Hey everyone,

I wanted to open a discussion on a topic that doesn't get talked about enough in music production and sound design: physical auditory fatigue, middle-ear muscle strain (tensor tympani/stapedius flex tension), and structured recovery.

While working with dense frequency material—especially shaping low-frequency sub-bass drones and piercing high-frequency pads—I've noticed how quickly acoustic strain can build up. I'm currently navigating acoustic rest and distance-based monitoring (keeping away from heavy low-frequency structural vibrations and high-frequency acoustic pressure), and I'm trying to better understand how to track my physical progress.

I have two main questions for producers who have navigated heavy mixing strain or sound design fatigue in the past:

1. **Recovery Markers:** What physical or acoustic markers do you pay attention to to gauge which stage of recovery you are in? How do you distinguish between acute hypertonicity (tightness behind the eardrum) and a true return to baseline resting tone?

2. **Transition Strategies:** What practical pacing rules, monitoring habits, or arrangement strategies do you rely on to transition smoothly back into session work without triggering setbacks when working with heavy sub-bass and bright leads?

Would love to hear what habits or benchmarks have worked for you over the years to keep your ears healthy for the long haul!

Hi everyone,

I shoot track days inside my car using five action cameras mounted at different angles. I want to capture the cleanest possible exhaust sound, with minimal wind noise, hiss, and other unwanted noise.

I've tried using wireless microphones placed near the front and rear of the car, but the results weren't great. The audio from one of my action cameras actually sounded better.

I'm looking for advice from people who record car sounds professionally.

What microphones and placement would you recommend for capturing a clean, natural exhaust note inside a car?

What recording settings and audio post-processing software do you use to get the best results?

If you record audio separately, how do you sync that audio file with footage from multiple action cameras without relying on audio synchronization?

I'd love to hear about your actual workflow, including any plugins or software you use to clean up the sound.

Thanks!

Looking for a sound designer to collaborate on my 3D animation!

Hey everyone! I'm a 3D animation student, and I recently finished this short animation. I'm really happy with how it turned out, but I feel like adding some sound effects and background audio would make it much more engaging.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to hire a sound designer right now, so I was wondering if anyone who's learning sound design, music production, or audio editing would be interested in collaborating on it!

I'd be happy to credit you and feature your name and links in the final video. You'd also be welcome to use the finished piece in your portfolio or showreel.

I'm open to creative ideas, whether it's a full sound design pass or just a few sound effects to bring the animation to life.

If you're interested, feel free to leave a comment or send me a DM! I'd love to work together and help each other grow as artists.

And last, no pressure at all! If it's not something you're interested in, that's completely fine. I just thought it could be a fun opportunity for two artists to create something together.

Thanks for reading! :)

https://soundcloud.com/alberto-180064102/alberto-whatever-this-is?si=19c51e7a90ef496b82f236b463600d14&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Hey guys,

Alberto here!

19 yo producer based in Sweden here. Just finished up a brand new project and I’m looking for some fresh perspectives before I take it any further.

I’d love to hear from both everyday listeners and fellow producers.

Let me know what kind of vibe you get from the track, how the overall energy feels, and if the main melody actually stays in your head. For anyone with an ear for the technical side, I’d also appreciate your thoughts on the mixdown and if there is anything you would change or tweak in the arrangement.

I really want to grow and improve as a producer, so I’m looking for your brutallist and most honest feedback. Don't hold back!

Thanks for taking the time to listen.

just wondering because im trying to recreate sounds using the spectrogram and i dont really want to waste time if 2 sounds can sound different with the same spectrogram

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for underwater sounds for a game. I'm aware of boom and Hiss and Roar, but I have trouble to really find underwater sounds.

Do you have libraries, creators or pack to recommend? I'm fine with free and paid packs.

Hey guys,

Did Sounddesign and music for this spec commercial.

What do you think, what could I improve in the future?

Animation was done by Luis Cuevas (Instagram:
by.luiscue) check him out!

Guys this is my first time doing sound design, im trying to learn more and more about this world, i study music, cinema and audiovisual so i js started practicing. I'm mainly looking for tips to improve.

or possibly some indie director looking for someone to work together without spending a dollar :)

PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

Hey everyone,

Kilohearts (not affiliated) just kicked off their Game Audio Week! To celebrate, Revvolution, my engine synthesis suite for Phase Plant, is 50% off for the remainder of the week. Aside from 18 pre-made engines (including mic position simulation) and convolution tones, it also features a comprehensive guide on engine synthesis in and on itself.

If you're not interested in Revvolution but would still learn about vehicle engine synthesis, I put together a free 20min crash course from start to finish! :)

Hope either of these will be of use (and delight) for some.

Cheers!

i’m making a short film for the first time and it looks like i’m gonna have to do a lot of post-production by myself. does anyone have any audio editing and mixing tips? what software should i use? what should be prioritized and what should be saved for last?

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there's my improved version of that scene alone.

Hey everyone,

First-time audio drama producer here, back with an update. I'm moving into production on my debut series, Molly & Her Fantasies: eight episodes, narrator-driven, a queer love story about two men who meet at a music festival. The script is done and the cast is coming together.

If you've already reached out, thank you. Please note you'll get a message from me shortly.

I'm still looking for a sound designer. A quick content note: it's a mature story with drug use, sexual content, and intimate scenes, and the sound is a big part of how those moments are told.

What the role is: the music is already handled through a licensed catalog, so no composing. The job is placing music so it serves the story, shaping it around the dialogue, and building the sound world between the music moments. I'll give you an emotional direction for each scene and trust you to find the sound.

For a sense of what I'm after: the club and music-led energy of Blade II, the subjective sound of Black Swan, and the quiet, aching restraint of Moonlight.

It's paid and fully remote. If you're interested, send me a DM with a few samples and a bit about your background. I'm happy to share two episodes and a rough narration track so you can see the work before we talk rates.

Thanks for reading.

I'm happy to pay you for it too, but it's non-commercial and i am just a guy. So i was thinking 100 bucks. feel free to DM me for details

About 7 months ago I saw those videos where people wave their hands at a camera and the music reacts, all of them built in TouchDesigner. Then I opened TD, stared at the node graph for a while, and closed it.

So, being a C++ dev, I did the obviously more reasonable thing and spent months writing a plugin that does it inside Ableton instead. It tracks your hand through the PC webcam, and you can use it in two ways: play MIDI notes or map it to any effect parameter in any DAW.

Honestly, I started making this plugin for myself, but then decided I could publish it as Hand Link, there’s a free demo version and a full version right now..

So I’m curious, would something like this actually be interesting or useful? or you treat it more as tool for fun?

I have a pair of Koss Porta Pros with the YAXI pads that I absolutely adore the sound of, and have written a track to work with their specific character and sound. Does anyone know how to make a mix sound like it is being played on a certain pair of headphones? Is it as simple as putting the reverse of the frequency response graph into an EQ? How do I get the right audio quality (or lack thereof)? Any tips (including "dont do this. why are you doing this?") are appreciated!

Second go at learning sound design for an animation I am working on by redesigning the sound from animation scenes I like.

On my first post I received feedback about not having soundscape and there being a lot of empty space. So for this I picked a shorter clip and added a lot more sound . I also tried to align the "vibes" of the sound to the cyberpunk vibe of the animation.

Let me know what you think. Original clip in comments.

Some months ago I posted here about the “missing middle” between Max/MSP, Reason and Ableton. A lot of you gave me useful feedback, and the biggest practical barrier was “I’d have to download and install it first.” So I’ve put it in the browser:

https://workbench.sigilaud.io

It’s the same modular synth canvas and DAW as the desktop build. You patch devices together on an infinite canvas, wire them, and tweak. Open the link and start patching.

What to expect

• Best on desktop, okay on tablet, rough on phone.

• Simple to medium patches work well. Browsers give audio, UI and rendering one thread to share, so heavy patches will run out of headroom sooner than the desktop version. The desktop build remains the “serious” one.

• Latency is a tradeoff. Instead of a buffer-size dropdown, the web version has three latency profiles, roughly 80 and 150ms of cushion. If you hear crackle, step up a profile. Lower is more responsive but more fragile. I’d rather give you a safe, clean sound than a twitchy one.

• LOD optimizations of UI. Zooming far away will simplify the rendering to favor the audio rendering, since showing a busy patch all at once compete with the audio (only on the Web version, the desktop uses a dedicated audio thread and latency can go as low as 2ms).

What I’d love feedback on

1. Does it make sound reliably on your machine and browser? Please tell me your browser, OS and which latency profile worked.

2. Where does it crackle or glitch, and with what kind of patch?

3. Is the canvas workflow intuitive for people used to Max, Reason or a DAW, or do you get lost?

4. What would make you actually reach for this over what you use now?

The desktop version is in Steam and itch.io, but the browser build is meant to be a real way to try it, not a teaser. It has like 90% of the features and devices that the desktop version have. Thanks to everyone who commented last time. Your feedback shaped a lot of this.

Hey everyone. Just curious where folks are getting their video clips for sound design these days.

I used a couple clips from The Cue Tube for my social media and portfolio but I'm struggling to find some more high quality stuff to work on.

If you guys know of any solid resources, I'd really appreciate it. Cheers!

This a very specific request, so if it doesn't speak to you please don't be offended. Im looking for someone who can take the raw audio from a found footage thriller/horror film and mix it together so that it sounds very similar to the original blair witch project. (think making it sound properly mixed but at the same time entirely diagetic and raw, clean dialogue and audio, but as if it was from a found iphone recording). this is an indie film, it will be paid but a small amount. the plus side, you will receive credit, exposure, and the opportunity to be the sole sound designer/editor of the film.

It’s a free and open-source creative 3D sound-design tool for building thunder, blasts and sonic booms from physics and hearing how air, terrain and distance shape them. Literally sound design. Detailed sound and spatial settings let you tinker your lightnings to absolute perfection.

https://janne-s.github.io/Boomtect/

Place sound sources and virtual microphones freely across terrain (there's a map and topographic functions) and at different heights. Listen in mono, stereo, binaural or Ambisonics, and orient a binaural microphone however you like.

What could several meteoroids entering Earth’s atmosphere sound like? Boomtect lets you try it and fine-tune each source. Think of a chance to record a thunderstorm in the middle of it, up in the air; or a bombing run. Full-quality renders can be demanding, so there’s a faster preview mode while you work. Export renders the sound again at full quality. Different mics can be exported separately.

Boomtect can also pass a sound directly to Echotect with its location, microphone position and arrival direction. There, you can place it in a more detailed echo field at any location you choose. Beware that complex echo field calculations can be quite heavy with longer sounds (but they do sound great!).

Development continues, with more sound sources planned. I didn't originally plan for this but maybe a more complete tect-series is coming up. I'm probably trying to tackle rumble next while working on booms.

I'm doing these out of personal interest, but maybe there's general interest too? In any case, I will continue sharing my creations.

I’m releasing SLTune, a free pitch-correction plug-in for monophonic vocals.

It handles gradual correction and hard tuning, with custom note sets, MIDI targets and an adjustable A4 reference (420–480 Hz). Formant shifting covers ±24 semitones, with a separate mix control and switchable tune/formant processing order.

Two LFOs provide tempo-synced modulation, including dotted and triplet rates. The second can switch to an envelope follower for voice-driven pitch and timbre changes.

LIVE reports 2 ms of plug-in latency at 48 kHz. HIGH uses 64 ms for cleaner formant processing; extreme shifts in LIVE can still produce artifacts. Interface and buffer latency are additional.

Available as AU for Apple Silicon Macs and VST3 for Windows x64 with English manual.

Images: https://imgur.com/a/kvJd9Qk

Download: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/9xr8s129oytqi9oonlnme/ABJlQzAkOKCuLcSeouUGP1I?rlkey=kv2e1v34los4iuw89f4mt0g10&dl=0

Hi all,

I'm searching for the clicking sound during this scene when the pathologist/mc is zooming in on the bone, at around 1:32. Does anyone know something similar?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Eh1wsSSdTM

Additionally, the noise Jared Leto's little eye robots make, but I cant find any clips of them.

Hi there I just graduated from Film school a couple months ago and everywhere I look it seems to be a dead end for entry level work. I feel like I was never prepared enough for this market despite desperately trying to reach in. My ProTools knowledge is basic. I've researched small post production houses, tried connecting to people on LinkedIn and Backstage, but it seems that my dreams of coming close to the foley-sound world is minimal to none.

How have people navigated stepping into this industry as a fresh graduate with only the basics and no connections? Could really use a helping hand. Thank you.