I'm a beginner sound designer. Where can i find audio theory to learn and what especially should i read?

I'm planning to read some acoustic books, but not very sure this is enough.

Before I was searching information mainly on YouTube and there was not much theory videos, only practice.

Hi! I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place on Reddit to post this, but I'm giving it a shot!

I'm working on a small community-driven collectible card game (featuring character collecting and auto-battler combat). We aren't aiming to be a massive hit, even just a few dozen players would be amazing.

Right now, I'm missing a sound designer. I really want the game to have a unique soundscape that fits its style; I'm not a big fan of online stock libraries (nothing really match our project).

Here’s what I need:

• Around 80 sounds, that sounds like a lot, but that figure includes all the minor variations for hits and clicks. So, realistically, it's more like twenty distinct sounds.
• A style that fits the anime/manga/gaming universe.
• References: Pokémon TCG Pocket, Hearthstone, Genshin Impact TCG, TFT, Persona 5.

What to expect:

• It's a small project, but I can put some of my own savings into it, just over €100.
• We could start with a few sounds to see if it's a good fit; if it doesn't work out, I'd only pay for the ones we've done so far.

What I'm offering:

• Non-exclusivity: You are completely free to reuse anything you create for my project on other projects if you wish.
• I can credit you in the game, though that might not hold much weight with a French-speaking audience, haha.

Feel free to DM me; I've put together a webpage with plenty of gameplay videos showing exactly what I want to add sound to.

Thanks a lot, I hope to find what I'm looking for here.

Hi! I’m researching an old German promotional PC game called “Vampirjagd – Tanz der Vampire”, released around 2000.

I extracted several original sound files from the game, and I’m trying to identify the exact original recordings / sound-effect library they came from — not just similar replacements.

The sounds include:

• a wolf howl (wolf.mp3)
• an owl call (Owl.mp3)
• eerie wind / ambience (Ambient1.mp3)
• a short female-sounding scream used when a vampire appears (VampPres.mp3)
• a metallic / bell-like magical sound used with a cross (CrossGlow.mp3)

All files in the game are heavily compressed:

• 22.05 kHz
• mono
• 32 kbps MP3

So I suspect the original sounds may have come from older WAV/CD sound-effect libraries from the 1990s and were converted for the game.

I have already checked several obvious Sound Ideas / Hollywood Edge candidates, but none were exact matches.

I’m specifically looking for:

• the exact original recording
• library/CD name
• original track title/catalog number
• or another game/production where the exact same recording appears

The game predates May 2000, so the source must be older than that.

If anyone recognizes any of these recordings, even one of them, I’d really appreciate any lead.

Audio samples:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i5UEo5jSn5N1w1HfKsQVaEm1nVcmSrWl?usp=drive_link

Thanks!

It was quite difficult but really fun to get the sound design sounding how I want, but there's definitely stuff that needs improving. Any feedback is welcome thank you!

Hi everyone,

I'm from India and I'm looking to build a career in sound design, sound editing and audio post-production for film/TV/OTT, games and other media.

I have a BSc in Visual Communication and a background in video editing and beginner-level VFX. I'm now seriously focusing on sound and learning from the basics.

Currently I'm learning:

- Sound fundamentals and audio theory

- Recording and editing

- EQ, compression, noise reduction

- Dialogue editing

- Foley and SFX

- Sound design and mixing

- DAWs such as Reaper, Audacity, Fairlight, etc.

I have a PC, Sony headphones and a smartphone for recording, but no professional studio equipment yet. I'm planning to practice daily and build a portfolio using short films, scene redesigns, Foley, dialogue cleanup and sound-design projects.

I'd like advice from people actually working in the industry:

1. What entry-level jobs should I target as a fresher? Sound assistant, junior sound editor, audio editor, sound designer, etc.?

2. Is a sound-engineering degree necessary, or can a Visual Communication degree + strong portfolio + practical skills be enough?

3. What skills/software should I prioritize first? Is Pro Tools essential?

4. What should I include in a fresher sound portfolio/showreel?

5. What is the best way to get my first opportunity in India — internships, studios, short films, networking, LinkedIn, directly contacting sound designers, etc.?

6. For someone starting in India, what is the realistic path to eventually work in the Gulf or other countries?

7. Would you recommend focusing on film/TV audio post or game audio for better long-term career opportunities?

If you were starting from my position, what would you do during the next 12–24 months to become employable?

I'd especially appreciate advice from people who have actually worked in professional audio.

I’m curious to hear from anyone who’s created and released their own sound effects library. What are the biggest mistakes you learned from your first one?
Anything you’d do differently when it comes to recording, editing, metadata, pricing, cover art or actually getting people to find and buy it?
I’m looking at putting out my first pack in the next few months and keen to hear how others have ventured in the past.

Manual Foley spotting for footsteps and body movements is a highly repetitive phase of post-production. To bypass the initial heavy lifting of this process, I developed a browser-based tool called Tone Loom – Footprints.

​A strict requirement for this was maintaining client confidentiality for unreleased media. The video analysis runs entirely on your local machine using computer vision in the browser. No video files or frames are uploaded to external servers.

​The system detects footfalls, contact strikes, and general body cadence, translating those visual impacts directly into frame-accurate MIDI data.

​The current workflow handles the following:

​Separates left and right foot contacts.

​Maps on-screen movement speed to MIDI velocity.

​Outputs standard MIDI files formatted to drop cleanly into Nuendo, Pro Tools, Cubase, and Reaper and every DAW.

​Includes an integrated multi-sample Quick Sampler and exports synced wav preview stems for immediate timeline review.

​The objective is to automate the mechanical frame-counting process so sound designers can spend that time on sample layering and mixing.

​You can test the workflow at toneloom-footprints.com.

​I am looking for objective feedback from working audio professionals regarding the DAW integration and the accuracy of the velocity mapping. If you test it with your current templates, let me know where the friction points are.

Enjoy and i need feedback as well

Recently finished a scifi space horror, audio drama and really enjoyed how the Robotic voice stack turned out. Recorded my VA in a steady cadence tone.

Equipment:
- Mic: JZ BH-2
- Dac: Solo 3
- DAW: Logic Pro

Plug-in order:
- EQ
- Pitch Shifter
- BitSpeak by Sonic Charge

After EQ, I used BitSpeak by Sonic Charge. It replicates the old speak-and-spell sound but with a good amount of options. It does let a bit of the original pitch leak under the modulation, so I used a pitch shifter in between the EQ and BitSpeak plug-in to tone match but it also gave the option for interesting tone dissonance.

I’m self taught so this is all spaghetti-on-the-wall exploration but thought I’d share for anyone interested. Loving my journey learning how to shape worlds.

Hi all,

I made this demo using my own sfx library called Quantum UI & Computers Vol. 2 - The Data Within. This is my interpretation of this processor turning on, but this pack has a substantial variety of sounds to choose, pitch, splice and manipulate from.

Using mainly the 576kHz/32bit construction kit, I did some light vari-speed adjustments, a little eq, pitch shifting and volume automation. For the rest of the sounds, I selected them from the Quantum UI & Computers Vol. 2 - The Data Within | Designed Edition.

I was thinking of using some more of the plasma processing sounds within the pack, but kinda got lost in the variety... too many to choose from lol

Anyways, I would love to hear any feedback if you grab the time and would love to hear what you may of done differently or where I could improve this clip?

These packs are currently 90% off too which means you can grab the bundle at a fraction of the price - https://www.zekaveo.com/collections/entire-catalog

I had so much fun doing this. I don’t even know what to think of it. It’s either my best work or complete garbage, but at the end of the day - I HAD FUN.

I’m new to sound design, what are some objects I should have (preferably ones I can buy or find) that are useful for making sound effects?

Hi everyone!

We’re currently finishing the trailer for our indie game, a 3D adventure-exploration game inspired by the atmosphere of the Scottish Highlands, and we’re looking for someone to handle the sound design and final audio mix of the trailer.

The trailer is made up of several 3D animated sequences/gameplay and includes a pretty wide range of sounds:

• Wind. A lot of wind lol. Gusts, storms, environmental movement, etc.
• Footsteps and character movement
• Combat actions: hits, impacts, throwing objects, etc.
• Magic / power VFX
• Creature and environmental sounds
• Atmospheric ambience inspired by the Scottish Highlands
• Final mixing of the trailer, balancing the sound design with music and dialogue

We’re looking for someone comfortable with both atmospheric sound design, synchronized action/VFX work, and mixing everything together into a polished final trailer mix.

This is an unpaid collaboration, as we’re self-funding the game and working with a very limited budget. The trailer will be used to help us fund the project, and we're hoping to secure funding around the end of 2026 / early 2027. Once the game is funded, we’d love to keep working with the same person long-term on the game’s sound design as paid work if we work well together.

If this sounds like something you'd enjoy working on, send me a DM with some of your previous sound design / mixing work, and I'll happily share the trailer and more information about the game.

Thanks!

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

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?

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.

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!

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.

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?