Game sound..

[djui5]

I guess this goes here...


I was playing Call Of Duty recently on my computer, and was absolutely floored at the quality of the sound in the game. Anyone here work in game sound? I'd really love to discuss some aspects of gaming sound mixing/whatever. I'm thinking this could be a good field for me :)

[kingneeraj]

Originally Posted by djui5

I guess this goes here...


I was playing Call Of Duty recently on my computer, and was absolutely floored at the quality of the sound in the game. Anyone here work in game sound? I'd really love to discuss some aspects of gaming sound mixing/whatever. I'm thinking this could be a good field for me :)

umm.. get back to work :-P

[djui5]

haha!

Who says I'm working?

[introvert]

I work in game audio, though I didn't work on that particular game. I don't know who did, although I believe Charles Maynes handled the gun recording for it (Charles? Is that right?).

[djui5]

What games do you work on? What kinda equipment do you use (mixing, etc)? Anything your willing to share would be much appreciated. I'm fascinated by this stuff.

Speaking of the guns, it's amazing how they modeled that distant gun sound. That was one of the most prominent awe inspiring sounds in the game for me.

[AlexLakis]

I recall one of the members of NIN doing some of the Quake soundtracks...

Also, Nobuo Uematsu (the music composer and programmer for the Final Fantasy games) is my hero. Amazing stuff in my book.

I'm very interested in this subject as well, as I believe that could be a great outlet for me (having idolized Nobuo for over a decade.) I've done a few soundtracks for games before, but nothing on a big commercial level. My only attempt to get into the industry was giving my business card to everybody at the Square-Enix booth at E3.

[charleslee]

ya, i've always wondered whether companies like BLIZZARD, EA.. have an in-house facility that does all these sound design work, or is there any studios that does all these..

i'm interested in doing some game sound too!!

[minister]

Randy,

you'll want to read this sound.

the link to the You Tube has camera sound, not the mic's they are using.

stick around, you can ask at least one of the guys who worked on it some questions and i wouldn't be surprised if the other folks who worked on it lurk here from time to time.

how to - recording gunshots

[introvert]

Well, let me clarify that I do sound design, not music. I've never written a note that's been in a game and I likely never will.

As far as projects, I'm still fairly new to this, so I don't have as long a credit list as others who would be more qualified to answer some of your questions. I'm 26 and in my second year as a game sound person. But, that said, I've worked on the following:

Tony Hawk's Project 8 (360/PS3/etcetcetc)
Bionicle Heroes (Nintendo DS)
Neverwinter Nights: Wyvern Crown of Cormyr (PC)

I've done a bit of consulting work that I can't discuss (titles unannounced), and I'm currently working on two projects for the 360 and 360/PS3, but I can't really talk at length about them. Such is the nature of NDAs.

What I can tell you is this: if you come from a traditional post background, and you're used to pushing faders, get ready for some culture shock. It's quite a bit different.

My general workflow is to use Cubase SX and Sound Forge to create/composite my sound assets for the project. These are often taken from original source, as I prefer to record my own stuff rather than use libraries (although it happens sometimes). Once I've created the assets, I then implement them into the game. This can be done via pretty GUI, or it can be done by working with XML scripts. It varies by project.

The actual mixing of the game is handled by the in-game audio engine. Generally you're attaching sound definitions (more on this in a sec) to triggers, environmental objects, keyframes or whatever in the game world. It varies depending upon the sound.

The "sound definitions" I mentioned are little bits of data, for lack of a better term, that pull sounds from a wavebank and perform various processes to them when they are played back. For example, when triggering a gunshot, the sound definition may actually have three sounds to choose from, it may pitch it slightly up or down, adjust its gain, etc as it plays it back.

This is all really generalized though, and some of the terms I've used here aren't universal. In the end, the entire workflow depends upon the engine the game is running within and how flexible it is. Game audio is a bit of a moving target, but I like that. It makes it more interesting for me. But, according to those more experienced than I, the implementation side is becoming an increasingly important part of the sound design process. Where in the past you might cook all the effects processing into the sound, these days the audio engines are applying reverb, occlusion, filtering, delays and other effects in realtime, and it's the job of the sound designer to get into the engine and make things behave the way they want.

Any other game audio people care to take a crack at this? :)

[charles maynes]

Originally Posted by introvert

I work in game audio, though I didn't work on that particular game. I don't know who did, although I believe Charles Maynes handled the gun recording for it (Charles? Is that right?).

Call of Duty has had a lot of people involved in the sound process- The original team was headed up by Jack Grillo-

The Call of Duty installations I was involved in were COD 2- Big Red One- (I did the weapons sound design for that) and COD 3 where I just helped with the weapons recording. I have also done a few others like Black and some games that have not been released yet (so I am still on non-disclosure for those).

charles maynes

[Rob King]

Well, let's set the record straight on Call of Duty 1. The lead Audio Sound Designer on the first Call of Duty was my very first assistant, now turned audio manager Chuck Russom. I am not quite sure on the Location guy for the gun shoot, but I think it might have been John Fasal I could be wrong. I will check with Chuck tomorrow..we are having lunch. Chuck has also worked on Metal of Honor: Pacific Assault, God of War 1&2 and is now on a new franchise that I can't discuss. He is a cool and talented guy. He won a few awards for COD. We just finished a bunch of foley recording for our next 2 projects.

[Rob King]

Originally Posted by AlexLakis

I recall one of the members of NIN doing some of the Quake soundtracks...

That was Chris Vrenna. He was the drummer in NIN up through The Fragile. He is actually on Tour playing Drums with Gnarls Barkley at the moment. Chris did the McGee's Alice soundtrack and is working on Tabula Rasa for NCSoft. Good peeps he is..

[charles maynes]

I know Chuck- we are trying to put something together for that new project actually-

I may be mistaken but I was under the impression that Jack Grillo was the audio lead on finest hour-, there have been many people involved between Spark, Infinity Ward and Activision/Treyarch that it is hard to keep things straight-

Add to the thread with the info you gather from Chuck...


charles maynes

[Rob King]

Hi Charles...Yeah, Chuck mentions you all the time. I am also a fan of your work. Not to mention I just pulled a sound from your library yesterday for a commercial I was doing...

For all interested in game audio. Here is another great read. My good mate Rob Bridgett did a nice detailed article on the Scarface Game Audio Production. Take a look.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20...dgett_01.shtml

[charles maynes]

Originally Posted by Rob King

Hi Charles...Yeah, Chuck mentions you all the time. I am also a fan of your work. Not to mention I just pulled a sound from your library yesterday for a commercial I was doing...

For all interested in game audio. Here is another great read. My good mate Rob Bridgett did a nice detailed article on the Scarface Game Audio Production. Take a look.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20...dgett_01.shtml

Thanks Rob- I did some further research and will certainly confirm your statement- Chuck does have the lead designer credit- with Jack being credited with additional design- This stuff is almost like album credits... I have actually never met (in person either Chuck or Jack... ah, this virtual world we live in.)

Also feel free to contact me directly if you need anything special- I am fairly available most of the time...


charles maynes

[Rob King]

Thanks Charles. You can also contact me as well. I have my studio over in Sherman Oaks. Not too far away. I might take you up on that offer soon..It's great (virtually) meeting you. Cheers!

Rob

[charles maynes]

Hi Rob- I wil be in touch, possibly next week!


cheers-

charles

[crussom]

Hey everyone,

Rob King told me about this post.

To clear up the Call Of Duty Thing:

I was the sound designer at Infinity Ward, the developer of the original Call Of Duty for PC. At the same time we were in development, Spark Unlimited was working on Call Of Duty: Finest Hour for PS2/Xbox, Jack Grillo was the audio lead on that game.

We did combined gun shoots for both projects, with Jack Grillo as the lead recordist and me assisting.

Jack also helped out a bit on my game, mostly as a consultant, and he may have supplied a couple of assets, which is why he is also credited on the PC game. Other then that, I was the only one working on sound for the original PC title.

After the first 2 Call Of Duty games, it gets a little more complicated. There was Call Of Duty: United Offensive, which was the expansion pack for COD1. That was developed by Grey Matter. I provided some weapon sounds and some sound support early on for that one. A lot of the sounds from COD1 were also used in that one. All other sound design was handled by Steve Goldberg, the sound designer at Grey Matter.

That is where my direct involvement with COD ended. I moved on to work on other titles like MOH: Pacific Assault, God of War 1 & 2, and now James Bond.

COD split off into multiple entities; the Infity Ward game (COD2) and the Treyarch games (Big Red One, COD3). While I think I know everyone who was involved with those titles, I can't really list who did what and where. There have been so many people associated with the franchise now.

That completes the COD history lesson for today :)

-Chuck Russom

[jdg]

i've done a few games some years back.. but everything was done to 320kb mp3.

they still usings mp3s (or some sort of lossy compression) in most game engines?

i hope not.. like i said, its been some years... things change quickly.

i never understood why mp3... cuz it takes local CPU time to decode it instead of using those cycles for cool visual gamey type stuffs

[crussom]

jdg,

Most games make use of some form of compressed audio. On the consoles it is essential, due to the limited amount of ram that is available to audio. On the Xbox XMA is usually the format of choice, the Playstation is usually ADPCM or some variant of that.

It has been a few years since I've done a PC game, but back then we usually used wav files for anything that was loaded into memory and mp3 for anything that was streamed from disk (dialog, music, ambiences).

In addition to compressed audio, we are often working with low sample rates. On God of War 1&2 for PS2, most of our sounds were 16bit 16khz. Next-gen consoles and PC fare a bit better, with many games making use of sample rates up to 44.1khz.

I still do remember those 8bit 22Khz days where most everything sounded like white noise! Remember those days, Rob :)

[Rob King]

Yes I do! It's now called sound design for Cell Phones...