2. Creating Game Audio With Thomas Dahlberg

3.  Graduated in 2010 from the Savannah College of Art and Design.  Background in audio for film and animation.  Owner of Dahlberg Sound LLC.  Been working as a professional sound designer for mobile games for two years.  Have spoken at ECGC and GSU on game audio development.  Side note: I will make this PowerPoint available for download from my website www.DahlbergSound.com A little about me…

4.  Manipulate audio for games, film, television, theatre, sound art, etc.  The Sound Designers for a company create most of, if not all, of the sound effects for a game.  They accomplish this through:  Taking recorded audio (either by themselves or someone else) and manipulating it through digital or analog means.  Sound effects give the game life.  If done right, not many people will notice your work. What does a Sound Designer do?

5.  A way to…  Gather Audio- whether through recording or from libraries  Edit Audio- Desktop Audio Workstation (DAW)  Get them in an engine- a way to hear those sounds play back in a game. Getting Started

6.  “If it sounds good, it is good” – Duke Ellington  Field Recording vs. Studio Recording  Field: Portable recording device, microphone, wind protection, cables, boom pole and/or pistol grip  Studio: Computer with DAW, USB Microphone or a regular microphone with an interface.  The Zoom h4n is an affordable handheld recorder that can be used in the field or in the studio Gathering Audio: Original Recordings

7.  My mobile recording setup a year ago.

8.  Controlling the environment  Turn off a/c or anything that may create a hum  Have family, friends, roommates, etc. be quite.  Make sure there is no music playing in the background  Microphone placement  Recording from a different angle can drastically change the character of the sound.  Have a nice pair of circumaural headphones  Be patient and always record more than you need  Document every take! Gathering Audio: Tips for Recording

9.  A sound report for my Zoom h4n. Gathering Audio: Tips for Recording

10.  Possible Expenses:  Location based: travel, gas, renting a location  Gear Rental: microphones, recorders, mixers, batteries, cables, and a truck to transport all this gear.  Hiring Extra People: armorer, fire marshal, police, extra manpower, etc.  Having to carry money to pay off noisy neighbors. (it happens...)  After all of this, you still have to edit everything! Original Recordings: Budgetary Constraints

11.  Not always economical to record everything.  Dangerous/expensive activities  Exotic animals  Contrary to popular belief, you can make original designs from SFX libraries.  “Designing from” vs. “Copy, trim, and paste” Gathering Audio: Library Sounds

12.  Professional Libraries can be expensive:  Blastwavefx.com, SoundSnap.com, SoundDogs.com, ProSoundEffects.com  FreeSound.org Gathering Audio: SFX Libraries

13. Editing

14.  Free DAWs (Desktop Audio Workstation)  Windows – Audacity  Apple OSX – Garage Band (comes standard with OSX)  Paid DAWs  Avid Pro Tools  Apple Logic  Sony Sound Forge  Reaper  Nuendo Editing Audio

15.  Equalization- Remove unwanted frequencies  Delay- Add echoes  Reverb- Make it sound like it’s in a specific space  Compression- Compress the dynamic range  Modulation- Create a tremolo or vibrato effect.  Pitch/Time- Slow down or speed sounds to make them sound other worldly.  Reverse- Make the sound play backwards. Can be very creepy Manipulation of Audio EQ, Delay, Compression, and Pitch shifting

16.  Figure out the game logic before editing any audio  Will the sound…  be a one-shot?  loop?  have multiple states?  need to have several different versions? Breaking Down A Sound

17. Audacity Demonstration

18.  Free to learn, not to publish, game engines  Unreal Development Kit (UDK)  Unity3D  Free to learn, not to publish, audio middleware  WWISE  FMOD Game Engines and Middleware

19. UDK Demonstration

20.  Use a standardized naming convention for your project  Earth_Attack_001, Mars_Attack_001  Use _### for works in progress. Drop the numbers for final.  Spreadsheets  Keep up to date on the latest WIP number  Update the status of the effect Asset Management

22.  File types?  Wav, ogg, mp3, wma  Sample rate, bit depth, bit rate  UDK requires.wav at 16bit  Naming Conventions  UDK doesn’t allow spaces  Saving space for mobile games  Shorten loops  Compress files or lower resolution Asset Management: Deliverables

23.  www.DahlbergSound.com www.DahlbergSound.com  Tom@DahlbergSound.com Tom@DahlbergSound.com  Additional reading:  Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers Any Questions?