Sound may hold great promise for instructional software by supporting learning in a variety of ways. Conceptual and preconceptual barriers, however, still appear to prevent software designers from using sound more effectively in their instructional products. Interface books seldom discuss the use of sound and when they do, it is most often simple verbatim narration of on-screen text. This content analysis of 12 award-winning instructional software products indicated that, while sound is being incorporated into many learning environments, many instructional designers are using sound only for literal, information conveyance and not yet exploring how to exploit the associative potential of music, sound effects, and narration to help learners process the material under study more deeply.