RPGDX > Forums > Music and sound effects > How to get started on sound effects?

Hajo

Hi,

I'm a complete newby in the area of creating sound effects. Can you help me to get started? E.g. what kind of software is used to create sound effects, what kind of processes are used to create sounds - e.g. record real sounds and modify them, or create them all synthetically?

How long will it take to learn the software and methods, how long to get some experience, e.g. being able to create a useable set of sound effects for a game?

I've considered asking someone else to do the sound effects, but it turned out that I'm unable to describe the needed sounds precisely enough, so I have to do at least a primitie version by my own.

Ninkazu · Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:32 pm Post subject:

Professional studios don't mess around with creating soundbytes with audio rendering programs and just using a recording studio and create all their sound effects with different objects.

However, I am completely left in the dark when it's something like star trek doors opening and those little menu boops...

Yup, I've been no help.

Hajo · Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 12:37 pm Post subject:

Step 1: buy a microphone?

Verious · Mage Joined: 06 Jan 2004 Posts: 409 Location: Online

Most sound effects in movies are created by recording the sounds made be everyday objects, this article might give you some ideas:

http://www.filmsound.org/starwars/

I would imagine that most game sound effects are created in much the same way.

Here's some more information about Foley (the practice of creating sound effects for movies):

http://www.audiotheater.com/foley.html

Hajo · Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 1:51 pm Post subject:

Thanks! This is very insightful reading :)

PhyrFox · Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 6:03 pm Post subject:

The majority of sounds in most games and movies, etc, are created using everyday sounds, then modifying them to make them "better." For example, on a typical first-person shooter game, they take a pistol, record the pistol being shot, then amplify and/or extend the sound synthetically. Popular sounds such as footsteps, heartbeats, and so on, are recorded from actual events, and then amplified so that they are clearly audiable over the music.

For many great ideas on how to create sound effects, try using everyday objects. Hit a pot with a wooden spoon. What does it sound like? Imagine if you added a reverb and echo to it. Could it pass as a gong without actually needing to hunt down a gong? Snap a pencil in half and record that. What if you amplified it? Maybe the sound of bones crunching? Slam a door shut, and with only minor modifications, you can have a realistic gunshot sound. Almost every single sound effect that isn't digital (for example, beeps are usually synthetic, and, as a side node, C and F are good notes). Take a synthetic French Horn, and play it in the tune of F. You have a fairly realistic "honking" noise associated with American-made cars.

Making sound effects for a game, movie, or any other media isn't about finding that exact sound, but more an art of finding a completely different source for the same sound. You'll notice in cartoons when a piano falls, it doesn't "crash" or "crunch" but is actually a bunch of notes all played together (or near each other). That's not what a piano sounds like when falling, I'd guess, but it adds to the comic value.

Just because a sound is "normally" done a certain way though, doesn't mean you always have to. Any sound that is "close" enough to be modified to the sound you want will work. Digital manipulation of sound waves created from normal everyday props are the usual way of sound effects.

And no, I'm not making this up. This type of information has come straight from many different sound engineers in the video game market. Check out "Game Design: Secrets of the Sages" which is now available in a Third Revision (I have the second revision around here somewhere), the ISBN is 1566869048. Look it up at Amazon.com, it's an amazing work of art with an average review of 4/5 stars.

~= PhyrFox =~

js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815

Hmm, well, all I can remember is that scraping a metal hubcap across a car door makes a really grating metal-on-metal noise.
...fuck if I can remember where I heard/read/saw/etc that...

MIKE-J · Lowly Slime Joined: 24 Jan 2005 Posts: 3

Hajo

Rainer Deyke · Demon Hunter Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 672

Keep in mind that "MIKE-J" has made exactly two posts on RPGDX, both of them talking about sounddogs.com. In other words, he sounds less like satisfied customer and more like a paid advertiser.

Hajo · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 10:34 am Post subject:

Mandrake · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 1:23 pm Post subject:

w00t. Postcount++

Yeah I thought the same thing about the guy- two posts, praising sounddogs- yeah looks like spam. But it's only two posts- and it seems personal (not a bot), so it's not too bad. But if he starts responding to every post with "sound dogs is grrrrrreat! They give me reason to live!", then heh, I say ban him.
_________________
"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com

MIKE-J · Lowly Slime Joined: 24 Jan 2005 Posts: 3

Terry · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 5:00 pm Post subject:

Seeing as Darcnyss asked for free sound effects and Hajo asked for info on making them, your "information" certainly wasn't useful. It was just annoying.

[EDIT] on a similar note, is there any way to stop people spamming the wiki? http://wiki.rpgdx.net/Main/RecentChanges
_________________
http://www.distractionware.com

Mandrake · Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2005 8:54 pm Post subject:

For fucks sake, when the hell did that happen?

Damnit. All of that work is lost because of this-----shit.
_________________
"Well, last time I flicked on a lighter, I'm pretty sure I didn't create a black hole."-
Xmark

http://pauljessup.com