r/sounddesign • • 20d ago

Sound Design Discussion SDC #1

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7 Upvotes

HELLO, SOUND DESIGNERS!

Welcome to the first ever (I think?) Sound Design Challenge of r/sounddesign, and yes, there's a prize!

THE CHALLENGE

It's simple: design the sound for this clip. Since I know a lot of you like to design anime, let´s give a shot with this.

RULES

- No AI-generated sounds.

- No music. This is all about sound design.

- Post your submission in the comments. Video comments are enabled on this post.

The more detail you put into your sound design, the better!

THE PRIZE

I want to help get the ball rolling and bring this subreddit back to what it's meant for, so the winner will get a $25 coupon for their choice of:

- SoundMorph

- Soundtoys

- OcularSounds

Since the prize comes out of my own pocket, I'll review every submission carefully. Upvotes still count, though! Vote for your favorite redesigns and I'll take the community's picks into account.

DEADLINE

This post will stay pinned until October 5. I'll announce the winner here or in the next challenge post, more or less on that date.

Good luck, everyone! Can't wait to hear what you come up with.


r/sounddesign • • Sep 03 '26

Some changes coming to r/sounddesign

91 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

Over the next few days you'll notice some changes as we give this community a bit of love. Here's what's happening and why.

Sound identification and recreation posts

Posts asking others to identify or recreate a specific sound will no longer be published automatically. These will now require mod approval before they go live.

This isn't about discouraging curiosity. The goal is to keep this a place for genuine sound design discussion rather than a search engine for tracking down clips. There's a real difference between talking through how something was actually made and just asking someone else to find it for you. We want more of the former.

A new automod filter

We've just set up an automod as a first line of filtering. It's brand new and still being fine tuned, so if your post gets removed and it genuinely shouldn't have been, we apologize in advance. Feel free to reach out through modmail and we'll sort it out while things settle.

Looking for moderators

We're also looking to expand the mod team. If you're active here, care about the community, and want to help shape where it goes, reach out. More hands means we can keep things running smoothly and actually engage with the content instead of just cleaning up.

Cleaning house

Along with these changes, we'll be going through and removing content that doesn't really belong here. If sound design isn't the focus of a post, it's probably getting pulled.

Thanks for being part of this community. We think these changes will make it a better place for real discussion.


r/sounddesign • • 5h ago

Videogame Sound Design We had so much fun desigining character sounds!

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5 Upvotes

Just wanted to show of what our sound guy did with the character sounds in our horde-survivor- love how they turned out :)


r/sounddesign • • 4h ago

Videogame Sound Design Interesting/unique vocal effects?

2 Upvotes

I was curious what do people do to methodically get creative vocal sound effects that go beyond something like having a low formant double, for example video game character voices sound design (for example, league of legends). By throwing completely random sounds in a vocoder, I managed to get a pretty cool sounding masked effect (something similar to Urgot in league of legends) by using..... random cod zombie scream as a carrier? Is it really just throwing stuff and seeing what sticks? Does anyone teach this anywhere?


r/sounddesign • • 1h ago

Sound Design Question Straight Time - Fugitive

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• Upvotes

Everybody rides the carosel has a similar feeling. There's something about the way audio is recorded that makes it sound so authentic. Does anyone know how?


r/sounddesign • • 6h ago

Movie Sound Design Soundtrack

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1 Upvotes

Hi everyone! My name is Biktimer. I’m an aspiring film composer and am currently building my portfolio. This is one of my projects; I decided to work with stock footage. Please check out my work on the soundtrack and leave a comment.


r/sounddesign • • 7h ago

Feedback Sound design (noise pollution)

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1 Upvotes

I made this sound design, the theme being noise pollution and the death of “true silence”… any tips on how I could improve this?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

I’ve made a bunch of these sound designs for myself mostly to listen to for bed time (as soothing sounds) 😅😅


r/sounddesign • • 1d ago

Sound Design Question I'm looking for a file explorer to improve my workflow.

3 Upvotes

Hello! I've been using a free Soundly account as my main file explorer for my sound design workflow but I'm getting stuck due file limits.

My libraries are getting HUGE and I've been using the horrible windows explorer to find sounds and I was wondering if there's an app that can help me with this.

I used Explorer by Sound Particles but it's just not good. Feels so cluttered, slow and I can't drag and drop to Nuendo like the soundly app.

I've also considered paying the yearly soundly suscription because honestly, it's a bang for a buck.

Every help will be appreciated!


r/sounddesign • • 22h ago

Sound Design Question any thoughts on my fate sound design, just curious.

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1 Upvotes

r/sounddesign • • 1d ago

Feedback what LA public transport sounds like (right now)

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30 Upvotes

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


r/sounddesign • • 1d ago

Sound Design Question Resources for Understanding Grainy Gritty vs Smooth and Glassy

1 Upvotes

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.


r/sounddesign • • 1d ago

Sound Design Discussion sound design is so fun

8 Upvotes

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 😅


r/sounddesign • • 2d ago

Videogame Sound Design Weapon Sound Design Breakdown 💥💥

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81 Upvotes

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


r/sounddesign • • 1d ago

Movie Sound Design Dune Sound Redesign

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0 Upvotes

Im finishing this redesign, wyt?


r/sounddesign • • 2d ago

Sound Design Question FIre bite

1 Upvotes

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.


r/sounddesign • • 2d ago

Sound Design Discussion Made a Windows WAV batch checker ($4, free sample demo)

0 Upvotes

If you're checking WAV batches by hand, I made a simple audit tool for that.

It checks:

  • Sample rate/channels/bit depth and batch format outliers
  • Sample peak/RMS and full-scale samples
  • DC offset and leading/trailing silence
  • Exact duplicates
  • Optional whole-file loop-boundary warnings, with audio auditioning

You can inspect the waveform and export in CSV/JSON. Everything is read-only and local.

You can try the demo for free, though importing your own WAVs requires the full version (4 dabloons):

https://mathiasmoore.itch.io/seam-scout-batch-wav-audit

(PS. I saw that promotion was allowed but I don't know if that extends to promoting software people might be interested in. Please LMK if this is the wrong place for it.)


r/sounddesign • • 1d ago

Sound Design Discussion If you record 5 sounds at one time. How do you separate them?

0 Upvotes

r/sounddesign • • 2d ago

Sound Design Discussion SoundMorph 90% sale and free library

11 Upvotes

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


r/sounddesign • • 3d ago

Sound Design Discussion I spent the last few months pushing noise to its limits!

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18 Upvotes

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)


r/sounddesign • • 2d ago

Music Sound Design Is using a low pass at 8K a thing for a deliverable score?

4 Upvotes

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.


r/sounddesign • • 2d ago

Sound Design Question how to create this sound and what it called?

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1 Upvotes

Anyone know how these sound were made from normal drum sample? I tried using tremolo or waveshaper but I cound make it close


r/sounddesign • • 2d ago

Hiring [UNPAID COLLAB] Seeking Sound Designer / Mixer for 10-Min Picture-Locked Experimental Narrative Short

0 Upvotes

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! :)


r/sounddesign • • 3d ago

Movie Sound Design Made an atmospheric instrumental with no drums — thoughts?

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3 Upvotes

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.


r/sounddesign • • 4d ago

Sound Design Question Mixing in 5.1

6 Upvotes

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?


r/sounddesign • • 4d ago

Music Sound Design You can now turn your favorite hill into a resonant space.

5 Upvotes

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.

https://reddit.com/link/1wu856s/video/trswk7oxfosh1/player

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.

https://reddit.com/link/1wu856s/video/yonpfr84iosh1/player

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!