Author Topic: Audio Design  (Read 11826 times)

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Offline Gee1337

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Erm... I was not really sure where to put this but hey... here goes!

Coding and FREDding is not something that I can do very well, if at all. I gave it a try a while ago.. but was not very successful.

So, audio has been more of my thing over recent years and I wouldn't mind giving it a try to create weapon sounds. I'm looking at starting with maybe a beam weapon sound. So, if anyone is in need of a new beam weapons sound then please let me know.

Also, if anyone has any tips on weapon sounds that they have created then post 'em here! :)
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Offline Axem

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Sound designers are a pretty rare breed around here, I think when most of us need a new sound we just take an old one and speed it up or slow it down. Nothing too fancy there! ;)

I think modders around here could definitely use completely new sounds, do you have some examples of what you've made before? It might not be a bad idea to just make a bunch of sounds and let people at them. I think in general modders would be looking for lasers firing, missile launches, engines running, a set of beams in warmup/warmdown/looping... and probably other things too!

 

Offline Gee1337

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Unfortunately, I do not have any sounds I've made before. This was more of a spur of the moment thought. However, I use to produce some dnb a few years ago (nothing that ever made it to a proper release), so I feel as though I would be able to manipulate synthesisers or samplers which could emulate a beam weapon spooling up then spinning down.

The main problem would be the format that FS2 would require, as beam blasts can vary in length. When I have some time at the weekend, I will see if I can create a new beam weapon sound for about a five second discharge.

Lasers shouldn't be too much trouble to reproduce.
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Offline Axem

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Well FreeSpace uses wav format for sound files, though FSOpen can also use ogg now. There's a bit of simple table editing to get the game to use them, it just needs some info about attenuation distances which you can just copy them from another entry without a problem.

A full beam sound set has 4 sounds, a warm up, a firing sound (plays once when the beam starts), a loop (starts when the beam starts), and a warm down. If you can grab a VP viewer you can open up the retail VPs and see how Volition did it.

 

Offline Gee1337

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After I made my last post, I suddenly thought that what you said would be the way to do it. Originally I was thinking of manipulating a synth for one wav file. But using Reason, I could make the sounds on separate tracks then export them individually for mods, and export one as a full example.

I think it is a bit strange that four sounds are needed, as the warm up and initial fire could be implemented in one wav file. I might have a play around with this today and see what I can come up with today.

Thanks for the info!  :yes:
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Offline Axem

  • 211
Well some beams have 1 warmup but multiple firings (like those pain-in-the-butt 3 shot AAA beams), so that's one reason why they're split up I guess. But it could be left blank too if it isn't required.

 

Offline AdmiralRalwood

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It's a lot easier to tweak warmup times if you don't have to recreate your beam's warmup sound every time. Also, I don't think time compression affects sound playback speed...
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Offline Gee1337

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Ok... here we go. Here is my first ever beam weapon audio. This is the full sound... I just need to break it down into its component parts for use in mods.

Feedback would be good. :)

http://www.mediafire.com/listen/v55gjjmigx7k2ui/beam_weapon_full.wav

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Offline Nyctaeus

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My God...

Can I use it in my mod? I must have it :D
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Offline Beskargam

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Lovely! I love the warm up sound especially! Breath of fresh air there!

 

Offline Gee1337

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Wow... I didn't expect that kind of reponse lol...

Of course you can use it in your mod Betrayal. I just need to export the sound into it's component parts and I'll zip/rar it up for you to play around with. I'll see if I can get that done later for you! :)

Oh... and if you could make a vid showing a ship firing a beam with the new weapon sound... that would be awesome (I would do it myself but I'm no where near as clever as you guys)!  :cool:

Pre-warning... I have not checked the actual sound timings in relation to a visual point of reference showing a beam weapon firing, so when using the sound you might need to play with the timings when FREDding it up!

Does anyone have any requests?
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Offline Nyctaeus

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Well... Not soon. I need this to second chapter of my project, when something that use this beam appear :P.

If you want some request, You can make a heavy railgun sound for me.

And you can always make a soundpacks as a modding resources. I remember some from pre-HTL modding era, but they are pretty old today. Most of mods here use the same sounds for years, and they are mostly exports from other games. Only a few projects like Earth Defence had sound artists and they are gone long time ago.
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Offline Gee1337

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Ok, here is the sound split down into its components. Also, I have made a slight change to the warmup to it is now the length of the game's beam warmup.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/hc1b9h9ko73bd2a/Gee_Beam.zip

Thanks Axem for you help in this as well. I managed to find the VP containing the vanilla sounds, and I was able to alter my beam timings accordingly! :)

I reckon I can do that for you Betrayal... I could do with some spec such as... do you want it as one whole wav file, which I suspect you would given the characteristics of a railgun, or would you like the sound split up into beam weapon "like" components... such as I have done for you for my beam weapon sound.
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Offline Nyctaeus

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I reckon I can do that for you Betrayal... I could do with some spec such as... do you want it as one whole wav file, which I suspect you would given the characteristics of a railgun, or would you like the sound split up into beam weapon "like" components... such as I have done for you for my beam weapon sound.
It requires only one wav or ogg file. I recommend OGG as it's more recent.

As for characteristics, well... That explains everything.
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Offline procdrone

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That beam sounds very Shivan, very nice Shivan!
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Offline Rheyah

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Ok... here we go. Here is my first ever beam weapon audio. This is the full sound... I just need to break it down into its component parts for use in mods.

Feedback would be good. :)

http://www.mediafire.com/listen/v55gjjmigx7k2ui/beam_weapon_full.wav

Okay so I closed my eyes and I imagined a low energy beam when I heard that.  For high energy beams what I would do is increase the length of the ramp up, increase the pitch of the grinding element by an octave or so and add a countertone to the end - something which fills out the ramp down sound.

The ramp up sound is good.  The middle bit just needs a bit of sound tuning.  The end needs would be nice if it was filled out a bit.

However, as with all my critique, it's just my opinion :)

 

Offline Gee1337

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Thanks for the feedback Rheyah. With the beam I was trying to go for something of high power... something that would sound like it causes a shed load of damage. I thought it was successful myself (but I would... I made it haha), but I guess people have different opinions on what a high powered beam weapon would sound. Yes, I had thought that the end could do with a bit of fleshing out and I might well re-visit this at some point.

I played with the octaves and only one octave up for the beam loop would actually sound half-tidy, but for me it didn't have the same kind of presence as the lower octave, but again... an opinion. Perhaps I could play around with the actual semitones more, but to actually make a significant difference the notes would need to be quite a few tones higher or lower.

EDIT:- I could play with the mix down of the sound in its current state and increase the amplitude... that could give it more power and potentially the higher energy that you are thinking of.

Anywayz... for Betrayal... sorry it's been a few days coming but had a funny little thing called "life" that got in the way... (I almost forget what that is at times). So, as promised... here is my railgun. I hope it fits in with what you expected. :)

http://www.mediafire.com/listen/hmmx55xk1qc4mbq/railgun.wav

I think I will need put this wav through soundforge to smooth the end off.

 
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Offline z64555

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I'm listening with one ear at the moment (other is clogged up with earwax :blah:) but it seems that both sounds are too loud and are being clipped on playback. Although it'll sound good when played individually, it gets quite annoying in game/movie to listen to clipped sounds. (But in some instances, such as radio dialog, clipping can be a good dramatic queue).

Something to keep in mind about the beams is that there are different colors for them, the current beam sounds are played across all beam types and makes it kind of bland. The one you have now has a low octave with a heavy feel to it, perfect for Lucifer or Sathanas class beams. If you're up to it, try a higher pitch per beam, I suggest either a minor third, or minor fourth difference between each beam color.

z64555 dreams of a beam orchestra

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Offline Gee1337

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z64555 dreams of a beam orchestra


I lolled when I read that and immediately thought of...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/?ref_=nv_sr_1

I do not feel... I think!