Day 14: Sound Design From Scratch
Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
Warmup
Mr. Willingham will walk you through the process of recording a found sound from the environment and importing it into GarageBand.
We will use portable recorders to capture sounds from around the classroom. If you submitted your own sounds, we will also import those into GarageBand.
Examples of things to record:
- Tapping on a desk or table
- Crumpling paper
- Snapping fingers or clapping
- Opening and closing a door
- Dragging a chair across the floor
- Clicking a pen
- Shaking a water bottle
- Tapping on a window
You can still submit your own sounds to use tomorrow. Found Sound Submission Form
Work Session
Mr. Willingham will walk you through the process of using plugins and automation to transform a sound into a new sound effect.
Plugins to try:
- Reverb — Makes a sound feel like it’s in a large room, cave, or hall
- Delay — Repeats the sound like an echo
- Distortion — Adds grit and crunch to make sounds harsher or more intense
- Pitch Shifter — Raises or lowers the pitch of a sound
- EQ (Equalizer) — Boosts or cuts specific frequencies to change the tone
- Chorus — Layers copies of the sound to make it feel thicker or wider
- Tremolo — Makes the volume wobble up and down rhythmically
Here are the found sounds for 7-1.
And… here are the found sounds for 7-2.
Oh… and 6th grade too!
Standards
- MSMTC8.CR.1 — Generate musical ideas for various purposes and contexts (recording found sounds to use as raw material).
- MSMTC8.CR.2 — Select and develop musical ideas for defined purposes and contexts (choosing and editing sounds for sound design).
- MSMTC8.CR.3 — Evaluate and refine selected musical ideas to create musical work that meets appropriate criteria (using plugins to shape sounds).
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