# Is There A VI-Control Equivalent For Sound Designers/SFX?



## calebfaith (May 1, 2018)

Basically the title. Over the past few years I've become more involved with sound design and SFX and was wondering if anyone knows of a similar forum for these fields.

Thanks!


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## SimonCharlesHanna (May 1, 2018)

Gear slutz is always great. Not specifically for SFX but a broader range of folks than VI C


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## gregh (May 2, 2018)

maybe on KVR - depending, there is a lot of silliness there sometimes but the sound design and a few other subforums might be valuable


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## calebfaith (May 2, 2018)

Thankyou both. I thought as much was just checking to see if there was any niche forums that someone might know about


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## wst3 (May 2, 2018)

The "Theatre-Sound" maillist, while somewhat anachronistic maybe, is an outstanding source of information on all aspects of sound design. It does focus on live theatre, and there is quite a bit of traffic about the technology, and sound reinforcement, but there's a lot of very talented designers there, and they are very generous with their knowledge.

I just checked, and somewhere along the way it transitioned from mail list to google group:
http://groups.google.com/group/theatre-sound-list

Another great resource, although much more focused on tech vs art, is ProSoundWeb. Many of my sound designer friends hang out there as well, and it is way too easy to drag them into conversations about the artistic side of things!
http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php

Three other forums that I visit sporadically (there is only so much time):
https://creatingsound.com/social/forums-groups/
https://theproducersforum.com/index.php?board=9.0 (sub-forum specific to sound design, but the whole place is cool)
https://www.gamedev.net/forums/forum/18-music-and-sound-fx/ (not as active, but some good stuff)

<edit>
almost forgot about two newsletters that I always read! You probably want to sign up for the newsletters from "asoundeffect.com" and "airbornesound.com"
</edit>

Please let us know if you find others!


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## gsilbers (May 2, 2018)

I recently posted in the forum requests to have a sub section at vi for this.
But not much traktion.

It would be cool to learn new sound Desgin methods and plugins and getting a sample from a normal sound to a cool mind bending cinematic fx sound.

I get used to doing things my way and it’s cool to learn new ways. Or to show others how u do things etc.


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## wst3 (May 2, 2018)

I remember that post - I was kind of luke warm about it, in spite of the fact that I do quite a bit of sound design. I"m re-thinking that.

I'll bet a lot of us do a lot of sound design, and there are an infinite number of tricks, so sharing them here would be beneficial.

Maybe a poll to find out how many here are interested? What think you?


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## Mornats (May 2, 2018)

I'd like to see a sound design sub section. I'm sure there's a load of experience that can be shared here.


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## StephenForsyth (May 2, 2018)

No clue either tbh, I see you're already a member of the vi-c discord but I'm always active on there and I do quite a bit of SFX work and gamesound stuff (like so https://instaud.io/272G ) so just say hi if you ever want to chat.


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## calebfaith (May 2, 2018)

Mornats said:


> I'd like to see a sound design sub section. I'm sure there's a load of experience that can be shared here.



Yeah I agree but it depends on whether that's out of scope for this forum? @Mike Greene 



StephenForsyth said:


> No clue either tbh, I see you're already a member of the vi-c discord but I'm always active on there and I do quite a bit of SFX work and gamesound stuff (like so https://instaud.io/272G ) so just say hi if you ever want to chat.



Awesome thanks! That sample you posted was pretty sick


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## germancomponist (May 2, 2018)

Can you define "sound design"? I have searched many times for a cleary definition, but it doesn't exist.


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## calebfaith (May 2, 2018)

germancomponist said:


> Can you define "sound design"? I have searched many times for a cleary definition, but it doesn't exist.



The example that StephenForsyth posted above is what I would call a perfect example.

IMO sound design is creating (through synths) and/or editing/layering/processing existing recordings of SFX to create something new. 

I did a quick google and here is what I found:

"Sound design is the process of recording, acquiring, manipulating or generating audio elements. It is employed in a variety of disciplines ... Sound design most commonly involves the manipulation of previously composed or recorded audio, such as music and sound effects. In some instances it may also involve the composition or recording of audio to create a desired effect or mood."

"Examples of Sound design- The eerie scream of an Alien, or the sound of the weapons going off in a video game."

- http://www.audioshapers.com/blog/what-is-sound-design.html


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## gregh (May 2, 2018)

calebfaith said:


> The example that StephenForsyth posted above is what I would call a perfect example.
> 
> IMO sound design is creating (through synths) and/or editing/layering/processing existing recordings of SFX to create something new.
> 
> ...



I would also include a broader sense within the performance (theatre film dance etc) and art installation fields. Here sound design is more like developing a composition with the totality of sounds of the performance - the sound of the performers plus additional sound, the acoustic qualities of the created space, and so on, all to serve the conceptual and emotional drive of the work. For example it may involve deciding what the sound of people's clothes will be like, the type of footwear and stepping style on stage, the dragging of furniture, the sorts of insects in the background, where they become foregrounded and so on


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## Piano Pete (May 2, 2018)

Designingsound.org

There is also Sound.stackexchange.com 

I have not been on the stackexchange forum in awhile, it appears they have changed some things around. Designingsound used to have a direct link to the forum, but that no longer appears to be the case.


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## Mornats (May 3, 2018)

calebfaith said:


> Yeah I agree but it depends on whether that's out of scope for this forum?



I guess that's up to Mike but I do notice whenever someone asks about sound design libraries they get a few responses recommending they design their own sounds.


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## Rasmus Hartvig (May 3, 2018)

I too do quite a bit of sound design for game projects and I guess that's the case for quite a few people here, so I'm all for a sub-forum. It would be really convenient to have this place be a one-stop-shop for most of the stuff I do.

I know this is meant to be a VI centric forum, but I presume that most of us sound designers use a whole bunch of VIs when doing our work anyway. As for effect plugins there's also a big overlap with what we use for music production, and those are discussed passionately here anyway.

Poll?


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## gsilbers (May 14, 2018)

germancomponist said:


> Can you define "sound design"? I have searched many times for a cleary definition, but it doesn't exist.




true. the most clear and most common definition is the one used for editing/creating sounds for movies. A lot of it is editing exiting similar sounds and creating layers to enhance a scene in a movie. But also more sound design comes from sci-fi fi sounds or created sounds like the star wars light saber sound effect. So from the atmosphere inside a space ship to atmosphere on an empty house while the actor reflects on his past... to the footsteps of foley work for simple walking of actors to the huge terminator robot footsteps... its all sound design.

But most recently... and why i wanted to subforum for sound design... the term for sound design used in that world of sound manipulation now common in trailers kontakt libraries, or those hybrid instruments kontakt libraries like heaviocity or outputs string libraries. that they start with strings.. or normal sounds and they process them or add synths to create new and insteresting sounds that composers can use for their musical composition. 

if you see some of the videos trailers for this course it shows the more kontakt/music sound design
https://enroll.evenant.com/sounddesign
(even if its for special trailer fx.. a lot of trailer composers use them)

and my example of recording a toy cow's mooo with dying batteries and transforming into one those huge trailer braams in C. (iphone audio but gets the idea across )

(not sure if you can see the video from facebook w/o login in)


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## JEPA (May 14, 2018)

http://soundlister.com

Edit: is not a forum, but a good resource of information in the field / the newsletter


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## JEPA (May 14, 2018)

another blog but not a forum:
https://blog.audiokinetic.com


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## vicontrolu (May 16, 2018)

+1 on the sound design subforum @Mike Greene


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## JEPA (May 17, 2018)

https://www.asoundeffect.com/


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## Mike Greene (May 17, 2018)

Okay, lets do it. It's not obvious where it should go, so I'm thinking under the "Virtual Studio Production" section? Should it be called "Sound Design" or should we call it "Sound Design and SFX"?


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## Jaap (May 17, 2018)

Mike Greene said:


> or should we call it "Sound Design and SFX"?



This would have my vote and Virtual Studio Production seems the most logic place indeed (or we could turn it into a drama  )


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## Mike Greene (May 17, 2018)

Done. New sub-forum is here.


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