Every sound holds a meaning and adds an emotional quotient to a visual experience. It impacts us on a primitive and subconscious level. According to the well-known film editor Paul Hirsch, “Sound is the key... If the track makes sense, you can do almost anything visually.”
Over time, consumers have also understood the importance of sound. With music and audio becoming important, there is a huge demand for quality content, whether it is movies, games, songs or anything else consumed digitally. This has also led brands to focus attention on developing enhanced audio technologies.
What is sound designing?
The art of sound designing helps content creators generate an emotion, or make a presence felt, even when it is not visible on the screen. Sound designing and mixing can be used across disciplines like filmmaking, television production, theatre, live performance, video game development, sound recording and reproduction, post-production, radio and musical instrument development.
Sound designing not only involves editing and enhancing previously recorded content like dialogues or songs, but also includes the process of creating sound from a scratch. A sound designer plays a crucial role in bringing the elements together on the screen and uniting them through the art of sound.
This is different from sound engineering, which emphasises the complex systems related to recording, creating and editing sounds and also producing multi-channel sound mixes, often using special software and equipment.
A sound designer needs to develop his/her creative abilities to foresee and imagine a sound that will suit a situation and then create it through varied mixes. Therefore, a basic understanding of music and sound can be an added advantage. In case of sound engineers, a background in physics and mathematics is advisable, as they will be dealing with sound as an energy form and involved in calculating and converting sound waves into electrical energy along with various other technicalities. However, they too should have a creative mind to envision the needed sound situation.
The study of sound design opens a career in creative fields where one encapsulates the emotion, atmosphere or message within a sound piece. A sound designer offers the viewer an immersive experience and transports him/her into the story depicted.
Sound Engineering, on the other hand, opens up varied career options including studio sound engineer, audio engineer, live sound engineer, studio designer, mixing engineer, music arranger, mastering engineer, audio post-production, dialogue and music editor, location Recordist, Digital Media Entrepreneur, Sound Recordist, among many others.
In India, many diploma-level courses ranging from six months to a year are available at institutes like the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune; Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute of India, Kolkata; Whistling Woods International, Mumbai; MIT School of Film and Television, Pune; Ramoji Academy of Film and Television, Hyderabad; SAE Technology College, which has various campuses; and Annapurna College of Film and Media, Hyderabad.
The writer is the Senior Director, Dolby Institute, Dolby Laboratories
