Sound Design Workshop Video Lectures

Watch this Sound Design Lecture with Dennis Burke, Emily Carr Film and Media Screen Arts Faculty (retired) with a focus in cinematic sound.

Or this Sounds Design Workshop with Doug Paterson

SOUND DESIGN ISSUES

• Apply the volume adjustments necessary to each clip in each category. Refer to the dB level guidelines in the Technical Guidelines section of the Animation Resources.
• POOR QUALITY ASSETS?
  • If clips are recorded too quietly, and you cannot effectively increase volume, you may need to replace the clip.
  • If sounds were recorded too loud and they clip and burn, you’ll need to replace the clip.
  • If you’re using a file whose quality is below 44.1 kHz 16-bit you should replace it with a higher quality clip of 48 kHz, 24-bit.
  • You CANNOT use MP3, MP4, AAC files in your editing. If you are, you need to replace these clips. You may be hearing a “popping” sound as the timeline plays over editorial cuts, or just reduced sound quality range.
• There should be NO BLANK SPACES in your soundtrack. If there is “silence,” then cut in muted atmospheric room tone to buffer your other audio clip edits. (Make sure to not double up the layers of the room atmosphere sound. Use fades at the ends of clips to soften the edits and prevent doubled-up sound.)
• There should be NO HARD CUTS in your soundtrack, particularly if the sound is ongoing. Make use of simple FADES and CROSS-FADES to soften the head/tail of each clip. Layering in ongoing room tone underneath other clips helps. Layering and overlapping audio clips can also help.
• Rules on blank spaces and hard cuts can be broken, but only with a really good reason.

This image shows the basics of applied fades to soften the cuts, and layering of tracks. RT = Room Tone.