Personalise the site

Choose your exam board

This filters set texts and takes you to the right written-exam guidance. You can change it at any time.
⚠️ Board lens: This page supports AQA, Edexcel 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

CH 1: THE FOREST CH 2: MASS HYSTERIA CH 3: THE GALLOWS

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…
📜

Synopsis & Journeys

From whispered rumours to the gallows.
🕰️

Context & History

1692 Salem, Puritanism, McCarthy allegory.
🎭

Characters & Acting

Status, control, and ensemble hysteria.
🗺️

Key Scenes & Proxemics

Forest / farmhouse / courtroom / jail staging.
💬

Themes & Quotes

Reputation, fear, authority — performance-led.
🎨

Design Elements

Set / lighting / sound / costume.