Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema

by David Sonnenschein

Offers user-friendly knowledge and stimulating exercises to help compose story, develop characters and create emotion through skillful creation of the sound track.

Genres: Film, Music, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Reference

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[William Aicher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating book on sound design. Goes well beyond the basics of how to record, edit, and mix and into areas of emotion, space, internal and external, how music, effects, and dialogue work together, and more.

Absolutely recommended for anyone interested in filmmaking - even if you're not doing sound design yourself. Such an integral part of the overall film experience.

[Mark Dispenza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Primer on Sound Design

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.

[Alex Harris-MacDuff · Rating 1 out of 5]

A massive waste of time. The few good ideas and working practices suggested in this book are ruined by the unscientific nonsense about alpha and beta brainwaves. If you read this, read the first few chapters then stop. He starts talking about perception and has done no proper research. For a much better book on sound and music read 'This is Your Brain on Music' by Daniel Levitin.

[Thomas R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Offering tips from top sound designers to theories on how to convert the technical aspect of sound as a narrative. Would recommend, but not a beginner friendly book!

[Maddie Socha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the title is misleading - this book is mostly weighed down by really detailed descriptions of science behind how we hear, and definitions of terms like "timbre" which don't have very much value in terms of actually working in sound design.

[Sol Rezza · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clásico de la ingeniería de audio.

[Jonathan Clement · Rating 5 out of 5]

quintessential directors tool kit book focusing on sound for storytelling

[brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for a sound design class

[Andre Balbuena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a filmmaker that cares about sound design, meaning that in no way I would leave sound design for post production. So I read this book because it is labeled as a "classic". But, wow, it took me a long time to get through most of it. The first and last chapters have the really important parts that I as a writer/director needed to know. The middle is just dense, with so many technicalities that I had to make a stop every single paragraph to understand it. The writing is just meh...
Nevertheless, the chapter on music really caught my attention. Not only does he mention the diversity of music in our world and how every genre conveys a context and emotion, but he also explains how sound design and music can be interweaved so that both serve the story.
Still, I believe every filmmaker should read this book in order to have a comprehensive view of sound design and that we may have their feedback in our films since pre production.

[B.C. Crow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on sound design. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. A must read for anyone looking to get into the movie business. It is very technical, much like a textbook. But it gives examples and for me, it opened my mind. I had no idea all the engineering that could go into sound and how it could be used.

[SeaOfSound · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic read on the entire process of being a sound designer for films from reading the script to the final mix. Along the way Sonnenschein and his Hollywood friends give you plenty creative anecdotes and exercises to try out on your own.

[Felipe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good!

This is a fantastic book if you're into sound design. It provides a lot of insights on sound creation. Although it is focused on sound for films, I bought it trying to find something useful also for game audio. I was successful.

[Я. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good theory tome. Lots of practical application as well.

[Ясен В. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an interesting book, that goes in depth to explain the way sound in movies (and in general) works on the human mind. Learned a fair bit of interesting information!

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

good overview and introduction to concepts around sound design. found some useful tables.

[Belal Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy and dense in it's content. Great reference material for filmmakers. Not for someone who doesn't have film experience or is just getting started.

[Kimba · Rating 4 out of 5]

The powers of manipulation are at my fingertips.