Sound design is the deliberate creation and shaping of sonic material for music, film, games, installations and other media. Recording, synthesis, processing and spatial placement are combined to build texture, atmosphere, impact and meaning.
Boris Blank of Yello has spent decades recording sounds that were never designed to become musical instruments. His enormous personal sample archive has included voices, percussion, broken instruments and ordinary environmental noises. One particularly good example is almost ridiculous: Blank recalled throwing a snowball against his studio wall, recording the impact and eventually transforming it…
Explore the official releases of FDR-Sound, an independent electronic music project by Frank De Rop from Antwerp, Belgium.Each release can take a different direction in sound, mood and structure, ranging from atmospheric and experimental electronic music to more rhythmic and melodic productions.This page brings together FDR-Sound EPs, singles and selected tracks, with links to the…
SOPHIE often talked about synthesis in physical terms. Rather than asking how to imitate a conventional instrument, the producer thought about materials: bubbles, latex, metal, liquid, plastic. Sounds could behave as though they possessed weight, elasticity, friction or surface. That approach is part of why tracks such as “BIPP,” “LEMONADE” and “HARD” still sound so…
Most drum machines begin with recorded sounds. LumLux Art’s Drum Rack starts somewhere else. Its kick, snare, hi-hat and clap are synthesised directly from oscillators and noise in the browser. There are no drum samples hiding underneath the interface. That becomes most visible in the kick. Instead of reducing it to a few familiar controls,…
Amon Tobin’s relationship with sampling changed dramatically over time. His earlier work often began with fragments taken from existing records. By Foley Room, he had moved toward recording his own material, gathering sounds from environments that included animals, machines and factories. With ISAM in 2011, he pushed that process further. Field recordings became raw material…
“Running Up That Hill” began not with a lyric or chord progression but with a sound Kate Bush found in the Fairlight CMI. Bush later explained that she immediately liked the Fairlight sound that became the central riff and wanted a military, drone-like atmosphere around it. A Linn drum pattern was programmed, the Fairlight repeated…
For Chernobyl, Hildur Guðnadóttir did not simply compose music inspired by a nuclear power station. Part of the sound world was built from recordings made inside Lithuania’s decommissioned Ignalina nuclear plant, whose RBMK reactors were similar to those used at Chernobyl. Industrial resonance, machinery and the acoustics of the building became raw musical material alongside…
Apollo Reverb is an electronic soundscape by FDR-Sound, inspired by the Apollo missions and the atmosphere of space exploration. The piece approaches the subject through sound, texture and spatial movement rather than as a literal reconstruction of a space mission. It combines electronic composition and sound design to create a sense of distance, scale and…
Music project FDR-Sound Electronic Music Made in Ableton Live FDR-Sound is an independent electronic music project by Frank De Rop, based in Antwerp, Belgium. The project explores a broad range of electronic music, moving between ambient, experimental soundscapes, atmospheric compositions and more rhythm-driven electronic productions, including EDM and drum & bass. Each release can take…
