This article advances an expanded understanding of sound design practice, demonstrating its use as a critical tool in communicating design histories in museums. It draws on experiments undertaken as part of a live research-based pedagogical project between the RCA and V&A called ‘The Sounding Object’. Our focus on new directions in critical sound design contributes to new and contemporary conceptions of sound design, and to an underdeveloped research area (sound) in the discourse on the multisensory museum and in communication and experience design in museums, especially as institutions re-open to the public following pandemic closure.