Making sound effects
Community Forums/General Help/Making sound effects
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| So, what do you lot do for sound effects in games? Until now I've just searched free listings for sounds that could be used, but I think I'd like to make my own from scratch. If you make your own, what tools do you use? Are they freeware? ;) Thanks -Chris |
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| download SFXR it's totally free and good for making short old school style soudn effects: http://www.drpetter.se/project_sfxr.html Otherwise you need to get out and about with a microphone and record things in real life. (warning: motorway traffic noise and passing trains can be hazardous to record!!!) If you're making a GTA style game, might be better off getting acting rather than picking fights with street gangs witha mic in your hand. If you want UFO noises, just go over Puki's house. |
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| http://www.freesound.org has lots of good raw material, from which you can make your own sound effects using WavePad. |
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| Cheers Andy, will give it a look :) Lumooja : Thanks for the link, I did actually use that site for previous work and was so impressed I game a donation :) |
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| http://sound-ideas.com/sfx-kit.html - and more, just on Sound-Ideas ;) EDIT: http://www.digitaljuice.com/products/products.asp?pid=160&tab=t1 - this seems tasty too; although, it looks it's more for video production rather than game ready as the previous one was. Last but not least, you can always hire an independent sound designer to work for your project. You can always find someone in the Help Wanted area of GameDev.NET. |
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| What kind of soundfx are you looking for? I work at a TV station, and I'm always doing sound design. Because I'm using a Mac, I just use Soundtrack Pro for the basics. I've also used some of the ACID programs for windows, as well as Mixcraft. If you're looking for regular sounds, just grab a mic and record some. This could be anything from swishes of a sword to an actor making grunts. If you're looking for something more along the lines of Sci-Fi, try recording sounds and play around with some of the fx in the program, such as a phaser, echo and reverb, tap-delay, chorus, dynamic compressor, ect. You can come up with some really crazy sounding things. You can also record sounds in abnormal ways, such as holding the mic incredibly close to an object as you hit it. A good example of this is the classic Star Wars "TWANG" from the laser canons. The recording artist just took a mic, held it close to a metal wire, and tapped the wire with a quarter. Without adding any fx to the original sound, he created the perfect Sci-Fi sound which is still used commonly today. Check out this youtube link. The only difference I would suggest is to never allow the microphone to actually touch the slinky in this example. It just sounds muted when that happens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqtqiuSMJqM |
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| I think it's cheaper to buy sound effect libraries than investing in equipment for field and studio recording and the know-how to record and level things properly. |
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| http://www.instantsoundfx.com/ $20, I bought it and its a great resource to have sitting there! Dabz |
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| I just bought that sound effects pack myself. It's a big 197MB zip for anyone else interested. |
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| I hate "looking" for sounds... it seems to be one of the longest parts to making a game to me... Thanks for the link Dabz... might save some time in the future ;) |
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| Me, I LOVE searching for sounds, I find it highly entertaining. :p I myself use SoundSnap.com, and the Free Sound Project website. SoundSnap used to be free to all, but since they have professional engineers on their and whatnot, they've introduced a few small, cheap subscription plans. However, as I was registered with them before this change took place, I fall into their "oldskool" protection, and still get five free sounds per month. ;D |
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| http://opengameart.org/ An awesome site i discovered today |
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| Brucey has an SFXR module that you can use in your game, how's that! Cheers Charlie |
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