Freesound Forums
How should I approach sound design?
Started September 25th, 2008 · 4 replies · Latest reply by daveincamas 16 years, 1 month ago
I still feel like a kid with sound... it's all around me, but I don't have the equipment to harvest it nor the techniques to properly handle it, I feel. I have software to edit, just not the hardware to harvest. I guess the steps I surely have to take are:
-Buying good quality recording equipment
-Figuring out how to make the best of the recording
-Figuring out how to make the best of the editing for the end product
I'm just an amateur college student right now taking up an interest with handling sound but I have no idea where to start. I've started a thread on finding out the cheapest high-quality equipment which lead me to the ZoomH2 recorder. But is this truly what I should be going for?
Otherwise, all the time I feel more like a sound hunter of only captured sounds.
What about software? I use Logic to edit but there's still much I don't know about it.
What are the basics that I should know to be able to properly manipulate sound? (adjust gain, filter, reverb? etc...)
Are there certain books someone can suggest to me?
By the way, I'm currently more focused in sound design for the Theatre than Film if that's makes a difference.
Procrastinate \Pro*cras"ti*nate\, v. t. [L.
procrastinatus, p. p. of procrastinare to procrastinate; pro
forward + crastinus of to-morrow, fr. cras to-morrow.]
To put off till to-morrow, or from day to day; to defer; to
postpone; to delay; as, to procrastinate repentance. --Dr. H.
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Forgive the joke, but you sound so stressed about the proper way to go...
I believe one should take this as an enjoyable game, not another exercise of 'be the best or die'.
Learn as you walk, there are no risks involved. No need to amaze the world with your creations either (or not yet). Just use whatever you have or can borrow and... start (the H2 is fine, btw). Please enjoy, life is too short.
D
like in the old surfer/karate movies, you could start at the basis.
learn about the past, and use only the simplest technology.
you could get the "computer music tutorial" by "curtis roads" from the library and learn about how audio processing works.
get the cheapest microphone you can find, hook it up to a tape recorder, cut up the tape and stick it together with regular tape and see what happens.
then move on to trying to catch flies with chopsticks. 
I would try to get as good as you can get with the things you have.
And, get yourself a cheap mic + minidisk recorder if you want to spend as little as possible.
The H2 is very fine though.
- Bram
Yes, I agree, start with what you have - a camcorder, perhaps? I actually still use a camcorder as part of my recording gear (he says with embarrassment).
The focus right now should be on what you learn, not what you produce.