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Creating Game Audio With Thomas Dahlberg

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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My mobile recording setup a year ago.

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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

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

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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

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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

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

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Editing

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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

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Equalization- Remove unwanted frequencies Delay- Add echoes Reverb- Make it sound like its 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

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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

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Audacity Demonstration

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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

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UDK Demonstration

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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

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File types? Wav, ogg, mp3, wma Sample rate, bit depth, bit rate UDK requires.wav at 16bit Naming Conventions UDK doesnt allow spaces Saving space for mobile games Shorten loops Compress files or lower resolution Asset Management: Deliverables

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