Designing sound
by Andy Farnell · first published 2010
16mentions
10recommended by
12HN commenters
2016–2026first – last mentioned
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Introduces sound generation and procedural sound design from first principles, with practical Pure Data exercises; readers call it a classic for learning PD and sound synthesis, especially for game audio.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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There is one absolute classic work in that field that I know of. It's called Designing Sound, by Andy Farnell: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/designing-sound
on “Programming Music: The Applications of Algorithmic Composition [pdf]” ↗…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Gv7SR0Nrk It's very easy to get started, and extremely powerful. Not sure how well it covers your use case, but it's fun. There's a great introduction to PureData called Designing Sound by Andy Farnell.
on “Ask HN: Introduction to Analog Synthesizers (Simulation OK)” ↗Another interesting book I've been reading lately is Designing Sound by Andy Farnell. The initial section is a simplified (i.e. not heavily mathematical, focusing on intuitive understanding) discussion of sound generation and transmission. Practical exercises are done…
on “The Scientist and Engineer's Guide to Digital Signal Processing (1997)” ↗I've never read OP's book, but Andy Farnell's Designing Sound has a pretty comprehensive look into physics and sound if that's what you're looking for.
on “Ask HN: What are the best textbooks in your field of expertise?” ↗…good - used it throughout my second and third years of university to create soundscapes and scores. A little DSP knowledge is required to get really good, but very rewarding once you get the hang of it. Designing Sound by Andy Farnell is a great book to learn about ~PD and sound design in general: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Designing-Sound-Press-Andy-Farnell/...
on “Max/MSP: A visual programming language for music and multimedia” ↗This is essentially sound design from first principles. There's a good book here: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Sound-Press-Andy-Farnell/dp... Note that the software used (Pure Data) can be replaced by another high-level language (SuperCollider: https://supercollider.github.io/) pretty easily. I know of no "tool" to…
on “Ask HN: Create audio software akin to physics engines?” ↗I don’t know what the best book would be, but I found this extract from Andy Farnell’s book “Designing Sound” to be a very helpful introduction to Pure Data: http://aspress.co.uk/ds/pdf/pd_intro.pdf Another useful book is “Loadbang - ProgrammingElectronic Music in Pd” by Johannes Kreidler. The 2nd edition…
on “The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2006)” ↗…Filter Design https://www.native-instruments.com/fileadmin/ni_media/downlo... Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (open access) https://quod.lib.umich.edu/i/icmc/ Andy Farnell, "Designing Sound" A standard introductory DSP textbook such as Ifeachor and Jervis, Orfanidis, Oppenheim and Schafer. "The Computer Music Tutorial" and "Microsound" by Curtis Roads Audio Anecdotes book series "Music,…
on “The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music (2006)” ↗Designing Sound, by Andy Farnell
on “Pure Data as a plugin, with a new GUI” ↗At the risk of sending you down a giant rabbit hole, the book Designing Sound is all about making programmatic sounds with Pure Data, and open source low-code programming environment available for all platforms. From what I've read, the book is considered a classic in the video…
on “Ardour 9.0 Released” ↗…http://www.mogees.co.uk/ http://hearapp.io/ - Some books: Sonic Interaction Design https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sonic-interaction-design, The Sonification Handbook (free!) http://sonification.de/handbook/, Designing Sound (look for the author's procedural audio lectures on YT) https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/designing-sound - http://toplap.org - lots of free software projects for making live music and visuals with code…
on “Show HN: Kizina – Self-Executing, Interactive Music Album Technology” ↗Physical modeling / waveguides / etc. might be one way to go here. As an example: Andy Farnell's "Designing Sound" (https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/designing-sound) describes some physical modeling techniques for engines. (The model is referenced in this paper: http://www.academia.edu/14107512/Physically_informed_car_eng...…
on “Yamaha YZ250 Dirt Bike sound effects library” ↗I briefly mention this phenomenon in Designing Sound [1], and have since learned there are several forms of it elicited aurally. As well as the pleasurable goose-bumps associated with positive musical emotion there's another kind, an 'uneasy' frission…
on “Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”” ↗Nice work, a great gift to us all. I originally started "Designing Sound" as a website full of easily clickable and runnable Pd patches. In some ways publication with MIT forced me to shoehorn a much richer experience into a standard textbook format. To that extent I remain…
on “Free online textbooks work” ↗…good engineering practice? If you work with smart, talented people in a fast moving world it seems, as you say, inevitable that you face the "problem" of tacit knowledge and manage it positively. In Designing Sound (and my lectures on sound design) I researched and wrote about this as "ineffable knowledge". My observation in arts and design through the 90s and early 00s was that we regularly get people who are x100…
on “Tacit Knowledge Is Dangerous” ↗