Game Audio 3/3 : DIY Recording

Recording is one of the most fun parts of working with audio in my opinion, there are SO MANY ways you can do it. I know that the idea of recording may seem intimidating, but have no fear, I'm here to help, and have you look at it in another light, a fun creative light.

In the past when you hear the word "Studio", you tend to think of a big space, with a huge soundboard, and glass separators, those still do exist if you need or want them. But now in 2013 (soon to be 2014), all that is somewhat in the past.

Enter; DIY Method.
DIY (Do-It-Yourself) is an indie artist's best friend, it really helps you change the way you think of what is really needed, and forces you to be creative AND gives you great results as well.

To have a successful recorded track you need 2 things.
1- Software
2- Hardware
If you have one of each (that work together), then you are good to go.
I'll prove it to you.

Software:
It is wise to use a multi-track recording software, that way you will have the ability to have more than one layer on a single track, which will give you a richer sound.
If you are a MAC user, most of them already come with "Garageband" installed, its actually a great tool.
If you are a PC user, there is a great and cheap alternative called "MixCraft" by an indie company called Acoustica, its basically Garageband for PC, and you can get a perfectly functioning version for about $80, you can even try it for free for 14 days before hand.

Hardware:
A simple usb midi keyboard would do just fine.
I have an M-Audio Oxygen 8 small keyboard, with some search online or your local music store, you can get one for about $80, or a used one for less than that.

Your probably thinking: "Really? Do you think that would really work?".
Yes! you know why? because I successfully created Game Music (& got paid for it) using an old Mac that had Garageband & that Oxygen 8 keyboard, and you can hear those songs on the music page of this blog.

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Like any other profession, the more audio toys you have, the more complex you can get with your production, and the more fun you will have doing it.

For Example.
I have a little acoustic duo called goatFISH with my musical partner in crime, artist Sahffi Lynne. A couple of years ago we decided that we wanted to record a small 5 song EP of our music. We are both busy artists, so it had to be done on a flexible schedule, so we decided to do it ourselves. She had the space, and I had the technology, so we set up a DIY Recording Studio in her basement.

This was my set up:
Hardware: Zoom R24 (portable multi-track recorder), Instrument & Vocals mics, Mic stands.
Software: Mixcraft 5 to edit and manipulate the audio after recording.
That was it.

We would use the Zoom R24 to record what we needed to record, I then would dump the WAV files into my computer, and use Mixcraft to edit, mix, and even used a "Mastering" filter to help keep the volume of all the track close to each other.
The end result is our EP >>> goatFISH : The Gift of The Nympth

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You can even go super DUPER indie if you needed (or wanted to).
I remember at one point I needed to do a quick recording of a few songs, but had no money or access to a studio, so I used what I had in my room.

Software: Audacity (yup, the free audio recorder)
Knowing I can't do multi-tracking well with this program, I needed to find a way to record both guitar & vocals at the same time, and have them both sound clean. So I did this:

Hardware:
-I grabbed my 4 Channel Micro Mixer ($30), this has 4 quarter inch (1/4) inputs, which allows you to adjust the volume of each one separately.
-Plugged my guitar into one channel.
-Plugged my microphone into a second channel (using an XLR to 1/4 cable)
-Plugged the "Output" from the Micro Mixer into the "Mic-Input" of my laptop (using a 1/4 to Headphone Jack size 3.5mm adapter on the Laptop's end)
I then simply adjusted the settings in Audacity to pick up what ever is coming in from the laptop's Mic Input, and viola! Instant Indie Recording Mechanism.

I adjusted the volume of the guitar & microphone to my pleasing (because I can only get one take per recording), hit record and did my demo.
Worked like a charm.

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So you see, that is the beauty of DIY Recording, you can find all sorts of fun and cool ways to get the job done, in fact my latest album NOVELLA which I will be releasing in 2014, was recorded DIY Style, and it sounds AMAZING. You can even watch how we did it at the Making of Novella vLogs.

I say give yourself some credit, and try it out. If you put enough time and imagination, you will be recording sounds and music in no time, and you will have a blast doing it too :)
I hope you enjoyed these short 3 posts about Game Audio, let me know if they were helpful

Till next time.
Much Love.
Mosno

Game Audio 2/3 : Atmosphere

Games are not just games anymore, they are elaborate pieces of art and should be treated as such. Many games have story lines, they can range from very simple to very complex, so I like to treat them as such. There is a book called "Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music" by David Sonnenschein, true, the book is talking about Music in films, but the knowledge in it can be easily (& successfully) transferred into Game Audio.

 

There is a part in this book when the author provides you a part of a screenplay, which describes a scene & then asks "What to listen for?". Its quite brilliant really.

In that example 4 main things will help enhance the Audio aspect of that scene (or in our case, level)

1- People, objects & actions.

2- Environment.

3- Clues to the emotions.

4- Physical or dramatic transition.

Here a scene for us to work on.

Lets say the level you are working on has your main character running (people) on a grassy field (action) towards the town's ringing bell (object).

Lets use the above theory to break the scene down for sounds:

1- People, objects & actions

Just by this description, you would like to have 3 things:

-Panting, the fast breathing sound of your character (people).

-Squishing, the sound of feet on grass for the running part (action).

-Bell, different volume levels of a bell (object), I say different levels because you can use the volume to provide the aspect of distance to the player, plus this will come in handy in the future I promise, stay with me.

2-Environment

Obviously it is outdoors, now we have to determine a few other things:

-Is it day or night?

Both characteristics have different sounds associated with them. 

If its "Day", we can add sounds of birds for example.

If its "Night", we can use the sound of crickets and/or frogs.

-Are there any special features near by this grassy meadow that make sounds?

Trees?, add the sound of leaves softly blowing in the a breeze.

A stream?, the sound of softly running water.

An active volcano, have some rumbling sounds that appear now and then.

3-Clues to emotions

This is a little tricky, because in a way it kind of merges into the "Environment" but in deeper detail. We know that the character is running towards the town's ringing bell. Lets say its Day time, why is the bell ringing? lets say its indicating the beginning of the business day.

The emotion here should be something related to Hustle & Bustle, so you would create the sounds of the town to convey that emotion, for example:

-Many voices talking at the same time, or making phonetic sounds as if they are talking.

-Should be in a mid-rang pitch, with some minor high & low voices.

-If there are people on bicycles weaving by.

-If the ground that people are walking on is concrete or stone.

ect...

4-Physical or dramatic transition

You have to let your player/audience know that they have entered, or transitioned, into a new "Space". We just had a character "transition" from two places with different sound needs.

Place One: The Grassy Meadows

Place Two: The Town 

Transitioning from Place One to Place Two should work with the "Game Play" of the level:

A)-Is there a gate that the character has to walk through to get into the Town?

B)-Or is the Town open into grassy meadows with no barrier?

If its option "A".

Then thats easy, you will just need a sound for the Gate, then the sounds will change once your character enters, or transitions, into the new space. 

If its option "B".

Then you will need to mix the audio a little, allowing the sounds from the Grassy Meadow to slowly fade out, while simultaneously increasing the sound of the Town. 

This mixing should be determined by the distance of your character to the town.

Remember the "Bell", the Object from the #1 section? Remember how I was recommending to have different levels or volumes of the Bell to determine distance?

Well, this is where it comes in handy, as you find your self using the louder levels of the Bell, that would mean that you are closer to the town, therefore you can use  that to help you decide when to start fading out the sounds of the Grassy Meadow.

I hope this has been helpful, my next and final post on this short Game Audio series, will be about recording, and how fun and easy it can be.

Till next time.

Much Love

Mosno

 

 

Game Audio 1/3 : Design

Notice that these posts are called "Game Audio", not "Game Music".
One of the tiny problems with young game creators, is that they don't really think about the "Audio" for the game they are planing to create. I think people believe that by licensing a song from an artist will simply solve the "Audio" part of the game, but that is not true.

Music is just one part of the audio, you then have to think about the surrounding sounds. The sounds of the foot steps when your characters move, the sound if your characters pick up things, or hit something. Heck, the sounds at the menu selections.

While I was getting my Bachelor's degree in Simulation & Digital Entertainment at the University of Baltimore, I ALWAYS ended up being "The Audio Guy", namely because I'm also a musician. I to used to think that just making music was all that was needed, boy was I wrong.

Game companies would value you more (and actually want) not just a composer/performer, but also a Sound Designer. One of the projects I was working on during my college days at UB, was an educational game called "Oppie The Otter" for a Fredrick County Health Education project. This otter character would have to jump into the water, swim, pick up food, (that's 3 sounds right there), say things (that's voice over), and then there was the background music for the game.
And yes I did all of it, including the voice of the otter, it was...interesting :)

With a little imagination, and computer software, you can manipulate sounds and create SO many things, not only that, its actually a lot of fun.
I will talk about recording audio DIY Style in an upcoming post in this series.

So if your thinking of creating a cool game, please don't underestimate the power of Audio.
If your thinking of doing Game Audio, don't underestimate all the sounds around you.
Till next time.
Much Love.
Mosno :)