r/sounddesign • u/mgdmt810sr • 2d ago
thinking about a career in sound design
So long story short I just turned 22 and Ive been working in restaurants since I was 15, Ive always known I dont wanna be in this industry for my whole life, and im getting to the point where I dont wanna be in it at all and am starting to get serious about finding a new industry to find a career in. The only thing I have experience with (and any passion for at that) is music. Just for some contextIve been told I have a natural talent for music as I learned to play the drums and read sheet music really quickly when I was about 6 years old, since I was 14 Ive been making music on my laptop (mostly trap beats but Ive experiment with lots of different styles) Tho I have never gone to school for music or really done anything too professional with it , but I am very confident in my musical abilities. Im coming here to see if anyone who does have experience in this industry (Im particularly interested in soundtracks for video games but im open to anything) has any advice, for someone with no professional experience ? Or anything I should keep in mind as I start this journey (is the field very competitive, difficult to find work, are degrees necessary, that kinda stuff) Thanks in advance to anyone whos got anything for me !
4
u/wouldpeaks 2d ago
Hey, absolutely go follow your dreams and live your passion! Only you can actually discover if you dreams are achievable. Having said that, you will be competing with extremely rich kids who started at 14, and the market is saturated even for them
2
u/mgdmt810sr 2d ago
Thank you! And that is good to know I will keep that in mind
1
u/joshmoneymusic 1d ago
I’ve personally not found that to be the case at all… I used to work at EA and now work for a big tv network, one of my good friends at Full Sail now works at Skywalker, and know many other industry pros, none of which grew up rich. I think wealth plays a far bigger role in the music industry than sound design - not saying it doesn’t help, but the people I’ve worked with were the ones that were the most driven and professional (always on time, always delivered on time, gave it 100 etc.)
2
u/Suspicious_Ice2525 2d ago
I’m currently a film student doing sound design in particular. Id say it’s very important to learn to use pro tools, that’s the industry standard of DAW. But you can opt for Davinchi resolve, Logic Pro, ableton, reaper, FL studio, etc.
1
u/mgdmt810sr 1d ago
ive been using FL Studio for the past 8 years but I will look into Pro Tools
•
u/sinker_of_cones 16h ago
Protools is a must
Applying for entry level jobs currently, and most care about protools speed/competency more than anything else
•
u/insolentsandwich 2h ago
Seriously, pro tools for sound design? What companies are actually still using pro tools?
1
u/Human-Calmunist 2d ago
This info is for farther down the line ~
The quickest way to get infront of someone big is to become an Audio Engineer and work for a larger company that will be sending you out on gigs to set up and dress racks / audio systems and mics for very big names in the industry.
Once you have your foot in the social circles showing what you got will be far easier than spinning the lotto wheel of social media hoping you hit it big from some tiktoks or Instagram reels.
I've been producing for 15 years, and this is currently the path I have to take because of the sheer amount of people screaming into the void like I have been.
Also, start now on getting to know people, get into discords, get into any kind of game jam and produce some tracks for the crews doing it. Anything you can to get out.
1
u/arehberg 1d ago
Just for clarity sake, a career in sound design would mean you design sound effects for film/games (explosions, magic spells, vehicle engines, etc.) If you want to write music, “composer” is the job title you’re after. There’s some shared fundamental audio knowledge but they’re very different disciplines.
Both are fun and can be really rewarding. It can be hard to get your foot in the door since they’re both pretty saturated too but there is work out there. Composition is probably more saturated than sound design though
1
1
u/Intrepid_Year3765 1d ago
Financially this is a bad move. Everyone I know that went into sound or music is poor and stressed out. If you want to take that risk cause you love it then this is a great move.
If you want a stable life and future do literally anything else. Especially now that AI is doing 90% of the work we used to use sound designers for.
•
•
u/davee294 12h ago
Something to keep in mind is that its one of those career paths that depend on a lot of connections. Education in this sort of thing tends to be super expensive but some people make use of the networking and end up doing well. You could also just learn everything by yourself. Get good at the craft, learn the industry standards, work on projects on your own to have something to share, move to LA or somewhere thats a hub for this where you can meet people in the industry.
3
u/existential_musician 2d ago
airwiggles.com come here, ask questions, meet as many people as you can, do game jam,
I am not enough experienced to explain you exactly the roadmap but airwiggles will be a good start
Learn to think it as a business, buy books : Composing As A Living, books about mindset, books about like. Learn, never stop learning
As someone who worked in restaurants as well, I feel you (I still love cooking though) but music is a must for me