Below is the video demo that I created in order to showcase the vision that I have for the sound design. All the audio has been mixed by me.

There are a few things I would like to point out about the video, due to Rhys having an extension on his deadline the game itself isn’t fully complete. Here is a list of things that could change.

1) Light should flicker on and off when starting up.

2) User can interact with test tubes and bowl of blood + guts. However I have still included these sounds as the player goes past to demo what it would sound like.

3) The Alien has no animated movement. I believe this is something Rhys might complete but not by my deadline, so I decided to add the sound effect for how it is in the video.

You can access individual sounds created by me for this project on this Soundcloud link:

some of the sounds have not been used in the game, however I decided to still uploaded them to give you a better understanding of the sound development  that took place.

Game Start

The game experience is supposed to officially start when the user enters the room that the virtual reality device is set up in. Rhys will be in character and will introduce the device and game to the user. The game starts where Rhys left off in reality.

Unfortunately the video is to big for wordpress to upload, so I have uploaded it to Vimeo and below you can access the link.

Sound Demo

(For the best experience listen with headphones)

Lee Gretton and David McSherry will be playing the game on tuesday the 13th of May to experience the game using the virtual reality headset.

I have decided to combine the blog post for the last two week. Throughout the first week Rhys and myself continued with the game testing. During the testing I realised that the sound lacked depth due to me not being able to see the visuals properly before now. Due to the virtual reality headset being in development still we were unable to have constant access to the device, I only had one day to complete the testing. This gave me an idea to record the game being played and add the sound to it myself using Pro Tools in order to get my vision across to my project tutor Lee Gretton and also Rhys.

After recording the game using screen capture software I began to work on adding the sounds in Pro Tools. Most of the sounds had already been edited and mixed, however now I had the visuals I realised that some sounds needed manipulating a bit more. For example the broken glass ( which I still believe could have been improved, however I wanted to keep it as I recorded it myself, rather than using a stock sound) has more EQ added to it.

Due to the game being played on headphones, I decided to work on the panning and volume changes. For example when the wheelchair moves closer to the light the volume of the light buzz increases and the direction its heard. This is done using automation, below is a screenshot example of this technique using panning.

Pro Tools Panning

Some extra sounds that needed to be added are, the power down sound which is used when the power cuts out. This sound was created using a power down sound effect and the Omnisphere, mixing the two together to get the sound that you hear in the video/game. The light buzz sound was added because I wanted to bring a little more depth to the atmosphere and I also thought the sound was slightly unnerving.

The goal for me during this design was to create two separate scenes. The first scene up until the point of the lights going out is relatively normal sounding. Then the second scene, using different atmospheres, creates tension and allows the user to know straight away that something is going to happen.

Once all the sounds that I had created were added to the session (also any extra sounds that needed recording) I started to mix and make sure that the sounds worked well together. During the mixing stage I moved all the faders all the way down and started with the atmosphere wind and brought all the other sounds in ( see first image for example).

This week was perhaps one of the most important weeks. Myself and Rhys began to test the game out using the virtual reality device. This allowed me to have a say in the mixing process of the audio, due to all the mixing being done in the coding I couldn’t be involved with it until this point. Testing the game also helps with noticing the smaller sounds that are needed. For example during the testing stage I realised that there needed to be footsteps coming from the person pushing the user in the wheel chair. This seems like something obvious but due to me concentrating on getting the wheelchair sound, I almost forget that there needed to be footstep sounds.

Another problem that was found due the the game testing was a sound that was supposed to loop and wasn’t doing so correctly. This was just a simple reason, the ending had a gap of silence so when the sound looped the noise stopped for a second before starting again. This was easily fixed in Pro Tools and re-added to the game. However this has taught me how important it is to test out the work.

I also decided that the second half of the game, or Scene 2 as me and Rhys have been refereeing to it, needed a few more atmospheric effects. I decided to add a few sharp sounds when the Alien flashers up on screen. Below is one example. These sounds were made using the Omnisphere plug-in and has three sounds layered and mixed to create what you hear below.

Sounds like these that have a one shot impact are often used in Horror genres. As you can see in my research games like Dead Space use similar techniques. As the game has a Sci-Fi feel to it I tried to make my impact sounds more experimental then just a string noise.

Unfortunately the virtual reality device wasn’t working correctly this week so early next week will involve us testing the game with the device.

This week I decided to continue work on the Foley design. As I said before the Foley will be spilt into about three different weeks. This may seem disorganised, however with Rhys adding extra layers to the games design every week it means that more Foley has to be added. For this reason the Foley has been split into three parts, with the possibility of being four.

The first Foley recording this week was an air vent. The operating theatre has a vent going along the ceiling, I thought to give to room a eerie feel and as wind is blowing in from the broken window it would be good to record the air vent squeaking to make the user feel like ether there could be something in side it or adding to the creepy atmosphere. To record this I decided that the real thing would sound the best. Using props that the university provides for Film & Television recording I decided to take an Air Vent ( see picture below ) Into a quiet room and record it using a Zoom portable recorder and two Rhode NT 5 match paired microphones to record in stereo. The first problem I had was finding a room quite enough as the vent was to big to get to the Sound Theatre. I managed with the help of Rhys to find a small room at the back of the media building in which the recording was done.

Air Vent Recording

Small elements of realism like recording an actual metal air vent can help to improve a sound design. Many people may think that it wasn’t worth the effort of finding this object, however I believe that adding extra elements of realism increases the quality of the overall sound design.

Below you can hear a sound for a falling ceiling panel.

To add an extra effect to the ceiling panel falling I decided to capture the wind that was caused when the panel fell. I first came across the technique in the Paranormal Activity films. I haven’t include these films in my research as their reason for using it is quite different to mine, however I feel it was important for me to explain were I got the idea from. When I first recorded the panel recording at home using a Zoom recorder I was intending on getting the wind noise however after a few attempts without the noise and with I decided it was better to keep it in.

I have decided to merge weeks nine and ten into one blog post. The reason for this is because much of last week was spent looking at the design with Rhys as he had managed to buy the room layout and make a start on designing the rest of the game. Now that the room layout, or texture as some would refer to it, has been purchased me and Rhys have decided to start meeting up a couple of times a week so we can develop the game and sound together. I believe that this is a great way of completing the sound as we can both input on each others work. The first session in the sound theatre was used to start creating the atmosphere for the first half of the game. ( I have now decided to split the sound design into two parts. As you will have seen on the running order the game starts of in a relatively normal room, the user gets pushed around the operating theatre and can interact with objects. However when something goes wrong the user is left in the room alone and at this point the second half of the game starts. This half will have a dramatic change in sound, the whole atmosphere of the room will change and the user will hear and see a range of sounds and objects that will hopefully scare them.

The first half of the game needs a relatively normal atmosphere. To build this atmosphere up sounds that will be constant in the room will be used. A broken window in the corner will be visible and the user will be able to hear wind coming in through the window. I have used a sound library sound for this, I wanted to try and recorded as many sounds as possible myself for this project however I feel that my use in this case can be justified. I have edited the sound a lot in order to give it the sound that I want. I have used EQ in order to make the wind sound more distance and more like it is coming in from the window. I have also added reverb in order to make it feel like it is present in the room and not outside. Below you can see a screenshot of Pro Tools and its built in Reverb

After coming across a video made by Paul Sumpter (see individual research for video) which is a guide to creating a horror Alien scream I decided to get rid of the previous one I had created using stock animal sounds and use this technique suggested by Paul. Below you can see a picture of a friend I asked to make the noise into a RODE NT1-A vocal microphone.

Oliver Dyson

Below you can hear an example of the monster scream the first MP3 is without any processing the second is the final edited version. I pitch shifted the scream lower and added a small amount of EQ using WAVES plugin EQ to bring out the bass more and applied reverb also.