Fun with Guns Part 1

I thought I’d start with something relatively simple and look at the machine gun sounds for the Player character’s attack. In FMOD an ‘Event’ is used as a reference to a specific sound event in a game. Each sound event will have it’s own Event within FMOD. In this instance I created my first Event and titled it ‘Player Gunshot’. Whenever the Player fires their weapon in the game this Event will be referenced.

A default Event with sound module in FMOD.

My base gunshot sounds consist of pitch shifted shotgun blasts and small gelignite explosions. I also blended the sound of a staple gun being fired which gives it a metallic click and makes for a more machine like character, which I think worked well. All these sounds were just taken from various sound libraries. In-game the sound needs to loop rapidly like a machine gun so I have created five short gunshot files with very little tail to ensure smooth looping.

A default Event consists of an audio and master track on a timeline. Sounds within an event are referenced via what is called a sound module. At it’s simplest a sound module will play back a sound as the cursor crosses it on the timeline. Pretty much similiar to a region or clip in Pro Tools. But that’s just for starters, there are many ways in which a sound module can be utilised in FMOD.

In this event I will be using a multi-sound module. Where the standard sound module references a single sound file a multi-sound module is used to reference and manipulate multiple sound files. On the audio track within the Event I created a multi-sound module and placed my five gunshot files within it. The mutli-sound module allows me to control how these five sounds will play back including which of the files to play, whether to play them in order or at random, whether to loop them, how many times to trigger the sounds and more. We can also apply pitch and volume automation and randomisation.

A simple multi-sound module in FMOD.

I’ll leave it there for now. These initial posts are a little longer than I expected due to explaining some of the FMOD concepts. But I think it’s worthwhile to give brief explanations so that this blog doesn’t end up purely consisting of impenetrable techno jargon with no worth to anybody. As a newcomer myself it’s helpful to recap and explore my own understanding so hopefully it will be helpful to others too.

Planning

Audio Bin Folder Hierarchy

After a few quick rounds of an online version of the Angry Bots demo I have created a list of sounds that will be required for the project and put them into a table. The table consists of sounds (what sounds are required) and sources (thoughts on how to create and implement them). Using this table as I reference I spent some time going through my various sound libraries copying any sounds I thought might work in the effects creation process to an assets folder titled ‘Raw SFX Assets’. My Zoom H4n field recorder has arrived so I also spent some time creating new sounds of my own just using various household items.

Cue many hours of listening to bangs, clunks and whirs as I used these raw files to create the sounds for the project. FMOD has been designed in a way which means we are able to process and manipulate sounds and effects in real time. This means that when creating effects for a project it is important to consider how we are going to use them and where external creation and processing of sounds should end. This meant for each sound I was creating in Pro Tools I had to think about how I wanted them to work in FMOD.

Events Tab Folder Hierarchy

Once I was happy with my base files it was time to get started with FMOD. I created a new session and spent some time organising a folder hierarchy for my imported sounds so I won’t need to spend time looking for files later on. I then came up with a rough folder hierarchy for my sound events. With all that out of the way it was time to create my first Event.

So next post I'm finally going to dig in to the inner workings of FMOD and things will probably get confusing for those who have little or no knowledge of the software so here is a brief overview.

FMOD is essentially a sound engine designed to allow complex sound events to integrate easily with a game. It allows us to manipulate and process sounds in real time in ways that are beneficial to sound design for games. That’s the very simple version of it, but think something along the lines of Pro Tools or Logic’s nerdy (yet super awesome!) cousin. As I progress I will go into further details but that will do for starters and you can always use your net surfing powers to find out more.

Getting Started

Having just finished working my way through Sound Librarians FMOD Studio 101 Online course I am about to put all I have learnt to the test and attempt putting together some sounds for the Unity Angry Bots demo. Seeing as this is my first attempt at Sound Design for games I have decided to write a blog detailing the experience both as a way to help me squeeze the most from the project and in the hopes that perhaps someone else out there will benefit from it also.

My background is in music production and post-production for film but I have always loved games since that fateful Christmas morning many years ago when my parents presented me with my very first console: a Sega Master System II. I instantly loved the thing even though I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that it was in a big box, much bigger than anything my siblings had received, and that it had something to do with TV. Needless to say within moments of firing up the pre-loaded Alex Kidd in Miracle World (whose menu screen tune still haunts my parents to this very day) a gamer for life was born! Over twenty years later and I’m still a gamer, though now one who has the opportunity to have a hand in creating them, so here we are.

I am working off a 15 inch MacBook Pro with 4GB of memory and a 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7. I suspect it may be a little underpowered for what I will need as a sound designer for games but for the moment it’s what I’m stuck with so I’ll do the best with what I’ve got.

My basic plan is to perform the majority of editing and sound creation in Pro Tools before importing files to FMOD Studio. Once I’m satisfied with my sounds and events I’ll be using Unity to integrate them, something I currently have no clue about but will be covered as an additional component to the FMOD 101 Online Course when the time comes. To begin with I’ll be focusing on mainly using sound library files, until my brand new field recorder gets delivered and then I’ll have some fun making sounds from scratch. 

While there are many elements to sound design for games, initially I will be taking a simple approach with a focus on getting familiar with FMOD and how it can be used to implement sounds in a game. As such to begin with there will be less focus on the actual creation of sound effects and more focus on implementation. As the project progresses I'll delve into the other elements a bit more however.

That's all for now. I hope that this blog will be entertaining, educational and inspirational to anyone who may be interested in this sort of thing. I'm looking forward to whatever craziness comes my way as I try my hand in such an exciting and creative industry.