⚠️ Board lens: This page supports AQA, Edexcel, OCR and CCEA.
Set your board (top-right) to tune the exam language and focus.
Sound Design
Whispers, hysteria, and the gallows drum
Current board: Not set
"The Golden Rule: contrast is your best weapon. To make the courtroom hysteria terrifying, you must first establish the suffocating weight of Puritan silence."
Soundscape Visualiser
Concept 1: The Forest Whispers
The big idea:
The Puritans believed the wilderness beyond Salem was the Devil’s domain. Sound should make “outside” feel present, even indoors.
Sound Terminology Bank
Diegetic sound
Sound characters can hear. Examples: chains in Act 4, the courtroom shouting, footsteps approaching, the door latch.
Non-diegetic sound
Sound for the audience that characters cannot hear. Example: a low drone under Danforth’s questioning to build dread.
Reverb / echo
Adding space/echo to voices. In Act 3, reverb can turn the girls into an overwhelming “single force” rather than individuals.
Crescendo
A gradual build in volume/intensity. Useful for the end of Act 4 as Proctor approaches the gallows.
📝 Exam Builder: Sound design paragraphs
Board-aware model paragraphs that link sound choices → tension → audience impact.
Click “Draw a model paragraph” to generate a board-aware response…