Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema Paperback – November 1, 2001

I haven’t had time to read it yet, as I just returned from a 3-week project on the road. I HAVE flipped through it and am glad I ordered it. It’s on my “to-read” list.

Taking sound design beyond basically filling in appropriate sound effects takes a lot of thought and labor. David Sonnenschien's simply named "Sound Design" is a treasure trove of ideas for crafting better sound for cinematic storytelling.This is definitely more of a theoretical book rather than a practical one. You won't learn much about how to record sounds or specifically craft a soundtrack. Instead you'll get scores of information on how our brains interpret voice, music and other types of sound and how to use that to create better sound design.The book is filled with "try this" sidebars made up of little experiments that are designed to open your mind and give you ideas on how to approach sound in film. I can't say I've really tried them, but they've given me a lot to think about.There are also plenty of accounts from legendary sound designers such as Ben Burtt & Gary Rydstrom on how they used concepts like the ones in this book in countless Hollywood blockbusters.Towards the end the book gets a little more practical, with ideas on how to augment sound effects to create more emotional impact.This is a great book to keep handy whenever you're stuck for ideas. Just give it flip through when you're in need of a little sonic inspiration.

I read this book after a few years of working as a sound editor and, I have to say, it really changed my perspective, giving me the opportunity to better define the structure of my decision-making processes.Considering both the technical and the creative aspects, the author defines some revolutionary methods that can help storytelling like Visual Maps, an extraordinary tool that gives you the opportunity to easily analyze the story, characters and mood of the sequence, in order to make the best choices for your sound editing and design.This is more than a technical book, actually one of the rare cases where the emotional aspect is even more considered, where theories are well defined and motivated, demonstrating how the relationship between the sound, voice, music and the audience can be as powerful as you decide.

I was required to purchase this textbook for a sound design class in a specialized film program at the University of Central Florida. I have very limited knowledge regarding audio and this textbook explained it simplistically in a way that I could understand and helped me on a practical level. The delivery was speedy and the book was in great condition. However, if this was not a required text for my class I would not have purchased it.

As a writer-director, I found this book to be an excellent primer on sound design for film. Although it appears to be primarily written for students, I found it helpful to me as a filmmaker because it explained audio terminology in understandable language and tied it all together to build a picture of how sound design can be used to enhance the quality of the audience experience.

If you don't know which book you should read about film sound, then I tell you to read and study this one. This covers all grounds of sound. It is technical where it needs to be, but not overly. Not only tells you how things work, but inspire, encourage and makes you think inside the aural world. I highly recommend to highlight and try the "Try this" parts as they can help elevate your sound consciousness to high levels. This book is full of information so read it more than once, and keep it as a reference. There are technical things which are beyond the scope of this book. But even for these things the author mark very good references! Inspiring, thorough, enlightening and persuasive.

Tells you what you need to know. I didn't read the whole thing since it was for class, but I will hang onto it if I need it in the future.

I just read "Sounds Design" and it REALLY changed everything for me, and where I want to take my life. I won't make this a long message but long story short, I've been doing sound design for about a year (though I've been engineering for much longer) and I was doing it ALL WRONG. The thought process I mean. Now my two main questions for everything I make a sound for is "Does it need any sound? (Silence?)" and "Why?" Choosing what to make a sound with, and why I'm looking for those characteristics psychologically. I've grown an imense love and respect for the art. Thank you David.Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema