I ran across a suggested edit in the review queue for adding sound-alike as a new tag. Here was the question. I rejected the edit, only so that we could have the discussion here first.
I do think having a tag for all those questions of the form "How do I create this sound?" is a good idea. They're otherwise very difficult to search for.
So how about it? Is sound-alike the way to go? Other suggestions for what to name that tag? Do you dislike the idea altogether?
I don't like the name 'sound-a-like'. It is too long, and it isn't something that I would say, or would occur to me while tagging a post. Since everything here is about sound design, we should look for tag names that don't use the word 'sound' in them.
Here are some ideas:
Suggestions from the comments (feel free to post them in a standalone answer if you want 'credit'):
I like the term sound-alike and believe it should used. It is a common industry term, especially for production music libraries.
Producer: "Sigur Ros won't let us use Gobbledigook in our Lexus ad, can you get us a sound alike?
The term denotes, "I want it to evoke the same feeling and/or be recognized as similar to the example."
If the OP is asking, "How do I make my stuff sound just like this other guys?" they are trying figure out how to approach their [synth, guitar, gunshot, explosion, voice over, background ambience] in order to achieve the same sonic quality as the example that they are referring to.
But these questions are a slippery slope. I draw the line, and will down-vote / comment / flag a sound-alike post for review, when the OP is looking to be spoon-fed a plug-in preset that allows them to achieve their desired result.
