Demo Duck Expands Offerings with ‘DD Docs’
October 15, 2026
Music and sound design studios usually find themselves tucked into the tail end of a project’s schedule, but the crew at Cypher have flipped that script with the first in a new series of Sonic Studies.
John Black, founder/CD at Cypher: As sonic artists, we often don’t have any meaningful input on the subject or structure of commercial projects so we wanted a way to showcase our approach to crafting music and sound design to picture, not a reel, not a manifesto, but a series of sonic studies.
This first film came out of Joseph’s interest in connecting his work in sound with sewing and textiles. The starting point was a jacket he made, which gave us direct access to the fabrics, tools, and machines involved in its construction, both as visual subjects and as sources for recording.
“We wanted a way to showcase our approach to crafting music and sound design to picture, not a reel, not a manifesto, but a series of sonic studies.”
Sound design involves taking liberties with the disconnect between what we see and what we hear, using sounds that may have little to do with what’s actually on screen but suggest the right movement, texture, or feeling. Here, we work with sounds that actually belong to the subject, then manipulate and warp them without losing that underlying connection.
For the visuals, we relied on simple animation, scanned materials, basic image processing, and textural footage. Allowing the imagery to remain quite raw and minimal gave the sound room to shape the rhythm and character of the edit.
As we worked through the project we found a nice relationship between sewing and sound. Each involves gathering, manipulating, and assembling materials. This study gave us an opportunity to bring those practices together and experiment outside the usual constraints of a brief.
Music/Sound design: Cypher
Founder/CD/Sound Design: John Black
Original Music: Joris van Grunsven
Mix: Joseph Sims
Animator/editor: Joseph Sims
