Rob Bridgett has released a digital ePub version his book “From the Shadows of Film Sound“. It’s available now at $9,99.

As a practitioner in video game development, Rob Bridgett has explored and written about the connective tissue between film sound production and a newly emerging video game audio production culture. This new volume brings together, for the first time, freshly edited writings with many previously unpublished articles, documenting his work and thinking over the past ten years. This book is equally suited to film sound designers intrigued by game sound production as much as those in game sound wishing to further explore the meaning of cinematic sound. A fresh, insightful, and long overdue volume offering nourishment for students of sound as well as ammunition for sound artists working on the front line of development.

Buy it here. Printed version is available at Blurb.

You can also check the interview we did in 2010 when the book was released.

Former DesigningSound.org featured sound designer of the month Rob Bridgett has posted up a healthy summary of considerations faced by game audio professionals during a typical development. Issues of planning, budget, and resource management are discussed at length towards providing solutions to some of the common pitfalls inherent in managing large teams of creative talent.

Arkhive Sound: Budget Implications in Game Audio Production

In this feature, experienced audio director Rob Bridgett (Prototype) explains how the expanded possibilities brought by modern technology have lead sound directors to have to make careful collaborative choices to support a game’s vision.

Sound Friction: Collaborative Challenges in Games

July’s issue of AudioMedia features several articles on game audio, including:

• Martin Stig Andersen on the sound of “Limbo”
• Richard Wentk talks with Valve’s audio team about the sound of “Portal 2″
• Phil Kovats – Sound Matters
• Niklas Hed on the sound and music of “Angry Birds”
• Level Up – Loudness Standards for Games (feat Garry Taylor, Scott Selfon and Rob Bridgett)
• Taking The Middle Ground – Brett Paterson of Firelight Technologies talks about the new look of FMOD

AudioMedia – July 2011

The eighth episode of Game Audio Podcast has been released and features Rob Bridgett (Radical Entertainment) Kristofor Mellroth (Microsoft Game Studios) and David Mollerstedt (DICE).

Listen/Download: Game Audio Podcast #8

Today I’m happy to announce that Rob Bridgett, one of our best friends here at Designing Sound (and who started the monthly special series almost a year ago) is releasing “From the Shadows of Film Sound“, a new must-have book for anyone interested in sound for video games.

As a practitioner in video game development, Rob Bridgett has explored and written about the connective tissue between film sound production and a newly emerging video game audio production culture. This new volume brings together, for the first time, freshly edited writings with many previously unpublished articles, documenting his work and thinking over the past ten years. This book is equally suited to film sound designers intrigued by game sound production as much as those in game sound wishing to further explore the meaning of cinematic sound. A fresh, insightful, and long overdue volume offering nourishment for students of sound as well as ammunition for sound artists working on the front line of development.

“From the Shadows of Film Sound” is available now on blurb.com at US $21.85. Also, below you can find a Q&A session I had with Rob talking about the book.

DS: What made you decide to write this book?

RB: First of all, thanks for taking time to talk with me about the book, I’m really excited about the project and finally getting it out there. As you know, I’ve accumulated a lot of written material over the years – various articles, features and post-mortems – and it was while re-reading many of the older articles for my website that I began to see some common threads that tied the work together in an interesting way. A lot of the articles are hard to find and some only exist as scanned print pages, so it felt like I needed to re-visit them in an archival way too. The main thread, which I wasn’t conscious of at all at the time of writing, was of looking to cinema sound to shed light on production issues found in video game sound. This wasn’t anything I was conscious of doing when I began writing articles, just something that occurred to me a year or so ago, that all of these pieces could be tied together and read, not only as a collection of individual pieces, but also as a reasonably coherent whole.  Since then, it’s been a really exciting process putting the book together and realizing that there really isn’t anything out there already that addresses these topics from a practitioner’s viewpoint. It’s a book I’d have killed for when I was studying sound and trying to break into the industry!

DS: Could you give us a quick overview then of the topics and different ideas we could find in there?

RB: I’ve really tried to cover everything that I have come across, or been challenged with, as a video game audio director, and that’s a very wide scope. That goes from music implementation and communication with composers, to sfx & dialogue production and processes. I spend a significant part of the book discussing post-production techniques, including sound effects replacement and interactive mixing techniques that occur very late in the production cycle of a game, but also practical ideas about sound personnel embedding themselves in the earliest production opportunities on any project in order to leverage as much artistic and technical collaborative influence as possible on the project. So, lots of detail yet also plenty of broad, higher level examples.

DS: As you mentioned, the book contains some articles already found on the internet, yet in a re-edited form, could you talk a little about these?

RB: Previously published articles form the heart of this book for sure. Every single article though has been re-edited and updated significantly in order to give it more relevance. I’ve also given new contextual introductions and summaries, which help these articles actually feel more like a book with a single central themes.

DS: ‘From the Shadows of Film Sound’ is an interesting title for a book about video game sound. Is there a particular reason behind this title?

RB: Yeah, I guess it’s a very different title for a game audio book! The main idea behind the title is that, for me, video game sound is bound up in the history and culture of cinema sound, whether consciously trying to emulate it, or to reject it. I see game audio as being something that is emerging from this culture and history and, that over the next few decades, will very much evolve a distinctive style of its own. Video games really used to sound like video games twenty years ago, but now it’s getting very difficult to differentiate games from films.

DS: In the book you often refer back to a relationship between film and game audio production. Do you consider this book also important for someone working on sound for film?

RB: Definitely. All of the film sound people I’ve met and worked with are incredibly curious about how sound is implemented in video games. If you work in another medium, you often perceive a ‘grass is greener’ situation, and, from a film sound perspective, us game audio folks have a lot of things easy, such as being on a project from day one during the pre-production and concept phase. I believe there is a great deal that both film and game sound can learn from one another about production and creative process – it is definitely a two way street.

DS: You have chosen to go for a self-published book, rather than through an established publisher, could you talk a little about the reasons behind this?

RB: Several practical reasons really. I didn’t want to work with any time constraints or deadlines, this book has taken a long time to write and edit and I definitely didn’t want to feel rushed or pressured into getting something out that was unfinished, or wasn’t 100% something I was happy with. This is an important factor for me while working in game development, as I don’t have the time to spend dedicated full-time on a book project. Control over the whole process has also been really important, in terms of how the text looks on the page right down to the cover design and detail, this may sound like a fickle point, but the cover art for almost all game audio books so far published kinda sucks! Finally, I always wanted to put out a book that would be priced reasonably and therefore accessible, as a lot of the books on audio for games that I’ve purchased over the years have been in the $40 – $50 range, and some even higher, which, for me anyways, feels like a lot.

DS: What’s next for you Rob? Can we expect new publications soon?

RB: At the moment I’m gearing up into full production on an awesome unannounced project with Radical, which is really exciting, so there is little time to delve too deeply into new articles. I’m also more fully involved with the GANG IESD group as a co-chair, along with Kenny Young and Scott Selfon, so this may focus a lot of my writing efforts in that direction in the future.

More information can be found at Arkhive Sound.

Rob Bridgett has published a very interesting article on Gamasutra called “Getting Game Audio Right: The Big Picture”. Let’s read!

This feature takes a brief look at how to tie audio production dates into the overall delivery schedule of a large-scale video game — including the key dependencies you should be fully aware of.

During production, it is often the case for each component of game audio to be either dependent on some other area of work to be completed, or some other area of the game is dependent on audio finishing a particular piece of work. Understanding how all these pieces are inter dependant is the key to not only locking-in and delivering on-time, but also to staying agile and having a production schedule that is simple to read and aides communication across groups.

The working practice behind scheduling for video game production is an increasingly complicated one and boils down to an approach that embraces locking-in tightly and firmly committing, yet being ready and prepared for changes at any time.

At the same time, you must also fully understand that any changes will have implications elsewhere in the production.

Continue Reading…

Via: aandersen

“Be prepared to listen to other’s opinions as well as expecting others to listen to yours.”

-Rob Bridgett

[Veteran audio designer Rob Bridgett (Scarface, Prototype) here outlines how audio designers can avoid creative fatigue and deliver the most compelling audio while collaborating on large studio projects.]

There are a great many reasons why gathering critical input from trusted colleagues and other sources is of a huge benefit to improving the sound on a video game production. Feedback comes in many different ways and at many different times, but not always of our choosing and not always articulated in a way that is easy to understand.
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In this feature I’ll explore some of the ways that feedback can present itself, when it is useful, and some methods by which this essential process can be leveraged in order to acquire some truly valuable criticism during development.

Continue reading…

The Rob Bridgett Special has come to the end. We will have 10 tips for sound designers, by Rob Bridgett, plus answers to questions readers made to Rob. If your question has not been answered, you probably find that in the 10 tips or the general interview.

10 Tips for Game Sound Designers

1. In-house or Freelance?

Perhaps one of the most fundamental things to decide is whether or not you are looking for a full-time salaried position within a game development company, or if you are more comfortable with offering your audio chops to the game industry as a freelancer. Composers usually fair better in the freelance realm than an in-house situation, where they would be expected to do more than just compose. If you are a talented all-rounder, you may be equally in demand for in-house or freelance positions. The decision may come down to a work-life balance. Once you know what you are looking for, you can more effectively target employers or clients.

2. Always Treat Your Clients With Respect

Whether you are in-house or freelance, the people you work with should be treated as your clients. As a sound designer, composer or sound implementer, you NEED your client as much as they need you. They may sometimes come up with suggestions that sound crazy, but listen to their ideas, explore them, work on a few examples and try those suggestions out yourself – you may be surprised, something that sounds crazy at first might just work. As a result, the people you work with will feel included in the creative process and you will be happy with a job well done.

3. Demo-Reel

The demo reel is perhaps the single most important piece of work you will present to your prospective employer. So much info about your work and communication style will be communicated through how your show-reel is edited, structured and presented. Don’t send out the same general reel to lots of companies if you can tailor specific footage or examples to a particular company. Include a cover letter explaining specifically why you are interested in that position or company. Keep it simple, clean and always focus on your best work. Also, if you worked on a specific area in a clip of game-play or a movie, such as only the helicopter sounds in a game, make this unequivocally clear at the outset.

4. Make Connections and Contacts Already in the Industry

There are many platforms for this kind of interaction available to people entering the industry, such as GDC. Meeting and chatting with audio talent that is already established in the industry is a great way to make a connection and get some feedback to better hone your job seeking talents. As ambassadors for their companies and for audio in general, people who are presenting lectures, round tables and workshops at conferences are great and approachable contacts to make. Everyone who is successful in game audio now was where you are now at some point in their past.

5. Supply and Demand

There is currently a huge market for composers in video game sound. Look into an area where there is a shortage. Currently, audio programmers, sound effects designers, sound implementers, dialogue designers are all in much shorter supply than composers, so it makes sense that you are more likely to find ways into the industry via these fields. Once inside the games industry you will get ample chance to prove your talent and move into a role in which you are more comfortable.

6. Look for Ways to Prove You are A Team Player

Games development is about collaboration and about finding mutually creative solutions to problems to better service the end product. If you can prove that you have worked with an animator or a director on a short film or game, and demonstrate some of the areas where you have talked about sound and worked at integrating other people’s ideas into the sound, this will definitely impress whoever is conducting the interview. Great audio is about supporting the game-play or the story of a game, not about good sound for good sound’s sake. If the game fails, everyone fails, whether the audio is good or not.

7. Don’t Embellish Your Resume

Putting false or misleading information on a resume or demo reel isn’t a good idea, and you will get found out. Always specify exactly what you did on any particular film or game title, if you just did dialogue editing, then just put dialogue editing, don’t make out like you did all the audio on the game. You will be asked to talk about your work on any particular title, and employers check references very diligently – no matter how much experience the candidate appears to have.

8. Get Experienced

Employers are usually looking for experience above qualifications. A lot of game audio or film audio courses are very vocational in their approach, so this will count to an employer as production experience – even better if you can approach a game developer for an internship.

9. Everyone is A Contact

Making contacts can start as early as college. If you can work for free on a friend’s project, do it. That friend will most likely get a job or start a company and go back to you for the sound, or be able to recommend you to others. Again, if you have a positive collaborative experience working with particular people they will remember you and recommend you further down the line.

10. Flexible Software Skills

Tools for implementing sound in games are always changing, and there is no industry standard for software in the games industry as there is in film, not everyone uses pro tools. learn to be competent on several different systems, sequencers and editors all do pretty much the same job. Learn a wide range of sequencing software as you can, experiment and create projects in Audio Kinetic’s ‘Wwise’ to get an idea how game audio will be implemented.

Above all, in order to succeed in such a competitive industry, you need to be passionate about what you do and persistent in your job seeking. Even if you get an interview with a company and don’t get the job, keep in touch with them and use those connections. They have already interviewed you so you may be an easy hire for them if there is a job going in the future – or if the candidate they hired instead of you doesn’t work out.

Readers Interview

Designing Sound Readers: I’m curious as to whether you feel that the Technical Sound Design role has gained traction across the industry as its own specialization?

Rob Bridgett: It is getting there, but there is still not enough validation or specialization in the field to allow someone to solely work on a single task like this. You get this in film, where your job is very specific on a project, for example a dialogue editor. Perhaps in games this is because generally there is only one project and the needs of that project change so much during production that to hire someone specifically at each single stage, at least at the moment, wouldn’t make much sense. In film post, lots of projects are coming through the door, all at relatively the same place in their production, but in games you have this single project with shifting production demands, rather than a lot of projects with a single production demand – if that makes sense? But anyway, the implementation side of sound design is certainly a big part of the sound design process, I think these implementation / design roles are a foot in the door towards becoming an audio director or audio lead.

DSR: Are there aspects of game audio that you wish would get more attention from professionals on the development (non-audio) side?

RB: Number one on that list is writing. Writing is so deeply embedded in a game’s design, sound and presentation that I really wish all development houses had a recognized internal job position of writer. Someone on-staff and a part of the design team full-time. Often designers express an interest and even a passion for dialogue and writing at the beginning of a project, and unfortunately they end up getting taken off writing and put onto scripting missions. It’s a real shame, because it’s the area where the whole game design takes shape in a sense, if you have a feature it needs to be communicated, both in terms of how it is introduced to the player, how it is to be used and how it sounds when being used. Writing for games is, in my opinion, something that has to be done in-house if it is to truly develop, no matter how much outsourced writing is attained, its roots and its final pass are always implemented and edited in-house and the final call for presentation is an in-house one.

One thing I am thinking a lot about right now is dialogue as sound design, meaning that the spoken word contains so much potency to convey not only information but history, political history, culture, emotion, mood and is at the same time very musical in its phrasing. Some film directors use the sound of the spoken word to its full degree, David Lynch’s ‘Straight Story’ for example, as well as film makers like Ken Loach who foreground language, dialect and its tone and history as the centre-piece of their film making.

DSR: What techniques do you use for designing sounds? Using synths or recording sounds from landscapes etc? or maybe both?

RB It completely depends on the context and the content required. If I need organic or real-world sounds then recording a variety of objects, literally anything, for Foley or for use as sound effects elements. For more sci-fi or User Interface menu sounds a combination of synth and processing of pre-existing sounds may work. I’d say in general it is about first having an idea of what sounds I want to record, that are not available in our sound library, and secondly about playing with those sounds (mixing, pitching, eq, editing) in order to get the sounds to fit the visual image for which it is required (if there is a visual). Lastly it is all about trying out the sounds in the context of the game, and then tweaking from there.

Even if it doesn’t fit with the image it may give a convincing feeling to the player that sells the feature even more than if it matches the images perfectly. A good example is an explosion with a cloud of dust. I may create an explosion sound effects that also contains lots of dirt and debris in the tail, this will have the effect of selling the explosion and the rubble that has been thrown up resulting from that explosion, even though all you see is a flash and a cloud of smoke, what you hear will tell you there is metal, rubble, perhaps some glass in there and that may sell the danger of that explosion to the player even more.

DSR: How long do you spend on making a particular sound, say a bullet firing from a gun?

RB: Usually I like to get a placeholder sound into the game first, this is often very quick. Once you hear it in the game, it is tweaked and re-iterated in order to get something that is more meaningful and appropriate. This process may take several days of listening to the sound, seeing if it feels good over time, and then maybe after a week or so, getting tired of that sound and needing to try something else. This process of letting sounds bed-in and then tweaking them is very important in game I feel, because the player will hear those same sounds over the course of many hours and they need to remain as fresh and dynamic as they do the first time you hear them.

A lot of this manipulation can be done with interactive mixing too, by having the volumes of teh gunshots vary in certain circumstances etc. Even the best sound effect can become fatiguing after just a few hours, having a combination of sounds that perhaps change over time or having extra layers to a sound that can be added or subtracted during gameplay. The way that guns work often changes during development too, so it may mean re-implementing the sounds several times during the course of th production. Other things to consider are control over the firing rate of automatic weapons, sometimes you may be tempted to fix the firing rate to te rate that is specified by the designers, however this then means a designer is in control of how the weapon sounds, you may want to consider having your own independant firing rate for the sounds, that way you can tune it in relation to the other weapons on a sound basis, rather than be tied to the visual effects.

DSR: How much does the work flow differ from movie effect?

RB: Essentially games trigger sound effects based on events that occur in the game, where as movie sound is sync based with a locked visual image. You may have same amount of sounds or more than are in a scene in a movie, but the difference is that each sound is seperate in games. Technically the workflow is very different, it is slower and iteration time is a lot longer from when you hear the sound you have designed in the context of the game. Often you have to play through long sections of the game just to get to the place where your sound is triggered.

DSR: What advice do you have for aspiring sound designers trying to break into the industry (i.e. fresh out of school)? Are there any certain sectors / locations that have a blossoming sound design industry and are in need of fresh talent?

I think talent will shine through, but just as important as talent is the ability to network. This can be with people who work in games, but it doesn’t have to be in sound. I actually got my first job in games through knowing an animator whose showreel I had worked on and she recommended me to the producer before they even put out an advertisment. It’s not all about who you know or all about what you know but definately about putting the two together.

DSR: What field recorder you use now? some mics?

RB: I use a Sony PCM D-50, I carry it around everywhere I go! Mic-wise, I have no suggestions, find one that sounds good to your ears and fits the job you need to do, oh and rent before you buy!

DSR: I was wondering how QA (Quality Assurance) fits into your production/development pipeline? Thanks!

QA is a huge part of the process actually. QA guys are the ones who spend all their time playing through the game, and may encounter things that a sound designer or implementer simply is not even aware of in the game. It is a shame actually that there aren’t more specific audio QA teams or staff on teams with a variety of audio set-ups like TV, surround (5.1 / 7.1) that can test all the output options. QA teams shoudl also be monitoring and have an understanding of output levels in my opinion, so they can make suggestions as to how may dB the game is too loud or quiet by overall. It would be great to get these kind of tests happening regaularly as soon as a team hits production, rather than right at the very end when it is often too late to make reasonable fixes.

Currently QA spots major things, such as when something obvious doesn’t have a sound effect or when dialogue is missing or subtitles are wrong / mis-spelled, beyond that it is an area that could really use dedicated audio resources.

DSR: Do you tend to always record in both mono and stereo when your field recording? What are the interactive game concepts that would lead you to record one or the other? And, In what order of importance would you place these elements of field recording. Equipment options, Source Material, Mic-ing techniques, Patience, experience in all of the these.

It depends on the end result that is required. 99% of single spot effects I record are mono, as I can assemble a stereo sound in the studio very easily if it is required, similarly with multi-channel surround content. Ambience I always record stereo. Field recording is something that happens after a period of thinking about the sounds I need and having made some rudimentary designs and a requirements list, so by the time I go and record something I have a really clear idea of exactly how I want to record it, and what I want to record – I think that step is essential in understanding the recording process.