By: Chris Savoie

Sound design is an age-old art. Dating back to ancient Shinto Shrines of Japan, events called Kagura were performed with music, dance and mime.  This is the earliest example, of what would be today, the art of a modern Sound Designer. Designing sound is a craft that enhances the visual experience we have while enjoying stage performance, film, and video games by imbuing emotion and effects. My goal today is to garner a greater appreciation for the care sound designers put into their work.

The audio experience of any piece of film is just as important as the visual experience. Early filmmakers, and moviegoers of silent films developed this insight quickly. The birth of the silent film for a public audience was on December 28^th, 1895 at the Salon Indien du Grand Café. Produced by the Lumière brothers of Besançon France, ten short films were presented, and the audience sizes have been growing since. I find the term “Silent Film”, an ironic one. During the peak of the silent film era, films were the largest source of employment of musicians in America. Every neighborhood or small town theatre had a resident pianist. Film scores were largely improvised, but as full feature films grew in popularity sets of notes were sent with the film outlining detailed effects and moods for musicians to watch for and convey.

The modern day sound design studio is responsible for not only music and sound effects, like this Sound Design Breakdowns by Echolab, but creating mood and atmosphere as shown here in this Sound Design project by Michael Freeman. Sound designers rely on sounds they can create or recreate in a Foley environment, or capture in the field. Other instruments and equipment are often employed; ranging from the strings of a guitar, to the electronic manipulation of a simple sine wave. Waveform manipulation, or frequency modulation synthesis, can be accomplished in a virtual studio environment through software like Operator developed by Ableton, or hardware like the classic Roland TB-303.

I’ve assembled four short films that really stand out for their sound design. Dust off your headphones and open your ears for these, they’re a cut above. Pay close attention to not only the sounds and music, but also the way they make you feel and how they add to the experience of the film.

element intro preview (LQ) from Alexander Saraev on Vimeo.

The track Alexander chose for this video is hard hitting and suits the dark motif. The polish added by the transition sounds is what drew me into this video. While the bottle spins, we hear the sound of stone on stone; it reminds me of finely tooled ancient temples, which adds emphasis to the quality of the product. The fluttering of the dark leafy flourishes, and the sounds of liquid all add to the experience.

skinlines from monkeymen on Vimeo.

The airy reverb and disorienting sounds of instruments, speech, and chaos set the unsettling mood right away. The disconnected unintelligible half-sentences leave you feeling confused and give a sense of the confusion for the character. We’re slammed from object to object in this forest of synapses all punctuated with deep bass and an irregular snare drum. The short ends with as much unsettling chaos as it began and it left me a little uncomfortable. The emotional unease was all created by the marvel of work put into the sound design of this film.

What Matters to You // Me? from Jr.canest on Vimeo.

This short inspired me. When I saw it the first time I wanted to drop everything I was doing and get back to creating something I love. The whole experience created here is audio driven. The visuals seem secondary and only designed to illustrate the main focus, the monologue. The monologue feels genuine and hopeful. As it gets more emotional, it gains momentum and the piano accompaniment also increases pace. This piece will definitely bring out an emotional response in you.

I’ll be gone from KORB on Vimeo.

For the final video I’ll leave you with I chose a music video. This serene track is complex yet remains very minimal. It seems to lend itself naturally to the visual solution KORB arrived at. The sounds in this video are simply the music track, but the video seems to illustrate the audio creatively and remain serene and minimal like the track. It’s a great track and paired with the visuals, it’s a very relaxing experience.

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