The process of Engineering the sound, and creating the cues for a show. There are many factors that go into engineering a space, everything from speaker placement to the levels that the actual power amps are set to. The artistic side of designing a show is technical also. It used to require a lot of splicing or reel to reel tape, hoever nowadays programs such as Cakewalk and ProTools are used.

Theatrical sound design is the art of creating a sound environment for the play, just as the visual designers (set, lighting, costumes) have created a physical environment for it. While it is technology-based in most cases, real sound design makes art within the limits of the equipment, rather than twiddling equipment within the limits of art.