Guidelines for Making a Sound Design Demo Reel

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Kyle Vande Slunt: Sound Design Demo Reel (2009) from kylevandeslunt | sound designer on Vimeo.

So I finally did something I should have done years ago: make a sound design demo reel. I’ve always had my work available online to view, but never as a collage of all my best work. I was naive to think that potential employers and clients would take the time to view multiple examples of my work. I’d be lucky if they viewed just ONE video in full. So as I set out to make my reel, I decided to do some research first. As expected, I only found guidelines for visual/graphic demo reels. While there are certain tips that apply to all demo reels, audio reels obviously need their own criteria. So I watched as many sound design reels as my ears could handle and came up with a list of helpful guidelines. My hope is that other sound designers will read this article and add their own guidelines to the comments. From there we can compile a master list and make it available to everyone on Audio Cook Book.

The first thing that I discovered was that making a sound design demo reel sucks. Sucks hard. I think its much more difficult to make an audio reel than a visual one. You can’t demonstrate your skills with quick edits of 5 second clips being backed up by a song by your favorite artist. You have to make more considerations in your edits because you’re dealing with audio as well. You also have to show longer clips to let the sound design develop and be heard in context. In my research I noticed a lot of similarities and tried to implement the ideas I liked into mine. Here are some simple guidelines to consider for your sound design demo reel:

1. Start off with your best work.
It would be a small victory if a potential employer or client actually viewed your demo reel. Don’t waste any time. Hook them right away. If you start off with a bang, they’ll feel more inclined to keep watching. This doesn’t mean you should put your worst work last. You should still end with something that will stand out in their ears. In my case, my first and last clips are different sections of the same piece of work.

2. Keep it short.
The first edit of my reel was over 7 minutes long. The second edit was 5 and half minutes. My final edit came in just under 4 and half minutes. I’m a sound designer myself and even I was getting bored watching other reels that went over 3 minutes. Imagine what it must be like for an employer who has to sit through hundreds. Don’t waste your time making it any longer than 4 and half minutes. You want as much of your reel to get viewed as possible. If you wanted, you could make a longer version which you can reference at the end of your shorter reel. I was going to do that, but let me tell you how sick I was of working on this thing after the short version was done.

Note: Animation geniuses PIXAR have their own guidelines for aspiring employees. One of them demands that their demo reels not exceed 4 mins. Oddly enough, they turn down the volume and do not listen to ANY audio.

3. Don’t worry about content.
Some sound designers who are just getting started might not have a large collection of work. Don’t sweat it. Use what you have. If your demo reel consists of three 1 minute clips…so be it. It still displays what you’re capable of. Don’t let your lack of content prevent you from making a reel. If you’re worried about not having enough, you can always take a scene from a favorite movie or download a silent film from the internet archive and redo the sound design. A lot of people do this. It’s great for keeping your chops up as well.

4. Label Everything.
One thing I noticed in almost all the reels I watched…every clip was labeled with the designer’s responsibilities. You want to make what you did very clear. You don’t want to be associated for something you haven’t done and you don’t want to look like you’re intentionally being misleading. Labeling everything eliminates all confusion and highlights your abilities.

5. You are more than just a Sound Designer.
If you’re a sound designer you’re almost always an audio editor as well. There is a good chance you’re doing everything sound related on some of your work. Make sure to label things like Foley Artist, Recording Engineer, VO record, ADR, mixing engineer, music editor, and music supervisor to your responsibilities list. These are legit credits…you’ve earned them.

6. Think about Order.
Take a look at all your work that could be included in your reel. How do you want to be viewed? In my case, I have a lot of sound design experience with animation, but I don’t necessarily want to be pigeon-holed as such. Take notice of the feel and flow of your work, you’ll be surprised what shapes you can make by playing around with the order you present them in.

7. Use Transitions to your advantage.
If you’re tasked with editing together your own demo reel, use this as an opportunity to show off your audio editing abilities by creating interesting and creative transitions between clips on your reel. Use long reverb tails, pitch audio up/down and overlap it with the next clip’s key, stretch/speed up the ends of clips to transition into the next clip’s tempo or bring audio from the next clip in early and then cut the video at an appropriate time that coincides with the soundtrack. This also creates a more cohesive viewing experience.

8. Give Credit.
Make sure to list any affiliations, agencies, directors, or producers that helped make the material on your reel. This is just the courteous thing to do and you’d be surprised at the negative response that can occur if someone was not given credit or the credits were manipulated to mislead. If you worked on something at another company or production house, make sure to label this as well. I know it might not seem important since you’re showcasing YOUR work, but it looks good and shows potential employers that you’ve worked with a wide range of companies, clients, and directors.

9. Check your Levels (ah duuuuur)
This one is pretty obvious, but unfortunately I’ve seen some pretty bad demo reels. Treat your reel like a project. Check all your levels, mix everything together, and master accordingly. Don’t leave out any details. The sound professionals looking at your reel have been in the business longer than you and they’ve been working with audio longer than you. They’ll be able to hear everything.

10. Get Feedback
This one I’m really glad I did. Your reel will probably contain work that’s been with you for years. You might even be sick of some of it and can’t decipher if what you’re doing is any good. Get a fresh perspective by showing your reel to friends, family, and other audio colleagues before you publish it. Ask them about the content in the reel, the order of the content, the length, feel, etc. You’d be amazed what you’ll find out. I showed my rough cut to my girlfriend and after viewing came up with an entirely different order for the clips. I ended up borrowing almost all of her suggestions and it made for a much better reel. Thanks Lady!

11. Render.
Do your research and figure out the best way to encode your videos for quality and online streaming. I exported my videos to uncompressed, widescreen avis in Sony Vegas (using a project size of 1280 x 720 and a pixel aspect ratio of 1.000) I then opened my avis in Quicktime and exported to 1280 x 720 HD H.264 quicktime videos. The H.264 codec comes highly recommended by Vimeo and allows you to have great looking HD videos optimized for streaming. The audio was Linear PCM at 48l/24bit. DO NOT render your audio as anything less than full quality because that would be stupid.

12. Move it
Upload your reel and start posting the hell out of it. Post it to online job profile sites, your social network sites, emails to production companies, prospective employers, artists whose work you appreciate, etc. Do not sit and wait because nobody is coming. You need to take the initiative and get your reel out there.

Well, that’s about all I have. I hope this was informative. I’ve included my demo reel here so you can see these tactics in action. Like I said, I’m really curious to hear how other sound designs went about making their reels. Please leave a comment with your tips and tricks and we can keep improving on this list.

57 thoughts on “Guidelines for Making a Sound Design Demo Reel”

  1. Kyle, that is a slick reel. I really liked your titles for your name and contact at the top and tail; especially the little sounds you made for them. How’d you get them to kind of visually glitch in and out like that?

    My input on making a reel is the shorter the better. I think 4 min. is too long. I’d say under 2 min. Show your best and show what clients have trusted you with. I’d say it’s not that different from a graphic/design reel. You might not have music underneath, but you still want to wow them in as little time as possible. If they want to see more, you have it.

    The demo reel is a quick summary. There’s no reason you couldn’t have separate demos for separate skill sets.

    Really great job…I’m impressed!

  2. Hey Matt!

    Thanks for commenting. Yeah I struggled with the length for awhile. In retrospect I would have liked it to be shorter but couldn’t give up on any of the clips i had. Plus after I saw that Pixar said 4 mins was ok, I decided to let it slide :)

    When you say glitch out, are you referring to the way the titles fly in and out? Those are just very fast motion tweens in sony vegas. the image starts outside of the frame and then moves up in a straight line to its end position in about 2-3 frames…thats it.

  3. Ah, I see. I can probably pull off the same effect in FCP, than. Thanks!

    Long or short, you’re sound design is great. I love your use of synths and musical sounds. I aspire to have a similar style.

  5. Hi,

    Your reel is really good and I found your article very interesting.
    I was wondering the same question because I have to make my reel too these next days.
    Your article is very useful.
    I think Matt is right “Shorter, better” : Between 1 min and 2 min is already very long for a producer, or an other employer.

    And, I will suggest we must think about the video too. Even if we focus on the sound, the picture is very important. You have to find the way to match all the videos in a creative way or ordered in some way too when it’s possible of course.
    Furthermore, I think it’s a wrong choice to put a “lofi” picture even if your sound is the best sound you have made. Because, I think the bad quality of the video can influence in a bad way the perception that we can make of your work…

    PS : I’m not english so sorry if you can’t understand what i want to say.

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  7. I’ve found one of the most important things that helps when making a show reel is to have access to the seperate DIA/MUSIC/FX stems of the mix of each source clip… Most films have a reasonable amount of music & it is the one aspect that will stitch you up when cutting shorter sections together, and considering its a sound show reel the lat thign you want a director to hear is bad music edits! With the seperate stems you can tidy up music edits across cuts (or rebalance the mix/drop music all together)

  8. These are all great comments! Thanks for all your input everyone. I think I’m going to take this new input and update the article with everyone’s ideas.

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  10. Hey i just found this article on google while looking for more info on putting a reel together. Your right, there really isnt that much info out there. I was working on the same thing you were. Analyzing differt reels and looking for common elemtents. Your site has a lot of good info, Im going to add a link to you from my site. Hit me up on twitter any time. gnxmusic

  11. Hey Kyle, this was a great post. Great timing too as im just out of uni! I saw that Beeple one when it came out and thought the sound in it was top, great work.

  12. Thanks Kyle. This post is very informative and valuable for the beginner in sound design like me.

  13. Very good job I was trying to work on a good reel but the only ones ive seen yet were not very fantastic and was kinda discouraging! thanx for posting yours :) it gives Hope :)))

    what would u recommend as a good AUDIO/VIDEO editor?
    I already have Vegas because the way it works my computer doesnt lag too much ! I also like the fact that I can load a VST in it! is it a good DAW for working on a reel ?

  14. Hey aprizm. Thanks for the kind words. I too was discouraged when looking around at sound design demo reels. I’m glad my reel gives hope!

    You’ll be happy to know that I used Vegas to edit the reel together. I’ve been using it since version 4 (its now on 9 i believe). In fact I use it for almost all of my audio editing as well. I use Abelton for the creative stuff and then Vegas to edit things together. So I’d say Vegas is a great DAW for putting together a reel.

  15. Great guide! i’ll definitely be following these rules whenever the day is i put my reel together!

  16. Pingback: PolyPink – Audio Technology, Post Production, Sound Design and Game Audio » Blog Archive » Valuable guidelines for making Sound Design demo reel

  17. Kyle,

    I noticed that you mentioned that if one is lacking in material for a demo reel it’s okay to take a scene from a favourite movie and replace it’s sound. How should I list the credits for that? Do I just give the movie title and then list myself as the credits? And for the ADR do I need to mention the names of the people I used? Also, is there anything I should avoid or be careful of as far as copyright infringement?

  18. Hey Tim,

    Sorry its taken me so long to write back. When listing the credits for a favorite movie, it might just be obvious that you’ve replaced the original sound with your own if it was a big blockbuster that everyone knows. Regardless, you should put a disclaimer stating that you removed the audio from the scene and have replaced it with your own. Don’t worry about copy right infringement…people don’t make money off of their demo reels, they use it as a tool to get an interview. And you do not have to list the names of the people who did ADR…just that you know how to do it and that you did it in the clip in question.

    Hope that helps. Good luck!

  19. Kyle,

    You are a sound for sore ears! Like most of the others on here, I am super grateful for your advice and demonstration of how to make an interesting sound design reel. Being a newly-grad in Chicago I thought it wouldn’t be TOO hard to find a job, but boy was I wrong! I am really looking forward to heeding your demo reel advice and applying it to my future employment endeavors.

    Thanks a load,

    Todd

  20. Hey Todd!

    Thanks for the wonderful comments. Its great to hear that my tips and demo reel are doing some good.

    Yeah, it is INSANELY difficult to get a “real” job in the sound design field. I myself JUST got a job as an audio designer for a video game development company called Volition located in Champaign, IL. It took over 3.5 years of slaving away doing freelance and applying for jobs. I applied to over 170 jobs (audio and non-audio related, including freelance gigs)from mid 2008 until September 2009 alone!

    Keep up the hard work and never ever quit. If you want to work with sound and audio professionally, you have to be vigilant as hell and keep plowing forward regardless of how hopeless it may seem at times.

    Good luck!

    Kyle.

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  22. This is fantastic! The last unit before I complete my film degree relies on me producing a show reel of my sound design and this is priceless knowledge to help with that. Thank you for taking the time to help out others.

  23. I’ve read this article so many times, it’s kinda embarrassing.

    A few things I’ve always wondered is how do redubs of public domain and stock footage come across, if used in a demo reel?

    And, if using base sound effects with an Attribution license, is it kosher to have a master list on my website, and add that link at the end of the video?

    Some of us have to start small…

  24. Hey Dave!

    I’m glad you’re getting alot of use out of this article. Great to hear. In response to your questions:

    There are alot different ways public domain and copyrighted re-dubs could be taken, and I think its really up to the individual who is listening. While doing my first internship at a post-audio house in Minneapolis, a young sound designer with no professional work credits (exactly like myself) submitted a demo reel to the studio to get an internship. I of course couldn’t resist and watched it right away. The demo reel was literally the entire bank lobby shootout scene from The Matrix (approx 3 minutes in length). This unfortunately broadcasts right away that you either have no professional work to show or your redub of a scene from The Matrix is better than any professional work you’ve done. But remember, your potential future employer/client really (i think) cares about the quality of your sound design. If your redub of a scene from the Matrix sounds fucking awesome, they’re gonna hear that and your TALENT will be acknowledged. You also need to ask yourself, do want to have a demo reel with redubs or do you want to have no demo reel at all? The answer to this should always be: have a demo reel. There will be some fringe cases where you’ll land a sound design opportunity without the use of a reel. Things like: recommendations from friends, obscure networking scenarios, indie/student film directors, and theater productions all qualify. But most of the time, even when its an indie student film, with no pay, and the movie sucks, and you hate the way the director talks…you’ll still be asked for a sample of work before being hired.

    I should also mention I got that internship in Minneapolis with a demo reel that consisted of 3 short films, 1 clip from a student film i worked on in college (which was horrible btw), and 2 short films that I made with my friends. I knew this was not ideal, but i was confident enough in my sound design work to put them on a reel I was sending to professional studios with large clients. I also had a cover letter and resume that went along with it that made my intentions very clear.

    In terms of crediting or mentioning sound effects, I never did anything like that and I’ve never seen or heard of that being a faux-pas. If a large portion of your sound design was created from your own personal field recordings, you definitely want to mention that as it demonstrates your field recording skills and is just simply impressive in itself with all of the sound libraries that are out there.

    I hope that answers your questions! Good luck Dave!

  26. I wanted to add a thought to an already great tutorial. I have been doing sound design for over a decade, and 99% of my work cannot be used in my demo reels because of work for hire and contract stipulations. Creating sound design over current footage has been crucial for me, so if you are starting out find an animation or video game you love and create sound design over it. I even ask potential clients for a film or game they like and I create to that. my 2 cents anyhow.

  27. Hmmm. I think i should revisit this article and update it. Alot has changed in two years and there have been great suggestions in the comments.

  28. Hi Kyle,

    Yes please do! I’ve been combing this post religiously for the past few weeks as I’m putting together my first demo reel for sound design. I’m coming from the recording world and have no work to show for my past couple of years at a Bay Area recording studio, so your post (and everyone’s comments) has been invaluable in even figuring out where to start. Like pretty much everyone else who’s responded to this, thanks for doing it, and well! Truly great stuff here, thanks so much.

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  30. Hey Kyle, Thanks for all the wicked tips! I’m a recently graduated University student, and this article has been essential in helping me start to build a more professional demo reel. I’ve run into one major snag though, and that’s regarding content. Not audio content, but visual. I have plenty of work to pick from for my reel, but it mostly consists of recordings of my original music which I’ve mixed or soundscapes for installations and live performances of which there is no video. Is it ok to have a sound demo which is purely audio? Or would it be a lot more beneficial to have a visual component? If so, would you recommend starting from scratch and building my demo around some visual material, or rather finding good visuals to suit the sound I already have? As I said before you’re article has already helped me a lot and any more advice is highly appreciated : )

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  33. Hi,
    NIce and helpful article.
    I am only wondering how is it related to copyrights ?
    I mean when you are using some clip downloaded from web.
    Are there any restrictions of usage ?

  35. Hi Kyle

    Thanks for the article. Its hard to find guide lines for sound design reels and well yours was really helpful. Im a beginner at sound design and really appreciate what you have done. Awesome reel by the way!!! hope to be as good as you one day for sure.

  36. Hi Kyle,

    Thanks for typing up this article. I reference it every time I’m cutting together a new demo reel for my audio for video work. I just have one question, and anyone is free to provide their thoughts. Do you think it’s okay to remove or move around bits of audio (notably dialogue) from the final product of a project you worked on when putting it in your demo reel? I’m cutting a new demo reel together in a way that it almost tells a story over several different projects, and I just want to move around bits of dialogue in order to make that happen. Hopefully this made sense.

    Thank you!

  38. This was very good info for me to come across as I’m just graduating and needed to find a way to make a good show real….thanks dude! ;)

  39. Hi Kyle,

    Thank you so much for the tips !
    But i wanted to ask you on which software you did the labeling about your tasks ?

  40. Thank you for posting this, it is a big help. Also your work is inspiring. Thanks

  41. Hey guys, question for anyone that’s done a pro demo reel:

    Im starting to get some of my clips together and I am thinking about buying Final Cut Express on amazon to create my reel. Final Cut Pro is just way to expensive. Besides Pro having more features and obviously way better, do you think Express would be adequate enough to put together a professional reel?

    thanks! ben

  44. Hey Ben – I’m a PC guy so I use Sony Vegas for anything video editing related.

    Ralph – as you may have guessed – I used Sony Vegas to edit the video as well as animating the text boxes. The text cards were made in Adobe Illustrator and then animated in Vegas.

  45. I’m still on Adobe Premiere CS6. Although the newest version of Premiere is now CC (and subscription based at $19.99 per month) I haven’t felt the need to update. You might still be able to find a version of CS6 somewhere but it doesn’t look like Amazon has it available directly.

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  49. Hey Kyle!

    I can’t even begin to thank you for writing such a wonderful article! I’m about to graduate in the Spring and I’m currently trying to get a demo reel together but I have no idea where to start! Your article has been a great help. Unfortunately, the projects I worked on are all school related. I hope that’s okay for now. I’ll definitely be doing stuff on my own outside school.

    I have a question for you… Do you recommend having your own website along with a demo reel? Like WordPress?

    Again, thank you so much for this article.

    Best,
    Josey

  50. VIMEO does not allow me to post videos that i don’t own the rights….So i can’t post my demo on it. :(
    Any other video site you could suggest ?
    thanks

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