Coming from a film and television background and now moving into the games industry I find the games industry''s lack of respect and ignorance of the art of sound design shocking. I''ve been doing sound design for about six years now and I still have masses yet to learn yet I see composers championing themselves also as sound designers when they clearly have no idea about it and just put it on their CV as an after-thought. While I am aware that it is possible to do both (i started off by composing) I also know that it is very rare to find a decent composer that is really any good at sound design. I''ve been to a few websites of composers who also advertise their sound design skills and have been consistantly appalled at the lack of respect that is given to my chosen art form (god that sounds pretentious but I do beleive it, and i know plenty of other sound designers that feel the same) Sound design isn''t just about door shutting sounds and Foley isn''t just about footsteps. Sound design is about creating a reality, enhancing what you can see and enveloping the player in the world. It is not just about making sounds when things happen. Watch a horror film with the sound on mute and you''ll know what i mean, it has no impact with no sound design. And no, i''m not talking about music either. This is another thing that bugs me, people getting the two mixed up. There is often a grey area when it comes to sound design and music but if i hear yet another melodic pad sound paraded as sound design i think i''m going to go crazy. Mixing for example is totally different for sound design and music. With music you create holes in the mix for other elements, for example you could tune the bassdrum to 80Hz and then mix the bass line to 120Hz, etc. With sound design things aren''t this clear cut, you don''t have fundamentals and harmonics, you just have a load of different noises that you have to make sound clear in respect to each other. I''m not for a second saying that music is easier to mix than sound design (i have a lot of respect for music mixers) i''m just saying that you use different techniques and skills. This post isn''t meant to p!ss anyone off, i just feel that nobody takes what I do seriously. This seems to happen at both ends of the industry aswell (the same is true in film) which is less than reasurring. Anyway, anyone any thoughts on this......

Well, the industry is saturated with people ready to work and desperate to get that work. It is known that many teams and companies often expect a single entity to be their "Sound Guy", whether it be music or foley or fx. If someone honestly said "Well, I just don''t think I''m ready to do sound effects work yet, but I''ll be glad to be your composer while you hire on another person to do the other work", they''d probably be back out on the street with a handshake and a thank you. So, everybody has to try. I have no illusions about sound design, its tough and it takes a long time to get in the groove of it, but you''ll never catch me saying I can''t do it, because as the addage goes, everyone can do it, but not everyone can do it well, and in an industry where I come across at least 10 people a day who are advertising themselves as a Composer without offering sound design or coding ability, I know that I have to be that Jack of All Trades a company may be looking for to get a paycheck. Art becomes business in the end, and though the quality of your work is the true test, to get started, one has to sell both your strong and weak points while appealing to the bottom line.

Thanks for the reply, maybe i didn''t aim my arguement at the right party in the way that i intended originally. You''re right i guess it''s the responsiblity of the developer to employ more specialised people. I think i can only say this because in the film industry it is simply unheard of to have the same person doing the sound design and music, it''s just not done. With the games market getting larger I think the developers have a responsiblity to raise the bar for game audio in the same way that they have for the visuals. You only have to compare the average salary for a programmer to that of a composer or sound designer to see where their priorities are. Maybe it''s because good sound is a little more subconcious to the average gamer than good graphics are. When a game has good graphics people really rave about it, when the sound is good most people don''t notice that it''s the sound that is making the experience more enjoyable.

I think to an extent that all composers have the right to put sound design in their credentials because some of the recording practises are similar but it''s just a shame that we have been put in a situation where we have to claim to be a jack of all trades just to get noticed.