AA2 Sem 2 Week 3 Planning and Process

For this task i chose the original Counter Strike game. In hindsight this game isn't the best example for demonstrating the different elements of game audio, but none the less, it still offered insight into game audio asset creation. I picked a sample of sounds that would best demonstrate the game's asset list.

Each weapon has its own fire and fire-sil sound (it could be a sound played only when the gun is shot once and not on automatic, but thats just a guess), clip in and out and other various bolt noises. Some weapons have more sounds than others, but the main sounds are outlined.

Another interesting point i noticed was that all the sounds were processed at a really low quality. mono 8 bit and 22kHz. However at the time this was probably the most economic of CPU processing and considering this game is meant for fast online game play this was a smart choice.

Other games such as Medal of Honor Allied Assult and Metal Gear Solid Series, have incredible music audio libraries and game engines that change these elements as the game play changes. I'm quite fascinated by this and will look into it further throughout the semester

References:

Haines, Christian. Lecture. "Planing and Process." 12/8/08. Adelaide University.

Lampert, Mark. 2006, IT’S QUIET … ALMOST TOO QUIET, Bethesda Softworks, 2006,
.

"Chapter 2 - Sound Database". Childs, G. W. 2006, Creating Music and Sound for
Games, Thomson Course Technology.

pp 2 – 24. "Chapter 1 - A Development Process Map of Game-Audio Implementation".
Brandon, Alexander. 2005, Audio for games: planning, process, and production, New
Riders Games, Berkeley, Calif.

Week 2 Sem 2 Forum

Im very impressed with David's quartet piece, changing to an 11/16 meter followed by 9/16, im surprised that the performers didnt slap you in the face. I really did get the sence that the piece was floating, was no pulse to lock into, or if there was it was quickly thrown out. I wouldn't know how to approach composing a piece of music like this. I'd be interested in hearing about the processes David went through to produce this outcome.

I cant say that i was overly interested in Schubert's piece, it certainly has its moments, some good melodies and some interesting harmonies. But I do agree with David on this, its so long that it puts you in a kind of trance, however i don't normally look for this in this style of music.

References:

Harris, David. Lecture. "My Favourite Things." 7/8/08. Adelaide University.

CC2 Sem 2 Week 2

I think im getting used to MSP now.

Ive done help files for all the main patches and they explain what each patch does. Ive included more mutes that i would normally, but it demonstrates what it does. The mute is quite a handy function, i can see myself using it quite a lot in my final project. Ive used the cycle~ object with the phasor~ for the sine wave and just the phasor~ object for the sawtooth wave. I can see these objects being very usefull in the future.

Check out the files in the box widget.

References:

Haines, Christian. Lecture. " Week 2 Signal switching and routing." 7/8/08.

Cycling'74 2006, MSP Tutorials and Topics,
.

AA2 Sem 2 Week 2 Game Sound Analysis

Unreal Tournament, released in 1999, is still one of the most highly regarded multiplayer FPS' of the gaming world. It spawned a whole series of games still in production today. The sound in the original 1999 game isn't too complex, however are iconic of the series and online FPS gaming, in particular the VO 'monster kill' etc. The Audio structure is as follows.

Opening video of streets, atmosphere sound (localised to particular objects) and a VO.

The Main title screen has a few sounds. Menu bar selection noise, menu click noise and scroll over noise, they are all robotic like sounds. This could be a Family of sounds.

In game there are plenty of sounds. background music (drum and bass style) SFX - gun noises (different for each type), bullet ricochet, shell sound, footsteps (on a random selection of a few footstep noises), VO both team mate radio sounds and achievement VO. Person noises, Jumping grunt, bullet hit grunt, falling to death screams. Other in game sounds like alarm for stolen flag, victory music for achievements.

Watch 0:00 to 0:20



References:

Haines, Christian. Lecture. "Game Sound Analysis." 5/8/08. Adelaide University.

Brandon, Alexander. 2005, Audio for games: planning, process, and production, New
Riders Games, Berkeley, Calif. pp 2, 3, 19.

Arcade Original Pong, 1972, 2007, .

Williams Defender arcade game, 1980, 2007, .

Wonder Boy, 1986, 2007, .

Mortal Kombat Gameplay, 1992, 2007,
.

CC2 Sem 2 Week 1 Intro to MSP

This patch was quite a bit harder to do than originally thought. Control and Sampling Rate control speeds are quite tricky to get around. My Patches seem to work, but they appear to be more complicated that I would think would be necessary. I’ve also included help files with the patches if you want to know how they work. One of the main issues I had was with the number~ object. Monitoring and sending data with this object is a tricky thing to do. I think with more practice I’ll get it, but still a little frustrating.

Run the 'Week 1 Intro to MSP.pat' file

Check it out in the Box widget.

References:

Haines, Christian. Lecutre. "Intro to MSP." 31/7/08. Adelaide University

Cycling'74 2006, MSP Tutorials and Topics,
http://www.cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/ProductDocumentation

Forum Sem 2 Week 1

Upon searching for Listening i found that that a good percentage of the hits were about communication and learning to be a good social listener. Which, at first, i thought was quite abstract from what i was searching for. But in actual fact a lot of these websites' advice could be applied to Listening to music. Engaging with other people and being genuinely interested is a metaphor for paying attention to what is being played and devoting your time to the one activity of listening to the music. It also tells us to look at the music (or rather listen to the music) in context. Genuinely interested is an interesting phrase. Being genuinely interested in what somebody has to say is a lot like listening to and engaging in music. Although we may not agree with what everybody has to say, it is polite and expected to at least act interested. The same applies to listening, having an understanding of the context (i.e. time, place, social context, composer style, influences etc...) gives us a deeper understanding and hopefully an appreciation for the piece. I know this may seem obvious, but the idea of music as a language is really amplified by these concepts. Listening to music (or perhaps writing music) as a conversation between either instruments, sections or the composer with the listener gives added appreciation for the pieces listened. I know I've heard this from many a music appreciator, but I've never actually looked at it from this perspective. Music, writing, playing and listening follows (or to the appreciator should follow) polite social conventions of conversation. Actually listening to music, or devoting time to listening is the polite way of engaging with music.

References:

Whittington, Stephen. Lecture. "Listening." 13/7/08/ Adelaide University.

http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm

AA2 Sem 2 Week 1 Intro to Sound Design

Battlezone was released in 1980 as was designed by Atari. It used vector graphics. The sound board used was Atari's own POKEY Audio which was designed by Doug Neubauer. The POKEY sound board has 4 audio channels which was a revolution of the time, allowing polyphony for games. In the case of Battlezone you can clearly hear the 8 and or 16 bit sound (as the POKEY can have either 8bit or 16bit channels). The tank noises and shooting are clearly a noise generator through a high pass filter. The radar blips and victory music are realised through square tones. Other sounds that warn of approaching enemys are square tones through relatively slow frequency modulation.



References:

Haines, Christian. Lecture. "Intro into Sound Design." Adelaide University. 31/7/08

McDonald, Glenn. 2002, A brief timeline of Video Game Music, 2007,
http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/vg_music/.

Video game music, 2007, 2007, .