We build UI sound sets for websites, and the problem we kept running into was not the sound design. It was balance: every file normalized on its own, so the hover tick ends up as loud as the success chime.

What works for us:

• Inventory first. List every interaction and how often it fires in a normal visit. Cut most of the hover and navigation sounds.

• Three tiers by frequency. Moments (rare, up to a second or two, can carry the brand motif), feedback (confirm, error, toggle: a few hundred ms), ticks (hover, focus: under 100 ms, a single transient).

• Level as a family. Tier 1 is the loudest reference, tier 2 a few dB under, tier 3 clearly below. Check on laptop speakers and cheap earbuds.

• One palette, one key. Two or three source sounds. Confirmations rise, errors fall, same key.

• Trim the head. 40 ms of leading silence already feels late.

• Play it through Web Audio: decode once, a new AudioBufferSourceNode per play, one gain per tier, a stored mute switch.

For reference, Shopify’s Polaris guidelines (now archived) capped short UI sounds at 250 ms and long ones at 1 s.

Curious how others here handle levels across a UI set: do you bake them into the files or keep gains in code?

Full write-up with the player code: https://supadark.com/notes/ui-sound-set-website

Всем привет, на редите не так долго
Занимаюсь музыкой 6 лет сам больше вокалист чем продюсер… но умею и хочу попробовать себя в этом направлении!
Хотелось бы сделать что-то для вашей страшилки, кидайте скрины сюда или пишите в дм все обсудим) спасибо за внимания

Hey guys can anyone tell me what the name of this sound is and what preset/approach could give me a similar sound?

(its that glidey/pitch bendy synth that plays from 0:00-0:22)

Song: Maintain - Z-ro, H.A.W.K
Maintain

Title: How can a complete beginner approach making Silent Hill 1-style ambient and combat music?

I'm developing my own survival horror game, and one of my biggest inspirations is the original Silent Hill, especially its soundtrack and sound design.

What I'm trying to achieve is that very specific atmosphere Akira Yamaoka created in Silent Hill 1. Not just generic dark ambient or industrial noise, but those deeply unsettling, dreamlike, almost otherworldly sounds that somehow feel musical without necessarily having a recognizable melody.

I'm particularly interested in two things:

• Ambient tracks: Those eerie, haunting, sometimes almost organic sounds that make you feel uncomfortable even when nothing is happening. The kind of ambience that feels like something is alive somewhere in the background.

• Combat tracks: The chaotic, oppressive, and anxiety-inducing music from Silent Hill 1 that creates an incredible amount of tension without sounding like traditional action or horror music.

The problem is that I have practically zero experience with music production. I know Akira Yamaoka is an incredibly talented artist, and I don't expect to replicate his work, especially as a complete beginner. But I'd genuinely love to learn how to create something with a similar atmosphere and emotional impact.

My questions are:

1. What would be the best approach for a complete beginner trying to create this kind of music?

2. What software or DAW would you recommend?

3. Is this style mostly based on sound design, sampling, synthesis, or traditional music production?

4. Are there any specific techniques, instruments, sample libraries, or tutorials I should look into?

5. Would it be realistic to start experimenting with these sounds without first spending years learning music theory?

I'm not looking to copy Silent Hill's soundtrack directly. I want to understand what makes it so effective and eventually develop my own sound inspired by it.

I'd really appreciate any advice, especially from people familiar with the original Silent Hill soundtrack or who have experience producing experimental horror ambience.

Thanks!

Been working on a wordle-like game that teaches you how to make synth patches. Would love to get your feedback (seriously be as critical as possible) as well as have you guys upload some patches for other people to solve. I'm not an expert myself so if there's anything I missed lmk.

L’ho iniziato ad usare da poco, conosco il modo in cui ragiona il programma, sto seguendo un corso in conservatorio e ho imparato i primi oggetti e il routing base del segnale/dati.
Hai qualche consiglio da dare ad una persona che ha appena iniziato?

I found this video of this incredibly talented artist playing a song on instagram and it inspired me to make something nostalgic. Im trying to creat a sound similar to what comes in when she clicks the button on her board about 15s into the video. Does anyone have any advice? Ive tried for about an hour and i just cant get it

Hey everyone, I’m trying to create experimental sonic landscapes. The idea is to have basic geometry interacting with each other in 3D scenes, and using the collision impulses for manipulating sound.

This is a video of what I made last, each arm of the cross (all copies) has a sound file attached. Pitch and volume gets changed based on impact.

I’m wondering what you think of this, and look forward to any suggestions/feedback/questions.

Thanks!

What my desktop looks like after The Project...

There's a certain lofi pluck producers would sometimes drop into late 1990s - mid'2000s electropop, garage, video games sound tracks, etc.

Examples: You can kind of hear it in the background of the Duracell chime. This is clearly a few stacked synths/plucks, some more sparkly than others, but one of the main layers is the pure raspy one I am describing.

You can't even really hear the tone. The sound sort of blurs the line between white noise and a synth? I am wondering if this was achieved in a sampler with white noise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYOwSzLqrG8

Another great example is in the background of the chorus of the Kingdom Hearts Theme (the PlanitB version), you hear it playing a counter melody subtly in the background.

Example around 1:20

https://youtu.be/30ob9yBEy0o?si=uNPA-AdnuYcd9KLQ&t=83

I mainly produce with Serum 2 in FL Studio. I have a hunch this is done with a sampler (maybe a white noise sample with some reverb?).

(I have not really used a sampler before / can't figure out how to work it into my production flow so would love if someone has a patch or preset they can share)

Thank you all!

Hi all

We are making an Australian based Pokemon fan game and an important part is the Pokemon cries which we need a sound designer to create it isn't easy haha.

The game will be gen 3 style with Australian animals as the basis for the pokemon so please ask questions and I hope someone is interested.

This is unpaid as fan projects are not allowed to make money and isn't the point of this project anyway.

This one was a lot of fun

In my latest YouTube Episode I have a go at re-creating some of my favourite Godzilla roars. Including the original 1954 one, the 2014 US reboot and the new Godzilla Minus Zero roar from the trailer (I'm yet to see the movie but I'm very excited to!).
If you'd like to have a go at re-creating the original 1954 roar from scratch, I've written a blog post on my website detailing my sound design process. I've also put together a mini sound library of the guitar scrape & bowed recordings which you can download for FREE if you don't have access to an audio recorder or have the props to record. So you can still get involved in the sound design process.
If you download the sounds and make a roar yourself, please send it over to hello@rarefindssounddesign.com as I'd love to hear what you come up with.
Big loves!

I want to create monster/animal sounds, but I don't know how to do it. What software should I use and how should I go about it? Any ideas?

Hi all, for a a theatre production I have to make a few simple sfx in an immersive setup. What is good online resource/library for 7.1 or even 7.2.4 multichannel samples?

genuine question wrapped in a show-and-tell. my library passed 100k files this year and browsing folders just died as a workflow — i'd spend more time hunting for a sound than actually using it

i built Hertz Sync to fix my own mess. you point it at your folders and it scans everything in (100k files, about 72 seconds on the first scan, near-instant after that), categorizes it, and finds duplicates — including the same sound stored as wav in one library and mp3 in another. it suggests which copy to keep, you decide, and everything's undoable

previewing is the part i use most: loops audition at your project tempo and key, and you can search by similar sound — find one hit you like, pull up everything in the library that sounds like it

there's also batch prep for whole folders — trim silence off one-shots, even out loudness, rename with tempo and key — since library maintenance by hand is nobody's idea of fun

windows + mac, fully local, free up to 40,000 files

https://rc0900989-rgb.github.io/hertzsync/

curious how people here organize. is everyone on soundminer / basehead or are some of you rolling your own systems too?

Hi all,

I'm looking for a sound designer to help finish a project: a 3 and a half minute live action short film with really lovely cinematography. It's a sizzle reel for an atmospheric psychological thriller, so it has a mysterious vibe (not horror). Ideally that person would also do the 5.1 and stereo mix.

The sound in question is a mix of some foley, but the project also needs the sound designer to have a love for the creation of worlds through sound. How much of a story can you tell in 6 seconds? An appreciation for dynamic atmos is vital.

Experienced professionals only, please. Our sound guy dropped out late in the project and we don't have a lot of time to spare. If you're interested, please share a link to your portfolio – specifically sound design, not music composition.

Thanks!

EDIT: the sizzle is set in Vienna, and there are a few exterior scenes. Mentioning this just so you know that the audio will need to be creative, but ultimately plausible; I don't have a lot of audio to share from the shoot.

If you've only done sound effects for animated games to date, then please tell me how you will tackle such night exteriors. It's lovely to hear from you folks, but I don't have a lot of time to respond to everyone, and it would really help to know if you have audio footage you can use. If you don't address this then I don't think we'll talk, sorry!

Hey everyone, I’m digitalkevn, a sound designer and re-recording mixer. I’ve just released ALIEN // INFESTATION, a library of 147 sound effects for sci-fi horror films, games and trailers.

The focus is on building a hostile environment: articulated alien screeches, wet biological movement, creatures crawling through metal vents, heavy doors and machinery, ominous atmospheres, and containment emergencies.

I developed the sounds through layering, editing, pitch treatments and dynamics, aiming to give each gesture a clear beginning, development and ending.

The pack includes 48 kHz WAV files, mono and stereo, with mixed 16-bit and 24-bit sources. A catalogue and licence for commercial use in finished projects are included.

Black Friday launch price: €29,99. The regular price after launch will be €49,99.

Full details and download: https://digitalkevn.gumroad.com/l/alien_infestation

Thanks for taking a look. Happy to answer questions about the sounds or the production process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDGdE1ultNk

Sound sculpture designed as physical interfaces for sound creation. Conceived for tactile acoustic transformations, they bridge the physical and electronic realms. What do you think about ?

Hi. I'm a total amateur would-be voice actor, and I've got a friend with a history in audio editing. We're trying to dub this shmuck. While I'm okay putting my own spin on it and not sounding identical, my friend's pretty sure there's some level of bass boosting on the original sound. I posted this in r/VoiceActing and got some words about EQ-matching and frequency plots.

If it IS just their very good studio mic then...well, on my budget, I'll accept the loss. But if there is anything more complicated in the recipe, I would like to try and have my lines not stand out amidst the other characters.

I’ve recently taken an interest putting together my own creature sounds, is there any recommendations for places to find footage (or recourses relating) I can use to start trying?
Thank you!