Category Archives: General

Sound design update: NMRIH Door project

Leave a reply

For the zombie survival shooter No More Room In Hell, I’ve been working on creating new sound assets for the doors, hoping to match the game’s creepy atmosphere. To begin, I went through and screen-recorded footage of the various types of doors, gates, and barricades that needed sprucing up, so I had a better idea of what to record, and the approximate timing.

P1030537

I brought my field recording kit out on a door safari, starting with some of the more interesting doorknobs and hinges in and around my home. While scouting around the neighborhood, I found an abandoned newspaper vending machine that looked promising. It wasn’t as squeaky as I had hoped, but I was able to get some good thumps and rattles, which proved useful for roll-up metal door sounds. Continue reading →

Birthday Hydrophone and the Quest for the Shotgun Shell Grail

Leave a reply

P1030472

My folks got me a Cold Gold hydrophone for my birthday last weekend and I’ve been having fun playing with it over the past few days.

In this example, the first two recordings are in my bathtub, the last are from a metal soup pot in my kitchen sink. I now know that there is a slow leak in the drain of my tub.
Continue reading →

March update

Leave a reply

My great job search continues. Current projects I’m juggling: implementing a rudimentary dynamic music system into Cube, another round of editing and revisions for my novel Further Complications, and putting together a more extensive sound reel using clips from Facewound, PVKII, and NMRIH. I just got a Cold Gold hydrophone and I’m excited to try it out. I’ve heard they make good contact mics even out of the water, so we’ll see.

Cinematic Sound Design Demo Clip: Dark City

Leave a reply

In this clip from the 1998 Alex Proyes film Dark City, I have completely replaced the soundtrack with original sound designs. I wanted to avoid using library sources so I started by recording as much as I could myself.

For the footsteps and foley, I built a small platform using wooden pallets and scrap lumber. The rope strain sounds came from a number of different types of ropes, combined with a wicker basket that I twisted and pulled apart. All of the vocal sounds started from my voice and I used the FL Studio vocoder to impart some different texture layers to the Strangers. Although I was able to record some actual sparks with the help of my father, most of the electrical elements at the end came from an experiment with a contact mic taped to a wooden dresser with a thin chain dragged over it. The brain creature was a combination of a squeaky keychain, synthesized elements, mouth noises, and a layer of cooked pasta for the extra squishiness.

The Ides of February!

Leave a reply

I have been juggling quite a few projects lately, several of which are almost polished enough to release. I am most of the way finished with a cinematic sound design reel from the film Dark City and my Cube Wwise just needs a few tweaks to the balance. I am going through another set of edits to the manuscript for my first novel, Further Complications, with the help of some of my beta readers. I have not sat down to work on Caustic Reverie or TheForgotton tunes in a while, aside from a number of short works for the NMRIH soundtrack, but I am hoping to change that once my employment status changes for the better.

Demo reel breakdown: weapons and armor

1 Reply

In this continuing series, I take a look at the sound designs from my Oblivion demo reel clip.

I wanted to create the bow and arrow sounds myself for this clip, but I wasn’t able to coordinate with my archer friend to record. I was going to have to create the sounds from scratch, as components.

The main bow-draw sounds came from some experiments with a slingshot and a thin wooden dowel. The friction of the arrow against the frame, combined with the stretch of the elastic bands got me in the right neighborhood for the draw sound. Unfortunately, disaster struck as I was experimenting with ways to record the arrow loosing part of the sound, and one of the bands snapped. Although I was able to get a few recordings of bow releases, they needed a serious amount of oomph.

I decided to record various types of strings and cords under tension to mix in on both the low and high ends of the sound spectrum. It was quite the arm and pec workout just stretching a cord in both hands, not to mention that I practically needed to pluck it with my teeth. Instead, I tied one end to my pullup bar and torqued the other with a gloved hand.

P1030086 Continue reading →

Cube Implementation Work in Progress

1 Reply

Wwise_shotgun

As I learn more about using the Wwise sound engine, I have been working on creating new sounds for the open-source FPS Cube.

Here is an early video from when I had just finished adding the basic sound elements for the enemies and weapons*.

The monsters and player voices were are all taken from vocal sounds that I recorded myself. Some were pitched and layers, others vocoded, flanged or otherwise modulated to get the right character. I’m quite proud of the performance I did for the hell pigs.


Continue reading →

Demo reel breakdown: creature vocal effects

1 Reply

In this continuing series, I take a look at the sound designs from my Oblivion demo reel clip.

atronach

The Flame Atronach, the main enemy in this clip, is a fiery creature from another plane of existence. I wanted to give it an evil, demonic quality. Here are some of the unedited vocals I recorded of myself:

After cleaning up some of the background noise, I applied pitch effects and a little bit of vibrato to get the following:

I thought it was getting close to the right sound, but I also wanted to impart some more menace by modulating the voice clips with elements of rock and fire. I fired up FL Studio and set up a channel with a vocoder so that I could mess around with different carrier waves (roaring fires, road construction, avalanches, etc.)

Continue reading →