Audio Director, Splash Damage Guns have wheels “ ” Chris Sweetman Audio Director, Splash Damage csweetman@splashdamage.com

Source is king Good quality source is important Three main avenues for this: Commercial audio libraries Licensing from third-parties Field recording

Commercial Libraries Pros: Cons: Fairly cheap Easy to use Embedded metadata Pre-edited Cons: Often overused Generally not comprehensive enough

Licensing from third parties Pros: Offers full range of recordings Cons: Relatively expensive Don’t own the material for future titles

Field Recording Pros: Cons: Tailored to your production needs You own it Material can be re-used for future titles Cons: Expensive Need to spend time editing and mastering

The Problem Several enemies firing at the same time result in audio clutter Player can’t pin-point specific enemies If the three tapirs here were to engage the player at once, using the same weapons and firing sounds, the resulting audio clutter would make it extremely hard for the player to listen for a specific enemy.

My Solution “Choir of Guns”: Create variations of the weapon with different timbres Work with designers to give enemies different weapons Can design slightly different sounds for each team in multiplayer

Sound Design Recreate your mental picture of the sound Texture is important 3 degrees: Create distinct sounds for close, medium, and long distance Plug-ins can easily change sound characteristics, such as McDSP, Waves EQ The first sound contains the various elements used to create the second, final shotgun firing sound.

The Traditional Approach Single shots Too staccato and not realistic enough Loops Firing sound is the same every time Limit “sweeteners” that can be added

Go Go Granular Split your sounds and recombine them dynamically Add “sweeteners” to your base template to easily create variation Not locked to frame rate, so no chugging sounds While the head section of the sound is the same, the “middle” section of the firing sound can be as long as needed and, thanks to dynamically added sweetener sounds, provide slight variations every time the weapon is fired. The tail section of the sound is played whenever the player stops firing. The first sound is one of the elements of the “middle” section, while the second sound is the recombined firing sound.

Where are We going? Evolve sounds to match the player’s experience Reflect gameplay devices Match player & story progression Adapt weapon sounds to different environments Accurate reflections

Thanks For Coming! Presentation will be available online at www.splashdamage.com/publications Additional questions or comments? E-mail csweetman@splashdamage.com