Noise is extremely useful for sound designers and can be used to make anything from Claps, to Sweeps, to Hi-Hats, to adding top-end to synths and loads more. Noise is completely random frequencies spread across the entire spectrum and sounds like a TV or Radio that hasn’t been tuned – “TSHHHHHHHHHHHH”. A sine wave is a very clean sound, it has no harmonics, just a single fundamental – think of a heart rate monitor going “beep, beep, beep”.Ī triangle wave has a similar sound to a sine wave but it does have some added harmonics – think of a flute.Ī square wave is packed with harmonics and has a sound reminiscent of 8-bit video games.Ī saw wave is rich in harmonics and has quite a rough and harsh sound to it – some words that come to mind are – gritty and buzzing. I recommend listening to each of these sound waves and taking a mental note of characteristics. In almost any synthesizer you will have access to the following five basic waveforms:
I will also provide some helpful resources that were a huge help for me when I was just getting started in the world of sound design. In this tutorial I will cover 10 fundamental topics that will help you develop a basic understanding of sound design. All that aside – sound design is also just incredibly fun to experiment with, so learning sound design is well worth your time! This will not only help you with designing sounds, it will also improve your mixing and understanding of signal flow and processing. It is therefore paramount that you as a producer should understand the fundamentals of audio synthesis and sound design. Good sound design is at the heart of any successful record. Getting there hasn’t been easy but it has been fun and is well worth the time investment. Since then I have become comfortable with sound design and have a strong understanding of it – to a point where designing sounds has become a big part of income and allows me to feed my family while doing what I love. I was struggling to create sounds that I liked and had heard in my favourite songs.
A little over 3 years ago I was a complete beginner.