Close your eyes and picture yourself sitting in a movie theater. The screen shows a dark forest at night. You hear crickets chirping, an owl calling in the distance, and then the gentle crunch of footsteps on dry leaves. Your heartbeat speeds up slightly even though nothing scary has happened yet, because these sounds alert your brain to pay attention. The person who created all these sounds is a sound designer and they didn’t record these effects in a real forest. Instead, they made them in a studio using microphones, computers, and sometimes everyday objects that are surprisingly simple. They then carefully positioned each sound exactly where it needed to be to make the movie feel real to you.

Sound designers determine what you hear in movies, television shows, video games, theater productions, and podcasts. Some of them record real-world sounds, like rain hitting a window or traffic on a busy street, then modify those recordings to match a scene. Others create entirely new sounds that don’t exist in real life, like the roar of a dragon or the hum of a spaceship engine. They collaborate with directors and other members of the creative team to ensure the audience experiences the right emotion at the right moment. A creaky door can make you nervous. A burst of cheerful music can make you smile. Sound designers are the invisible storytellers who influence how you feel about everything you watch and hear.