George Spanos has published another of his great articles on GameSound Design. This time he gives 10 (actually 11) different advices that can make you a better sound designer, no matter your field of work. I agree with almost all the tips, but as George said, this is the most important of the list:

Make mistakes. Ok, so I lied. This list actually contains 11 things to make you a better game sound designer. I saved this one for last partly because it relates to number 10 above, but more importantly because it is perhaps the most important of all the suggestions listed here. I cannot stress this enough. You must be prepared to fail and make mistakes. If you do not make mistakes and fail occasionally you are doing something wrong. You must take chances in your audio and sound design. Sure, you will make stupid and idiotic errors from time to time. But you will never advance past hobbyist to a full fledged sound designer who is in demand by production companies and game developers unless you continually try new things and push your comfort zone. See how far you can go in a direction that you would not normally take. You may be surprised at the results of what you can achieve. If the end result does not work out then you at least have learned something along the way that will combine and form to make you a unique sound artist with potential and a unique voice. We need more sound designers with their own voice and experience to push the art and craft further.

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George Spanos has published a very cool article talking about hydrophones and how to record underwater sounds with them. You can also listen to some the sounds recorded.

Ok, so now that the basics are covered where you may ask can one acquire one of these underwater recording devices? I used the Aquarian Audio Products H2A-XLR for the following recordings. The device itself is very light but heavy enough to not move around in water, which is important or you will pick up noise from the microphone cable.

The hydrophone terminates in a balanced XLR which can interface with any recording device that can supply +48V of phantom power. I used my handy Zoom H4 which I find is the most portable and quick to set-up piece of recording gear I own. Sure, the screen is small but if you monitor your recordings carefully through headphones that should not be a problem.

I was inspired to make these recordings from a blog post I read over at Noise Jockey. Nathan made some great recordings that you can hear via this link.

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UPDATE 1: Richard Devine spreads the word about another hydrophone recording he did with DPA 8011 Omni Microphone.

Recorded on May 6th in Lake Lure North Carolina. All recordings taken from the lake, rivers, and dam of Lake Lure. Everything was recorded at 24-bit 96k with a Sound Devices 702 recorder and DPA-8011 Hydrophone. No editing or post processing.

Complete post here

UPDATE 2: Some days ago I saw a very cool post on Noise Jockey, where Nathan uses another Hydrophone, this time not for underwater sounds, but a different way by using a magnet with it. Check:

It is what is says, people! ;-) I ducked out some handling noise, but for the most part the audio is unaltered. Enjoy.

George Spanos has created another fantastic article on Game Sound Design, talking about creativity, covering common problems and different ways to get inspiration and constantly improve your creative ideas.

Inspiration is a very mercurial event. One cannot control the moments of inspiration that occur or when those moments will happen. Some believe that with more work comes more inspiration but that is not the whole story. While hard work will make you a better game sound designer it can often burn you out, especially by the end of a project. You become so immersed in the task at hand that quite often you are not open to new ideas or are simply too bogged down to stop and think. The key is to always be open and receptive. While we as sound designers are expected to function on two levels -creative and technical- remembering to think outside of the box is also crucial. But how do you force yourself to think outside of the box? Can the creative process be controlled? Or must one set up an environment for creativity to take place and hopefully inspire?
There are many ways to jump start your creativity and we’ll explore some of them in detail below.

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Do you know about “Oblique Strategies”? Originally developed by Brian Eno, consists in a deck of cards containing ideas and phrases to help you on “breaking” the lack of creativity on any project you’re working on.

George Spanos, from GameSoundDesign has created the “Sound Design Strategies” based on the same concept, but here all the phrases are oriented to sound design. Just click on the button and you get something like this:

• “Do not rely on any processing for this sound”
• “Add only one more sharp sound”
• “Distort it”
• “Remove one layer”
• “Use a sound that is the complete opposite”

There are a lot of them. Really useful when you need some creative help.

Sound Design Strategies

George Spanos has published a nice talk he had with Vance Dylan, sound designer with work on titles such as Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and Sonic Chronicles. Vance talks about specific games, his career and how he creates sound. Let’s read:

Let’s start off with the ubiquitous question: when did you decide to pursue a career in sound?

Vance Dylan: I was inspired by my Uncle Eddie who was a singer/songwriter who would often open for Bill Haley and the Comets way back in the day. My dad was also a great closet musician who never did pursue his dream but damn he was a sweet guitar player.I tried a few things, became a decent drummer, tried to write songs but sucked at it but the whole time I was very interested in hooking up gear and messing around with recording things. I think my first recording was that of my sister playing her recorder back in he 70′s using a Candle cassette recorder.

With the success of the first Mass Effect, where there any sound implementation changes that were necessary for Mass Effect 2?

Vance Dylan: There were massive changes in audio from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. We used the (Creative Labs’) Isact audio engine on the first one which limited what we could do, we are now using Wwise which in my opinion is the best audio engine on the market today. We also had a big shift in our team as we brought in Rob Blake as the audio lead and added more team members to handle the load. I think we had 10 guys working on ME2 at one point. As far as implementation, it was a whole new ball game using Wwise. For example in ME2, I was responsible for all the vehicles in game and in cutscenes and all that and we were able to do stuff like making sound more intimidating if you were more paragon. The idea being if you were more renegade then you wouldn’t be as scared or the sound wouldn’t be as scary to you. Things like that took only a few minutes to set up using Wwise where before it just wasn’t possible at all.

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George Spanos has launched a new interviews section on GameSoundDesign.com. That category started with Chuck Russom, sound designer of videogames such as God Of War, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and more. Great talk!

Game Sound Design: Taking a quick glance at your credit list, it’s obvious you have a passion for sound. What motivated you to become a game sound designer?

Chuck Russom: I think that growing up with Star Wars around, there was always that hightened awareness of sounds. I’ve probably been using my mouse to make the sounds of lightsabers, blasters, R2D2, and
Chewbacca, for most of my life. So that has always been there. Musically, I’ve played the drums since elementary school. I picked up guitar in high school. I was pretty sure going into college that I wanted to do something related to music. But I didn’t consider being a musician as a viable career option. That’s when I discovered recording engineering and production. It seemed like the perfect field for me to pursue.

For years I had been influenced by experimental/noise guitar music like Sonic Youth. I was fascinated by instruments making sounds that they were not meant to make. I was always buying new guitar effects
pedals, and exploring new sounds with my guitars.

Then I discovered Nine Inch Nails and became heavily influenced by The Downward Spiral album. I had never heard sounds like that before. I read articles about how Trent Reznor used Protools to process and mangle his sounds. I became really interested in using a computer to process and destroy music. This was well before Protools LE, Protools was still very expensive, and not something for the home user. I got a copy of Soundforge and just started messing around, recording things into the computer and editing/processing the sounds.

Then the music industry started to die. Suddenly the producer/engineer career path didn’t look very promising. My knowledge of Soundforge lead to my first game job offer. The game industry was really starting to grow, I took the job as something to do until I figued out what I wanted to do with my life. And I’ve been doing it ever since!

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Silence is a very powerful sound.

Sound? Silence is not a sound… right?

Well I think that silence should be considered a “sound”, a “sound effect”, and “music”. But that’s crazy isn’t it… how can the lack of sound be considered the same as the presence of sound? After all, sound is created by sending electrical energy to an amplifier which is then sent to a transducer that converts the electrical signals into sound waves that we hear. But the lack of sound in a game can often have a profound impact to the gaming audience.

Read the article here

George Spanos has published a new interesting article at his website Game Sound Design, covering several points about Directing Actor Sessions.

Voice direction is definitely not a task for the under-prepared. It requires a lot of patience, empathy, and as much experience as possible to get it right. Some of the best voice directors out there, be it for film, television, or games, possess a firm grasp of the techniques and toolset that are required to communicate effectively with actors. Quite often voice directors are under a lot of pressure to coax the best performance possible out of the talent in the recording booth. After all, top notch talent can be very expensive. Add to this the cost of the recording studio and staff like engineers and assistants and you can wind up with a very expensive bill at the end of the day.

In order to compete with major hollywood films it is imperative that video games employ well written and detailed voices. Gamers demand it. Just like gamers demand a superior surround sound immersive gaming experience, the voice acting in today’s games is of the utmost importance.

In addition to this, video games are increasingly featuring well known and sought after actors to play lead voice roles. And for good reason too. Not only can these actors deliver a familiar voice but they also sell more games. Publishers are realizing that employing a famous actor in their game may very well sell many additional copies just on the weight of the actor’s name.

So what are some of the best techniques and tools out there that can help to you achieve a winning performance? In this article I’ll let you in on over 10 years of experience in the studio. I’ve recorded probably close to 700 unique actors as well as had my fair share in directing sessions and casting auditions. Even if you are not the one that will be directing the talent for your studio’s next project the guidelines below will definitely help you to get a leg up on the often hidden world of voice direction. Read on!

Continue reading here…

George Spanos has published a new article on his website Game Sound Design, talking about the importance of video games localization and his role in game audio production.

Video game localization is the process whereby a game’s primary language is translated into other languages in order to accommodate foreign speaking gamers. Many video
game publishers require their titles to be localized for a host of major markets. Localization is a very big deal to publishers and the bottom line considering that sometimes up to 50% of a AAA title’s sales can be outside of North America.

Another important facet of properly localized audio is to consider the linguistic differences of each region that the game is to be sold in. For example, quite often there will be a so called “North American Spanish” SKU (Stock Keeping Unit, also known as the specific packaged localized copy of the game on disc) as well as a “Spanish” SKU that will be sold mainly in Spanish speaking countries outside of North America such as Spain.

Additionally, games will sometimes have a few localized versions on one disc. In Canada for example, you’ll find the English as well as French versions of the game on one disc.

In the United States quite often English as well as North American Spanish will be on one disc. Generally though, English will be supplied on every foreign version of the game (assuming it is a North American title).

One popular term that has come to be known simply by its shortened form is EFIGS. EFIGS is an acronym for English French Italian German Spanish. Most games that are to be localized will be localized in these languages first and foremost. Occasionally Chinese and Japanese (as well as sub-variations of these languages like Mandarin) will also be included but generally these five languages are the most common.

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George Spanos has published a new article at Game Sound Design talking about the implementation of sound design in video games, an interesting reading especially for those who are just starting in this world of sound design for video games.

Sound design for video games is quite a different animal than sound design for other media. Film, television, and other linear formats require the sound design to unfold at a very deliberate and controlled pace. After all, the outcome of linear formats is always known. The sound designer can therefore create sound-scapes and sound effects with the very deliberate intention of telling a story where the exact outcome is known to always happen the exact same way.

In video games we do not know the exact outcome of every scene. Sure, we know that the player has to perform ‘A’ to get to ‘B’ but we don’t know how long the player may take to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’ (in most games). For example, the player may choose to go down a route that is an indirect way of reaching the end of a level, thereby encountering any number of enemies or alternate paths. The main thing to realize is that, in games we usually cannot control the exact sequence of events that a player may experience. This is obviously called randomness.

It is for this very reason that designing and implementing sound for a video game should not be based upon events that “happen next” but rather, “events that may happen next”. This is why the great majority of games have their sounds broken down into chunks that are easily played back at the exact moment they are needed; at run time.

Contents:

• Sound Creation
• Sound File Creation
• Integrating Sound Design Into The Engine
• What Now?
• Conclusion

Full article.