Top 17 Free Online Sound Design Courses to Pursue

Simply put, sound design refers to the art of creating soundtracks for various purposes. It is a process that involves recording, acquiring, manipulating, or generating audio elements using various tools and techniques. Sound design is used in filmmaking, theatre, television production, sound recording, live performance, post-production, sound art, and software development for video games. Sound designers are in great demand in the cinema, web videos, and television sectors, which is one of the most common reasons for people to enrol in online courses and certifications to learn sound designing. In this article, we will let you explore some of the best free sound design online courses.

Who is a Sound Designer?

A sound designer is responsible for everything related to the creation of the best aural atmosphere for the audience. These include creating sound effects, sonic textures, recording dialogues, editing, adding ambience, background score, mixing and remixing, etc. The average salary of a sound designer in India is Rs 424,000 per annum. You can learn sound design through online courses & certifications from top providers, alongside gaining new skills. So, if you are looking to improve your existing knowledge in sound design, let’s have a look at the best free sound design online courses.

Best Free Sound Design Online Courses

Also read: Certificate Course in Subject: Introduction to the Music Business by Berklee College of Music, Boston via Edx

1. Ultimate Sound Design Complete: Mastering Sound Design

This is one of the best free sound design online courses designed for anyone seeking to learn about sound design, especially producers, musicians and songwriters. The sound design training course will teach you the basics of sound design and enable you to work with complex plugins such as Native Instruments FM8, Xfer Serum, and others. The main pursue of this course is to inculcate you on how to make original, compelling, and memorable sounds for your music.

Duration: 7 hours

Platform: Skillshare

2. Introduction to Video Sound Design

This is the best online sound design course to learn the history of video sound design and understand the workflow, development, and elements of a soundtrack. You will also learn the role of sound in visual media, elements of the soundtrack, mixing and finalizing a soundtrack, and the future of sound for visual media. Upon completion, you will get a shareable certificate.

Duration: 2 hours 18 minutes

Platform: LinkedIn Learning

3. Sound and Sonification Design for Interactive Learning Tools

This is another one of the best free sound design online courses offered by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder. In this sound design for film course, you will be learning to identify the various concepts which can be represented through sounds in interactive learning tools, brainstorming and evaluating the sound design for interactive learning tools. The course includes topics on Sound, Sound Design, Evaluation, Prototyping, Designing Sounds and Sonification, etc. The is taught by instructors Emily Moore (Director of Research and Accessibility), Brianna J. Tomlinson(Ph.D. Candidate at Georgia Tech - School of Interactive Computing,) and Bruce N. Walker( Professor, Psychology & Interactive Computing).

Duration: 15 hours

Platform: Coursera

Also read: Certificate Course in Subject: Music Technology Foundations by The University of Adelaide, Adelaide via Edx

4. The Complete Mixing Masterclass

Learn the basics of mixing and work on finishing great tracks in this one of the excellent Sound Design certification courses. The course will teach you a complete mix from beginning to end. It covers topics such as The Listening Environment, Headphone Mixing vs. Studio Monitors, Preparing a Track for Mixing, Tuning Instruments

Grouping Tracks, Approaches to Mixing, Phasing, The EQ as the Scalpel of Mixing, The High Pass Filter Trick, Negotiating the Kick and Bass in the Mix, Creating Space with Delay Effects, Creating Space with Reverb Effects, and much more.

Duration: 7 hours 39 minutes

Platform: Skillshare

5. Creating Sounds for Electronic Music

In this one of the best free sound design online courses offered by the Berklee College of music, you will learn about sound designing, creating an electronic composition, creating custom synthesizer patches, and manipulating preset patches. To be precise, this sound design training course is aimed at teaching you how to create sounds and use them in your musical compositions, and improving your music through editing. The course syllabus includes modules on Creating A MockUp and learning about organ, lead, keys, and arpeggiator patches, pad, synths, unison, and chord patches, etc.

Duration: 14 hours

Platform: Coursera

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6. Art of the MOOC: Experiments with Sound

Offered by Duke University and Berlin University of the Arts, this is another one of the best free sound design online courses to learn creating own sound interventions and musical compositions. This beginner-level course will let you explore five analytical concepts - Frequency, Perspective, Material Frame, Time Frame, and Concurrency - that are designed to encompass various acoustic phenomena within the spatial and social experience. It will also teach you the elements of sound and social practices and more.

Duration: 10 hours

Platform: Coursera

7. The Technology of Music Production

This one of the highest-rated sound design courses offered by Berklee College of music will teach you about recording, editing, and Mixing of sounds. The course will also teach you about the nature and properties of sound, setting up your digital audio workstation, Audio Production, Audio Recording, Music, Sound Design, Audio Editing, and the role of filters in music synthesis. This sound design training course syllabus includes Sound and Signal Flow, Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), The Mixer, Dynamic Effects, Filter and Delay Effects, and Synthesis.

Duration: 19 hours

Platform: Coursera

8. Professional Diploma in Sound Engineering

If you are looking for online diploma courses to learn sound design, this is the course for you. This one of the sound design courses will teach you the fundamental principles of sound, how to operate software and equipment, and record, mix, and edit sounds. The course includes 32 lessons, with assessments and four segregated modules to learn the concepts efficiently.

Duration: 16 weeks

Platform: Shaw Academy

Also read: Certificate Course in Subject: Vocal Recording Technology by Berklee College of Music, Boston via Edx

9. Creating Sounds for Electronic Music

This is one of the amazing sound design certification courses that will teach you to create amazing sounds and use them in your own musical compositions. The course is designed for individuals who are familiar with music production basics and have access to some basic music production equipment. The course curriculum includes how to create sounds for electronic music, create mockups, and drafts.

Duration: 14 hours

Platform: Coursera

View more: Sound Recording and Sound Design

10. The Art of Music Production

Learn the fundamentals of the art of music and record production in this another one of the free sound design online courses. The course will let you learn how to create emotionally moving recordings on almost any recording equipment, including your phone or laptop. Through this course, you will also be able to develop fine listening skills.

Duration: 4 weeks

Platform: Coursera

Also read: Online Sound Recording And Sound Design Courses

11. Audio Design for Interactive Projects

This one of the free sound design online courses will teach you practical approaches on how to create the user interface sounds for web and physical products, from creative brief to execution. The course curriculum includes audion design for interactive, sound design basics and concepts, interpreting a creative brief, sound decisions, sonic inspiration and more.

Duration: 1 hour 36 minutes

Platform: LinkedIn Learning

12. Music Production Capstone

Offered by Berklee College of Music, this is an ideal sound design for film course that will help you use your talent and knowledge to form and submit a finished, fully produced song. This amongst the free sound design online courses will teach you to create a mockup of your song, with the help of the emotional and dynamic timeline technique to map the arrangement of your production.

Duration: 10 hours

Platform: Coursera

Also read: Certificate Course in Subject: Becoming a Better Music Teacher by Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music via Futurelearn

13. Master Audio Synthesis and Synthesizers

In this one of the excellent sound design certification courses, you will learn the basics of synthesis and its creative and technical aspects while exploring sound creation for modern keyboards and synthesizers. The course will also let you understand the basics of synth programming. It will help you to apply your knowledge and skills to modern software and hardware synthesizers and virtual instruments.

Duration: 1 day 3 hours

Platform: LinkedIn Learning

14. Music Production Specialization

This is one of the beginner-level sound design courses that will teach you to classify and use reference tracks to create a vision for your production. It will also let you understand the technical aspects of music production like how sound is translated into audio signals, effects such as reverb, delay, and compression, and recording techniques. The course includes topics of the art of music production, the technology of music production, basics of pro tools and more.

Duration: 5 months

Platform: Coursera

Read also : 17+ Online Courses to Become A Disc Jockey

15. Studio Essentials: Sound and Audio Foundations For Producers

This short-term beginner-level sound design training course covers vocal mix tricks with modulation, synthesizer modulation tool kit, liquid bass with phasers, and the use of mod FX in compound return. Taught by producer and instructor Evan Sutton, you will learn the fundamentals of low and high-pass frequency theory, how to add extra depth, dimension, and movement to synthesizer sounds, and more.

Duration: 26 minutes 47 seconds

Platform: LinkedIn Learning

Also read: Music Certification Courses

16. Mixing and Sound Design: Multimode Filters

This one of the free sound design online courses will help you explore basic filter types and their parameters. The course will teach you how to utilize multimode filters for various types of sound design and musical projects. The course is taught by producer and instructor Evan Sutton who will explain basic low-pass/ high-pass filter theory and mixing with high-pass filters and low-pass filters.

Duration: 37 minutes

Platform: LinkedIn Learning

Also read: Certificate Course in Subject: Making Music with Others by Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London via Futurelearn

17. Logic Pro: Producing Electronic Music

In this among the free sound design online courses, you will be taught to build the foundation of the tracks. You will learn the basics of Logic Pro, configuring Logic preferences, UI and recording preferences, accessing Apple loop and factory content, Timeline vs. live loops feature, sequencing, drum programming, using drum machine designer, synthesizers and more.

Duration: 3 hours 57 minutes

Platform: LinkedIn Learning

Conclusion

As a sound designer is a highly in-demand job role, especially in the entertainment industry, pursuing online degree courses or earning training certifications in sound recording and sound design is much more important. If you have the requisite technical and artistic skills, you can start working as a junior sound designer before taking the role of a sound designer or work as a freelance sound designer and start your journey in the world of sound design. Hence, if you are someone who is curious about sound and how it works, this career option is definitely meant for you. There are many paid and free sound design online courses available out there and you can choose the best one as per your interest through making an online course comparison.

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