Looking for the best way to learn sound design can be an overwhelming task and can often leave people stuck not knowing what to do, so they give up. We’ve been there countless times and it sucks… we know your pain.
That’s why we took the time to create a comprehensive guide on the best sound design resources on the internet.
Each entry has been placed in order of its difficulty and has a label beside it to signify how advanced it is. So look out for the “Beginner”, “Intermediate” and “Advanced” tags in this post.
Whether you’re completely new to sound design, you know a little bit, or you know a great deal and you’re looking to brush up on some knowledge, there’s something here for you.
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
Best Sound Design Courses Available
Sound design is hard to learn, period.
And it’s even more difficult to find someone that properly explains & teaches you how to make the sounds you’re hearing in your head, without making it confusing.
(If you’ve ever been on YouTube and watched countless tutorials, you’ll understand the frustration of this).
The best way to learn quickly, is to invest in a great sound design course & practise, practise, practise!
But how do you know which course to buy, when there are so many to choose from?
Well, for those looking to invest in their music production & learn at a more rapid pace, we’ve made a list of the best sound design courses available right now!
Best for Synthetizers Sound Design: Syntorial
Syntorial is a fully integrated, hands-on learning software for synthesizer sound design and many producer veterans wish it was around when they first started their production journey.
It’s a fully interactive learning experience for musicians that works by having the user take interactive lessons where they’ll learn the fundamentals of synthesis.
Designed with the musician in mind, Syntorial doesn’t talk about the science and physics behind synthesisers, but instead, takes you through each individual control and sets tasks so, once you graduate, you know how to apply your knowledge to real-life situations.
It also comes with lesson packs (that are free) for:
- Serum
- Massive
- Sylenth
- And more!
You can grab Syntorial to try out for free and, if you decide to upgrade to the full version, you can do so for $129.99. If you’re serious about learning sound design to improve your music production skills, then this is a quality investment that will save you heaps of time!
Most Professional: Point Blank Music School
Point blank have the best professional sound design course for electronic music producers that earns you a degree. Period.
The Point Blank course builds up from the very basics of synthesis, so you have a strong foundation of fundamentals to build upon.
It’s split into 2 terms in which you’ll learn a tonne of incredible skills that will surge your music production skills. By the end of it you’ll be able to make the sounds you hear in your head.
Term 1 – Sound Design
Term 2 – Advanced Sound Design
Check out the course on their website!
Best For Electronic Music: Production Music Live (PML)
PML (Production Music Live) are hands down one of the best resources for electronic music production & sound design. They offer some incredible courses for sound design on multiple VSTs, but their Serum one is the dogs b*ll*cks!
In the course you’ll learn how to make sounds that fit perfectly into your own tracks, how to create your own presets & how to get your unique sound.
If you’re serious about learning sound design, we highly recommend starting on Serum as it’s easy to use, navigate and is one of the best vst plugins at the moment.
PML also offer a wide variety of other courses that help with chords, melodies, structure & the general writing process of music, so you can become a music production machine!
Free Sound Design Resources
Synth Secrets (Beginners)
This collection of articles from Sound on Sound articles that takes a deep dive on the science and physics behind synthesis. If that kind of thing interests you, then this collection of posts would be a great place to start.
Synth Secrets is a great series for producers looking to brush up on some of the basic concepts of sound design.
The Manual (Beginners)
Now we know you’ve probably heard this on the internet multiple times and thought that it was one of the most ignorant responses you’ve ever heard.
When we took to the internet, and posted the classic question “How do I design the sounds I hear in my head” all those years ago, we got the same response over and over again.
“Read the manual”
There’s a reason for this… the manual of any synthesiser you are using is like the bible of synthesis. It tells you exactly what each module does and how to use everything in that particular synth.
Whatever synth you are using, whether it be Serum, Massive or Omnisphere, each program will have a manual. Although it might be daunting to read it at first, this is where you are going to get most of the information you need to learn a synth inside and out.
Learning one particular synth inside out is crucial to furthering your understanding of sound design. So, if you’re serious, you’ll take the time to read your chosen synth’s manual.
We recommend learning on Syntorial (duh! 😅). It’s really easy to use, streamlined, and designed to learn synthesizer sound design in and out.
Kermode YouTube Channel (Beginners)
If you don’t know who Kermode is, he’s an incredible producer that’s been making hits for close to a decade now.
He’s also got a great YouTube channel that covers a lot of sound design knowledge for beginners and advanced. The channel also dives into some cool marketing techniques that you can also use to get more plays on your tracks.
Also, you know how we talked about learning a synth inside and out above? The great thing about Serum (as we mentioned), is that there’s tonnes of great content you can use to learn on YouTube. We’d highly recommend Kermode’s Serum for beginners course.
Sam Smyers YouTube Channel (Intermediate)
If you’re not familiar with Sam Smyers, he’s a talented music producer and sound designer based in Los Angeles, California.
He’s also got a fantastic YouTube channel where he breaks down sound design techniques, vocal processing, and music production tips that help producers level up their tracks. His content is super clear and practical, making it easy to apply what you learn right away.
If you’re looking to master Serum, Vocal Chops, or general mixing techniques, Sam’s tutorials are some of the best out there. Definitely worth checking out!
Seamless YouTube Channel (Intermediate/Advanced)
Seamless’ YouTube channel is one of the biggest resources for learning sound design using video tutorials you’ll find online, and it’s all free!
There’s loads of content for both the new producer and the seasoned veteran, so be sure to have a look through the archives and check out his videos.
ADSR Sounds (Intermediate/Advanced)
ADSR Sounds has both free and paid options if you’re looking to learn sound design. If you’ve ever gone searching for sound design tutorials on YouTube, you’ll have come across them. They offer some absolutely amazing videos that help you understand the basics of Massive that can help you design some pretty awesome sounds.
Their free content is great and easy to follow, but it can take a while to take everything in and learn sound design entirely. They have some great paid options for people looking to take their sound design to the next level.
ADSR Sounds also has an incredible library of samples and an even more impressive collection of their very own plugins.
MrBill YouTube Channel (Advanced)
We got shown this channel recently and it’s quite possibly one of the best channels we’ve been recommended.
For those of you who don’t know, Mr Bill is an absolutely ridiculous Dubstep producer who is also stupidly good at sound design.
And…
Guess what? He also has a series where he goes in huge depth on sound design and tips & tricks you can use to better your ability at producing.
Reddit/Facebook
If you’re not on Reddit or in Facebook groups as a producer, you need to be.
Joining communities is a great way of not only connecting with producers and like-minded people, but also a great way of learning.
There are some brilliant communities and forums out there and you can find most of them on Facebook or Reddit. They are great places to ask about sound design and, particularly on Reddit, there are multiple threads that go under “How to make this sound” titles.
Some Facebook groups and Sub Reddits you should join are:
フェイスブック
Designing Sound (Advanced)
Designing sound is a massive library of content that will help you become a sound design wizard ?♂️.
Not everything on the site is applicable to sound design, but you can learn some amazing stuff from these guys. The site has now been shut down, but it still remains up on hosting for people to learn from.
It’s been around since 2009, so make sure to make use of its huge library of posts!
Conclusion
That brings us to the end of this post, but there’s one thing we want to say before we leave you to process all the information you’ve just been given, we want to say something.
PRACTISE.
You can have all the sound design resources in the world, but without practising consistently, you won’t make any progress. Don’t be afraid to go into a synthesiser and mess around with the settings.
Making mistakes and playing around with stuff is where the real learning is done. Once you have the basics, go wild in your favourite synth and remember to have fun.
And that’s a wrap!
btw…
Also, if this article helped you in any way and you know someone who could benefit from it, hit that share button!
Harry Jackson is a DJ, Music Producer, and Entrepreneur based in Birmingham, UK. He is the founder of music production website Whipped Cream Sounds. Harry writes detailed tutorials covering everything from production & sound design to marketing and music theory. He produces primarily Lo-Fi under the alias Lofti.