Unit 73 - Sound for computer games

Unit 73 - Sound for computer games

Pokemon Game music:

Pokemon utilizes up beat techno themes to create a fun and adventurous atmosphere. One sound effect that is well known throughout the Pokemon games is the bumping sound made when the character bumps into a wall or object that is solid. This sound was an indicator that was saying how the player could not go through that object.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzyeLIeiZbc

Dark Souls 2:

dark souls 2 has a dark and demonic soundtrack this gives us a depressing feel about the game putting you in the characters shoes i fell the music gives a strong sense of darkness which is what the game want you to feel .

Minecraft
Soft music sets a relaxing tone to the game, with a soft music overlay and a very heavy sound effects to aid the play through the game, such as footsteps dig sounds and pain sounds.

Fifa

Fifa uses music mainly on its title screens, but uses non diegetic sounds over the top of the games such as commentary which puts you into the action and adds realism to the game, which is like real football games.

star wars battlefront:

uses music from the films/series in order to add an atmosphere for fans. The sound effects are also linked with the films.

Foley: non diegetic sound added post of the creation to the film or game, sounds which could not be recorded or created at the creation of the game.

Timbre: The quality and difference in pitch and sound depending on a scene or character.


Jaws - Theme music
Star wars - lightsabre sounds
Game of thrones - Narration

Call of duty - speech is used through "comms" in order to give information, also a clicking sound when your gun is out of ammo. real war sounds and commands have been used to symbolise war and add realism
Mario - Theme iconic as it is well known, also the death sounds are iconic and are now used in games to allow players to know they have gone wrong and died.
Assasins creed - iconography - eagle sound for whenever a jump is made/to be made. Also on assasins creed 2, there is a theme for ezio, called ezios family. This becomes symbolic to the game and character, being played whenever a family scene occurs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSVHx23ByhM


P1 - Exercise - Sources of Music/FX

1) List a range of music/FX sources

- Sound cloud
- Live Recording
- Band/Artist

2) Using at least 3 examples of your favorite games explain the purpose of game music.

- Arma 3- Towards the end of a mission or game a song starts to play in order to let you know that the game is nearly ending, however it is not always happy music for everyone as someone has to lose. Once the game ends with the song coming to an end the cutscene which tells you whether you have won or lost also has music which is either upbeat or sad setting the atmosphere which is relevant to your situation. E.G. Sad = Lost Upbeat = Won.
3) What are the legal considerations needed when obtaining or using music/FX?

- Copyright - If you use music from sites such as YouTube or "Free music Sharing" sites you can incur copyright claims, as you are practically stealing the right to use the music.
- Contract Agreement, with using a live band/Artist an agreement/contract is made that enables the music to be created and purchased for its purpose of being in the game, otherwise a legal battle can take place between the band and the company if terms laid out are not met.
- Plagiarism - Make sure that the content used is not currently a song or has elements from another artists work.

P2 Understand the methods and principles of sound design and production

 Research and explain when you would use the following sound formats and why?

Sound file formats

Uncompressed: eg wav, aiff, au, smp,voc. - For best quality sound, used on games for big consoles and such, or even movies for the theatres, this is because the file is not tampered with. For example a compressed sound file will lose some sound quality in order to reduce the file size.

lossy compression: eg mp3, ra and vox - For a basic game, or pc based game that is not too detailed. An mp3 file would mostly be used as a ringtone or ipod song file, as it is still a good quality however is small enough to go onto a phone or ipod.

Audio sampling

1) how can resolution and bit-depth constrain file size? Resolution refers to the quality of the sound, therefore the higher the sound quality the higher the file size, which would be fine for something used for a console game but not good for a sound file that is going onto an ipod or phone, which would benefit more from being compressed into an mp3 file so that it is not such a large file.

2) explain what the following words mean:

- sample rate - Sample rate is the number of samples of audio carried per second, measured in kHz or Hz. 

- Mono - Mono sound is singular sound that is produced, intended to be heard as a single channel of sound.

- Stereo - Stereo sound is sound that comes from two seperate channels, therefore you can hear either the same or different parts of the sound in different ears due to the two channels of sound that is produced.

- Surround - Surround sound is mainly found in cinemas and is used to build a more intense realistic atmosphere. As the name suggests Surround sound is sound that comes from multiple sources/outputs, normally from 5 or more speakers, allowing the listener to position the speakers (sound) in front, to the sides and behind them giving the feeling of being surrounded by the sound.

Exercise 2

Audio Limitations of Games Platforms

How can the following information limit the recording of sound?


DSP – Digital Signal Processor - This is a microchip processor which filters analogue signals. The issue with this is that the filtered signals may have a loss of quality to them, which in some cases where the quality of sound is the priority will be annoying to have it lost.
RAM – Random Access Memory - This is where the sound is to be stored, as long as you have enough RAM saving your audio files is simple.
File format (eg Mp3, Wav, Aiff) - Depending on the sound file you can get a difference in sound quality, for example a WAV file is going to have a much better sound quality than Mp3
Audio output (eg Mono, Stereo, Surround).
PCM – Pulse Code Modulation - Used for analogue signals, it samples them into digital signals, this is found in most pcs.

Audio Recording Systems

In what types of scenario may you use the following audio recording equipment?

For example, Multi-track recording, Midi – Multi Instrument Interface, DAT, Analogue, Software Plug-in’s, Software Sequencer.

MTR - Used when a band is recording a piece of music intended for a game or a song, where the individual instruments are recorded seperately, for example the drums, vocals and guitar would be recording seperately and placed into a group of all the sounds combined to make the song.

DAT - A tape which was used to store analogue sound.