Sound design is a technical/conceptually creative field. It covers all non-compositional elements of a film, a play, a music performance or recording, computer game software or any other multimedia project. A person who practices the art of sound design is known as a Sound Designer. Historical records of events have been made for thousands of years in one form or another. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Look up Multimedia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes the finest or most aesthetic sound mixing or recording in film with the Academy Award for Best Sound, historically given to an English-language film. The new Tony Award for Best Sound Design is to be awarded for the best sound design in American theatre. Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study in Hollywood, California Founded on May 11, 1927 in California, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures. ... The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most aesthetic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. ... The first Tony Awards for Best Sound Design of a Play and Best Sound Design of a Musical will be given in the 2007-2008 season. ...

Sound Design can also be defined as: "The manipulation of audio elements to achieve a desired effect."

Film

See also: Sound editor for a discussion of the mechanics of film sound

In motion picture production, a Sound Designer is a member of a film crew responsible for some original aspect of the film's audio track. The title is not controlled by any industry organisation, as with the title of director or screenwriter in the American film industry. A sound editor is a creative professional responsible for selecting and assembling sound recordings in preparation for the final sound mixing or mastering of a television program or motion picture. ... Film crew and equipment on a location shoot. ... The audio track is in some respects interchangeable with sound track. ... Director Herbert Brenon with actress Alla Nazimova on the set of War Brides, 1916 A director is a person who directs the making of a film. ... Screenwriters, scenarists, or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ... American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. ...

The terms "Sound Design" and "Sound Designer" were already in use in theatre and were introduced to the film world when Francis Ford Coppola directed (and his father, Carmine Coppola, arranged the music for) a live production of Noel Coward's Private Lives at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) in San Francisco where sound designer Charlie Richmond was resident, while the final cut of the The Godfather was being edited in 1972. In the original film world meaning of the title, as established in the 1970s by Coppola and Walter Murch, a sound designer is an individual ultimately responsible for all aspects of a film's audio track, from the dialogue and sound effects recording to the re-recording of the final track. The title was first granted by Coppola to Murch for his work on the film Apocalypse Now, in recognition for his extraordinary contribution to that film; in this way the position emerged in the same way the title of production designer came in to being in the 1930s, when William Cameron Menzies made revolutionary contributions to the craft of art direction in the making of Gone with the Wind. Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is a five-time Academy Award winning American film director, producer, and screenwriter. ... Carmine Coppola Carmine Coppola (born June 11, 1910 in New York City, died April 26, 1991 in Northridge, CA) was a composer, editor, musical director, and songwriter. ... Noël Peirce Coward (December 16, 1899 – March 26, 1973) was an Academy Award winning English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music. ... Private Lives is a play written by Noel Coward in 1930. ... The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is a prestigious theater company in San Francisco, USA that offers both contemporary and classical theater productions and a wide range of classes. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Charlie Richmond is an entrepreneur and inventor born 1950-01-05. ... This article is about the 1972 film. ... Walter Murch speaking 13 March 2005 Walter Scott Murch (born July 12, 1943) is an Academy Award–winning film editor/sound mixer. ... For other uses, see Dialogue (disambiguation). ... Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ... Re-recording is the process with which the audio track of a film or video production is created. ... Apocalypse Now is a 1979 Academy Award and Golden Globe winning American film set during the Vietnam War. ... Production designer is a term used in the movie and television industries to refer to the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. ... William Cameron Menzies (July 29, 1896 - March 5, 1957) was an Academy Award-winning and versatile art director who earned acclaim on silent films and later pioneered the use of color in film for dramatic effect. ... The term art director, is an overall title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games. ... Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel of the same name. ...

This "strong" meaning of the title is meant to imply that the person holding the position is a principal member of the production staff, with tangible creative authority, equivalent to the film editor and director of photography. This development can be seen as a natural part of the evolution of film sound. Several interacting factors contributed to this: It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Film editing. ... A cinematographer (from cinema photographer) is one photographing with a motion picture camera. ... Film sound specifically refers to the sound track that accompanies the visual images on a single continuous reel of motion picture film. ...

• Cinema sound systems became capable of high-fidelity reproduction, and particularly after the adoption of Dolby Stereo. These systems were originally devised as gimmicks to increase theater attendance, but their widespread implementation created a content vacuum that had to be filled by a competent professional. Before stereo soundtracks, film sound was of such low fidelity that only the dialogue and occasional sound effects were practical. The greater dynamic range of the new systems, coupled with the ability to place sounds to the sides of the audience or behind them, required more creative decisions to be made.

• Directors wanted to realize these new potentials of their medium. A new generation of filmmakers, the so-called "Easy Riders and Raging Bulls"—Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and others—were aware of the creative potential of sound and wanted to use it.

• The new filmmakers were inspired in no small part by the popular music of the era. Concept albums of groups such as Pink Floyd and The Beatles suggested new modes of storytelling and creative techniques that could be adapted to motion pictures.

• The new filmmakers made their early films outside the Hollywood establishment, away from the influence of film labor unions and the then rapidly-dissipating studio system.

As many of these new filmmakers worked in the San Francisco Bay Area, the strong meaning of film sound designer has become associated with films made there, and the production companies situated there, such as American Zoetrope, Lucasfilm Limited (and its subsidiary Skywalker Sound), and The Saul Zaentz Film Center. Sound system has multiple meanings: A sound reinforcement system is a system for amplifying, reproducing, and sometimes recording audio. ... This article is about audiophile sound systems. ... Dolby Stereo (or Dolby Analog) was the original analog optical technology developed by Dolby Laboratories for 35 mm film prints in 1976, and first used on the movie Logans Run. ... Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood is a 1998 book, published by Simon and Schuster, by Peter Biskind about 1970s Hollywood, a stand-alone period of American film that produced such classics as The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II, Taxi Driver... Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (IPA: AmE: ; Ita: []) (b. ... Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ... George Walton Lucas, Jr. ... For the music genre, see Pop music. ... Usually, in popular music, an album of an artist or group simply consists of a number of unconnected songs that the members of the group or the artist have written or have chosen to cover. ... Pink Floyd are an English rock band that initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. ... The White Album, see The Beatles (album). ... ... For other uses, see Establishment. ... A union (labor union in American English; trade union, sometimes trades union, in British English; either labour union or trade union in Canadian English) is a legal entity consisting of employees or workers having a common interest, such as all the assembly workers for one employer, or all the workers... The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1950s. ... Bay Area redirects here. ... American Zoetrope is the name of the studios founded by Francis Ford Coppola, named after a collection of zoetropes he was given in the late 1960s by filmmaker and collector of early motion picture making equipment, Mogens Skot-Hansen. ... Lucasfilm Logo Lucasfilm Ltd. ... Skywalker Sound is the renowned sound effects, sound editorial, sound design and music recording division of George Lucass Lucas Digital motion picture group. ...

The role of sound designer can be compared with the role of supervising sound editor; many sound designers use both titles interchangeably. The role of supervising sound editor, or sound supervisor, developed in parallel with the role of sound designer. The demand for more sophisticated soundtracks was felt both inside and outside Hollywood, and the supervising sound editor became the head of the large sound department, with a staff of dozens of sound editors, that was required to realize a complete sound job with a fast turnaround. It is far from universal, but the role of sound supervisor descends from the original role of the sound editor, that of a technician required to complete a film, but having little creative authority. Sound designers, on the other hand, are expected to be creative, and their role is a generalization of the other creative department heads. A sound editor is a creative professional responsible for selecting and assembling sound recordings in preparation for the final sound mixing or mastering of a television program or motion picture. ...

Theatre

See also: Architectural acoustics for a discussion of the techniques of designing architecture for sound performances.

Sound design is one of the youngest fields in stagecraft, second only to the use of projection and other multimedia displays. The idea of sound design has been around since theatre started, however the first person to receive a credit as Sound Designer on the poster and in the programme alongside the lighting and scene designers was David Collison for the 59 Theatre Company Season at London's Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in 1959. The first person to be titled the "sound designer" on Broadway was Jack Mann for his work on Show Girl in 1963 [1], and for regional theatre to Dan Dugan at the American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), San Francisco in 1968. Since then the field has been growing rapidly. The term "Sound Design" was introduced to the film world when Francis Ford Coppola directed (and his father, Carmine Coppola, arranged the music for) a production of Private Lives at ACT, while the final cut of the film The Godfather was being edited in 1972. Serge Sudeikins poster for the Bat Theatre (1922). ... It has been suggested that Acoustic transmission be merged into this article or section. ... Stagecraft (or Technical Theatre) is the art of building, attaching, and rigging scenery for theater and television as well as other technical aspects of performance including sound, costuming, makeup, and lighting. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Look up Multimedia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses of Broadway, see Broadway. ... The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is a prestigious theater company in San Francisco, USA that offers both contemporary and classical theater productions and a wide range of classes. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Francis Ford Coppola (born April 7, 1939) is a five-time Academy Award winning American film director, producer, and screenwriter. ... Carmine Coppola Carmine Coppola (born June 11, 1910 in New York City, died April 26, 1991 in Northridge, CA) was a composer, editor, musical director, and songwriter. ... Private Lives is a play written by Noel Coward in 1930. ... This article is about the 1972 film. ...

Currently it can be said that there are two variants of Theatrical Sound Design. Both are equally important, but very different, though their functions usually overlap. Often a single Sound Designer will fill both these roles, and although on a large budget production they may work together, for the most part there is only one Sound Designer for a given production. Where such distinctions are made, the first variant is "Technical Sound Design" (which has also been termed Theatre Sound System Design by the United States Institute for Theatre Technology's (USITT) Sound Design Commission), which is prevalent on Broadway, and the second "Conceptual Sound Design" (which has also been termed Theatre Sound Score Design by the USITT), which is prevalent at Regional Repertory Theatres. Both variants were created during the 1960s. These terms are really examples only, and not generally used in practice since most Sound Designers simply call themselves Sound Designers, no matter which role they are filling primarily. The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) is an association of design, production and technology professionals in the entertainment industry. ... The Sound Design Commission is one of the newest Commissions created by the USITT within their working groups. ...

Technical Sound Design requires the sound designer to design the sound system that will fulfill the needs of the production. If there is a sound system already installed in the venue, it is their job to tune the system for the best use for the given production using various methods including equalization, delay, volume, speaker and microphone placement, and this may include the addition of equipment not already provided. In conjunction with the director and musical director, if any, they also determine the use and placement of microphones for actors and musicians. A Technical Sound Designer makes sure that the performance can be heard and understood by everyone in the audience, no matter how large the room, and that the performers can hear everything they need to in order to do their job.

Conceptual Sound Design is very different from technical sound design, but equally important. The designer must first read the play and talk to the production's Director about what themes and messages they want to explore. It is here that, in conjunction with the director and possibly the composer, the designer decides what sounds he will use to create mood and setting of the play. He or she might also choose or compose specific music for the play, although the final choice typically lies with the director, who may want nothing but scene change music or, on the other extreme, will want ambient beds under every scene, such as Robert Woodruff of the American Repertory Theatre or Bill Ball, Ellis Rabb and Jack O'Brien who were active at ACT and the Old Globe Theatre, San Diego, in the mid 1960s where Dan Dugan initially began his art. Many sound designers are indeed accomplished composers, writing and producing music for productions as well as designing sound. With these designers, it is often difficult to discern the line between sound design and music. Some noted composer/designers include Mark Bennet, Hans Peter Kuhn, Obadiah Eaves, John Gromada, Darron West, Michael Bodeen, Rob Milburn, Tom Mardikes, Jon Gottlieb, Dan Moses Schreier, Jim Van Bergen, Richard Ingraham, David Van Tieghem, Joe Pino, Steven Brown, and Richard Woodbury. A theatre director oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a play by unifying various endeavors and aspects of production. ... Robert Winship Woodruff (December 6, 1889- March 7, 1985) was the president of The Coca-Cola Company from 1923 until 1954. ... The American Repertory Theatre (or A.R.T.) is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... This article is about an American stage director; for other people named William Ball, see William Ball (disambiguation). ... Ellis Rabb (June 20, 1930 Memphis, TN, USA - January 11, 1998 Memphis, TN, USA ) was an American actor and director who in 1959 formed the Association of Producing Artists, a theatre company that brought new works and noteworthy revivals to Broadway and to regional theatres. ... Jack O’Brien serves as an Editor to both CRACKED Magazine and CRACKED.com. ... aundrea loves chauncey ... John Gromada (b. ...

On occasion, the director may be very hands-on and will tell the sound designer what sounds to use and where to play them. In such cases, the sound designer becomes little more than an audio editor, but this depends to a large degree on the director and his relationship and level of trust with the sound designer. There are also collaborations such as exist between Ann Bogart and Darron West in the Siti Company, where he is in rehearsal from the day one and sound is really another character of the play. Also, the Conceptual Sound Designer must build the "prop sounds" (telephones rings, answering machines, announcements etc.) and figure out how to fit them into the established themes with regard to when and where the action is supposed to be taking place. For example, using a modern cellular phone ringtone would be out of place for a phone ringing in the 1940s. A Conceptual Sound Designer uses sound to enhance the audience's experience by conveying specific emotion or information without using words.

Above all, both the Technical Sound Designer and the Conceptual Sound Designer must call on experience and "uncommon" sense to ensure that the sound and music are contributing constructively to the production and are in harmony with the work of the actors and other designers.

The union that represents theatrical non-Broadway sound designers in the United States is United Scenic Artists (USA) Local USA829 which is now integrated within IATSE. Theatrical Sound Designers in Canada are represented by the Associated Designers of Canada (ADC). Sound Designers on Broadway working on productions falling under the League of American Theatre and Producers contracts (i.e. all Broadway theatrical productions) are represented by IATSE Local One[2], by virtue of Local One's merger with IATSE Local 922, the former Theatrical Sound Designers local union. Local One maintains a binding contract with Broadway producers for work performed on Broadway shows. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, or I.A.T.S.E., (Full name: International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, Its Territories and Canada) is a labor union. ...

Charlie Richmond assembled a set [3] of Definitions, Communication Standards, Recommended Working Procedures, Information List, and suggested Contract Addenda to the ADC in 1990 in order to assist them in creating a Sound Design contract which finally occurred in 2004.

Other audio positions in a production that may or may not be filled by the designer include that of the production engineer. The Production engineer is the person in a theatrical show who is in charge of keeping the audio integrity of the show. ...

History

It's known that in India and China around 3000 BC there were theatre productions accompanied by music and sound. The Commedia Dell'arte style also used both music and sound effects. Commedia redirects here. ... Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ...

Italian Futurist composer Luigi Russolo, built mechanical sound-making devices, called intonarumori, for Futurist theatrical/music performances starting around 1913. These devices were meant to simulate natural and manmade sounds, such as trains and bombs. Russolo's treatise Art of Noise, is arguably the first written document on the use of abstract noise in the theatre; he might be called the grandfather of conceptual sound designers. After his death, his intonarumori were used in more conventional theatre performances to create realistic sound effects. Luigi Russolo ca. ... Luigi Russolo ca. ... Art of Noise Edited twelve inch single featured the iconic Art of Noise mask Art of Noise was an avant-garde synthpop group formed in 1983 by producer Trevor Horn, music journalist Paul Morley, and session musicians/studio hands Anne Dudley, J.J. Jeczalik, and Gary Langan. ...

Possibly the first use of recorded sound in the theatre, as mentioned in Michael Booth’s book ‘Theatre in the Victorian Age’, was a phonograph playing a baby’s cry in a London theatre in 1890. Sixteen years later, Beerbohm Tree definitely used recordings in his London production of Stephen Phillips’ tragedy NERO. The event is marked in the Theatre Magazine (1906) with two photographs; one showing a musician blowing a bugle into a large horn attached to a disc recorder, the other with an actor recording the agonizing shrieks and groans of the tortured martyrs. The article states: “these sounds are all realistically reproduced by the gramophone”. As cited by Bertolt Brecht, there was a play about Rasputin written in (1927) by Alexej Tolstoi and directed by Erwin Piscator that included a recording of Lenin's voice. It would not be however until the 1950s, when Hollywood directors started directing Broadway productions, that sound design would start growing. Still, there was no sound designer in those plays; it was the stage manager's duty to find the sound effects and an electrician played the recordings during performances. But even though the sound designer has basically assumed these roles, time and technology have not ruled out non-sound designers having a hand in sound production. For instance, since today's audiences are savvier and can readily distinguish between live and recorded sounds, live backstage sound effects are still used (e.g. gun shots) by the stage manager (or assistant stage manager) for premium "aural illusion." {{dy justified his choice of form, and from about 1929 on he began to interpret its penchant for contradictions, much as had Eisenstein, in terms of the dialectic. ... Grigori Rasputin Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Russian: ) (22 January [O.S. 10 January] 1869 – 29 December [O.S. 16 December] 1916) was a Russian mystic with an influence in the later days of Russias Romanov dynasty. ... Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi (Russian: Алексей Николаевич Толстой) (January 10, 1883 (December 29, 1882 (O.S.)) - February 23, 1945), nicknamed the Comrade Count, was a Soviet Russian writer who wrote in many genres but specialized in science fiction and historical novels. ... Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator, (December 17, 1893 – March 30, 1966), German theatrical director and producer who, with Bertolt Brecht, was the foremost exponent of epic theater, a genre that emphasizes the sociopolitical context rather than the emotional content or aesthetics of the play. ... Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ( Russian: Влади́мир Ильи́ч Ле́нин  listen?), original surname Ulyanov (Улья́нов) ( April 22 (April 10 ( O.S.)), 1870 – January 21, 1924), was a... ... Director Herbert Brenon with actress Alla Nazimova on the set of War Brides, 1916 A director is a person who directs the making of a film. ... For other uses of Broadway, see Broadway. ... Part of the stage managers panel at Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts Stage management is a sub-discipline of stagecraft. ... Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ... TVA electricians, Tennessee, 1942. ...

Between 1980 and 1988, USITT's first Sound Design Commissioner oversaw efforts of their Sound Design Commission to define the duties, responsibilities, standards and procedures which might normally be expected of a theatre sound designer in North America. This subject is still regularly discussed by that group, but during that time, substantial conclusions were drawn and he wrote a document which, although now somewhat dated, provides a succinct record of what was expected at that time. It was subsequently provided to both the ADC and David Goodman at the Florida USA local when they were both planning to represent sound designers in the 1990s. Charlie Richmond is an entrepreneur and inventor born 1950-01-05. ... The Sound Design Commission is one of the newest Commissions created by the USITT within their working groups. ...

MIDI and digital technology helped the field to evolve exponentially during the 1980s and 1990s. Features of computerized theatre sound design systems were recognized as being essential for live show control systems by Walt Disney World when they utilized systems of that type to control many facilities at their Disney-MGM Studios theme park, which opened in 1989. These features were incorporated into the MIDI Show Control (MSC) specification, ratified by the MIDI Manufacturers Association in 1991. The MIDI Show Control standard is an open, industry wide communications protocol through which all types of show devices may easily interact. MIDI redirects here. ... For other uses, see Digital (disambiguation). ... Sound design is a technical/conceptually creative field. ... Show control is the use of technology to link together and operate multiple entertainment control systems in a coordinated manner. ... Cinderella Castle, at the center of the Magic Kingdom, is Walt Disney World Resorts most recognizable icon Introduction Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company, the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, USA is home to four theme parks, two water parks, several resort hotels and golf courses... Disney-MGM Studios is a theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA. The third park to open at the resort, it debuted on May 1, 1989. ... MIDI Show Control, or MSC, is a significant Real Time System Exclusive extension of the international Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) standard. ... The MIDI Manufacturers Association, also known as MMA is an organization where companies work together to create the standards that assure compatibility among MIDI products. ... This article concerns communication between pairs of electronic devices. ...

To create the MSC spec, Charlie Richmond headed the USITT MIDI Forum on their Callboard Network in 1990, which included developers and designers from the theatre sound and lighting industry from around the world. This Forum created the MIDI Show Control standard between January and September, 1990. This was ratified by the MIDI Manufacturers Association (MMA) in January 1991, and the Japan MIDI Standards Committee (JMSC) later that year, becoming a part of the standard MIDI specification in August, 1991. The first show to fully utilize the MSC specification was the Magic Kingdom Parade at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in September, 1991. Charlie Richmond is an entrepreneur and inventor born 1950-01-05. ... The Callboard Network was an electronic communication network operated by the University of Alberta for USITT in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... The MIDI Manufacturers Association, also known as MMA is an organization where companies work together to create the standards that assure compatibility among MIDI products. ... The Japan MIDI Standards Committee is the body that ratifies and proposes MIDI standards within the Japanese manufacturing and developer community. ... The Magic Kingdom Parade is a large theatrical presentation (called an attraction by theme parks) at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World which dates back to the beginning of the theme park. ... Cinderella Castle, at the center of the Magic Kingdom, is Walt Disney World Resorts most recognizable icon Introduction Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company, the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, USA is home to four theme parks, two water parks, several resort hotels and golf courses... The Magic Kingdom is a theme park within the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, near Orlando. ...

Also, the World Wide Web has greatly enhanced the ability of sound designers to acquire source material quickly, easily and cheaply. Nowadays, a designer can preview and download crisper, more "believable" sounds as opposed to toiling through time- and budget-draining "shot-in-the-dark" searches through record stores, libraries and "the grapevine" for (often) inferior recordings. In addition, software innovation has enabled sound designers to take more of a DIY (or "do-it-yourself") approach. From the comfort of their home and at any hour, they can simply use a computer, speakers and headphones rather than renting (or buying) costly equipment or studio space and time for editing and mixing. This provides for faster creation and negotiation with the director. WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. ... See also: DIY Network, a cable TV network. ...

Awards

Even though there have been continual, extraordinary advances in technology and even more demand for top-quality sound, sound design is still struggling to obtain acceptance. On June 19, 2007 a new category was added to the Tony Awards honoring sound design. Sound design has fast become an integral part of the design process for many theatres and sound designers often hold similar, if not superior positions in the creative team to the lighting designer and other designers. is the 170th day of the year (171st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award® but is formally the Antoinette Perry Award is an annual American award celebrating achievements in theater, including musical theater. ... The role of the theatre lighting designer (or LD) within theatre is to work with the theatre director, set designer, and costume designer to create an overall look for the show in response to the text, but bearing in mind issues of visibility, safety and cost. ...

Some of the major North American theatrical award organizations that recognize sound designers are

• Dora Mavor Moore Awards
• Drama Desk Awards
• Helen Hayes Awards
• Obie Awards
• Tony Awards

The British equivalent of these are; These Helen Hayes Awards are given annually for excellence in production design for professional theatres in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. ... The Obie Awards, short for Off-Broadway Theater Awards, are annual awards bestowed by the newspaper The Village Voice on theater artists performing in New York City. ... What is popularly called the Tony Award® but is formally the Antoinette Perry Award is an annual American award celebrating achievements in theater, including musical theater. ...

• Olivier Awards
• Evening Standard Awards

The Laurence Olivier Awards, previously known as The Society of West End Theatre Awards, were renamed in honour of British actor Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier in 1984, having first been established in 1976. ... The Evening Standard Awards are presented annually for oustanding achievements in London Theatre. ...

Music

In contemporary music, especially rock music, ambient music, progressive rock, and similar genres, the record producer and recording engineer play distinct roles in the creation of the overall sound (or soundscape) of a recording, and less often, of a live performance. The record producer is chiefly responsible for extracting the best performance possible from the musicians and for making both musical and technical decisions about the instrumental timbres, arrangements, etc. On certain ambitious and complex recording projects, artists and producers have relied on sonic consultants, often credited as "sound designer", to help them to create specific auditory effects, landscapes, or to ensure an overall consistency and quality of some of the (usually unconventional) sonic elements. In such arrangements, the producer may put almost all of his or her attention on managing the recording session and working closely with the musicians on their performances and interpretations of the material; the recording engineer may dedicate all of his or her time to capturing these performances on tape (or hard disk); the sound designer may then help to create the overall sound, the integration of recording technology with musical instrument technology, the presentation that is the phonographic equivalent of decisions in movie-making about what type of lens to use on the camera, whether or not to use soft focus, and what kind of lighting to use on a scene. For other uses, see Rock music (disambiguation). ... Ambient music refers to a kind of music that envelops the listener without drawing attention to itself [1] // The term ambient music was first coined by Brian Eno in the mid-1970s to refer to music that can be either actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending... For the Swedish political music movement, see progg. ... A genre [], (French: kind or sort from Greek: γένος (genos)) is a loose set of criteria for a category of literary composition; the term is also used for any other form of art or utterance. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Audio engineering is the branch of engineering dealing with the production of sound through mechanical means. ... A soundscape is an acoustic environment or an environment created by sound. ... In the music industry, a record producer (or music producer) has many roles, among them controlling the recording sessions, coaching and guiding the musicians, organizing and scheduling production budget and resources, and supervising the recording, mixing and mastering processes. ... Audio engineering is the branch of engineering dealing with the production of sound through mechanical means. ... This is an article about the film crew member known as a sound designer. ...

In applied research in electroacoustic and computer programming for contemporary music or electronic music, the Sound Designer is a specialist who is usually there to help the composer to do the electroacoustic portion of the composition. Often, the composer comes with an idea (concept + score) and the Sound Designer assists the composer with new technology and unique equipment. Examples include sound synthesis, interaction between acoustic instruments and computers, realization of a computer program in many different languages (often Max-MSP/Jitter), gesture capture with sensors or cameras, video treatment and interaction between video and sound. Historically, the Sound Designer was often called the "Musical Assistant". Some of the many examples of research centers working with Sound Designers include Forum Neues Musiktheater of Stuttgart, IRCAM in Paris or synArt in Antibes.

Notable examples of sound design are the contributions of Michael Brook to the U2 album The Joshua Tree, George Massenburg to the Jennifer Warnes album Famous Blue Raincoat, Chris Thomas to the Pink Floyd album Dark Side of the Moon, and Brian Eno to the Paul Simon album Surprise. Michael Brook (born 1952 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian guitarist familiar with many disciplines including rock, minimalism and film scores. ... This article is about the Irish rock band. ... For other uses, see Joshua tree (disambiguation). ... George Y. Massenburg (b. ... Drawing of Jennifer Warnes on the cover of her 1982 collection The Best of Jennifer Warnes Jennifer Jean Warnes (born March 3, 1947 in Seattle, Washington) is an American singer and songwriter. ... Famous Blue Raincoat is a song by Leonard Cohen. ... Chris Thomas is a respected British record producer who was born on January 13, 1947. ... Pink Floyd are an English rock band that initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music. ... This article is about the Pink Floyd album. ... Brian Eno (pronounced IPA: ) born on 15 May 1948 in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England) is an English electronic musician, music theorist and record producer. ... Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, half of the folk-singing duo Simon and Garfunkel who continues a successful solo career. ... Look up surprise in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

External links

Film

• FilmSound.org - Learning Space dedicated to the Art of Sound Design

Theatre

• Music and Sound Design
• Oh the Zumanity (extensive interview with Cirque du Soleil sound designer Jonathan Deans)
• Theatre Sound Webring
• Kai's Theater Sound Hand Book (incomplete)
• Theatre Sound List-Serv
• Stagelink Directory of Sound Designers
• Theatre Sound Design Directory and Resources
• Articles and Papers about Theatre Sound Design
• Bibliography of Books and Articles relating to Sound and Acoustics
• Theatre Sound Design Directory and Resource Guide
• The MIDI Show Control (MSC) standard (V1.0, still a valid subset, is now superseded by V1.1)
• Draft Sound Design Contract Elements from the 1980s

Cirque du Soleil (French for Circus of the Sun) is an entertainment empire based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy Laliberté and Daniel Gauthier. ...

Multimedia

• Why Is That Thing Beeping? A Sound Design Primer
• The Guide to Sound Effects - Practical tips and ideas for creating sound effects, submitted by sound designers from all over the world
• [4]- Advanced sound design using Puredata synthesis.
• TAPESTREA - a new way to design sound (software from Princeton)

Pure Data with many patches open (netpd project) Pure Data (or Pd) is a graphical programming language developed by Miller Puckette in the 1990s for the creation of interactive computer music and multimedia works. ...

Radio

• BBC: Practical 10 Step Guide for young sound designers, by BBC Sound Designer of the year Winner 2006 Andrew Diey

Andrew Diey 2005, Manchester. ...

Qualifications

There are relatively few accredited Sound Design courses - the first three below lead to Equity or Bectu Membership and are accredited by NCDT [5]and CDS [6]

• BA (Hons)Broadcasting (Sound Design) at Ravensbourne College Of Design & Communication

• BA (Hons)in Creative Sound Design at the Academy of Contemporary Music

• BA (Hons)Theatre Sound Design at the Central School of Speech and Drama

• BA (Hons) Creative Sound Production at Abertay University, Dundee

• Diploma Sound Design at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts

• BA (Hons) Theatre Sound at Rose Bruford

• MFA Sound Design at the University of California, Irvine

• BMus(hons) Music with Computer Sound Design Degree at the University of Surrey.

• Research into the sound design process. Conducted by MMU [7] and UCan.tv [8]]