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.