A method and system are provided for allowing a sound designer to design and implement interactive soundscapes based on existing waveform audio files, MIDI files, or audio streams. This is accomplished by using a set of tools consisting of an authoring tool for creating specifications of interactive soundscapes visually without having to write complex code, and a graph builder object that recreates the authored soundscape and interacts with it in real-time according to its specification. To give non-programmers the ability to specify and test how a soundscape will interact with programmatic events and user input in an application, the following tools are also provided: an interface to construct a "control panel;" a graphical "trigger-condition-action" specification that defines what actions to take when input from the control panel or application interface is received; a preview mode that enables the sound designer to interact with the soundscape in the same way that the application will; and the ability to save the soundscape as a file that can be edited or used at run-time to recreate the soundscape. Once the interface between the soundscape and the application has been agreed to, the tools allow the sound designer to work independently of the programmer of the media application.