Transcript Creating Game Audio

Creating Game Audio
With Thomas Dahlberg
A little about me…
 Graduated in 2010 from the Savannah College of Art and
Design.
 Background in audio for film and animation.
 Owner of Dahlberg Sound LLC.
 Been working as a professional sound designer for mobile
games for two years.
 Have spoken at ECGC and GSU on game audio
development.
 Side note: I will make this PowerPoint available for
download from my website www.DahlbergSound.com
What does a Sound Designer do?
 Manipulate audio for games, film, television, theatre,
sound art, etc.
 The Sound Designers for a company create most of, if
not all, of the sound effects for a game.
 They accomplish this through:
 Taking recorded audio (either by themselves or someone
else) and manipulating it through digital or analog means.
 Sound effects give the game life.
 If done right, not many people will notice your work.
Getting Started
 A way to…
 Gather Audio- whether through recording or from
libraries
 Edit Audio- Desktop Audio Workstation (DAW)
 Get them in an engine- a way to hear those sounds play
back in a game.
Gathering Audio:
Original Recordings
 “If it sounds good, it is good” – Duke Ellington
 Field Recording vs. Studio Recording
 Field: Portable recording device, microphone, wind
protection, cables, boom pole and/or pistol grip
 Studio: Computer with DAW, USB Microphone or a
regular microphone with an interface.
 The Zoom h4n is an affordable handheld recorder
that can be used in the field or in the studio
Gathering Audio:
Original Recordings
 My mobile recording setup a year ago.
Gathering Audio:
Tips for Recording
 Controlling the environment
 Turn off a/c or anything that may create a hum
 Have family, friends, roommates, etc. be quite.
 Make sure there is no music playing in the background
 Microphone placement
 Recording from a different angle can drastically change the
character of the sound.
 Have a nice pair of circumaural headphones
 Be patient and always record more than you need
 Document every take!
Gathering Audio:
Tips for Recording
 A sound report
for my Zoom
h4n.
Original Recordings:
Budgetary Constraints
 Possible Expenses:
 Location based: travel, gas, renting a location
 Gear Rental: microphones, recorders, mixers, batteries,
cables, and a truck to transport all this gear.
 Hiring Extra People: armorer, fire marshal, police, extra
manpower, etc.
 Having to carry money to pay off noisy neighbors. (it
happens...)
 After all of this, you still have to edit everything!
Gathering Audio:
Library Sounds
 Not always economical to record
everything.
 Dangerous/expensive activities
 Exotic animals
 Contrary to popular belief, you can
make original designs from SFX
libraries.
 “Designing from” vs. “Copy, trim,
and paste”
Gathering Audio:
SFX Libraries
 Professional Libraries can be expensive:
 Blastwavefx.com, SoundSnap.com, SoundDogs.com,
ProSoundEffects.com
 FreeSound.org
Editing
Editing Audio
 Free DAWs (Desktop Audio Workstation)
 Windows – Audacity
 Apple OSX – Garage Band (comes standard with OSX)
 Paid DAWs
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Avid Pro Tools
Apple Logic
Sony Sound Forge
Reaper
Nuendo
Manipulation of Audio
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Equalization- Remove unwanted frequencies
Delay- Add echoes
Reverb- Make it sound like it’s in a specific space
Compression- Compress the dynamic range
Modulation- Create a tremolo or vibrato effect.
Pitch/Time- Slow down or speed sounds to make them
sound other worldly.
 Reverse- Make the sound play backwards. Can be very
creepy
EQ, Delay, Compression,
and Pitch shifting
Breaking Down A Sound
 Figure out the game logic before editing any audio
 Will the sound…
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be a one-shot?
loop?
have multiple states?
need to have several different versions?
Audacity Demonstration
Game Engines and Middleware
 Free to learn, not to publish, game engines
 Unreal Development Kit (UDK)
 Unity3D
 Free to learn, not to publish, audio middleware
 WWISE
 FMOD
UDK Demonstration
Asset Management
 Use a standardized naming convention for your
project
 Earth_Attack_001, Mars_Attack_001
 Use _### for works in progress. Drop the numbers
for final.
 Spreadsheets
 Keep up to date on the latest WIP number
 Update the status of the effect
Asset Management
Asset Management:
Deliverables
 File types?
 Wav, ogg, mp3, wma
 Sample rate, bit depth, bit rate
 UDK requires .wav at 16bit
 Naming Conventions
 UDK doesn’t allow spaces
 Saving space for mobile games
 Shorten loops
 Compress files or lower resolution
Any Questions?
 www.DahlbergSound.com
 [email protected]
 Additional reading:
 Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers