Here are the best books that I own & reccomend on the subject of film sound design!
The Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound by David Lewis Yewdall – if you only buy one book, I would buy this one. It is very practical & talks through every department & element of the soundtrack. The only caveat would be that it suffers slightly from the ‘bigger is better’ syndrome, but that comes down to aesthetics & taste which I wont debate here…
Audio-Vision by Michel Chion – this is the best book on film sound theory I have read – it is very thought provoking with a great foreword by Walter Murch.
Soundscape by Larry Sider – this is actually a copy of various lectures given at the School of Sound, a week long course held every two years in London. This book features lectures by Walter Murch, David Lynch, Randy Thom, Michel Chion, Carter Burwell and Mani Kaul amongst others….
Sound-On-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound by Vincent LoBrutto – this book contains some very interesting interviews including Walter Murch, Ben Burtt, Skip Lievesay, Gary Rydstrom, Mark Mangini and many others..
The Foley Grail by Vanessa Theme Ament – great insight into the world of the foley artist!
Dialogue editing for Motion Pictures by John Purcell – a very thorough, if a little dry, explanation of dialogue & ADR editing
The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers – a handy guide to recording sound effects
The Reel World: Scoring for Pictures by Jeff Rona – I don’t write music/score for film, but on every project I get to collaborate with film composers so I figure the more I know about film scoring the better!
Finally, its not a book but its the best online resource for sound design: filmsound.org
[...] For Sound Designers/Sound Editors: a book is maybe the best bet, here is a a list of my favourite relevant books & chances are they wont have the excellent Soundscape book of lectures from the UK School of Sound. [...]
[...] I also highly reccomend a book published of previous lectures, mentioned previously here in my sound design book list & available from the school of sound website. I particularly [...]
[...] Sound Design Book List [...]
[...] Link : http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/sound-design-book-list [...]
you missed one:
Film Sound – E. Weiss & J. Belton
http://www.amazon.com/Film-Sound-Practice-Elisabeth-Weis/dp/0231056370/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260211012&sr=8-1
true, thats a great book!
[...] 2 more books recommended by @TimPrebble those I thinks they’re interesting to read if I could finished all books [...]
I had been seeking out blogs based on music and I stumbled on your blog. I will add it to my top picks and sign up to your Feed.
what about “The Complete Guide to Game Audio” by Aaron Marks? I hear nothing but good things about it. Plus, it focuses on mostly the practical side.
As I don’t do game audio (or play games) my book list is really a Film Sound Design Booklist
For those who read German: “Sound Design: Die virtuelle Klangwelt des Films” by Barbara Flückinger is a very interesting book on film sound as well.
http://www.amazon.de/Sound-Design-virtuelle-Klangwelt-Films/dp/3894725060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1293706767&sr=8-1
Isn’t David Sonnenschine’s “Sound Design: Expressive Power of Music and Sound” good? well I heard its good I’m waiting for the 2nd edition