designing sound (review)

Designing Sound (review)David Collier

Music, Sound, and the Moving Image, Volume 5, Issue 2, Autumn 2011,pp. 191-195 (Article)

Published by Liverpool University PressDOI: 10.1353/msm.2011.0016

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Designing Sound is a comprehensive encyclopaedia for sound designersthat includes a wealth of examples and exercises, along with onlineresources. This review examines its merits as a resource for sounddesigners of all levels, and for others who wish to synthesise sound fromfirst principles. It discusses the book as a self-contained study resource,examining its text, examples, exercises, and online materials.

This book sets out to introduce the reader to the concepts and tech-niques of sound design. Structured in four parts, it takes the readerthrough the theory, tools, and techniques of sound design culminating inthe final section of the book where a series of practical examples,covering a wide variety of sounds, are presented. The theory sectionintroduces the reader to acoustics, psychoacoustics, and some of the basicphysics of physical and electrical sound-producing sources. The sounddesigners tools are then presented in the second section of the bookproviding a comprehensive and concise summary of the Pure Data (Pd)programming language. Sound synthesis techniques are covered,building on the sound programming introduced in the tools section,presenting a wide variety of sound synthesis methods, including additive,subtractive, FM, and granular synthesis. The final section of the bookcontains a series of worked examples of sound design that cover most ofthe sounds that a designer might expect to synthesise animal noises,running water, gun shots, explosions, and everything in-between. Theseworked examples put into practice the theory, tools, and techniquediscussed in the earlier sections.

On the back cover of the book an endorsement from Kees van denDoel, of the Scientific Computing Laboratory, at the University of BritishColumbia, states: A monumental work. This surely has the potential ofbecoming the sound designers bible! It would be easy to dismiss this aszealous overstatement, but after reading the book this seems an accurateappraisal, as the book is incredibly comprehensive; Farnell has crammeda lifetime of sound design into 650 pages. The book deals more with thetechnical aspects of synthesising sounds, which is understandable given

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Andy FarnellDesigning SoundLondon: The MIT Press, 2010, 664pp.

review by David Collier

Farnells background in software engineering, but he also takes theopportunity to mention the creative side of sound design, and elementsof critical listening and style.

Designing Sound starts with underlying theories on the physics of soundproduction in a variety of forms, room acoustics, and the psychoa-coustical perception of sound. This first section is technical, but Farnellkeeps the majority of examples relevant to sound design, instead of morefamiliar (and often rehashed) acoustics examples. One of the strengths ofthis section is that it lays the groundwork for discussing these technicaltopics when it comes to analysing and resynthesising sounds as part ofthe books final Practical section, allowing topics that might not havebeen fully internalised on the initial read to be placed in the context of apractical example.

The second section, on Tools, takes the reader through the Pure Dataprogramming language, an open source language available to downloadfree of charge. Pd is used throughout the book to synthesise sound, andthis section takes the reader through the Pd environment. It alsoprepares readers for all the programming concepts they will need tocomplete the rest of the book, which includes working with informationin both the control and signal domains, along with shaping sound,working with audio files, and making abstractions. At the beginning ofthe Tools section Farnell stresses the need for patience and persistencefor those novice programmers working with Pd for the first time.

The choice of Pd is the one area of the book that could be a stumblingblock for some readers, although the fact that it is open source shouldpersuade a potential reader to try it before making a decision. Farnell haslaid out very valid reasons for choosing Pd as opposed to other synthesislanguages, in that its graphical nature makes it easier to see the programsand read the data flow. Its shallower learning curve, as well as a lack ofcomplicated syntax, makes Pd much more accessible than other audioprogramming languages. All the examples in the book could quite easilybe built in Max/MSP without too much trouble but would mean losingout on the option to download the patches from the publishers website.If you wish to use a text-based synthesis language, the process of tran-scribing the examples becomes much more arduous and requires a goodworking knowledge of synthesis and programming in the otherlanguage. Another real advantage of choosing Pd is that the onlinecommunity is a very useful resource for those who need some help withthe software. The Pd online forum in particular is a great place to askquestions about issues that could arise while working through theexamples or exercises. So for those willing to dip their toe into Pd, theTools section provides a whirlwind introduction to the language. If you

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Andy Farnell, Designing Sound review by David Collier

wish to use another package to synthesise sound or are unwilling to learnhow to use Pd, then you will not get as much out of this book.

The technique section, like the theory section, covers more techniquesthan are strictly necessary to complete the series of practical exercises atthe end of the book. The section has a good mix of theoretical explana-tion and practical examples, that build on the knowledge of Pd gained inthe Tools section.

Apart from synthesis techniques, this section also has several otheruseful chapters, particularly the ones covering sound design workingmethods and procedural audio. The chapter dealing with the sounddesign process breaks it down to its basic components and describes eachin detail. By breaking down the design process, the author has preparedthe reader for the practical examples ahead and given a useful explana-tion of how to design. The design methodology could easily be appliedto any design project, and it is a real benefit to the reader that the processitself, and not just the output, has been examined in detail. It thusprovides a framework which the reader can use when designing soundsnot covered in the book.

Another useful chapter in this section is chapter 22 covering gameand procedural audio design, which examines the considerations thatsound designers have to make when they are creating audio to be usedin an interactive context, as well as discussing some of the challengesthat this new context poses for sound design. The writing on sound hasa long heritage, so this chapter is particularly useful as procedural audiois not such a widely discussed topic, although there are some good booksnow available. Farnell mentions the importance of computational effi-ciency in creating audio to be used in a procedural context, and whilein a few practicals he does discuss in passing how this might be achieved,it would have been useful if he had covered this in more detail, particu-larly as computational efficiency is central to the design of incidentalsound for games.

The first three sections of the book prepare the reader for the finalPractical section, which takes up just over half of the book and acts asthe proving ground for everything that has gone before. Here Farnellbreaks down sounds into seven categories which cover a wide array ofemulations from thunder and lightning to computer and science-fictionsources. Each section gets progressively trickier as you work through theexamples, and many different analysis and synthesis techniques arediscussed along the way.

The practical exercises follow a set structure: analysis, model, method,and implementation. From this design structure it is possible to see themethods that can be used to analyse sounds or to create sounds from



descriptions. While the way in which the sounds are analysed or synthe-sized might change, the methodology stays the same regardless of thesound being examined, and becomes a useful model that can be appliedto the creation of any sound.

A significant resource within the book is that all the figured examplesprinted in the text are available to download online at the publisherswebsite. This means that the reader does not have to build the patchesfrom the printed examples in the book but can download the finishedpatches and work with them while reading the book. (Although readersserious about working with Pd might find it useful to build the patchesfrom the diagrams to get a better understanding of these patches: and itisnt always possible to build the patches solely by following the diagrams,particularly in the more involved examples.) All the patches are availableas one downloadable zipped folder or, alternatively, you can downloadthem individually as you read through the book. Audio files are alsoprovided for each of the practicals so, for those not interested in workingwith the Pure Data, it is possible to hear the output from each of the prac-ticals without getting involved with the code. This is useful as it will savereaders the time dealing with the software if they only want to hear thesounds as they analyse the examples. Unfortunately, unlike the patches, itisnt possible to download these as a single zipped file, so they must bedownloaded individually, which means going through each of the pagescorresponding to the diagrams in the book to download the audio file. Itwould have been useful if these files had been included in the zipped folderwith the patches or were downloadable as a separate zipped folder, but Isuspect that the file size of the audio might have made this impossible.

At the end of some of the chapters, the author provides exercises thatbuild on the information and examples covered by that chapter. Theseexamples are good for making sure that the content has been digested,and that the code is not just being copied verbatim. The exercises are notonly about using the software, though, and many of them call on thereader to do further reading to find out, for example, why certainfrequencies are used as phone dial tones or to think about theonomatopoeic nature of words. These exercises make you think aboutwhy a sound is, not just what it is, and make the book very useful as a self-study course. When I initially leafed through the book I found myselfthinking that I wouldnt spend much time working with the exercises;but the reality was that I probably spent as much time building patchesfor these exercises as going through the prebuilt examples.

Each chapter provides numerous reference texts to explore for thosehungry for further information on the subjects covered. It is also clearfrom the references that Farnell has invested a great deal of time

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thinking about and analysing sound. The methods he uses to break downsounds into their constituent components certainly provoke questionsinto sound analysis and synthesis. The references suggest at the thor-oughness with which each sound has been researched and analysed, andgive a glimpse into what is required to reproduce sounds effectively.Several of the exercises encourage the reader to follow in a similar vein,and to pursue a sound to its origins so that it might be comprehensivelyreproduced without fear of inaccuracy.

Who is this book for? It is suitable for sound designers at all levels ofexperience. Its breadth of material means that there will undoubtedly besomething that everyone can learn from its content. For example, itwould also be suitable for musicians and sound artists interested indesigning sounds for compositions and installations. Researchersworking in the field of sonic design or those who need to synthesizenatural sounds will find this book a valuable resource. The Toolssection, where the author provides a whirlwind introduction to the Pdenvironment, also acts as a valuable reference text for those working withPd in providing a comprehensive introduction to the language.

Designing Sound is a very useful, self-contained text that is equal partsreference text and self-study course, and in spite of its very technicalfocus, it remains highly readable. The author has a pleasant writing styleand the technical explanations are well worded with the minimum ofjargon, which helps to make this book accessible to the non-technophile.The text is laid out in a very logical fashion, and the standard format ofthe practicals helps breathe familiarity into topics that at first might seemdaunting. It is interesting that Farnell hasnt included a concludingchapter. You could speculate that the message is clear, If youve workedyour way through the book there is nothing else that needs to be said.You are now capable of creating any sound. And if you manage to inter-nalise the material within the book, you should be capable of creating anysound from first principles.



designing sound (review)

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