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Getting to Work Once the sound design contractor has been hired, the previous questions have been answered, and the appropriate nondisclosure agreements have been signed, one or two people on the development team should be assigned as liaisons to the sound designer, who are responsible for communicating the project specs and signing off on work. This ensures clear and effective communication, which is the key to obtaining sounds that match the team's vision. If you're using a local contractor, have them stop by, meet the rest of the creation team, and discuss the game. If the sound designer is unavailable, send copies of artwork, storyboards, and any story text already written. If there are any rough animations, movie promos, or even an early version of the game available, send those, too. There are several ways to convey sound effect needs to the sound designer. You could create a sound list that describes each sound, what it will be used for in the game, and the requested sound duration. This is really just a wish list, because often the entire list isn't completed for the game - changes in the game see to that. A producer can also indicate where sounds are needed by giving an alpha version of the game to the contractor that uses place-holder sound effects (general effects-library sounds or effects taken from other games). Placeholders can, of course, simply be spoken words created by someone on the team - for a game I'm currently working on, the producer inserted audio files of himself saying words such as "click," "bonk," "explode," or "shot" that are triggered by the appropriate game event. As I play the game, every time I hear his voice, I create a sound to match the action. With the preliminary action accomplished, the sound designer has a solid idea of what the game is looking for and sets out to get things organized on his or her end. Jamey Scott, sound designer and composer for Presto Studios (developers of The Journeyman Project series, Gundam 0078, and others) believes putting together the initial palette - finding sounds that will mix well together - is the most important step. He uses the E-Mu Emulator 4 sampler in his sound design process, and for each game he develops an entirely new sound palette to keep them original. Scott feels that using a sampler has advantages over straight computer files and sound editors. "Layering sounds internally in the E4 works very well for me," he says, "more so than doing it on a computer. That way, I can save my banks as a palette rather than having sources in various folders all over the computer. They are all looped, equalized, and noise filtered all to my specifications. Plus, returning to them to make any changes is a simpler task." Soapbox Time Producers and developers who know absolutely nothing about sound design tend to place undue demands on the sound designer, or simply ask for the impossible. It is tremendously frustrating to negotiate and work with those who don't have at least a basic concept of what goes into our process. One original sound can take more than two hours to create - we're not just taking clips from an effects library disc and converting it to the needed format. (To get an idea of the sound creation process, see the section "A Sound is Born." at the end of the article) An entire game can be done in two weeks - with much pressure on the sound designer - but it can take a month or two just as easily. Ensuring the Best Audio Results When a sound designer devotes his or her time exclusively to your game for the duration of the project, it helps ensure consistent game audio. Ask prospective sound designers up front whether they will commit solely to your project. The second concern to address with your sound designer is that of quality assurance. All of the sound designers and many of the producers I've talked to insist that the sound designer listen to the sounds in the actual game. Typically, this happens around the time the game goes into beta. It's not uncommon for effects to sound great in the studio but not so hot (too loud, soft, long, or short) once they're synchronized with the action in the game. While analyzing the audio in the beta version of a game he was working on, Joey Kuras discovered a programmer on the project had taken one of the effects - the sound of footsteps - and bumped up the volume. What were intended to be subtle, barely discernable Foley effects turned into a loud series of crunches. Thankfully, Joey's screening session caught the problem and corrected it in time. Specify to your sound designer that you want your sound effects created in the highest quality possible (which today is usually 44.1KHz, 16-bit stereo). Because new technology is now becoming more mainstream, some development teams may soon opt to go even higher to 96KHz, 24-bit audio. Why? Because you want to develop the sounds in the highest fidelity then convert down to what is needed for the game. If a game needs 22KHz, 16-bit stereo sounds and it is later discovered it can fit in 44.1KHz, 16-bit stereo sounds, it may already be too late for the sound designer. Attempting to convert up almost always adds unacceptable noise to a recording - you just can't do it. You usually have to start the whole recording process again from scratch. Not too long ago, one game company decided to create a television commercial for its game and intended to use the original effects from the game. They contacted the sound designer who worked on the project and requested their sounds in a CD-quality format. Unfortunately, he didn't have them at that sample rate and proceeded to spend a few sleepless nights recreating them. It would have been just a few minutes of work had they already been available. Presenting the Final Work Delivering the final sound effects to a client is not usually just a matter of sending a CD or e-mailing the sounds and saying, "Here they are!" When presenting finished effects to producers, some sound designers (myself included) send more sounds than were actually requested by the client. I work up several effects, let the producer in on the process, and give clients the chance to choose the effect that matches their vision. Some have subtle differences, changes in length, layering, or effects processor settings. Other sounds are completely different but still evoke a similar emotion or idea. This procedure actually serves dual purposes: it gives the producer radical ideas that just might work, or it makes other effects stand out and sound that much better. Occasionally included, if it isn't already obvious by the file names, is some sort of documentation that describes what each sound effect is for. This key will save some headaches for everyone involved and score some points for the organized sound designer. ________________________________________________________ |
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