Designing Sound
Andy Farnell
Designing Sound Farnell
computer music
Designing Sound
Andy Farnell
Designing Sound teaches students and professional sound designers to understand and create sound eects
starting from nothing. Its thesis is that any sound can be generated from first principles, guided by analysis
and synthesis. The text takes a practitioner’s perspective, exploring the basic principles of making ordinary,
everyday sounds using an easily accessed free software. Readers use the Pure Data (Pd) language to construct
sound objects, which are more flexible and useful than recordings. Sound is considered as a process, rather than
as data—an approach sometimes known as “procedural audio.” Procedural sound is a living sound eect that
can run as computer code and be changed in real time according to unpredictable events. Applications include
video games, film, animation, and media in which sound is part of an interactive process.
The book takes a practical, systematic approach to the subject, teaching by example and providing back-
ground information that oers a firm theoretical context for its pragmatic stance. Many of the examples follow
a pattern, beginning with a discussion of the nature and physics of a sound, proceeding through the develop-
ment of models and the implementation of examples, to the final step of producing a Pure Data program for
the desired sound. Dierent synthesis methods are discussed, analysed, and refined throughout. After master-
ing the techniques presented in Designing Sound, students will be able to build their own sound objects for use
in interactive applications and other projects.
Andy Farnell has a degree in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering from University College London and
now specializes in digital audio signal processing. He has worked as a sound eects programmer for BBC radio
and television and as a programmer on server-side applications for product search and data storage.
“A monumental work. This surely has the potential of becoming the sound designer’s bible!”
—Kees van den Doel, Scientific Computing Laboratory, University of British Columbia
“An excellent, practical introduction to sound synthesis methods. The most useful resource on Pure Data that
I’ve come across. Essential reading for anyone wanting to learn how to create sounds.”
—Karen Collins, Canada Research Chair in Interactive Audio, University of Waterloo
“Putting the creativity of every single sonic nuance in the hands of the sound designer—and the listener—is
the gift that Farnell brings through his book Designing Sound. What an empowering experience!”
—David Sonnenschein, Director, Musician, and author of Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice,
and Sound Eects in Cinema
“Andy Farnell’s Designing Sound is a fantastic and incredibly inspiring book. With hundreds of fully working
sound models, this ‘living document’ helps students to learn with both their eyes and their ears, and to explore
what they are learning on their own computer. Perfectly balanced between theory and practice, the book will
help students and professionals alike to develop and refine the skills and understanding that they require to
synthesize the worlds of sounds around them and the sounds in the imagined worlds of advertising, TV, film,
computer games, and their own original audio art. A great textbook, a great workbook, a great way to actually
learn how to design sounds—I can’t wait to use Designing Sound in my classes.”
—Richard Boulanger, Professor of Electronic Production and Design, Berklee College of Music
The MIT Press
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142
http://mitpress.mit.edu
978-0-262-01441-0
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