screenshot from "The Psychology Behind Video Game Sounds (1972-1998), wired.com Cool overview of the history of game sound design and psychoacoustics. With insight from senior audio director at Blizzard Entertainment Russell Brower, the article plunges the depths of vintage 8bit and 16bit games and their sound design. The "dying" sound in 'Space Invaders' and the coin grab … [Read more...]
Learning VR Audio: First Steps and DesigningSound.org VR Audio Resources
As many of the writers that contribute to DesigningSound have explored, there is a huge benefit gained by the community when tutorials and learning materials are freely shared. Well established tools and pipelines have a multitude of learning resources available, including video and written tutorials, making it relatively easy to learn new techniques outside of a school or … [Read more...]
Music Cognition and Psychoacoustic Research: An Interview with Dr. Susan Rogers
For this month's theme of "Research", Dr. Susan Rogers was kind enough to answer our questions about her work and research in music cognition and psychoacoustics. Susan Rogers holds a doctorate in cognitive psychology from McGill University (2010). Prior to her science career, Susan was a multiplatinum-earning record producer, recording engineer, mixer and audio technician. She … [Read more...]
Sunday Sound Thought 18 – Dependent Perception
As the year continues, many of these posts will be philosophical in nature. Some will be in contradiction to previous postings. These are not intended as truths or assertions, they’re merely thoughts…ideas. Think of this as stream of consciousness over a wide span… I've had this one in the topic queue for a while, but couldn't quite figure out how to approach it here...until … [Read more...]
Sunday Sound Thought 14 – Sound’s Golden Mean?
As the year continues, many of these posts will be philosophical in nature. Some will be in contradiction to previous postings. These are not intended as truths or assertions, they’re merely thoughts…ideas. Think of this as stream of consciousness over a wide span… This week, I have a question. While I may occasionally ponder the idea, I've never devoted a significant … [Read more...]
Time And Psychoacoustics
When designing audio we are often thinking of time across a large variety of units: samples, milliseconds, frames, minutes, hours and more. This article is inspired by a conversation I had with Andy Farnell about a year ago at a pub in Edinburgh, right before a sound design symposium, where we discussed about time and the role it plays when it comes to designing audio. Like … [Read more...]
“Hearing Lips and Seeing Voices” – The McGurk Effect
Want to see something that’ll mess with your head? [youtube]http://youtu.be/73LE1vKGfy4[/youtube] Now, you may not have noticed anything all that strange watching the video, but mute the sound and watch it again. After that, close your eyes and listen to just the audio. Notice anything strange now? You’ve just witnessed one of the more interesting perceptual illusions, … [Read more...]