The Sound Ideas Blog
This is the perfect space for sound ideas.

January 2023

We are delighted to introduce Randy Thom, a prolific and well-respected Director of Sound Design, Supervising Sound Designer and Re-Recording Mixer as the guest blogger for Sound Ideas. Randy is one of the best in the field with Oscar, Emmy and Grammy nominations to his credit; as well as receiving C.A.S. Career Achievement and MPSE Career Achievement awards. You can learn more about Randy here: https://www.skysound.com/people/randy-thom/

Loose First, Precise Later

Randy Thom Guest Author

Here are some thoughts on why sound design should start with a sketch.

Let’s talk about getting messy on purpose. Not just allowing yourself to fumble around in sound design - but actually welcoming the fumbling. There’s unfortunate pressure we all feel to “get it right the first time.” You bring up a moment - say, a door slam, a car crash, or the slow, dreadful turn of a character’s head - and the impulse is to dig through the library and find the perfect sound; or to design something pristine and polished right out of the gate.
 
I’d like to suggest something different. Something looser. Something better for the process and often for the end result.  Start by sketching.

Designing audio for the Jodie Foster character is listening on headphones for alien beings…

The Creative Power of the Rough Pass
When I say “sketch,” I mean laying something down quickly, intuitively, with the understanding that it’s not final. You’re getting a sound idea into the cut that points in a possible direction without worrying about whether it will stand up to scrutiny in a dark theater with a thousand ears tuned in, or in an picture editing room with a critical director tuned in.
 
This isn’t laziness. It’s strategy. A rough pass gives you:
 
Something to react to.
Something to refine.
Something the rest of the team can feel, rather than just imagine.
 
And most importantly, it gives you the chance to surprise yourself.
 
Why Precision Can Kill Creativity (at First)
There’s a paradox in sound design: the more you chase precision too early, the more you limit what the scene can become. The “perfect” whoosh or the “ideal” gunshot locks you into a version of the moment that might not actually be the best one. You start designing for a narrow target instead of exploring the emotional space the scene actually needs.
 
One thing I’ve learned in my painting hobby: if you’re painting a portrait, you don’t start with eyeballs and lashes, you start with shapes and shadows—a messy suggestion of what the thing might be. Then, gradually, as the structure emerges, you finesse the details. The same principle applies to sound.
 
Sound Is a Living Part of the Scene
Here’s the other thing: film is fluid. That scene you’re designing today? It might get recut tomorrow. The pacing could change. Dialogue might be swapped out. A close-up could turn into a wide shot. If you’ve already spent five hours designing the microscopic sound of a multi- faceted lock clicking into place, and the lock ends up off-screen… well, congratulations, you’ve just wasted a good chunk of your creative energy on a ghost.
 
A sketch lets you stay in sync with the evolving film. You’re not nailed down. You’re dancing with the edit, not dragging behind it.
 
How It Actually Works in Practice
Let’s say I’m working on a scene where a character slowly opens a creaking warehouse door. High tension, very little score, lots of room for sound to do the heavy lifting.
 
On my first pass, I won’t go hunting through libraries for the “cleanest antique door creak in stereo with natural reverb.” I’ll grab something—maybe a field recording I did years ago, or something wildly inappropriate. I may stretch it, pitch it—whatever makes the moment feel alive and sets it apart from things I’ve heard before. The goal is to capture a vibe, not perfection. Then I walk away.
 
I let the rest of the track build. I come back a few days later, rewatch the scene, and suddenly that creak either feels spot-on or like it’s wearing the wrong coat. Maybe now I know it should be quieter, or have something closer to a vocal-like groan. Or maybe the creak needs to begin before the shot cuts to the door. That’s when I start making more precise choices.
 
Letting the Scene Tell You What It Needs
Sound design is often less about what the object “should” sound like and more about what the moment wants to feel like. And guess what? You don’t always know what the moment wants until you’ve spent some time with it.
 
A rough pass keeps the channel open. It lets the scene start talking to you.
 
Some of the best ideas I’ve ever had in sound came from throwing something half-baked into a scene and realizing, “Wait, that actually works better than the thing I thought I was supposed to do.” One of the best examples from my own work is from the Bob Zemeckis movie “Contact.” The Jodie Foster character is listening on headphones for a pattern that suggests communication from alien beings. I needed to come up with something fast for that signal to put into an early temp mix. I quickly modified a series of recordings of metal impacts by minimizing the transient at the head of each impact and stretching the rest of it. I spent about twenty minutes on it, and that’s basically the sound you hear in the movie. I spent way more time later trying to improve on it, but Zemeckis loved that first try, and I can’t tell you how many people have told me that they thought it was perfect. I’m still not convinced, but I can’t complain much, cause it clearly worked.
 
Collaboration Loves a Sketch
In my experience, most directors and editors love to respond to sound. If you show them a sketch—something expressive, but clearly still in process—it opens the door to collaboration. They’ll say, “What if the sound felt scarier here?” or “Could we build more tension before the bang?” And now you’re building the moment together, not just handing over a product.
 
This is the way directors work with every other craft. They don’t expect to see perfectly rendered images immediately from VFX, Costumes, or from any other department.
 
Sound Is a Sculpture, Not a Snapshot
Think of sound like clay, not like a photograph. It’s malleable. It’s responsive. It wants to be shaped. But if you treat every new scene like a final exam, you rob yourself of that joy.
 
When you let yourself design loosely—instinctively—first, you give your own brain the chance to be a listener rather than just a technician. You notice where things land emotionally. You hear what’s missing. You allow space for the sound to evolve.
And isn’t that what filmmaking is, at its heart? A series of evolutions?
 
Final Thought: Do Go All Out on A Few Sounds Right Away
Not taking back anything I’ve said so far, but I DO advise you to choose a few strategic sounds to put a lot of energy into right at the beginning. If you can blow the director’s mind with a couple of sounds, then they’ll be even more open to your presenting most of the others as sketches. It’ll give them confidence in your ability to take all the sounds to that high level.

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Microphones and Field Recording

Randy Thom Guest Author

Microphones and Field Recording

When recording sound with a microphone, and especially when recording outdoors, the kind of mic you choose to use is way less important to the quality of sound you get than how you windscreen the mic, how you shock-mount the mic, and where you place the mic. Mic manufacturers would like us to believe that there are big differences between mics, and that each mic has a specialty. No surprise. That way they get to sell us more microphones! But in my almost fifty years of recording sounds for film, video, and radio, I’ve learned that obsessing about what microphone I am using, or which one I need to buy next, is mostly a waste of time and energy.

The most interesting sound you wind up recording is often a sound you didn’t anticipate...

My point is not that all mics are the same or that all the mic brands are lying to us. They aren’t. But there is less difference than most of us, and the mic brands, would like to admit. In double-blind tests, even pros often struggle to identify what mic they are listening to, and they frequently judge cheaper mics to sound as good or better than more expensive ones. It’s almost always the case that a little EQ on one mic can make it sound identical to another mic.

When recording outdoors, unwanted ambient sounds are the biggest problem. Contrary to popular belief, mic choice is a relatively small factor in addressing the problem of ambient noise. There is no magic microphone, yet, that knows what you want to record and eliminates all other sounds. Yes, some mics are more directional than others, but it’s rare that a problematic noise will be coming from a distinct enough direction that it is controllable by the directionality of a microphone. Most often, the undesirable sounds are coming from, or being reflected from, close to 360 degrees around you.

There are mainly two ways to minimize unwanted ambient sounds.

First, pay another visit to the location when the ambient noise (vehicles, leaf blowers, general urban roar, insects, wind in trees, etc.) are less loud. Second, get whatever microphone you do have closer to the sound you want to record. An omni mic five feet from a sound source will usually give you a better recording than a shotgun mic thirty feet away.

Wind is frequently a huge problem. I’m so used to battling wind problems that whenever I am outdoors and there is no wind, I feel guilty if I’m not recording something! There are two kinds of wind problems. One is wind blowing on the microphone, which is something you rarely want. In addition to using good wind-screening on the mic itself, it will help to find a way to screen the general area around the mic from wind. It may help to position the mic downwind from a boulder, a building, or some other large object that will block at least some of the wind. If you have a couple of friends who can help, they can hold a blanket up so that it blocks some wind from getting to the mic.

One great thing about outdoor sound recording expeditions is that the most interesting sound you wind up recording is often a sound you didn’t anticipate being there.

Happy sound collecting!

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Storytelling and Sound Illusions

Randy Thom Giveaway

Storytelling and Sound Illusions

We humans are easily fooled by sound. It sneaks into the side door to the brain, and in almost all cases, outside of music theory classes, we tend to resist analyzing it. We just feel it, and this is the case with sound effects too, not just “music.”

This fact makes sound for film/video/games storytelling very powerful. Sad to say that power doesn’t translate into big budgets, partly because movie and game producers are no more analytical about the creative power of sound than they are about the sounds themselves. They feel it, but they can’t rationalize funding it, because they don’t understand it.
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One story involving a sound illusion that I like to tell happened during the mix of the second Star Wars film “The Empire Strikes Back.” The Director was sitting in the back of the mix room and noticed a moment where he thought there should be a change in the mix. He mentioned it to the mixers, who added it to their list of changes to be done. The Director got distracted by a phone call for maybe thirty minutes and wasn’t paying attention to what was going on at the mixing console. When he returned, the mixers happened to be playing through the area where he had asked for the change. He complimented them on having addressed his concern, and said that it sounded much better now. One problem … they had not gotten to that item on the list yet. We are highly suggestible when it comes to sound. If we have some reason to think a sound has changed, then it will sound to us like it has changed.

​... when you see a ceiling fan and hear a helicopter...


Situations like the one I just described can be interpersonally delicate. Should the mixers tell the Director that in fact no change was made, and thereby risk embarrassing him? Or perhaps let him think the change has happened, then surreptitiously actually make the change when he isn’t around? Or not make the change at all? In this case they were honest with him about what had happened. The best response is usually the one tailored to the personality of the Director. There are lots of those tricky decisions in mixing.

It would be wrong for me to end this piece without talking about the great storytelling advantages of sound’s ambiguity, especially in its relation to moving visual images. As audience members our tendency is to accept what is presented in terms of sound, sometimes having done quite a bit of unconscious rationalizing to justify the acceptance. A classic example is Captain Willard in “Apocalypse Now” seeing a ceiling fan spinning, but hearing a helicopter instead.
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The ambiguities of sound are actually what make it such a strong tool in my opinion. When a sound feels ambiguous or even slightly out of place in a given dramatic situation, it forces us in the audience to bring our own history and experience into the process of interpretation. That is the ideal response, because it means the listener/viewer is fully engaged and actually helping to tell the story themselves. Obviously, it’s possible to go completely off the rails with creative ambiguity, resulting in complete confusion in the audience. Best to avoid that!

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Enhancing Intelligibility in Sound Mixing

Randy Thom Guest Author

Enhancing Intelligibility in Sound Mixing​

One of the most powerful but subtle techniques in sound mixing is micro-adjusting the timing of words, sound effects, and/or music to improve clarity and intelligibility. When multiple sounds compete for attention in a mix—whether it’s dialogue buried under a sound effect or specially important musical note masked by a word in a lyric—clarity can be significantly improved by shifting one of the sounds just slightly in time. This technique, while seemingly small, can have a big impact on how well the audience perceives critical elements in a mix. I’ve used this trick and seen it used in the mixes of literally hundreds of feature films. It works!

This is is a discussion of the Art of Micro-Timing Adjustments.

The Challenge of Masking in Audio

Masking occurs when two or more sounds overlap in a way that prevents the listener from distinguishing one from the other. This is particularly problematic in film, television, and music, where dialogue or key sound effects must cut through background layers. In many cases, simply turning up the volume of a buried sound isn’t the best solution. Increasing volume can lead to unnatural dynamics, distortion, or an unnatural balance in the mix. A more elegant and effective approach is sometimes to manipulate timing, ensuring that crucial syllables or transient sounds land at a moment of lower competition.

Why Micro-Timing Adjustments Work

 
Human perception of sound is heavily dependent on transient information—sharp attacks and high-energy consonants, such as the “t” in “time” or the “k” in “quick.” If these transients are masked by competing sounds, the intelligibility of an entire word can be compromised.
However, by slightly shifting the word or sound effect earlier or later, the critical transient can emerge more clearly.
 
For example, if an actor says “spectacular” while a loud explosion occurs at the same time, the “sp” transient at the beginning of the word may be lost. But if the word is moved slightly earlier or later, the transient may fall into a clearer space, allowing the audience to hear the word properly without needing to raise the volume excessively.

Applications in Different Audio Contexts

 
This micro-adjustment technique is widely used in various sound mixing environments, including:

1.  Dialogue Mixing in Film and Television

 
In dialogue mixing, words must be clear even when layered over music, ambiance, and sound effects. Sometimes, the problem is not that dialogue is too quiet, but that a single syllable is masked by another sound. A skilled mixer can slightly shift the timing of a sentence or even just one syllable so that the key transient no longer competes with other element.

2.  Music Production

 
In music, lyrics often struggle to remain clear over dense instrumentals. Singers naturally emphasize certain syllables, and if these moments coincide with loud drums, guitars, or synth hits, intelligibility suffers. Moving the vocal track slightly to avoid overlap with snare drum hits or cymbal crashes can allow key words to stand out without affecting rhythm or groove.

3.  Sound Effects in Video Games and Animation

 
In video game sound design, where multiple elements are constantly competing for attention, precise placement of sound effects is critical. If a player character’s voice line overlaps with an explosion or a gunshot, the mixer can shift the line slightly to make sure it lands in a pocket of clarity.
 
For animated and live-action films, the timing of sound effects relative to dialogue is just as important. Suppose a character drops a glass while speaking. If the sound of shattering glass occurs at the same time as a key syllable, it can mask the dialogue. Moving the glass shatter forward by a fraction of a second can ensure the audience hears both elements clearly, and often the perceived sync of the event will still be within acceptable limits.

Practical Techniques for Micro-Timing Adjustments


    Using Clip or Region-Based Nudging – Most DAWs provide tools to nudge audio clips in increments as small as a few milliseconds, allowing for precise adjustments without disrupting sync.

    Time-Stretching for Natural Adjustments – If moving a word slightly disrupts sync, small- scale time-stretching can be used to subtly extend or compress the word without noticeable artifacts.

    Automated Ducking vs. Manual Shifting – While dynamic EQ and sidechain compression can help reduce masking, manually adjusting timing often provides a more natural and precise solution.

    Experimenting with Placement – Since every mix is unique, a mixer may need to experiment with different placements to find the best position where the crucial sound remains intelligible.

The Subtle Power of Micro-Timing in Mixing

 
One of the fascinating aspects of this technique is that it operates at the subconscious level for the listener. A well-mixed scene or song feels clear and natural, without the audience realizing that words or effects have been subtly adjusted.

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Sonic Analogies and Synonyms

Randy Thom Guest Author

Sonic Analogies and Synonyms 

Aspiring sound designers often ask how important it is to get an academic degree of some kind before pursuing a career in media sound. A degree itself isn’t important at all in my opinion. No potential employer has ever cared whether I had a degree. On the other hand, the more we know about human culture and the physical world around us, the better equipped we are to handle challenges in sound design, both the creative kind and the interpersonal, political, diplomatic kind.
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On the practical, creative side, the better we are at language, the easier time we’ll have searching sound effects libraries. That’s partly because when we search for possible sounds for a given moment, action, event, or environment, it’s almost always a good idea to include in our search-terms some words that are not necessarily connected in an obvious way to the thing we are being asked to address. Having an imagination and a vocabulary for the non-obvious can help a lot.

Example: Our project includes an above-water shot of a thirty-foot wooden boat hitting submerged rocks.

The most literal search may be with words like “aground” or “grounded.” A less literal one will include the words “boat,” “wood,” and “rock.” Notice that I used “rock” instead of “rocks.” A search for the singular will automatically give me results for the plural too, but a search for the plural will not always give me results for the singular. So, it’s usually a good idea to use the simplest version of a word, which may sometimes be a partial word. If you are looking for “rake,” it might be good to try “rak,” because that is more likely to give you search results that include “raking” in addition to “rake.”

For our boat shot, a search using any of those fairly obvious keywords will probably bring up some useful sounds in a big, diverse library. But how about the non-obvious?
​
My process is often to try to reduce what is going on sonically in a shot to the most fundamental level. In this case, a more-or-less hollow wooden object is impacting and/or scraping against something hard that’s under water. Does a potentially useful sound HAVE to be made by a boat? Nope. Does a potentially useful sound HAVE to be made by a rock or rocks? Nope. Does it need to have anything to do with water? Nope. So now I’m free to search a much wider variety of sounds than my literal “boat, wood, rock” searches would have yielded.
 
In fact, the term “wood” may limit the search unnecessarily. We like to think we know what wood sounds like, and sometimes we do, but sound is powerful at fooling us. A hollow, plastic object can make sounds very similar to wood. So, you may not want to limit your search to wood objects. Same with the word “hollow.” Something flat, not hollow, can make sounds similar those made by hollow objects if it resonates in certain ways.

It occurs to me to look for “scrape” (or maybe “scrap” because that will give me results that include “scraping”). Just the term “impact” could give me some appropriate sounds, or just “hollow” or “rub.” “Shudder” by itself might help, because it’s possible that I’ll find something shuddering that isn’t wood, but sounds like it could be wood. “Resonate” or “resonat” could lead to something nice.

Some of the results, almost certainly most of the results from a search this oblique, won’t be useful. But some will be amazingly, wildly useful elements to supplement or even replace the more on-the-nose sounds you’ll find with your “boat,” “wood,” rock” search. Sounds that have nearly nothing to do with a boat impacting rocks can add interest and character to your sound design for that moment, making it feel believable but unique.

An old, unrepairable acoustic guitar (hollow wooden object), banged into a door or scraped against rough concrete, then the recording pitched down an octave or two or three to make it feel bigger, could be just the thing for our boat scene. Good luck with THAT search!

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