The Irrational Games Insider Blog has posted parts two and three of their Audio team’s experience of recording firearms for BioShock Infinite. In part two, the team discuss the sensations of firing live weaponry that they were aiming to capture, and in part three, briefly touch upon the designing/editing process.

Part one of the blog can be viewed here

The Recordist has released M60 Machine Gun HD, a new sfx library available at $50.

Presenting The M60 Machine Gun HD Professional Sound Effects Library, a multi-channel collection of 129 Broadcast WAV tracks recorded at 24-Bit 192kHz and 24-Bit 96kHz. The M60 is a belt-fed machine gun that fires the 7.62 mm NATO cartridge (.308 winchester) commonly used in larger rifles. The M60 used for this collection is a M60E3: An updated, lightweight version adopted in the 1980s. The M60E3 was introduced circa 1986 in an attempt to remedy problems with earlier versions of the M60 for infantry use. It is a lightweight, “improved” version intended to reduce the load carried by the gunner.

Along the release, Frank has also published some interesting stuff regarding the recording process, including a blog post with microphone comparisons and thoughts on the multi-track setup. Also, below is our usual interview, dedicated to talk about the new release.

Why you decided to create this library?

About six months ago I was prepping ammo to use for a small gun shoot I was doing on my ranch and went down to the local gun shop to purchase the ammo and noticed they had a lot of really cool guns in the shop. After talking with the owner for a while about what I do he said he has something to show me. He took me back to his office and opened a huge gun safe and pulled out the M60. I had no idea what it was and when he told me I knew I just had to record it. He let me hold it and I thought to myself this thing can make some all kinds of great sounds. We decided to wait until the late fall to record so the conditions would be favorable, no birds, insects and less tourists in the area creating all the car noise.

I did some research on the gun and searched through all the sound effects libraries I had and noticed very little variation and consistency with the M60 sounds I found. Some were very good but not enough source material for a serious sound designer in my opinion. Since I have not recorded many guns over the years in any serious fashion I decided that I should practice over the next few months with different guns, microphones and gear. I learned a lot but in reality I had no idea what was I was doing when it came to gun recording.

As the Fall season approached I contacted the gun owner and asked him if I could record the M60. He agreed and we were on. I figured it was now or never so I contacted two of the best in the business Charles Maynes and Chuck Russom and asked them for some advice on different techniques and practices. They were extremely open and helpful and I thank them very much for sharing their wisdom. I also decided to create this library because the gun is located five miles away from my ranch and I really don’t like to get out much so this was easy pickings.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I understand this library was recorded in several sessions. Could you talk us a bit about the process you followed and the setup you used on each one?

I was only going to do one shooting session mainly because this is a $90,000.00 gun and it is very expensive to shoot, maintain and record. I tried to get all the sounds I wanted in one session but since I only have so much recording gear I decided to go back and get another set of sounds. For the first session I really just winged it. I took all the advice I had received and tried to apply it given the location and gear I had with me. We were in a relatively small gravel pit surrounded by high dirt banks and trees. It was isolated except from the rumble of a train passing by or a plane overhead.

I set up a matched stereo pair of MKH-8040s about 75 feet away from the front of the gun slightly to the right. I had a Sanken CSS-5 stereo shotgun  set about 50 feet directly behind the gun and a AT-835ST stereo shotgun directly behind and over the shooter pointing down at the muzzle (I was not sure about this one but it came out really nice). I placed a MKH-416 on the right about 8 feet away pointing in towards the middle of the gun and a MKH-8040 on the left with the same angle and distance. I also placed a Sony D-50 down range near the bullet impacts but I set the input to hot and the recordings did not come out that great so I did not included them. I recorded at 192K except for the Sanken CSS-5 which was used with a Sony PCM-D1 and a XLR-1 preamp at 96K. I recorded many different burst durations and even got a couple single shots. (which is very difficult for the shooter BTW) This guns sounds really cool with a single shot pitched down an octave. Overall, I was very happy with the recordings but I still felt something was missing, so I did it all over again…. the extreme close up.

The second shooting session was a week later and this time I went with 100 rounds of ammo instead of 200 rounds used in the first. I wanted to get the close up action of the gun and belt being fed through the gun along with some longer bursts. I also wanted to get the bullet impacts with the Sony D-50 one more time. I set up the matched stereo pair of MKH-8040s on the right about 2 feet away. This gave me a great stereo image of the muzzle on the right channel and the bullet shell ejections on the left channel so you can pick the side you want if need be. I also had the MKH-416 there on the right aimed at the ejection port. On the left side of the gun I placed 2 MKH-8040 microphones, one aimed at the belt feed and the other slightly behind the shooter aimed at the muzzle in the front. And last but not least, I placed my trust old Sanken CSS-5 stereo shotgun about 25 feet directly behind the gun. The CSS-5 surprised me when mixed in at the right level. It adds some warmth (If there is such a thing with this gun) to the overall sound landscape. My two favorites from this close up session are the left side MKH-8040 muzzle perspective and the stereo pair of MKH-8040s on the right, very fat!

And what about the mechanism sounds?

During the second recording session I was able to get some mechanism sounds like handling the ammo belt and loading-unloading the belt into the gun. I wanted more so during the third non-shooting session I recorded the locking, loading and general handling of the gun along with some really cool legs folding. I recorded this foley high up a mountain just behind the ranch. I was recording some other guns at this great sounding location and the gun handler brought along the M60 so I could record the mechanisms.

How you deal with this kind of loud sounds? How you protect your ears for the guns?

What?… During the first recording session I was physically set up further back from the gun. I had a small table with all the recording devices set on top and when the gun was firing I did not think it was that loud. I was wearing a pair of shooting ear muffs. They are not the standard ear muffs you can get at a hardware store, they offer much more reduction in sound level. I was comfortable with the sound level and could feel some impact on my body but really not as much as I thought there was going to be. For the second session I was set up closer and to the left side of the muzzle. I had to cue the shooter when to fire with vocal commands on the first shoot because I did not have eye contact. It was his first time doing a sound recording gig and he wanted to make sure there was enough space between the shots. Speaking of that, any experienced gun shooter fires a gun naturally. An example is with a shotgun they shoot then pump the gun to reload and shoot again. They have to get used to shooting and staying very still because the microphones pick up everything close. During the second session I found out how really loud and fierce the M60 is. The sound that came out the side vents on the muzzle was so loud and deep my sweatshirt was moving and I could barely breathe. We were only shooting a 100 rounds so I figured it would be done quickly and I got through it.

How was the process of layering and processing for the Designed package?

I included this set of sounds because when I was done with the mastering and editing I wanted to see what I could do with the raw material and push it hard. There are some layered sounds of the “clean” mastered versions and some more that I rammed though various plug ins at 192K. This is where the fun begins. I used some of my favorite plug ins for amping up a sound. Some of those are Tans-X, H-Comp, Decapitator, Ren-Bass and L2. Most of the designed sounds were processed in Soundminer Pro through the VST rack. I really love this feature of Soundminer. I’m able to take a bunch 192K sound effects and pitch them the way I want and then pile on a chain of processors and hear both immediately and then send to Pro Tools HD for final balance and layering.

A special note: This collection includes those raw unprocessed 192K files so anyone can pile on what they want and not worry about the source material being pre-processed. They are all time aligned and easily searchable with full metadata on the microphone used.

Anything else you’d like to tell us about The Recordist? What’s coming next?

The only thing I can tell you right now is I’m getting dirty recording lots of dirt and blowing things up. I do have some projects that have been in the works for a long time that I have not mentioned at all. Since I blog quite a bit about what I’m recording, most know what’s coming down the road from The Recordist. This time want to surprise you all.

Thanks for allowing me to tell you my stories. A special thanks to Doug and Richard at Wrenco Arms in Sandpoint Idaho.

1. Cinematic Metal

The decision which sound library we will do first was easy: “Creatures”! We started creating a concept and did the first recordings. During this time however, we had to make sound for a lot of trailers. It was not really rewarding to search for metallic impacts that can be used for trailers in the standard libraries we have here. So we started to record and create some from scratch. We found out that this works pretty well and started to write a concept again and go out to record things to design our very own trailer impacts, which we can throw into trailers when a client once again calls and says: “we have a trailer here, voice overs will be done tomorrow morning, the whole thing has to be ready tomorrow night.”

Because this was our first library, we stumbled over a lot of things. Besides tons of none audio related topics it took a lot of time to write, rewrite and re-rewrite the Metadata, how the sounds themselves should be offered, which samplerate we want to submit.

In the meantime “Cinematic Metal” is used in a lot of cool projects. The funniest statement we had so far was a client, who complained that he would not really like the “Construction Kit” – half a year later he wrote us an email that he now uses it in nearly everything he works on and that he would be extremely happy that he purchased it. Other user statements are:

Alex Pfeffer – Composer (Crysis 2, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, Halo Legends)

“Every time I open and work with Cinematic Metal Impacts, my heart goes BOOM!”

Christian Schilling – Senior Audio Designer at Crytek

“Cinematic Metal is a fantastic resource for powerful, edgy impacts and collision sounds. Thanks for putting together this excellent material, which was used more than once in Crysis 2.”

2. Creatures

Finally we came back to what we had planned to do first: the “Creatures” library. The first thing we did was re-recording things we used before for all the game creatures we did sound for in the past. That was purely out of experience, but from there we were able to improve things like microphone positions, choice of the microphone, room set-up and so on. When we recorded our own voices or voices from actors, we always had buckets around. Trying to make weird and inhuman noises with your voice brought us to our limits. There were probably no recording sessions without someone being very close to vomiting – fortunately it never happened. Coming out of the studio after only thirty minutes, having wet eyes and a husky voice was always worth it and after all a lot of fun. Some words on this library:

David Farmer – Sound Designer (Lord of the rings, The incredible Hulk, King Kong, Bioshock 2, Dead Space, God of War II & III)

“The “Creatures” library has lots of good wet close proximity sounds that are often difficult to get from real animal recordings.  I typically have to record myself to get those, so this is a welcome addition to my library.  Nice work and nice price!”

Jordan Wilby – Sound Editor (Desperate Housewives, Dexter, The Vampire Diaries, Nip/Tuck, Criminal Minds, The Closer)

“Thanx for the buybuyBoom stuff – am using the creatures in my CW show Vampire Diaries. Looking forward to working with you in the future.”

3. Guns

This was quite a lot of fun and together with Jeff Ball, Zach Johnson and Terren Kissler we had some cool days of hard work and fun. I wrote an article for Sonic Terrain which dives into a lot of details concerning the equipment used, the planning and the mixing. You can find it here.

Here is the demo for the “Guns – Designed” library:

Don’t forget to check out the tutorial videos. Tutorial 01 is very basic, tutorial 02 shows all the details:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We have also some statements on that:

Charles Maynes – (A-Team, The Pacific, Planet Terror, Spider-Man, Flags of Our Fathers)

“Sounds great…. they were all really good – very nice stuff”

Jay Watford – Sound Designer at Riot Games (League of Legends)

“You guys are awesome, thanks for continuing to put out top notch audio!”

4. Wildcats – Tigers & Lions

Wildcats was a tough one. First I had troubles to find animal trainers who are willing and able to suit my needs. The first recordings I did were less optimal than expected, so I had to record the lions twice. Anyway, with this experience it was easier to record the tigers. I was told that tigers love doing that: in one situation the Bengal Tiger walked away from me and started to piss a large jet towards me. I didn’t get hit much, but the windshield was hit, too. And it stank so terribly! Anyway, as a sound designer, I like the animals more if they don’t like me. That makes more noise.

David Farmer – Sound Designer (Lord of the rings, The incredible Hulk, King Kong, Bioshock 2, Dead Space, God of War II & III)

“This is a great set of recordings of some of the most essential animals used in making creature sounds.  I imagine I’ll be using these quite a bit. Nicely done Axel!”

Javed Khan – Post Production Sound Designer at MBC / Dubai

“I just wanted to say that you guys are doing an awesome job with your sound libraries. All the three series I have bought so far are top quality and very unique.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

René Coronado has recently published a fantastic three-part article on gun recording, including details on pre-production, reports of the sessions, how was the editing/tagging process and more.

So a little while back I packed up the mics and headed out west to record some gunfire with my friends. Not because I had a project that required it or anything, but just because they have lots of guns and I have lots of mics. Also, weapon recording is one of those techniques that requires experience and iteration, so any opportunity to do this type of recording is to be seized upon.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Frank Bry has released Rifle Actions HD, a new library of gun foley, including 398 sounds (66 files) recorded at 96kHz/24-Bit. Here’s what Frank says about it:

Presenting Guns: Rifle Actions HD, the first in a series of gun foley action sound effects libraries. Included are 6 rifles, old and new: PTR-91 Semi-automatic Rifle (based on the Heckler & Koch G3/HK91), Remington 700 .30-06 Bolt Action Rifle, Ruger 223 Range Rifle, Ruger M77 Bolt Action Rifle, Winchester Model 1892 Lever Action Rifle (very old) and a vintage Winchester 43 Bolt Action Rifle which once belonged to my Grandfather and now is in the custody of my Nephew Kyle.

I have worked on a few games that have required some crazy gun foley. I made the best of using CD libraries but always had to try and gather my own source when needed. When I began recording at 24/96 some years ago I started recording a brand new custom collection of gun actions. This collection contains the standard actions plus some other things I’ve needed in my video game sound design work. As many of you know, some warfare and futuristic shooter games usually need some “over the top” gun foley. I hope you can find uses for these sounds in your creations as stand alone sounds or in conjunction with the other amazing boutique gun libraries available.

Rifle Actions HD is available at $35. More info here.

The Recordist is releasing a new library called Toy Guns HD, a small but interesting sfx pack that includes recordings of two “airsoft” guns:

• Crosman Pulse R76 (Clear and Black) – 6mm Electronic Full or Semi-Automatic Military-style Rifle With high quality gear box, pivoting collapsible stock, tri-rail accessory mount and adjustable hop-up system. 350-round clip features rapid feed ammo dial. Includes UL-certified rechargeable battery with charger, shoulder sling and 500 heavy (.20 gram) airsoft BBs in easy-pour dispenser.
• H&K G36C Black Dual Power Rifle – The H&K G36C Airsoft gun can go between semi and fully automatic with the flip of a switch. The powerful motor allows this electric AEG gun to fire at a very high rate of speed for guns in its class. The foldable stock and adjustable hop-up allow for ease of use and quick reloading. The gun contains an adjustable rear sight for aiming and tactical railing. The 300-shot capacity will allow you to shoot for a long time between reloads.

Toy Guns HD – $10 | 62 sfx on 10 files | 19.3MB | metadata ready

Sophia Tong of Sound Byte has published an interview with audio director Stefan Strandberg, who talks about his work on “Battlefield 3″.

“Many people might think that we are trying to create the ultimate weapon sound in every single case, but it is the other way around. We create sounds that match the palette that we have decided upon. So it is not about creating an awesome gun sound; it’s about creating a war. This might sound trivial, but it is still a key aspect of the whole sound experience.”

Full interview

Chris Sweetman, Audio Director at Splash Damage, has published a very interesting article about the sound of “Brink”. Let’s read:

INTRODUCTION

I’m Chris Sweetman, Audio Director at Splash Damage, and this developer diary is all about Brink’s sound design. What does an Audio Director do all day? Well, I’m responsible for the quality of everything that is heard in our games, including music, dialogue, and sound design. This can be broken down into various areas, including in-game gameplay, cut scenes, trailers and tons of other stuff.
I work with composers on music and licensing, actors on dialogue, and myself on sound design. I also have Simon Price – our dedicated Audio Programmer – working with me, without whom none of this would be possible.

SONIC SPACE

Having played many single player and multiplayer shooters, there was one thing that always concerned me – sonic space. In other words, how do you overcome the problem of having too many sounds all playing at the same time? When you have music, gunfire, dialogue, Foley, explosions, and ambient sounds all going off simultaneously, you’re generally left with aural mush. This was a problem we were determined to solve when beginning work on Brink.
I’d made some progress working on BLACK with the Choir of Guns concept, but it was evident early on that with Brink’s focus on blurring the lines between single and multiplayer, we had to up the ante . We wanted every sound in Brink to be heard perfectly, whether it was a Molotov cocktail exploding, a mini gun winding up, or a heavy body-type player coming round the corner to stomp on your face. These sounds were only going to be heard properly with enough space in the audio mix. If you consider that it’s entirely plausible to have 16 players in the same part of a level, all triggering the same sounds, then the true scope of this challenge becomes clear.

Continue reading…

Via @lostlab

BOOM Library has released a new sound effects library called GUNS. They’re offering two fantastic packages, as usual:

GUNS Construction Kit – €149 | 17 guns | 96kHz and 24-Bit | 12 channel multitrack recording | Over 1050 files | Soundminer metadata ready

Get the first multichannel source recording weapon library in the world! This Construction Kit ships as a complete 2 DVD set full of basic source sounds. All of the recordings on this disc were recorded in 96 kHz, 24-bit. To provide you with the fastest and easiest workflow possible all files contain extensive metadata including distances and microphones used. No matter what weapon sound style you are looking for: you can mix the multichannel recordings exactly the way you need. Check out the demo on the right to learn about what you can make out of one single pistol shot from our “Guns – Construction Kit”. Possibilities of editing are vast due to the usage of high-frequency microphones at this high definition recording. This source material will give you full control over any firearm you ever wanted to design.

GUNS Designed - €99 | 96 kHz 24-Bit | 17 guns | 4 styles per weapon, 4 shots per style | Soundminer metadata ready

You don’t have time to design your own unique weapon sounds? No worries – over 350 ready to use gun sounds can be found in our “Guns – Designed” collection. This product contains 17 weapons, 4 shots each, in 4 different style sets (Light, Crispy, Realistic, Larger than Life), plus a lot of handling sounds for each weapon. All of the sounds on this collection were designed by uniquely using the source recordings of the “Guns – Construction Kit”. All sounds are provided in 96 KHz, 24-bit to set new quality standard and give you only the best for your HD projects.

10% Discount code for Designing Sound Readers: DESS-BL10-20100717

If you’re wondering how to use the multichannel library, no worries. The BOOM team has published two fantastic tutorials on using the construction kit for designing new sounds. Take a look:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The December/January issue of Develop Magazine is available to download or view online. There you can find a very cool article (Page 61) about the sound of “James Bond 007: Blood Stone“, featuring lead sound designer Mathias Grunwaldt and composer Richard Jacques.

There’s also a nice article (Page 66) about the voice casting for Fable III.

Develop Magazine – Dec ’10/Jan ’11