Introduction

Gone are the days of cutting tape. Gone are the nightly re-burning of sound effect CDs. Gone are even the day when an intricate sound scape would be cut because the board operator couldn’t adjust the fader accurately from performance to performance.

An era is gone because something better has taken its place. And aside from that rich sense of nostalgia, I couldn’t be happier. I remember the first a director asked me to change out a sound cue. “So hear that tomorrow night then?” he asked. “Nope, give me two seconds. There. How’s that?” I said. And in my embellished memory he wept for joy right there in the dark theatre.

It’s a good time for the art and craft of sound design. So let’s get started showing you how to make it happen. Let’s start with something easy.