sound design
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UDO details Super Gemini synthesizer, a 20-voice beast perfect for sound design
British instrument manufacturer UDO has released pricing and availability information for its upcoming Super Gemini synthesizer after first teasing the device at Superbooth 2023. The Super Gemini is an absolute beast, with 20 voices, dual-layer polyphony, and a bi-timbral analog hybrid sound engine.
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Wargaming video dives into World of Warplanes sound design
If you've played Wargaming.net's World of Warplanes, chances are good you've spent a good bit of time listening to your aircraft's engine. As it turns out, those engine sounds you're hearing aren't downloaded from a sound effects library or made up in the studio; a great deal of them are recorded in real life from the very planes featured in the game. Wargaming has put together a nice little video showing its sound team working to capture authentic sound effects from dozens of old-school aircraft. The process involves tarmacs, lots of equipment, and just a bit of shirtless dial-tweaking. Check it out after the break. [Source: Wargaming.net press release]
Papo & Yo's howls, grunts, steps and chirps are straight out of Panama
"I can watch any five-second clip and think about the amount of hours that were put into it to make it sound just that way."Papo & Yo Sound Designer Brian D'Oliveira isn't exaggerating – he traveled to Panama to capture unique, authentic sounds for the game, with a pledge to not use any pre-existing or canned noises. If Quico, the main character in Papo & Yo, ran across a tile roof in the game, D'Oliveira and his team actually walked across a tile roof. The same went for mud, water, dirt, foliage, the ambient jungle noises, animal sounds and ticking cogs throughout the game.D'Oliveira trudged through the tropics for some of the noises, and for others he brought the tropics to the studio, to record in a controlled, aurally clean environment. The result is a complex blend of nature noises, befitting an emotionally complex game. Papo & Yo is out now for PC, currently on sale on Steam for $13.50 through April 28.
How we see the World of Warcraft
One of the things I'm leeriest of is the idea of a complete overhaul of World of Warcraft's aesthetic. I've talked about it in terms of character aesthetics, and in terms of the visual set that defines the warrior class and what it all boils down to for me is that when I log into the game, I want it to feel like it's the same game, the same world. This is not to say that the game hasn't seen plenty of upgrades to its visuals over the years, far from it. As Takralus pointed out recently in a forum thread asking if WoW will ever see a major graphical upgrade, the game has seen upgrades, at least one every time an expansion has come out in fact. World of Warcraft is a game built out of all of these separate elements combined. It's got excellent sound design, both in music and in sound effects (although I can't watch a TV special on dinosaurs without recognizing a sound from World of Warcraft nowadays), which the graphics build on top of to create the world we experience. As such, I'm simultaneously interested in yet afraid of the long awaited character model redesign Takralus mentions. Yes, it's somewhat ridiculous that human wizards and warlocks, if male, have arms like coiled pythons, but by now I'm so accustomed to it I don't know if I could accept a more slender build for a spellcaster.
Samsung reveals the design story highlights for the Galaxy S III
Samsung was very keen to let us know that its latest flagship phone was designed for humans. Now, the latest in the revealing series from the firm gives a little more insight into how the team went about that. For example, product designer Hangil Song explains how the rounded edges were inspired by pebbles in a stream, while sound engineer Joongsam Yun describes how they wanted to make the phone sound like a stroll in the forest. So, next time you're barging your way down Mainstreet with four ounces of synthetic material blaring out Carly Rae Jepsen, remember, you're doing it wrong.
Peek inside Samsung's sound lab to see ringtones being born
Samsung's opened up about how the engineers in its sound lab build the default tones for your handset. Tasked with developing a "Sonic Branding," a ringtone that's as iconic and recognizable as Nokia's famous reworking of Gran Vals is to the Finnish handset maker. Research showed that most phones are answered within 10 seconds, so for Over The Horizon, the two-second is repeated and variated several different ways. Designing the soundscape for NatureUX also posed problems of its own. In order to create those aquatic noises, designers stirred a rubber bowl of water and scratched wet plates with toothpicks hundreds of times until the perfect tone was found. What was the leading cause of rejection? The enhanced sounds were a little too similar to that of a flushing toilet. Of course, while handset sound design is the team's most famous effort, it's also tasked with producing the audible signals from everything from Microwaves to Washing Machines -- so perhaps your next load of clean laundry will be heralded with a three-minute guitar solo.
Sound guru brings The Secret World's ur draug monster to life
If you've ever wondered how MMO sound designers do their thing, a new developer video by Creating Sound will probably be music to your ears. Sound designer and "audio generalist" Alexandre Saba takes us through the creation of The Secret World's ur draug sound suite. What the heck is an ur draug? It's a "creature from the deepest, darkest oceans, a Lovecraftian, god-like creature," according to TSW creative director Ragnar Tornquist. Since Funcom couldn't just go out and mic the nearest ur draug, it turned to Saba, who performs a number of foley tricks to bring the creature's bellow, skin, and wing sounds to life. Look, listen, and learn after the cut.
More on the sound design for Guild Wars 2
Yesterday, the Guild Wars 2 sound team got to have a day in the limelight with a video detailing the process of making the sounds that go into the game. Today, the team is back in the spotlight, showcasing an equally-important but slightly different aspect of the audio game. This time, the video isn't showing off getting the sounds just right, it's showcasing getting the sounds to work correctly in the game world, rather than just playing a footstep effect every few moments. As demonstrated in the video, the team uses a complex dynamic layering system in which several different sounds can have varying levels of volume, frequency, and focus -- as demonstrated by a windmill, which has ten different sounds playing at intervals to create the illusion of wood and cloth slowly turning. Guild Wars 2 players might not find any tips about the gameplay just past the cut, but they will find a video that further explains how you make just the right kinds of noise in the game.
Going behind the scenes of Guild Wars 2's sound team
Listen for a second. Do you hear anything? Jets of flame being spewed by dragons, the sharp slide of metal on metal, the hard report of a gunshot? Of course you don't because you're not part of the Guild Wars 2 sound team, hard at work for yet another day. But then, even if you were, you wouldn't be hearing a dragon spitting flame -- you'd be figuring out how to make a sound that will tell players that this is a dragon spewing flame, which is a bit harder. (And safer.) This short video documentary chronicles some of the methods that the team uses to draw players into the game world via just the sound, just to make each little echo sound as immersive and natural as possible. It's a look at one of the more ubiquitous aspects of MMOs that most players don't think about, so if you're at all interested in the design going on behind the scenes of Guild Wars 2, jump on past the break.
SWTOR lifts the sound curtain in Friday update
In video games as in film, sound design is usually something a designer hopes goes unnoticed, but if it weren't there, viewers might think part of the game was missing. Star Wars: The Old Republic is obviously no different, but there is an extra challenge that comes with working on a widely recognized intellectual property. "Establishment of style has to be done a bit more carefully in The Old Republic than in other games; after all, there is a long legacy of signature sounds associated with the Star Wars universe that came out of the films, television series, and even previous games," declares Audio Designer Scott Morton in this week's Studio Insider. Iconic sounds such as lightsabers igniting, blasters firing, droids buzzing, and ship taking off have to encapsulate the Star Wars feel. Those of you who like to dive behind the scenes of your favorite game should check out the rest of the Studio Insider all about combat sound. In the same article, Senior Concept Artist Clint Young answers fan questions about the visual concepts of Star Wars: The Old Republic. TOR is really appealing to the senses in this week's Friday update.
Abe's Exoddus completed without benefit of sight
We've seen incredible feats with feet, but a blind man completing Abe's Exoddus just by sound is pretty inspirational. Terry Garrett, a 23-year-old mechanical engineering student from Colorado Springs, can play the game based only on what he hears -- so, on that note, the sound design team should also take a bow. Oddworld.com has a detailed interview with Garrett, who explains how playing Abe's Exoddus by sound is even possible, describing the set number of footsteps Abe has on screen, the trial and error process of finding game elements that don't have audio cues and all the sound design decisions that assist his gameplay. Check out the video after the break where Garrett explains what he sees while playing through his mind's eye.
Brink developer diary on audio design blows us away
Brink audio director Chris Sweetman's got plenty of street cred in the "authentic gun sounds" community, for his work on Black. To learn more about the process of making Brink's armaments as sonically pleasing as possible, go read the game's latest dev diary while listening to the video below.
Interview: Audio Director Kristofor Mellroth on the sounds of Crackdown 2
It's fair to say Crackdown was a surprise -- even if you didn't buy it for the Halo 3 beta key, odds are that you downloaded the demo and found a pretty impressive pre-GTA IV open-world shooter. That seems like a blessing and a curse for Audio Director Kristofor Mellroth and the rest of the dev team at Ruffian Games working on the sequel: on the one hand, we have fond memories of the original game, but on the other, there are more great open-world games out there now. Will we go back to Pacific City now that we've got a choice? Mellroth is doing everything on his end to make sure that we do. From the music of the game (which features remixes from the likes of Bob Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival, as well as electronic beats by artists like Tokyo Black Star and Adam Freeland) to gunshots, explosions, and the ever-present tones of Michael McConnohie, he's put a lot of thought into what Crackdown 2 should sound like and why. Read on for an exclusive interview with the game's audio director.
Madness: Bayonetta's crow ... is really a pig!
We appreciate Bayonetta sound designer Daisuke Sakata's position on the project. The man spends hours sifting through sound clips from an endless stream of animals to get the scream of the game's giant crow just right. And wouldn't you know it, after going through a gauntlet of bird cries, the best sound he settled on for the giant crow was derived from the cry of a ... pig? Seriously! "After listening to numerous different animal sounds, I would pick the ones that struck me as fitting, even if it was just a little ... as a result, I used a pig's cry as a base for this cry," Sakata wrote on developer Platinum Games' website. But don't go thinking that crow's going to sound like a porker, as Sakata heavily mixed the pig cry with a slurry of other sounds. To see the massive bird in action -- and to hear its baritone stylings -- hit the break. %Gallery-22955%
Earthrise sound effects designer discusses influences and approach
Earthrise is the upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO being developed in Bulgaria by Masthead Studios. We've been keeping an eye on this title at Massively, but admittedly it hasn't been that difficult so far. Although Masthead Studios is a comparative newcomer to the MMO industry, the company has been doing a good job of raising awareness of Earthrise through the press, while fostering an active community which is eagerly awaiting beta. Their latest media coverage comes to us through Massimo Villa's interview with Earthrise's Kamen Atanasov, Sound Effects Designer for the title. The interview touches on how Atanasov progressed from being a freelance sound designer to working on the audio backdrop of Earthrise. If you're curious about the development of this title, check out this Q&A with Kamen Atanasov. [Thanks, Nolvadex.]
Cinemassively: A new appreciation for sound design
Next time that you watch a machinima, or even a real movie, think about all of the different elements that go into making the film. Most of the time, we see the video and hear the music, but there are also sound effects that enhance the production. Caruu, the sound designer for Acolyte 1.5, has posted a version of the video without music or dialogue, so that the sound effects stand out. The result is a surprising amount of work that you probably didn't even realize went into the machinima. When you're done viewing and listening, watch Acolyte 1.5 again, and you'll gain a whole new appreciation!If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
