I recently came across the Frictional Games blog and have spent the last few weeks trawling through it’s archive. It provides a wealth of informaiton on game design, and in particular discussions on the point of game narrative. One particular post, 4 Layers, a narrative design approach, written by Thomas Grip, Frictional's creative director, raised the concept of the mental … [Read more...]
Art of Surround
Acousmonium, INA-GRM, 1980. Photo by Laszlo Ruska. Surround (Oxford Dictionary) (verb) [with object] - Be all round (someone or something) (noun) - A thing that forms a border or edging around an object. (adjective) (Surrounding) - All around a particular place or thing. Based merely on a technological approach, one might think that Surround sound is just the … [Read more...]
Audio And VR
There’s been more VR content made in the past year than the last twenty combined, thanks to the emergence of the Oculus Rift, Sony’s Project Morpheus and other such virtual reality (VR) devices. There’s lots of innovation happening on the visual front, including new methods of gameplay, narrative structure and visual design. The obvious question: what’s happening on the audio … [Read more...]
In Search of a DIY Surround Panner
Last month my friend Marc Mailand was showing me around his home studio (which is super sweet). We were discussing his surround setup and mentioned needing a surround panner and how expensive they are. I noticed the PS3 controller sitting on his desk and wondered out loud: "There has got to be some sort of DIY solution using a game joystick as a surround panner". So when it … [Read more...]
Big Noise Go Boom: Bass Management and Your Subwoofer
Let’s talk about surround sound systems for a quick second, shall we? A modern surround sound system, in its simplest form, consists of six channels; Left, Center, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround, and the Low Frequency Effect channel. The first five channels are all fairly self-explanatory, denoting the location of the speaker itself and the channel’s … [Read more...]
DSDG – Noah With Craig Henighan and Coll Anderson
We'll be starting our web chat with Craig and Coll in just a few minutes! Head over to our Google+ page if you want to ask questions when we get to the Q&A. We had a great conversation, and the recording is now available, and remember that this and all of our other previous Designing Sound Discussion Group presentations are archived here. … [Read more...]
Designing Sound Discussion Group – Noah and Atmos
We're happy to announce that we've got another Designing Sound Discussion Group coming this Sunday! We'll be hosting a live chat with Noah's Craig Henighan and Coll Anderson. Given this month's theme, we'll be focusing in on a discussion of the impact of Dolby Atmos on their work for the film. Of course, we won't be restricted to that, so make sure you come with your questions … [Read more...]