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I ran across a suggested edit in the review queue for adding 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 the way to go? Other suggestions for what to name that tag? Do you dislike the idea altogether?

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  • hi josh, it was my edit/addition of the tag (i saw no other appropriate way to add this tag). I hope the tag can stay, because it is self explanatory (i think). it is derived from 'lookalike', but you probably figured out that much :) – Arnoud Traa Jan 30 '14 at 19:12
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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:

  • replication
  • duplication
  • howdoi
  • howdoi-request
  • makethis or make-this
  • makethissound or make-this-sound, which seems too long

Suggestions from the comments (feel free to post them in a standalone answer if you want 'credit'):

  • mimic
  • recreate
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  • I'm pretty keen o replication or perhaps 'mimic', provided that 'mimic' doesn't have some other canonical meaning. – Tim Post Jan 31 '14 at 7:05
  • Seems tough to find something that gets the point across, yet still steers clear of the meta-tag, and also isn't super long! – JoshP Jan 31 '14 at 13:13
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    Synth people tend to use the word 'recreate'. – marczellm Jan 31 '14 at 13:57
  • replication and duplication are also used for other procedures (file/session duplication). that's why i coined 'sound-a-like', it has a unique meaning. howdoi is ok, but takes a second look (in my case at least). – Arnoud Traa Jan 31 '14 at 18:02
  • there is another question by tobias schmidt link he uses the sound tag – Arnoud Traa Jan 31 '14 at 18:04
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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.

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