Sound design is the art and practice of creating soundtracks for a variety of needs, such as film, television, video games, theatre, sound recording and reproduction, live performance, sound art, post-production, radio, new media, and musical instrument development. It involves specifying, acquiring, or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. Sound design commonly involves performing and editing previously composed or recorded audio, such as sound effects and dialogue, for the purposes of the medium, but it can also involve creating sounds from scratch through synthesizers. A sound designer is one who practices sound design.

The sound design process has three key steps: live recording and design, mixing, editing, and implementation, and finalization. During the initial step, sound designers may record sounds, use sounds from a sound library, or create original sounds. In the second step, sound designers mix, edit, and implement the sounds to match the visualizations. Finally, in the last step, sound designers finalize the sound design element to ensure that it fits the scene and the overall project.

Sound design can be divided into two categories: creative sound design and real sound design. Creative sound design is the creation of sounds outside reality, such as sounds of aliens or monsters, and is created by making sounds with ordinary items, manipulating recorded sounds, creating sounds with digital tools, and layering different sounds on top of one another. Real sound design is the creation of sounds replicating those heard in reality, and is created by making sounds in a way they would occur in real life, using unrelated sounds, and manipulating sounds to fit the scene.

In summary, sound design is the process of creating soundtracks for various needs, such as film, television, video games, and theatre, by specifying, acquiring, or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. The sound design process involves live recording and design, mixing, editing, and implementation, and finalization. Sound design can be divided into two categories: creative sound design and real sound design.