If you are visiting the blog and have read any of the previous posts then it can safely be said that you are interested in sound design and maybe have an interest in pursuing it as a career path. My experience of talking to different sound people in different industries ranging from film, television, radio or games the older generation have almost all fallen into this field by accident. However the newer generation including myself have studied sound design academically, but as in most professions there are multiple ways "in" and having a understanding of sound in whatever capacity is crucial. As some examples, some professionals I have met learnt an instrument when they were young, some learnt about sound equipment either by recording friends bands (how I started) or by learning the basics by acquiring sound recording devices such as portable recorders and teaching themselves.
First, in my opinion you should learn "acoustics", which is the science of sound. How it sound works, how it travels, how we as humans hear and recognise it as sound. Read books like Sound Design for Visual Media (link to come), the Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers essential reading for recording sound effects or the Practical Art of Motion Picture Sound by David Lewis Yewdall, this book explains production sound recording all the way through to sound editing and is a great way to learn how sound emphasises productions. All in all read what you can about sound including synthesis, recording and manipulation as the more knowledge you have, the better your arsenal will be.
In this day and age it is important to know Digital Audio Workstations or DAW for short as the industry is technical and more often than not computer based. I do not mean learn every DAW on the market today but know the underlying principles that make up each, as each one operates in a very similar way although they may be named differently. I would suggest however you learn one of the major DAW's out there today which are Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase or Ableton.
The most important aspect of working with sound is having good ears so with this in mind train your ears and brain. Most people cannot dissect a sound, ask questions like what are the frequencies it has, how it changes, how many layers it has and how you are hearing it? Most DAW's will have plugins like EQ, Spectrum Analysers and Level Meters that can help you do this but the one thing I cannot express how important it is, to trust your own ears!
