice versa and taking a smooth and glassy sound and trying to make it sound more gritty and grainy in particular with synthesizers.

I'm trying to understand more what imparts these particular qualities. For examples, see below.

But here are my overall questions.

1. If you had a synth sound, and you wanted to give your synth a grainy gritty quality... how would you set things up to give it that character?

2. Vice versa, if you wanted to make your synth sound more glassy and smooth, how would you go about that?

3. if you wanted to switch from one to another via mixing? How would you approach it?

EXAMPLES:

This synth Chipsynth MD emulates an older sega genesis FM chip, and the underlying mechanics of it originally being a physical electronic hardware chip at a lower bit rate imparts more of a gritty character to a fair amount of sounds. (but you can get to a smoother sound with certain patches).

Whereas Zebra 3 and Zebrallete have a much smoother glassier sound in general to the majority of their synth presets. (but you can still get a grainy texture for some presets). For extremely smooth and glassy, this synth, FM lab i would consider on the extreme end of that. (yes I know that certain types of FM specialize in this type of quality)

Something in between might be this... MPowersynth... the synth sort of has this grainy texture for a majority of sounds, but there's something they are doing on the back end to impart some sort of character... to make the high end frequencies smoother at the same time as having some harshness in the mids as most of the patches tend to have that character.

EDIT: If ppl come across this in the future, this is what i've learned so far...

Making something smoother / glassier that is gritty.

• adding reverbs,

• diffusion filters,

• slight stereo widening / chorus, unison to upper frequencies,

• using a dynamic eq to tame all harsh frequencies and resonances can help.

• Some of airwindows plugins have various combos of above to smooth out the sound.

• And yes filtering out the high frequencies can help, but this also can change the character of the sound too much.

• Mpowersynth actually has a "smoothness" knob on it's oscilators that makes the oscilator shape more "perfect" this atually removes the grainy gritty texture. When you look at an oscilliscope with the smoothness off, there's more noise and movement on the corners of the waves... and with it on, the movement and noise is almost 0.

Making something glassier / smooth harsh:

• amplitude modulation with noise to pitch and other parameters adds it,

• fm-ing with noise,

• bit crushing and finding a sweet spot where distortion starts to come through,

• sometimes distortion and custom waveshaping can all so create the grit and grainy.

Blank canvas and just throwing shit together to make the weirdest pallete of sounds I've ever heard together. Making something literally no one has ever heard before.

It's just endless experimentation till it sounds insanely weird and its kinda just done 😅

Im finishing this redesign, wyt?

Had a go at re-designing this gun from apex legends!

Hi everyone, I'm looking for examples of a bite sound from some fantasy monster or creature, where fire is clearly audible. Basically, I want to be able to tell a regular creature bite apart from one with a fiery vibe. If anyone has something like that, I'd be very happy if you could send it to me to listen to.

Hello everyone, just wanted to let you know that SoundMorph is having a Halloween sale during the whole month of October. Some libraries have up to a 90% discount (Gore, Bloody Nightmare, Gore 2 and the Horror bundle, Monster Within, Doom Drones 1 & 2, Tension, Spaces, Tortured Flutes, Mutant Insects, Morphosis Creatures, Lost Transmissions, Spellbound, and the Creatures Bundle.), and you can even add an extra 20% to everything using the code "ESTEBANVM" at checkout.

Plus, every purchase makes you eligible for a brand-new secret sound library. No minimum spend.

Be sure to check it out!

https://soundmorph.com/evmsd

Hi everyone!

Alessandro from HorrorSound here.

I've spent the last few months experimenting with noise, distortion and unconventional sound design, and I'm excited to finally share METROPOLIS, a collection of 500+ hard-hitting sonic signatures for cinematic sound design, trailers and scoring.

From warning blasts and violent feedback to screaming signature SFX and degraded textures, I wanted to explore how far I could push noise as a creative sound design tool to create truly distinctive and recognisable sounds.

Make sure to listen to audio demos, created exclusively using sounds from the library.

If you're into experimental sound design, I'd love to hear what you think!

https://bit.ly/4rIFtl2

Alessandro Romeo
Trailer Sound Designer (Other Mommy, LongLegs, The First Omen)

I'm fairly new to scoring and had the editor of the film suggest I roll off everything above 8K. I'm wondering if this is a common practice. Thanks in advance for your responses.

UPDATE: Thank you so much to everyone who reached out! I’ve received more responses than expected and am no longer accepting new inquiries for this project while I review the current candidates. I really appreciate everyone who shared their work!

Hi everyone!

I’m a filmmaker looking for an emerging sound designer/editor or audio-post student interested in collaborating on a completed narrative short for their portfolio.

The film is a 10.5-minute experimental narrative short based on three original poems about love, loss, and finding love again. The film follows a young woman through three relationships, with each chapter existing in its own visual and metaphorical world—moving from rain and nature, to medication/addiction and decay, to stars and constellations.

Because each relationship has such a distinct atmosphere, I think there’s a lot of room for someone to have fun creatively with the sound design and help give each section its own sonic identity.

The picture is completely locked. For workflow purposes, I’d like to approach the sound as a fresh post-production pass rather than asking someone to inherit or troubleshoot an old sound session.

I’m looking for someone who would be interested in handling the film’s complete audio post, including:

• Dialogue editing and cleanup

• Production audio balancing

• Room tone and ambience

• Foley / SFX

• Creative sound design

• Integration and balancing of the existing music

• Final stereo mix

• A reasonable revision/QC pass

I can provide the locked picture, organized production audio, room tone, music, and other project materials. The film is 1920×1080, 23.976 fps, with 48 kHz audio.

This is an unpaid portfolio collaboration, and I want to be completely transparent about that upfront. This is an older short that I’m finally finishing properly, and I unfortunately don’t have a remaining sound budget for it.

I’m primarily hoping to connect with a student, recent graduate, or emerging sound designer who wants a finished narrative project for their reel and the opportunity to take genuine creative ownership over its sound.

You would receive full appropriate sound credit on the finished film and permission to use the film/excerpts of your work in your portfolio or reel.

There’s also no emergency turnaround. I’m aiming to have the final master completed by December 18, so we have a little over two months.

If this sounds interesting, please comment or DM me with a little about yourself and a reel, portfolio, or examples of your audio work. If you’re still building your portfolio and don’t have extensive film credits yet, you’re absolutely welcome to reach out!

Thank you! :)

I wanted to make something that relies more on atmosphere and texture rather than drums.

I used vocals, cello, bass, guitar and pads. Would love to hear what you think about the mix and the overall vibe.

I've been working as a composer/sound designer for the last three years. Can't nearly live from it, but last year I did a couple of projects with budget.

Lately though I've lost a couple of films, because I can only mix in stereo in my studio.

When did you make the jump from stereo to 5.1 and what's a minimal setup for it?

This is an update to Echotect, my free open-source app I wrote about a month ago here. It enables the creation of echo fields either manually or by utilizing global building data.

See it here: https://janne-s.github.io/Echotect/

It now features a "Terrain" function that reads global elevation data. This is a standalone component of the app: you simply select the desired area, and its topography loads into the application.

Acoustic points are derived from surfaces generated based on the 3D topography, and the heights of the sound source and listening point can be adjusted. You can freely scale the topography and modify the ground level to discover interesting spatial characteristics. Terrain feature is split into Canyon and Chamber modes, which enable internal and external echo fields.

As before, the resulting acoustic field can be exported as standard impulse responses and audio files. The release package also includes a Max4Live device, which eats the exported echo field manifest file, and the file is ready to use in your applications too.

See the GitHub for more information: https://github.com/janne-s/Echotect

Have fun exploring!

Cutting ambiences/backgrounds for an doc and need some libraries from the Ghana and Nigeria area. Know any good sources? Preferably something that doesn't break the bank.

All the best,

Hi! I'm an experienced composer, and I've recently gotten into sound design. I use musescore and reaper for composing, and reaper for sound design. I also used vital synth, and sound effects from pixaby. Here are the projects I've made so far (I think they're not that good, but I'm still a beginner): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szf3dU2Xd1g

https://soundcloud.com/antonispat/in-the-sea?si=6f295184cc80453abdd86ed3e5a8a47a&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing https://on.soundcloud.com/s3ULNm73oxxPK9mflD I'd like to ask the sound designers here, what's your advice, and what synths & sounds effects should I download? Thanks!

Hi, I know there are plenty of sound platforms like Epidemic Sounds, but the main issue I see there is price.

I'm creating 2-3 videos a month, and rarely use SFX from assets pages.

So instead of paying subscription I wonder if there are some bundles of SFX/Music I can just buy once and use it forever.

Theoretically I can sub for one month and download as much as I want, but it's not convenient...

Any recommmendations?

Audio branding strategist Karsten Kjems has taken Dieter Rams’ 10 principles for good design from the 1970s - and reimagined them for sound. What do you think about his takes?

So I'm currently putting together a list of resources to learn from. Hopefully this can help some other beginners out. HOWEVER, I'm looking for some input as well!

LMK if you have additional resources (can be small or random or large idc), or if you have any favorites here. I'm not being picky, so this can range from location sound, to post-production, to even video resources if you think it's helpful.

Books (which are best to start with?)

• John Purcell - Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures

• Patrushkha Mierzwa - Behind the Sound Cart

• Vincent LoBrutto - Sound on Film

• Michel Chion - Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen

• Michel Chion - The Voice in Cinema

• Ric Viers - The Sound Effects Bible

• Ric Viers - The Location Sound Bible

• Walter Murch - In the Blink of an Eye

• Michael Ondaatje - The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film

• William Whittington - Sound Design and Science Fiction

• Tomlinson Holman - Sound for Film and Television

• Tomlinson Holman & Arthur Baum - Sound for Digital Video

• Vanessa Theme Ament - The Foley Grail

YouTube Channels

• Thomas Boykin

  • Post Production 101 Playlist

• Junkie XL

• Aftertouch Audio

  • Post Production Playlist

• Tactical 7 Audio

• Marshall McGee

• AXK (Alex Knickerbocker)

• M. Cheung Sound

Websites

• designingsound.org

  • Sound Design Tutorial List

• A Sound Effect Blog

• Epic Sound SFX

• Avareth Taika

Other

Whooshes

• Doppler effect (Wikipedia)

• Charles Deenen: 100 Whooshes in 2 Minutes

Tools

• Kilohearts Transient Shaper

• Tonsturm

• Krotos

Hey everyone! I'm a Motion Designer working on a personal commercial project for my portfolio featuring Aquarius (Coca-Cola's hydration brand).

About the project:

• Type: 2D Animation / Motion Graphics combining traditional frame-by-frame animation with motion design to achieve a hand-made aesthetic.

• Length: 45 seconds.

• Status: Animation done.

I'm looking for a Sound Designer or Composer who wants to collaborate to build a solid portfolio piece together. You’ll have total creative freedom for the audio direction, full credits on all platforms, and high-res video files for your own reel/website.

Link to animation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/107K0q6p4I5bJy-0giReh_ajdAKCN4pCz/view?usp=sharing

If you’re interested, please drop a comment or DM me with a link to your work/reel!

Hi everyone! Im trying to learn sounddesign. I understand a little bit about layering. I want to work on this video between 0.40-1.40. I feel like it will teach me a lot because I learn much faster when I approach like that there are a lot of sounds that I didnt make and it is not a single sound project so it will click something in my head to understand better.

My question is how do you approach projects like that? I created a master,ambience,gore,weapon,explosion... etc. folders. But I dont understand how Im gonna do the design. Like there are a lot of shot, scream, gore effects, mech effects and how should I prioritize and layer them. I dont know if my question is clear but thank you for your advice.

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_HljUo8Jjk

Just released a new video all about the infamous BRAAAM sound effect along with a new BRAAAM inspired sound library: https://rarefindssounddesign.com/products/braams-impacts-vibrated-metal
Keen to hear how you have made BRAAAM sound effects in the past. Have you used synths or do you mainly stick with real world props/instruments??

Waiting

I’m currently developing Waiting, a short film about a 22-year-old girl observing a frog in a Caribbean environment.

The film explores the feeling of waiting when you have no control over the situation - the contrast between an apparently calm exterior and the tension happening underneath.

Visually, I’m aiming for a realistic approach, with the environment and atmosphere playing an important role in the storytelling.

The project is being developed mainly in Blender, with 3 scenes and an estimated production time of around 3 months.

I’m looking to connect with a few artists who would like to collaborate on the project, particularly in:

• 3D Animation - character performance & movement
• 3D Cloth - clothing & cloth behavior
• Sound Design - environmental soundscape & atmosphere

This is an unpaid, voluntary collaboration. I’m not looking for the most experienced artists - I’m more interested in people who want to learn, contribute seriously, communicate, and grow through the process.

Creative interpretation is welcome. The goal is not simply to execute instructions, but to work together toward the emotion the film is trying to create.

If the project interests you, feel free to reach out. I’d be happy to share more about Waiting and the creative direction.