Imagine if videos just had no sound. No dialogue, no music, not even the creak of a floorboard. It’d feel… empty, right? That’s because sound isn’t just an enhancement—it’s an experience.
Today, I want to dive into the fascinating world of sound design: where it began, how it’s used, and why you should use it in today’s age of seemingly endless video content.
From Silence to Symphony
To understand sound design, we need to rewind to the early days of cinema. In the 1920s, films were silent. Theaters relied on live music and sound effects to engage audiences. Then came 1927’s The Jazz Singer – the first ‘talkie.’
The Jazz Singer, while midly perverse by today’s standards, revolutionized filmmaking by showing how powerful synchronized sound could be. Much like color did for the visual aspect of films, sound quickly transcended the industry and transported viewers into the world in a more immersive way.
As cinema evolved, so did the art of sound. You have legendary designers like Ben Burtt (Star Wars) and Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) who carved a path for an entire subset of the film industry into a full time job, elevating storytelling to new heights.
What Is Sound Design?
By definition, sound design is the process of creating, recording, and manipulating audio elements to enhance a story. This includes dialogue, music, sound effects, and ambient noise. But to me, it’s more than that.
It’s a facet of video creation that often gets overlooked by beginners and I think part of that, from a filmmaker and editor standpoint, is that you are simply trying to hone your craft when starting out. It would be like starting a sandwich with the meat instead of the bread. Beginner editors aren’t thinking about sound, I know when I started out sound was kind of an afterthought.
Now I’m by no means an expert in the world of sound. I leave that to our audio engineer Rob. But I have been directing, producing and editing videos for seven years now and the more I learn about what makes a great image and story, the more I realize how sound can shape perspectives and add a layer to the emotion you are trying to evoke out of your audience.
The Four Building Blocks of Sound
Overall, sound can really be broken down into four overarching categories:
Number one, dialogue. This one is pretty self-explanatory but should not be an afterthought. Clear, crisp, and emotionally impactful. Sometimes I’ll watch local TV ads with horrible dialogue capture and it completely turns me off. It doesn’t matter if that product or service is great at that point. Good dialogue, or sometimes the lack thereof is a look inside the
Number two, sound effects and ambience. Everything from gunshots to footsteps. This is an art form in itself, I’ve seen the wildest objects be used to bring a wide array of sounds to life. There’s some guy who uses celery to emulate the sound of wood cracking. Get creative and use what is at your disposal.
I personally love capturing live sound whenever we can. It’s just so tough to replicate some of the real life sounds you hear when you’re behind the camera. Like a specific shoe hitting a concrete surface, or the ruffle of a jacket coinciding with the ambience of the surrounding environment.
Number three is a big one…..music. Consider how music enhances a film. At its simplest, it sets the mood, adding depth and reinforcing the filmmaker’s intent for a scene.
Music also foreshadows, adding intrigue and encouraging speculation about events or character motives. It can mislead, shaping perceptions without the audience realizing—an ominous theme might make a character seem villainous, only to reveal their misunderstood intentions later.
In musicals, music can directly communicate a character’s thoughts and emotions, allowing them to “sing” their inner world, blending facts with what you’re feeling in a way dialogue alone often can’t achieve.
Motifs add another layer—short, recurring sounds linked to an object, person, or emotion, like a fluttering flute symbolizing love or a specific melody tied to an important object (e.g., The Ring in The Lord of the Rings). These cues subtly guide the audience’s associations.
Why Sound Design Matters Today
In 2025, video is everywhere. From endless indie direct-to-streaming films to 15-second social media clips. But whether you’re a TikToker or a Hollywood director, one thing remains true: bad sound kills good video. Studies show that audiences will forgive mediocre visuals in favor of a good story but are less tolerant of poor audio quality. In the commercial world,it can also cheapen your brand and turn potential clients off before they even know what your brand or product is.
Sound design connects audiences to the story. It builds tension, delivers emotion, and immerses viewers in the world you are creating. In today’s content-driven age, it’s the secret sauce that makes your work stand out.
A Tool Worth Having As An Editor
As mentioned before, I love capturing audio on-site whenever possible but for those times that we can’t, we’ve been using Artlist for 5 years now and it has paid for itself 10x over. Artlist has a huge library of music and sound effects to take your project to the next level.
If you pay a little extra, you can even have access to AI voiceover tools and plugins specific to your NLE software. Overall, I see Artlist transforming into a one-stop post-production workshop, which is pretty cool.
Sound Design Isn’t Heard, It’s Felt
I’ll end on this, sound design isn’t just about making your video sound good—it’s about making your audience feel. Take A Quiet Place, where silence and sound effects were the backbone of the story. Or Dune, which used intricate layers to create alien soundscapes.
The extra immersion that sound grants your audience is well worth the extra time spent. Just remember the age old rule, good sound is sound you don’t notice.
