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How to make sound effects?


Noisycricket

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Lately, i've been thinking about how important sound effects, their quality, timing, appropriateness are to a gaming experience and was wondering how I or anyone who was interested, could contribute sound effects to mappers. I searched google with "how to create sound effects" and came up with lots of good info, but what about recording equipment, does anyone know what kind of money is needed to properly record sound effects and what the baseline equipment would be?

 

Heres some interesting sites i've looked at so far:

 

Check this guy out, amazing. (and so simple)

 

Other easy examples:

http://www.audiothea...m/SFXhowto.html

 

 

I'd also love to create some heavy, ominous sounds from some mysterious activity far away in Bridgeport. Like some sounds you hear in this video.

 

Is this doable?

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Lately, i've been thinking about how important sound effects, their quality, timing, appropriateness are to a gaming experience and was wondering how I or anyone who was interested, could contribute sound effects to mappers. I searched google with "how to create sound effects" and came up with lots of good info, but what about recording equipment, does anyone know what kind of money is needed to properly record sound effects and what the baseline equipment would be?

 

Heres some interesting sites i've looked at so far:

 

Check this guy out, amazing. (and so simple)

 

Other easy examples:

http://www.audiothea...m/SFXhowto.html

 

 

I'd also love to create some heavy, ominous sounds from some mysterious activity far away in Bridgeport. Like some sounds you hear in this video.

 

Is this doable?

 

Yup. You'll need a few bucks for cubase, wavelab, a few great mics (recommend the NTK for directional recording), a granular synthesis module (ie gigastudio) and an external recording rig for outdoor recording.

And don't expect to make any money from it for a few years, if ever.

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I'm rather fond of using Ardour (or Sound Forge if it's available) for my editing. Audacity is okay for simple tweaks and conversion, but nothing beats a good pro-tool for mastering.

 

It's wonderful to work in the A/V dept. I've borrowed our really nice MXL and Behringer condenser microphones on more than one occasion.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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YouTube -> vixy.net -> MP3 -> Audacity -> OGG

 

If it's authored, you can ask for permission and usually get it. (I did).

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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I'm rather fond of using Ardour (or Sound Forge if it's available) for my editing. Audacity is okay for simple tweaks and conversion, but nothing beats a good pro-tool for mastering.

 

It's wonderful to work in the A/V dept. I've borrowed our really nice MXL and Behringer condenser microphones on more than one occasion.

 

I lawl at pro-tools. Unless its recording an 80 mic symphony, I find it to be pointless and expensive.

Cubase 5 all the way!

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Well, my job in the A/V dept is to be the sound technology master. And as such, I often do record wind ensembles, choirs, joint symphony & choir (This weekend I record Handel's Messiah), Pipe organ recitals (one of the hardest to record), mass Handbell festival (14 groups of ~30 bells each), and others. I think I'm the only good mic technician because I'm the only musician in the whole A/V dept.

Yes: Sound Forge is laughably expensive compared to the free Ardour.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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Well, my job in the A/V dept is to be the sound technology master. And as such, I often do record wind ensembles, choirs, joint symphony & choir (This weekend I record Handel's Messiah), Pipe organ recitals (one of the hardest to record), mass Handbell festival (14 groups of ~30 bells each), and others. I think I'm the only good mic technician because I'm the only musician in the whole A/V dept.

Yes: Sound Forge is laughably expensive compared to the free Ardour.

 

Wow, that is quite a lot of work! COOL.

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Man, i am having fun, its a nice break from animation. I managed to eliminate the vast majority of the noise, but there is still a slight amount of noise that occurs in recording whether the microphone in attached to the line-in/mic port or nothing is. So i assume it's most likely not the mic or the cord, but the sound card. Im curious, is this about par for an X-Fi XtremeMusic? ...and would it go away if I upgraded to an Azuzentech XFi or an Asus DX or D2X: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500 ? I'm investigating this anyway, so don't invest more than a minute or two of your time.

 

EDIT: Here is an example of the amount of noise im trying to eliminate: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ynniizyjoyn

 

One other question, If someone doesn't mind: If you download "ambient_deep_tunnels.ogg" here: http://www.mediafire...php?kdy0jhlum2m

 

You'll notice there is a slight popping when it loops around, is there a function that will easily create a non-popping loop using Audacity?

 

Also, there is some left-over background noises which i need to eliminate, i know i can delete them, but is there a function which will delete a section of track without creating a pop?

 

Thanks for any help.

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Man, i am having fun, its a nice break from animation

I can relate to that, it can be very refreshing to do something different once in a while. Taking a break from coding and doing some mapping/modeling/animating/texturing whatever is almost crucial to prevent myself from burning out.

 

You'll notice there is a slight popping when it loops around, is there a function that will easily create a non-popping loop using Audacity?

Is the sound level at the end of the sample exactly the same as in the beginning? Maybe there is a jump in there causing the pop?

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Pipe organ recitals (one of the hardest to record)

 

Hey I used to study pipe organ at university. I can only imagine what it would take to make a recording, lol, since the note source is so spread out. I should take it back up again; it's really an emotional instrument (with the right music).

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Man, i am having fun, its a nice break from animation. I managed to eliminate the vast majority of the noise, but there is still a slight amount of noise that occurs in recording whether the microphone in attached to the line-in/mic port or nothing is. So i assume it's most likely not the mic or the cord, but the sound card. Im curious, is this about par for an X-Fi XtremeMusic? ...and would it go away if I upgraded to an Azuzentech XFi or an Asus DX or D2X: http://techreport.com/articles.x/14500 ? I'm investigating this anyway, so don't invest more than a minute or two of your time.

 

You mean that (or those types) of sound cards for recording specifically?

The are great for gaming, but literally useless for recording . They are locked at 24bit 91,000khz, rendering them un usable.

What kind of mic/power source are you using? A bad phantom power or pre amp will do it. Heck, a fluorescent light will do it.

You could probably get rid of the noise in post, but always best to have a crystal base recording.

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Hey I used to study pipe organ at university. I can only imagine what it would take to make a recording, lol, since the note source is so spread out. I should take it back up again; it's really an emotional instrument (with the right music).

Yeah: you've got spot-on one of the big reasons that makes it so hard to record. And if I'm not recording a piece, I'm probably in our auditorium composing or transcribing one for organ, or tuning one of our 19 pipe organs. In retrospect: I'm probably spreading myself out rather thin. It's tough being a jack-of-too-many-trades.

 

 

ON TOPIC

I took a listen at your ambience, and it's not bad; Unfortunately, there's an awful lot of noise reduction artifacts in there. Ambients are easier to work with noise-wise, but are hard to loop without a blatent seam. SFX are very hard to work with noise-wise, but you don't have to worry about looping.

 

I'm afraid I can't help with the audible 'pop' in audacity: I haven't found any decent plugin for loops.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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You'll notice there is a slight popping when it loops around, is there a function that will easily create a non-popping loop using Audacity?

 

Also, there is some left-over background noises which i need to eliminate, i know i can delete them, but is there a function which will delete a section of track without creating a pop?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

The pop is from a lack of proper crossfade, if I understand correctly what's going on. Google "audacity crossfade" to get a faq.

You easily can delete a bad section of ambient, crossfade the two split parts, then copy/paste them.... remember to crossfade everything, otherwise you will hear the "jump" (pop) from one wav to another.

Hope this makes sense.

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Thanks everyone, much appreciated. I am thus far surprised at the quality of the sounds im able to get with the XtremeMusic, albeit at a low volume, with noise. Im probably not nearly as picky as Gold (yet i am slowly starting to spoil myself after having a pair of Audio Technica ADH-D2000's and Beyerdynamic dt770's and soon to be a pair of Denon AD2000's).

 

@Greebo: Ah, I see now i need to make the levels the same. I wish there was a way to zoom in on 2 areas at once...:laugh:

 

@Mortem: Some of those pops are from the stove metal shifting and creaking as its expanding and contracting, which i made seemingly decent recordings of . As well as a popping/frying sound and boiling, for kitchen stoves and cauldrons. :)

 

@Goldchochobo: After reading as many reviews as i could stand, i went ahead and ordered the Auzentech Forte 7.1., which has a built in and separate headphone and mic amps, something i need anyway. I thought about the Xonar STX, but i really like EAX and some people were saying its reproduction of it was sub par. It also allows balanced mic operation through the use of an adapter (which i need to remember to order). THEN, I immediately found a forum full of people having problems with it.... so we'll see i guess. Speaking of mics, the mic is a used $40 Yamaha Mz102Be, it says "Beryllium Diaphragm, Cardioid Dynamic, IMP. 250 OHMS". *Redneck mode on:* Its made in Japan, so you know its good....*Redneck mode off:*. Anyway, thanks for the info on the cross-fade. Do you interleave the two separated segments together after cross-fading, or attach them at there ends?

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@Goldchochobo: After reading as many reviews as i could stand, i went ahead and ordered the Auzentech Forte 7.1., which has a built in and separate headphone and mic amps, something i need anyway. I thought about the Xonar STX, but i really like EAX and some people were saying its reproduction of it was sub par. It also allows balanced mic operation through the use of an adapter (which i need to remember to order). THEN, I immediately found a forum full of people having problems with it.... so we'll see i guess. Speaking of mics, the mic is a used $40 Yamaha Mz102Be, it says "Beryllium Diaphragm, Cardioid Dynamic, IMP. 250 OHMS". *Redneck mode on:* Its made in Japan, so you know its good....*Redneck mode off:*. Anyway, thanks for the info on the cross-fade. Do you interleave the two separated segments together after cross-fading, or attach them at there ends?

 

I just googled the card... a lot of the creative cards are locked at 24 bit, last time I checked. Luckily this one isn't, so it should serve your needs, assuming you only ever need to plug in a mic at a time.

A crossfade IS an interleaved fade in fade out, so yes. Interleaved = good.

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