Sound Design is a technical/creative field. Theoretically, it covers all no-compositional elements of a film, a play or any other multimedia project.

Theatre

Sound design is a the youngest field in technical theatre. The idea of sound design has been around since theatre started; however, the first person called sound designer was probably Dan Dugan in the late 1960s. The first sound designer credit was given to Abe Jacob in 1971 for his work on Jesus Christ Superstar. Since then the field has been growing rapidly.

Although sound design is sometimes done by the composer there is no tie per se to the composition itself. In theatre the sound designer has two fields of responsibilities: technical and creative. Technically, she has to ensure maximum quality of the sound system (for example deciding what speakers and microphones should be used). Creatively a sound designer decides with the theatre director and sometimes the artistic director what sound effects will be used, what music choices will be made, etc... Depending on the work, a sound design may be an integral part of the play, for example a performance with a musical underscore, or relatively minor, for example a performance with only a few simple sound effects.

It's known that in India and China around 3000 BC there were theatre productions accompanied by music and sound. The Commedia Dell'arte style also used both music and sound effects.

The first production that used recorded sound, as cited by Bertolt Brecht, was Rasputin (1927) a play by Piscator that included recording of Lenin's voice. It would not be however until the 1950s, when Hollywood directors started directing Broadway productions, that sound design would start growing. Still, there was no sound designer in those plays; it was the stage manager's duty to find the sound effects and an electrician played the recordings during performances.

MIDI and digital technology helped the field to move fast during the 1990s. Still, in 2004 sound design is still struggling to obtain acceptance as there is no Tony award yet for sound design. However, sound design has become an integral part of the design process for many theatres and sound designers often hold similar positions in the creative team to the lighting designer and other designers.