Get Started

• Recording Studio 101: Beginners Guide to Home Studio Recording
• Air Wiggles

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• DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) see What is a DAW?
• Reaper

  - Free for 60 days, and then it yells at you to pay. I'll eventually buy this one, it's my preferred DAW.

• ReaPack: Package manager for REAPERNew Addition
• The SWS/S&M extensionNew Addition

  - a collection of features that seamlessly integrate into REAPER

• UCS for ReaperNew Addition
• Audacity FREE!
• Wavacity -

  Web version of Audacity

  FREE! New Addition
• Bandlab (Apple Only) FREE!
• GarageBand (Apple Only)
• Adobe AuditionSubscription, $22/mo

  - crashes ALL the time

• FL Studio$99, one-time

  - previously FruityLoops

• Hindenburg ProSubscription, $12/mo
• Reason+ Subscription, $19.99/mo

  - I'm not a fan of this one, but some of my favorite podcasts have used it in the past! (Lookin' at you, Jojo 😁)

• Cakewalk Subscription, $14.95/mo
• Cubase (Elements 13) $99, one time New Addition

  - Don't know much about this one

• Pro Tools Intro FREE! New Addition

  - A lightweight version of Pro Tools

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Perspective New Addition

Consider listening to your projects in different settings or setups. This will depend on your access to certain products, and may be overwhelming to read, but remember that it's not required. Plenty of fantastic producers have just a few things that help them. In fact, you can find discussions where even with plugins, it's common to just have a toolset you've built and stick with it throughout most projects.

Many pro sound designers will test with:

• A pair of cheap earbuds (I use the ones they sometimes give out on planes)
• A phone
• Wireless headphones/earbuds
• Decent headphones if they're separate from their editing headphones
• An excellent pair of headphones
• I've also listened on crummy speakers, a Google mini close up on my desk and further away while doing chores, and on good speakers.

If you don't have access to these things, please don't feel like you need to go out and buy them! I usually don't have access to nice speakers, but it's fun to hear my projects when I do. Do what works for you, the great thing about sound is you don't need to shell out cash to make something that sounds great. These things can help if you can afford them, but if you are starting out, just stick with what helps you get the job done! You can change it up later when such opportunities come along.

Lemon from Audistorium also posed the question, "Do you listen to [your projects] in your car?" it's very common in music to do so, and what might be expected in one medium may be incredibly helpful in another. I think this can also hammer home the point of accessibility above. I don't have a car, but my sound seems to work alright for listeners!

Do what helps you create, and what makes you happy when listening to your creations. Sound is very diverse, your approach can/may change with genre in music, movies, television, games, and everything under the sun. What works for one project might not work for another, and what works for one sound designer might not fit into how another creates. We all bring different perspectives, so celebrate your unique signature!

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Get Readin'

• Remember to clear out your recycle bin. If you're running out of space check out WinDirStat to see where your local data is being kept. New addition
• ★ HIGHLY recommend looking into Diana Deutsch's work if you're into experimental sound.
• ★ AudioCheck gives you access to an extensive collection of sound tests, playable online and downloadable in high-quality for patrons.
• Why do your recordings sound like ass?
• Sound Designer Rate guides $45-90 New AdditionFYI

  - These are locked documents, under a paywall. You can find related articles here and here.

• Voice Recording in the Home Studio
• Audacity 3 Voice Recording Setup For Beginners
• A Simple Trick That Will Make Your Dialogue Sound Better & Stand Out in the Mix New Addition
• BeepBox is an online tool for sketching and sharing instrumental music.
• Making Complex Sound Design that Isn’t a Mess
• The Sound of DUNE with Director Denis Villeneuve and Sound Team
• Using Music: The Kitchen Sisters
• Walter Murch
• Mixing Tune Up
• Recording Cellular Phone Calls
• Story Dissection: Dead Animal Man
• Depth Perception: Techniques for two ears
• Pro Tools to Reaper
• Impulse Response Freebies & Preset Packs for Waves IR-1 & IR-L
• Tokyo Dawn Labs plugins for purchase
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• SyntherJack: DIY sound synthesizers and me.
• How Digital Audio Works

  - Check out the comments for corrections and opinions from others who are, presumambly, Producers/Designers of some sort

• Republic XF-84H Thunderscreech: "Go to "testing/noise" for the fun stuff"
• Twenty Thousand Hertz - The stories behind the world's most recognizable and interesting sounds.
• Silence
• "The Booj"
• One of Baldur's Gate 3's sound designers studied blacksmithing and made a pair of metal shoes just to record armor clanking noises for the game
• Glenn Gullskjegg G.'s Foley Wizardry
• LKC Content Navigator for Reaper
• The Sound Design of Ghost of Tsushima: Fake birds
• 7-zip command-line to recursively extract archives in sub-directories, and output them into those sub-directories
• Low Cost or Free VST Compressor Evaluation
• Mastering Audio for Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and Youtube
• What Is NRC? ( Noise Reduction Coefficient )
• Reaper layout mod: LCS-mod Imperial v3.0
• Jotter

  - A utility plug-in for making notes and comments on sound files

• De-Esser Comparison
• Made in Frame: How “Missing” Builds a Modern Cinematic Language
• SFX Swap: Share your sound effects and get tons of free sounds in return
• How Thickness of Acoustic Foam Panels Affects Absorption
• SoundGym | Audio Ear Training Online
• Setting up a Reaper project for ambisonic mixing
• Mixing Spatial Audio in Pro Tools FREE
• ★ Venus Theory: Good channel for learning about some funky plugins
• ★ Bed Generators

  - These are for personal use only, but they're nice for inspo too.

• Setting up a Reaper project for ambisonic mixing
• Photoplayer Unusual Instrument Used In Silent Films
• Grey Skies Forever "Swampy Loop"
• "Foley hall of fame" New addition
• Simplify Metadata Writing For Field Recording with Universal Category System New addition
• The Reporter App is a simple and intuitive app for recording broadcast-quality audio on a mobile device. New addition
• Momo Note: Arpeggiation
• Momo Note: Spectrograms
• Momo Note: Shimmer

If you got some cash to drop - I haven't tried most of these so def check out reviews and demos!

• [W E I R D] Everything by Freakshow. I love them. :)
• "Ujam has all of their beat maker plugins on sale for $8.08 each or $88 for all of them for the next three days" - THX RANDY!
• [vaporwave] VHS Dreamwaves - Never used it but it looks cool as hell, $34
• RX 10 Standard - Pretty good. I got this one for $10 and would rec waiting for sales if they have them
• Walker 2 - Create your own footsteps, $139 rn
• Refractions - samples and re-sequences audio in real-time, $29
• Edward - Another footstep generator, $99
• Doppler - I've always wanted to try this one, currently $24.99
• Plugin Boutique
• WA Production
• Plugin Alliance

• Film Sound Terminology
• "Sound On Sound's indispensible, regularly updated, explanations of technical terms from the fields of Recording, Audio Production, Music Technology, MIDI, Music Software, Audio Plug-ins, Mac and PC Computing, Live Sound, Acoustics, Electronics and more..."

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A Primer: Things I personally needed to learn, and re-learn many times over, when getting started. I'll try to update these with definitions, but I get very hung up on being "correct" with my writing, so might just put in some key terms as they come to mind that may help you in your own research.

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• Autoducking - Lowering the volume automatically, such as when people are speaking.
• Compression - How to Use Compression (10-Hour Course)
• Ducking - A quick dip or absence in/of volume. It's used often in music, Portishead comes to mind.
• EQ (Equalization)
• High-Pass Filter
• Low-Pass Filter
• LFO (Low-Frequency Oscillation) - An electronic frequency that is usually below 20 Hz and creates a rhythmic pulse or sweep. This is used to modulate musical equipment such as synthesizers to create audio effects such as vibrato, tremolo and phasing. Produces a "wobbly" sound.
• Mastering
• Mono
• Noise Floor
• Phase
• Reverb
• Stereo

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