Layering - the most important tool for a sound designer

This video is all about layering in sound design. When is it useful to us? What, how, and why do we layer sounds?

All the clips in this video are protected from copyright law under fair use for educational purposes.

Credits:
"Jurassic Park" (1993)
"Jurassic Park" behind the scenes interview with sound designer Gary Rydstrom
"Star Wars" behind the scenes interview with sound designer Ben Burtt
"An Object At Rest" Short animation by Seth Boyden (sound design by Marshall McGee)
Short clips from youtube series with Akash Thakkar

Gameplay Footage from:
Hyper Light Drifter
Star Wars Battlefront

[jesuscervantesmendez]

A few topics that come to mind.

The history of sound design.

The art of foley.

Modern sound design techniques vs. dated/tried and true techniques.

Business aspects of sound design.

Sound designs role in everyday part of life.

Sound design terminology.

Synthesized/emulated sound vs real sound.

Breaking down sound design.

Sound design as a profession.

Awesome video!
definitely interested in seeing more.

[DigiTism]

Sound designers think so much out of the box! I would have never thought of any of these base sounds for anything in a million years.

[ifhtfilms]

Great first episode. Thanks Marshall! I would love to see your take on mixing vs. mastering - something I've yet to fully get my head around.

[JeshuaW]

Keep up the good work! I really like your assessments in sound design. Was cool to see my buddy Akash mentioned, we were classmates. :)

[olivert]

I just started my sound design studies yesterday. This video cleared up some things what my professor didn't explain clearly. Thank you!

[miowner]

oh my god you're amazing, you're like a distant cousin of EveryFrameAPainting, but focuses on audio instead

[rileyburke]

As a aspiring sound designer, I thank you. I currently work for my theater and I plan on going to college next year to branch out finally

[Sonicallyfaced]

Im not sure if many of the people hear even realize how amazing your music is... great tips man

[GrandpaParrotNHB]

I would love to see you cover cartoon sound design and comedic mixing. It may seem too niche, but it’s a surprisingly complex and game-changing skill. There’s this great 2013 animated series called Wander Over Yonder that, for me, truly honors the history of cartoon SFX. This show, an old-school cartoon at heart, is proud to take from the classic Disney, WB and Hanna-Barbera libraries. However, beyond that, but it uses those recognizable cues in a carefully crafted soundscape, elevating their emotional, comedic and atmospheric potential.

[Kalaxiananimations]

That was very useful! I knew you have to layer in order to make certain sounds that are hard to obtain or doesn't exist, like maybe rain, thunder, fire roars, etc.

[jonobrien]

this is made so well please keep on making these!

[Cloudjumpr]

great video man. I am bubble over with joy every time I find someone, putting good audio content out. Great explanation too, aproachable and accurate.

I will send my students to your channel :)

[animator]

Seems like I'll be watching every video you've ever made tonight..😊

[melasonos]

I'm going to get that game because of this, and REALLY important topic I think. It really makes me, and hopefully others, appreciate sound design more.

[zuzusuperfly]

I think it's really cool that you're able to make this video so short and yet so full of content. Including so many examples is a great idea. The only one I knew about was Jurassic Park; the rest were super neat. Especially the slinky. Your conclusion was very nice. It doesn't seem like any sentence was superfluous, not just in the conclusion, but in the video as whole.

[KhenzBeatmaker]

Just discovered your channel, and it was EXACTLY what I was looking for: excellent video about real sound design! You've just got a new subscriber! :)

[aeolian]

I love how I watch this video and think *"Wow, the bacon example is so impressive! Layering really is a cool thing!"* and then I watch the other video where he says *"The reason the bacon sounds like rain is not because of layering at all. The sound of the bacon here isn't layered with any other recordings. The real reason that a sound designer can use the sound of bacon frying as a substitute for rain is much more simple and it's just that the sound of rain and the sound of frying something are very similar"* :D

[jonvonbronson]

Great video Marshall! A topic I'd love to see would be for all those intense whomps and crazy effects used in modern movie trailers. They're all terribly formulaic but the sound design seems so intense. Keep up the good work, look forward to more!

[RyonRykal]

What's also very interesting and often made very wrong in Youtube video is the balance of the sounds in loudness. I very often see videos where the outro/intro is FAR louder then all voices or that the music is WAY louder then everything else, so that you have to regulate the loudness while watching.
That would be a great topic for one of your videos. (Don't know if you covered that yet.)

[mikitimik]

This is awesome! I'd love to see more episodes!