Resource Books

First Question, Why Film Books?
Unfortunately there are not a lot of books written about sound design for radio drama or audio theater. While what we do is not exactly the same as film, there is a lot of crossover in the techniques and the thinking that can apply to both. Audio Theater, after all, is creating the sound tracks for mind movies. We have to be very careful to provide some of the same realism of film, while not putting in extraneous noises that the script does not call for. Where we find these sounds or how we create these sounds can use many of the same techniques of film production.

I have also found that reading about film sound helps to move me outside the box and consider many different angles of using sound effects.


  • Angry Filmmaker SurvivalGuide Part 2: Sound Conversations With (un) Sound People, Kelley Baker, Angry Filmmaker, Inc. 2011

  • Beyond Dolby (Stereo) - Cinema In The Digital Sound Age, Mark Kerins, Indiana University Press, 2011
  • "Dense Clarity - Clear Density" by Walter Murch
  • Designing Sound, Andy Farnell, MIT Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0-262-01441-0
  • Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art Vol II, John Purcell Focal Press 2014
  • Dialogue Editing for Motion Pictures: A Guide to the Invisible Art, John Purcell Focal Press 2007
  • In The Blink of an Eye, Walter Murch, Silman-James Press 1995 & 2001
  • In The Field - The Art of Field Recording, Cathy Lane & Angus Carlyle, Uniformbooks, 2013 (Sound Artist)

  • Location Audio Simplified, S. Dean Miles, realworldaudio. (available at Location Sound )
  • Location Sound Bible, Ric Viers Michael Wiese Productions 2012 ISBN 978 1 61593 120

  • Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound, David Yewdall, Focal Press published by Focal Press 2003, 2013
  • Producing Great Sound for Film & Digital Video, Jay Rose, published by CMP Books 1999 [ISBN 1578202086]
    4th edition Focal Press [ISBN 978-0-415-72207-0] 2015
    Audio Post-Production for Film & Video Online, Jay Rose, published by CMP Books 1st Edition 2002, 2nd Edition 2009 Focal Press

  • Roll Sound A Practical Guide for Location Sound, John Fielden, My Planet Press, 2010

  • Sound for Television and Film, Tomlinson Holman, Focal Press, (new edition Mar 2010)
  • Sound for Digital Video, Tomlinson Holman, (paperback), published by Focal Press [ISBN 0240807200] 2005
  • Sound for Picture, Tom Kenny published by Artistpro [ISBN 0872887243]
  • Sound Man, Richard Patton Location Sound ltd 2010 ISBN 978 0 9866077 0 7
  • Soundtrack Success: A Digital Storyteller's Guide to Audio Post-Production, Jeffrey P. Fisher, Course Technology 2012

  • Videographers’ Audio Handbook, John Fielden, Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (March 24, 2011)


      Sound Effects
  • Art of the Sound Effects Editor, Marvin Kerner Focal Press 1989
  • Earth is a Solar Powered Jukebox (PDF Book 270 pages)- A complete guide to listening, recording, and sound designing with nature. (Exercises require purchase of CD)
        [ Techniques for recording location environments and what to include when building environments.]
  • The Foley Grail: The Art of Performing Sound for Film, Games, and Animation, Vanessa Theme Ament published by Focal Press [ISBN 0240811259]
  • The Sound Effects Bible, Ric Viers Michael Wiese Productions ISBN 978-1-932907-48-3 2008
  • Radio Sound Effects, Robert L. Mott, McFarland & Company Inc. 1993
  • Sound Effects: Radio, TV, and Film, Robert L. Mott, McFarland & Company Inc. 1990


    •       Theory
    • Audio in Media, Stanley R. Alten, Cengage Learning.
    • Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen, Michel Chion, Columbia University Press (April 15, 1994)
    • Lowering The Boom - Critical Studies in Film Sound, Jay Beck and Tony Grajeda, University of Illinois Press, 2008
    • Sonic Boom - How Sound Transforms The Way We Think, Feel, and Buy, Joel Beckerman, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014
    • Sound Design - The Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema, David Sonnenschein (2001) Michael Wiese Productions at FilmSound.org
    • Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound, Vincent LoBrutto published by Praeger [ISBN 0275944433]
    • Sound Theory Sound Practice, Rick Altman, Routledge 1992


          Listening
    • The Great Animal Orchestra, Bernie Krause, Little, Brown and Company, 2012
    • One Square Inch of Silence, Gordon Hempton and John Grossmann, Free Press, 2009
    • The Sound Book, Trevor Cox, W.W. Nortn & Company, 2014
    • The Soundscape - Our Sonic Environment and the Turning of the World, R. Murry Schafer, Destiny Books, 1977, 1994
    • Voices of the Wild, Bernie Krause, Yale University Press 2015
    • Zero Decibles - The Quest For Absolute Silence, George Michelsen Foy, Scribner, 2010

    Other Readings at Filmsound.org


  • Building A Recording Studio, Jeff Cooper, 5th Edition, synergy Group, Inc. 0916899-00-4
  • Special Sound - The Creation and Legacy of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Louis Niebur, Oxford, 2010
    		•


    Handbook of Radio Drama Techniques
    A Reprint of Donald Wehr. Rileys 1946 Text
    Robert Mott has had a long career of doing sound effects for fillms, cartoons, theater and commercials for radio. He was twice nominated for Emmy's for Days of Our Lives.
    Radio Drama Theory and Practice
    1999

    The book brings together the practical skills needed for radio drama: directing, writing and sound design, with media history and communications theory.
    The Radio Drama Handbook
    2011

    The text offers valuable case sstudies, class exercises, examples, scripts and insightful commentary of classi broadcast and web-produced audio drama.

    Sound for Picture
    An Inside Look At Audio Production For Film and Television - 1993
    The art of sound design in film and television - 2000

    Two books of reprints from Mix Magazine. These articles, spanning some years, take a back side look into what went into making the sound track for various movies. Some articles focus more on the sfx, some on the music, but all provide an interesting insight.

    ISBN 0-7935-2002-9
    ISBN 0-87288-724-3

    		 Sound for Picture covers

    Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound

    Over 500 pages of details, history, applications and enjoyable reading about creating sound for motion pictures. Techniques of organization, foley effects and more. Includes a cd with alignment tones, an exercise in the evolution of a sound track custome recording and layering examples, adr and more.

    David Lewis Yewdall,
    Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound (second edition),
    Focal Press, 2003
    ISBN 0-240-80525-9

    SOUND-ON-FILM
    Interviews with Creators of Film Sound
    Vincent LoBRUTTO

    280 pages of interviews....
    Jack Solomon, Arthur Piantadosi,Don Rogers, Frank Warner, Richard Portman, Norval Crutcher, Ross Taulor and Kitty Malone, JIm Webb, Walter Murch, Paul Zydel, Daniel Allan Carlin, Les Lazarowitz Michael DiCosimo and Robert Warren, Ben Burtt, Elisha Birnbaum, Richard Anderson, Fom Flieschman, Cecelia Hall, Tomlinson Holman, Juno Ellis, Frank Serafine, Gary Rydstorm, Wylie Stateman, Skip Lievsay, and Mark Mangini.

    Praeger, Westport, Connecticut and London ISBN 0-275-94443-3 (pbk)