Game Design Blog 2

While reading through different sound designer interviews I came across a sound designer that was comparing the difference between sound in movies and sound in video games. The key difference between the two is the player versus the watcher. A player grasps and gains satisfaction from the sound effects because the player is 'inside' the gaming world and experiencing sound effects based on the decision they make in the game. A watcher is simply along for the ride. While watching a movie the sound effects are the same no matter how many times you watch the movie. When you play a video game the order of sound effects will different every time.
The player can choose to do different things like pushing a button to fire a weapon, and then hears a reaction and sequences of sounds to correspond to that action. For example, the sound designer may implement a multitude of sound samples for one action, like an explosion. For explosions at a distance, a latency effect might be implemented, or an explosion behind a wall the sound might be blurred or dampened.

COMM 399B - Kayaking Picture

Kayaking Picture

You and your friends going kayaking in the ocean? That's one of the most manly activities on the face of the earth! You should pump up that manliness and scuba dive with man-eating sharks while eating bacon and doing hammer curls! If you want to turn up that manly notch even higher ditch your kayak and go Sharkaking! It's a sport you invented because you are too manly for the sport of simply riding a kayak, you need to pumped TO THE NEXT LEVEL! 

Blog 1: Editing the digital signal

     The size of a sound wave determines the loudness of the track. This correlates to the use of compression. Compression appeared in my project with every midi sound track that was used in it and I think that it was a very useful tool and ultimately made my project sound a lot better. From my experience, I  believe that compression is an essential tool that must be used in every sound project and it's definitely something that digital signals should not be without.
     Interactive-sound design can greatly enhance the sound experience for the user. The midi track that I picked for this project was taken from an old video game called, "Doom." It's a midi track that sounds dark and heavy and has a striking resemblance to a metal band of the metalcore genre of music. It has heavy guitar riffs and a drop tuned guitar sound. This sound track relates to the game well because Doom is a very dark game and the metal sound really compliments it.
     When evaluating the final product, every aspect of it should be balanced. I made sure that I balanced all of the tones and ranges as well a the quality of the track one I was finished. I believe that this is the most important part of a project because there is no point in working on a sound track just to find out that what you edited sounds different and not as good as the release medium. You really have to make sure everything is balanced right. This might require you to balance the track after you have exported it, and export it again until you get the right balance for the release medium.

Totally 90s Skates

Totally 90s Skates! A new company reviving an old hobby.


Welcome to the company that is trying to bring back 90s inline skating!


We are a new company that seeks to be the #1 resource for news, reviews of inline skating products. We offer a variety of products ranging from rollerblades, roller skates, street hockey gear, and many replacement parts for your rollerblades and skates. Discounts can be offered to members ($20 a year for membership.)

Audio in Video Games

After researching through how the audio is created in video games I have found that the majority of game developers use the popular recording software called Pro Tools. Pro Tools is mostly used by studio producers for recording music as well as mixing and mastering the audio tracks. There are a lot of plug-ins for Pro Tools that are essential for making the sounds that are heard in video games and some of the most popular ones are: Pitch 'n Time, Pultec EQ, McDSP, FilterBank and Compressor Bank, Waves and Altiverb.
Altiverb is used for sampling acoustic spaces and is mostly used for voicing effects to make them sound more organic and realistic. Pultec is used to dirty up sounds with heavy compression, so it's used to create gritty effects like footsteps on a dirt and gravel road or the sound of a campfire burning with the crackling sounds of the firewood. These plug-ins allow you to twist sounds with gritty, realistic sounding effects while still maintaining the organic feel of it.
A lot of sound designers don't actually go out and record their sounds themselves. Most designers typically rely on their library of sounds when creating sound effects because it is more efficient. They just have to get even more creative when editing them to make them sound unique and original. When field recording is done by hiring studios to go out and do the field recording for them and all of the sound effects we hear in video games are almost always recorded in a studio.
The process of recording sounds and implementing them into a video game is as follows: Recording, editing, creation of the in-game audio system, implementation and finally balancing. A sound designer must have a very good relationship with the animators and visual effects team, because one change in animation could mean a whole group of sounds must be replaced for new ones so the animation can perfectly match up with the paired sound for that animation. A games audio is not done in post-production but along with the development of the game, so it's very important to keep track of the work flow between animators and sound designers.

Wright Brothers, The First In Flight

By: Nick Frendzel

The Wright brothers, two ingenious brothers have made the first human flight possible! They have invented the worlds first practical fixed-wing aircraft, which means it's the first aircraft to feature aircraft controls. They achieved this great feat on December 17, 1903, in Kitty Hawk, NC, in which they made 2 successful flights from ground level.  The first flight flew for 37 m and lasted for a whole twelve seconds!

The Sound of Video Games

     How a game designer creates the sound effects that we hear in video games has always interested me. It's really cool to look behind the scenes and see what a designer had to go through to create a particular sound, from a gunshot to the sound of a character's footsteps moving about the game world, there's no telling what the designers actually did to get the final product of a certain sound.
     That is what I am going to be focusing on for my research and I will be investigating various types of video games via interviews and exclusive content that is released online to find out what is done to create these sound effects. I will focus more on the action/adventure genre because that is definitely the most action packed and exciting types of video game, which will also provide more opportunities to see what developers do to obtain the sounds that are in these video games