Sound Design Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Sound Design facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Which will allow sound to travel the quickest? → Wood
2. What is 'wild sound' in field recording terminology? → Sound recorded without reference to picture
3. What is the 'missing fundamental' phenomenon in psychoacoustics? → When the brain perceives a fundamental pitch that is not physically present in the signal
4. What is the process of adding sound to a film or television production called? → Sound Design
5. Which of the following could result from completely harmful interference? → Node
6. What is 'bit crushing' as an audio effect? → Reducing the bit depth of a signal to create lo-fi quantization distortion and noise
7. What is 'sidechain compression' used for in sound design and mixing? → Using one signal (the sidechain input) to trigger compression on a different signal
8. What synthesis method uses mathematical operators called 'operators' arranged in algorithms, famously implemented in the Yamaha DX7? → FM synthesis
9. What is a 'hydrophone' used for in sound design? → Recording underwater sounds
10. A piece of string is stretched between two cups to create a string telephone. How does the string phone function? → Sounds make the string vibrate
11. When you pluck a guitar string, it creates waves that are → Transverse waves
12. What type of microphone polar pattern is best suited for isolating a single sound source in a noisy environment during field recording? → Cardioid or hypercardioid
13. What is 'parallel compression' (also called New York compression)? → Blending a heavily compressed copy of a signal with the original uncompressed signal
14. What is 'stinger' audio in game sound design? → A short, one-shot musical or sound effect cue triggered by a game event
15. An air column that is closed at one end has first and second resonant lengths of 15.5 cm and 45.5 cm, respectively. The ideal value for the wave's wavelength is → 60 cm
16. The sound box on an acoustic guitar amplifies the volume of the sounds the strings produce. This results from the quality known as → Resonance
17. What is 'FMOD' in the context of game audio? → An interactive audio engine and middleware platform for implementing dynamic game audio
18. Which recording technique uses two microphones in an X/Y configuration? → X/Y coincident stereo
19. What does a 'high-pass filter' do? → Allows only high frequencies to pass through, attenuating low frequencies below the cutoff
20. What is 'spot recording' in Foley production? → Recording a single isolated sound effect timed precisely to a specific moment on screen
21. What technique do Foley artists use to record clothing movement sounds? → They physically wear and manipulate garments in sync with on-screen character movement
22. Which device is most commonly used for professional location sound recording on film sets? → Professional portable multi-track recorder (e.g., Sound Devices 788T)
23. In modular synthesis, what is a VCA? → Voltage Controlled Amplifier
24. Which of these produces sound? → Something vibrating
25. Which waveform contains only odd harmonics and produces a hollow, clarinet-like tone? → Square wave
26. How is the Precedence Effect most directly applied in reverb design? → Setting pre-delay to preserve source localization and intelligibility before reverb onset
27. What does 'room tone' refer to in production audio? → A recording of the ambient sound of a location captured without dialogue or action
28. What is a 'slate' used for in production sound recording? → A clapperboard used to mark scene/take and provide a sync point for audio and video
29. Which physical property of a sound wave primarily determines its perceived pitch? → Frequency
30. Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) describe: → How sound is modified by the head, ears, and torso before reaching the eardrums