It is employed in a variety of disciplines including filmmaking, television production, video game development, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production, radio, new media and musical instrument development.
The use of sound to evoke emotion, reflect mood and underscore actions in plays and dances began in prehistoric times when it was used in religious practices for healing or recreation.
In ancient Japan, theatrical events called kagura were performed in Shinto shrines with music and dance.
[2] Italian composer Luigi Russolo built mechanical sound-making devices, called "intonarumori," for futurist theatrical and music performances starting around 1913.
[3] Sixteen years later, Herbert Beerbohm Tree used recordings in his London production of Stephen Phillips’ tragedy NERO.
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.
A great deal of care and attention was paid to the construction and performance of these effects, both naturalistic and abstract.
It was subsequently provided to the ADC and David Goodman at the Florida USA local when they both planned to represent sound designers in the 1990s.
These features were incorporated into the MIDI Show Control (MSC) specification, an open communications protocol for interacting with diverse devices.
Interactive applications have also given rise to many techniques in "dynamic audio" which loosely means sound that's "parametrically" adjusted during the program's run-time.
The World Wide Web has greatly enhanced the ability of sound designers to acquire source material quickly, easily and cheaply.
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.
Editors and mixers like Murray Spivack (King Kong), George Groves (The Jazz Singer), James G. Stewart (Citizen Kane), and Carl Faulkner (Journey to the Center of the Earth) served in this capacity during Hollywood's studio era, and are generally considered to be sound designers by a different name.
In so doing, it allowed those who called themselves sound designers to compete for contract work and to negotiate higher salaries.
Dan Dugan, working with three stereo tape decks routed to ten loudspeaker zones[14] during the 1968–69 season of American Conservatory Theater (ACT) in San Francisco, was the first person to be called a sound designer.
This can be the artist themselves, a publisher, record label, performing rights organization or music licensing company.
The influence of film and television on playwriting is seeing plays being written increasingly with shorter scenes, which is difficult to achieve with scenery but easily conveyed with sound.
Sound system tuning employs various methods including equalization, delay, volume, speaker and microphone placement, and in some cases, the addition of new equipment.
The sound designer for a play and the production's director work together to decide the themes and emotions to be explored.
A record producer is responsible for extracting the best performance possible from the musicians and for making both musical and technical decisions about the instrumental timbres, arrangements, etc.
[20] In fashion shows, the sound designer often works with the artistic director to create an atmosphere fitting the theme of a collection, commercial campaign or event.
[21][22] There are a few extra requirements for sound production for computer applications, including re-usability, interactivity and low memory and CPU usage.
Implementation might require software or electrical engineering of the systems that modify sound or process user input.