Sound Design Skill for Claude Code

An expert sound designer skill that turns Claude into a synthesis specialist — reasoning from physics, psychoacoustics, and signal processing theory to produce detailed patch recipes and runnable code.

What It Does

Give Claude a sound description and get back:

1. Psychoacoustic analysis — spectral, temporal, dynamic, and perceptual reasoning about the target sound
2. Parameter sheet — every synthesis parameter with a value and rationale grounded in acoustics
3. SuperCollider code — complete, runnable SynthDef ready to paste into SC IDE
4. Web Audio code — complete, runnable JavaScript ready to paste into a browser console

Claude reasons from first principles — not preset lookup. Every value has a "why."

Quick Start

As a Personal Skill

Copy the skill folder to your Claude Code skills directory:

# macOS / Linux
cp -r skills/sound-design ~/.claude/skills/sound-design

# Windows
xcopy /E /I skills\sound-design %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\sound-design

Then use it in Claude Code:

/sound-design warm analog pad
/sound-design metallic FM bell with long decay
/sound-design 808 kick with extra sub weight

It also auto-triggers on natural language like:

• "design me a bass sound"
• "how do I synthesize a bell?"
• "create a granular texture"

As an NPM Plugin

npm install @funwayhq/sound-design

Example Output

Ask for a "warm analog pad" and you'll get:

Analysis: Slow-attack sound with detuned sawtooths creating beating at ~3 Hz for warmth. Low-pass filter at ~1200 Hz passes first few harmonics. Slow LFO on filter cutoff adds organic timbral movement...

Parameter Sheet:

| Parameter | Value | Rationale | |---|---|---| | Osc 1 | Sawtooth | Full harmonic series — richest subtractive source | | Osc 2 detune | +7 cents | ~3 Hz beating at A440 — warmth without pitch ambiguity | | Filter cutoff | 1200 Hz | Passes ~3 harmonics at A220 — warm but not muffled | | Attack | 600 ms | Slow fade-in defines pad character | | ... | ... | ... |

SuperCollider: Complete SynthDef(\warmPad, { ... }).add; with test line

Web Audio: Complete function playPad(freq, duration) { ... } ready for browser console

File Structure

skills/sound-design/
├── SKILL.md                        # Main orchestration (skill entry point)
├── reference/
│   ├── synthesis-types.md          # 8 synthesis methods with theory
│   ├── building-blocks.md          # Oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs
│   ├── sound-recipes.md            # Starting recipes by category
│   ├── psychoacoustics.md          # Timbre, harmonics, formants, masking
│   ├── effects-chain.md            # Reverb, delay, distortion, modulation FX
│   └── modulation-matrix.md        # Routing patterns and amount calibration
├── templates/
│   ├── supercollider.md            # SC SynthDef patterns + UGen reference
│   ├── webaudio.md                 # Web Audio API patterns + AudioParam scheduling
│   └── parameter-sheet.md          # Synth-agnostic parameter table format
└── examples/
    ├── sc-examples.scd             # 6 runnable SuperCollider SynthDefs
    └── wa-examples.js              # 6 runnable Web Audio patches

Synthesis Methods Covered

| Method | Best For | |---|---| | Subtractive | Warm basses, analog leads, pads with filter sweeps | | FM | Bells, electric pianos, metallic sounds, complex plucks | | Additive | Organs, precise spectral control, vocal formants | | Wavetable | Evolving pads, morphing timbres, digital textures | | Granular | Atmospheric textures, soundscapes, time-stretching | | Physical Modeling | Plucked strings, wind instruments, realistic percussion | | AM / Ring Mod | Metallic timbres, tremolo, robotic effects | | Phase Distortion | CZ-style digital sounds, unique waveform shapes |

Sound Categories

The skill includes starting recipes for:

• Bass: sub, analog, Reese, FM, 808, wobble
• Leads: mono, sync, supersaw, acid (303-style)
• Pads: analog, digital/wavetable, granular, string
• Keys: electric piano (FM), organ (additive), clavinet
• Plucks: Karplus-Strong, filtered, FM
• Drums: kick, snare, hi-hat, clap, toms
• FX/Textures: risers, impacts, drones, atmospheres

Working Examples

SuperCollider (examples/sc-examples.scd)

Six complete, runnable SynthDefs:

1. Subtractive bass — detuned saws, resonant LP filter, filter envelope
2. FM bell — 1:1.41 ratio, decaying mod index, long ring
3. Karplus-Strong pluck — noise excitation, waveguide delay, LP damping
4. Supersaw pad — 7-voice unison, stereo spread, slow attack, reverb
5. 808 kick — sine + pitch envelope, noise click, soft saturation
6. Granular texture — randomized grains, pitch scatter, reverb wash

Web Audio (examples/wa-examples.js)

Six complete, browser-console-ready patches:

1. Subtractive bass — detuned saws, filter envelope, punchy amp
2. FM bell — irrational ratio, decaying index, percussive decay
3. Acid lead — single saw, high-Q filter, fast cutoff sweep
4. Warm pad — detuned saws, LFO filter mod, convolution reverb
5. 808 kick — sine pitch drop, noise click, waveshaper saturation
6. Karplus-Strong pluck — noise burst, delay line feedback, LP damping

Reference Knowledge

Psychoacoustics

• Spectral centroid and brightness perception
• Harmonic series and even/odd harmonic character
• Vowel formant frequencies (full table)
• Critical bands and spectral masking
• Equal-loudness contours (Fletcher-Munson)
• Roughness, beating, and detuning perception

Building Blocks

• Waveform spectra comparison table
• Filter types, slopes, and resonance ranges with perceptual meanings
• ADSR ranges with musical use cases
• LFO rate ranges and perceptual effects
• Modulation amount calibration guide

Effects

• Signal chain ordering rationale
• Reverb types with decay ranges and use cases
• Delay types and feedback behavior
• Distortion types and harmonic character
• Modulation effects (chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo)
• Creative EQ applications

Quality Standards

Every output from this skill follows these rules:

1. Every parameter value has a rationale grounded in acoustics or psychoacoustics
2. All code is copy-paste runnable — no placeholders, no TODOs
3. Signal flow is explicit and traceable from oscillator to output
4. Frequencies in Hz, times in seconds — never ambiguous units
5. Modulation amounts explained perceptually
6. CPU awareness noted for expensive patches

License

MIT