Sound Designer Jobs

Sound design is the generation and manipulation of audio elements to create an immersive and realistic experience for viewers or players. Masters of processing, recording and putting sounds together, a sound designer has specific and important skills, which are always needed in many different disciplines. They are essential to films, music videos, video games, visual art, live performance and many more.

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What is a sound designer? Learn more about sound designers 

What is a sound designer? Simply put, they are the ones that control what we hear. Through experience, practice and knowledge, sound designers are able to manipulate countless elements and sounds over one another to make the perfect desired effect. The job of a sound designer is essential in just about any production involving sound whether music or other audio.

What are the roles of a sound designer?

A sound designer’s job entails modifying and editing sounds and music during production, to improve their quality and create a heightened experience. The sound designer has to research through a vast library of sounds to pick the best audio for their different projects. A sound designer might also have to record music, dialogues, and sounds and edit them to make them sound like the way the clients want them to sound like. 

What is the background needed for sound design and production?

Sound designing is a technical job that requires extensive knowledge of sound and equipment, so many employers look for candidates that have learned recording and editing of sounds or music. Many sound designers have completed an audio engineering degree in college before starting their career. However, there are other bachelors that can provide a sound designer with the skills required to work in a production. To get a job in the field, the strongest candidates often build an impressive portfolio in addition to college experience, both professional and personal, as sound designing is a position that also requires skills which are not generally taught in schools. 

Indeed, sound design is known to be one of those jobs to have a lot of crunch times, meaning that when the deadlines are coming up for a project, a sound designer has a lot of overtime to do. The deadlines in this field are generally strict and require great time management skills. This kind of schedule can be very draining for some employees, but extremely motivating for others. 

What skills are needed to work in audio and sound?

Sound designing is a profession that requires a broad range of different skills. Having a diversified experience covering many skills is an asset when entering the workforce. The hands-on skills include recording and editing audio or music. However, sound design also demands the workers have a great imagination of what the sounds could be and creativity to create exceptional audio. 

Professional skills that are advantageous to a sound designer

  • Audio implementation: The ability to create a plan for each major area of work on a project or production. Being able to see the final sounding product in the beginning of the project is an important skill to have to be able to work towards a goal. With a thorough audio implementation, a whole team can work together towards achieving the same final result. 
  • Audio editing This skill entails everything that is related editing, mixing sounds that have been recorded. To become a master of audio editing, there needs to be a lot of practice, education on the subject as well as perfect mastering the sound design programs.  Audio editing requires a lot of creativity, to see where  the audio fits and how to manipulate it to become pleasing, as well as to find sound effects that have never been heard before but are ear catching. 
  • Audio recording: Audio recording is the sound that is professionally captured onto a platform or a storage device. Audio recording requires the knowledge of the equipment like microphones and their placement in the room during a production.  
  • Sound libraries: Sound libraries are used by sound designers that do not have a recorded sound. These libraries hold a very large selection of different types of sounds. A sound designer needs to know how to navigate sound effect libraries (which can be difficult because of the amount of data that they possess) and choose the perfect sound needed for the job. Finding the right sound requires a lot of imagination and a clear view of the final product prior to its finalization. 

What is the salary range of a sound designer?

A sound designer can either be working freelance or they can be part of an audio team. These can change the starting salaries, which also depends on the production experience and prior accomplishments of the candidate. 

On a general basis, the average experienced sound designer in the United States will make USD 62,000 annually, while the average entry-level sound design professional will make a salary of USD 40,000.  

Where does a sound designer work?

Sound designers work in any area where audio and music are involved

The skills of a sound designer are needed in multiple different disciplines. Anywhere that works with sounds, sound production will be editing sound effects, ensuring they overlap well and come out perfectly. 

  • Production of movies and television shows
  • Live performances like concerts or theatre play
  • Video games
  • Visual art presentations 
  • Music production

If you are looking for an entry-level job, you can always consider finding an internship and gaining important experience that will help you acquire a job down the line. Sound design is mastered with a lot of practice and the more opportunities you exploit, the higher your chances to get hired and work on music or productions. 

What kind of equipment is used in sound design?

Sound designing requires a lot of equipment for all of the skills that the job entails. You need to have equipment for the recording of the sounds, then you need to have the equipment for the editing of the audio. Microphones, audio interface such as headphones or speakers, editing tools like mix pads. Sound designers need strong computers to hold large programs, and they need to buy those programs to perform sound designing. 

It is important to know that the better the quality of the equipment, the more it is going to cost. If you are looking into buying a microphone, there can be some cheap microphones that do the job. However they will not be noise cancelling. Getting equipped as a sound designer can be difficult and expensive. That is why a lot of sound designers start off as a part of an audio team because they do not have to buy the expensive gear.