Week 8 – Atmosphere

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This week I decided to start thinking about building atmosphere tracks for the horror game. A good horror film has an underlying atmosphere, a moody visual undertone that creates a sense of dread, wonder and mystique and leaves us with snapshots of unforgettable imagery (,2013 ). This quote from the Filmmaker Magazine(more information on this can be found in my research section) tells the importance of a good atmosphere, whether this is from sound or visual. I wanted to give the sound atmosphere a  Sci-Fi and horror feel. I took into account however that the game is set in an abandoned operating theatre so I also know that there needs to be some element of realism, the importance of this is talked about in my research section of the blog under Youtube. Added to the atmosphere will be hospital sounds such as breathing machines etc… These will be built into the atmosphere along with more Sci-Fi sounds. For example below you can here a change in atmosphere for when the user is left alone in the room. As soon as the atmosphere changes to this the user will know straight away that something is about to happen.

 

The atmosphere uses three different synths on the Omnisphere plug-in merged together to add depth to the atmosphere, these synths are called Rumble Winds, Rising Winds & Whispers of Doom, Whispers of Doom and Rising Winds have also been adapted slightly by taking away some of the reverb on them and putting an EQ taking away some of the low end to give it a shaper sound. During the creation of these sounds it was important to make sure that everything is organised in the Pro Tools sessions (especially for future use). Below you can see a screenshot of how to organise track names.

Track naming

As well as working on the atmos tracks for the game I have also been working on some sounds that will help to build the tension in the game. For example

 

This sound can be used when something has happened in the game to draw the users attention to this and help to build suspense.

Below is a screenshot of the Plug-in used for the Atmosphere tracks Omnisphere and its built in EQ and Limiter.

Omnisphere

Week 7 – Foley Pt 2

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As this project has progressed I have come to realise that the Foley will now need to be done in three parts. This is the second part. The reason why the Foley is going to be done in three parts is because the development time of the game. As the game development progresses so do the small sounds that need to be added. This second part of Foley recording has been used for small sounds such as the door closing and a light switch.

 

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All Foley no matter how small has been recorded using a stereo recording technique called a spaced pair. The stereo recording technique is used with two microphones, the microphones were Rhode NT5 matched pairs. Stereo recording gives a better sonic depth to the sound and this will work very well in the game for some sounds as the user will be listening through headphones. Not all sounds will be used as stereo but they will be available if needed. Research on stereo microphone techniques can be found in my research tab.

The recordings have been processed through Pro Tools and using Waves Gold plug-ins have been manipulated to improve the sound. For example the door needed to have more bass to give it a more realistic feel ( bass or other frequencies can sometimes be lost in the recording progress) I used a digital EQ to boost the signals around the 120k and 500.

Over the next week I plan to manipulate the sounds more and use Omnisphere to start to build a Horror atmosphere.

Week 6 – Discussions, Synths and Horror

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At the start of week 6 both me and the games developer Rhys met up to discuss the projects progression. After suffering from illness Rhys decided that he would now purchase the room design through the programming software called Unity so that the project won’t fall behind. This has turned out good for me because it now means that I am able to start designing the sound to match the actual room. You can see a screen shot below. Also during this weeks meeting with Rhys we discussed the running order for the game, Rhys has provided me with a document (see attachment at the bottom of the post) that breaks down what will happen during the game. This has helped me to understand what sounds are going to be needed and at what point they will be needed for. Now I have the picture of what the room will look like I will start to create the sounds to build the atmosphere of the room, sounds that you would expect to hear in an operating theatre such as, oxygen machine, heart monitor and buzzing lights. All these sounds will help to build the atmosphere.

Room Design Screenshot

Room Design Screenshot

This week I have also purchased a new plug-in called Omnisphere, this is a synth plugin that has many adaptable sounds that can be used for effects and post production atmospheric tracks. I have started to record and capture ideas that I think may be able to work well in the game. For example I have created a dramatic heart beat sound, this sound was created by using a synth but instead of holding the note for a long period of time to allow the music side of the synth to start, I played the synth very short each time increasing in speed to make the synth sound like the pumping of a heart slowly getting faster. I also added some extra reverb to the synth to help with dramatic effect.

Overall at the minute I understand that the sound design is still very much in the early stages. However now I have the running order of the game and a more detailed plan of the room I feel more confident to start to develop the sounds that are needed.

Oculus Project Running Order

Week 5 – Foley Editing

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After last weeks Foley recording I took the time out this week to edit and manipulate certain recordings. I found that I had made the mistake of recording these in mono, after advice from my lecture and reading the same advice in The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers I decided that some of the recordings would need to be done again in stereo, for example the footsteps to give them a better stereo field. I made a note of these and will re-record them next week in the Foley room, I will have hopefully seen the design for the virtual reality room from Rhys so I will be able to complete additional recordings during this session as well.  However some of the recordings will be okay in mono as they will be distant sounds coming through only one of the headphone speakers anyway. For example I recorded a flask being knocked over, I manipulated this taking away some of the bass and added reverb to make it sound distant.

This week I also decided to make a screaming noise that can be identified with the Alien that is supposed to be let loose in the room with the user. I thought that this would be a good way to let the user know that they are not on their own in the room. I created the sound, with advice from a Youtube video that interviewed the sound designers from the game Dead Space 3 ( more information can be found in my research section), I created the scream by merging and adapting a Pigs scream with an unknown animals growl which you can listen to below.

 

 

Both these sound were taken from http://www.freesfx.co.uk. To create a monster scream I needed to take these sound and adapt them. I added EQ to both, taking away the hiss on the second track. The EQ made both tracks have more bass and sound less animal like. I also added a heavy reverb using Waves Trueverb to give the scream a distant sound. You can hear the scream below

 

 

Week 4 – Foley Recording Pt.1

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This week I managed to demo the virtual reality device, the demo gave me a better understanding of how the experience works and also the possibilities that are available, especially with sound design. The device offers a complete 360 view for the user, this means that the sound can be placed anywhere in the 360 field too. This is something I will have to be aware of during the mixing stage of the project.

During this week I have also started to record Foley. I have covered such areas like footsteps and other small sounds like a canister dropping. For the canister I used some floor tiles found in the Foley room and dropped a large flask onto it. I will manipulate this recording to give it a large sound. I recorded these sounds in the sound theatre and will make a lot of changes to the tracks in pro tools to make them sound more like something in a horror game. I will use waves gold bundle for this. However at this point in the project I don’t know the exact room layout due to the game still being in development. I will be able to advance more with these sounds when I have visual images of what the room will be like.

During the recording of the footsteps I used tile flooring. I may have to change this or manipulate the sound depending on what Rhys decides to use in the actual video game. This may be the same with some of the other sounds, however Rhys and myself have been communicating regularly to discuss room aspects.