As I mentioned before, this is my entry to Dynamic Interference’s Monthly Sound Design Challenge.
Also, this is the first video with my new logo.
Please, any constructive criticism is encouraged.
You are currently browsing the archive for the Sound Design category.
If you’re a sound designer of any caliber, and you haven’t heard of Social Sound Design, you better get over there RIGHT NOW.
Shaun Farley, a regular at SSD, has started a monthly sound design challenge where he selects the base media, and you sound design around it. Today marks the release date of the very first challenge, which he’s posted on his website. This is a perfect opportunity for those of you who are still looking for a project to cut your teeth on, so no matter how green you think you are, I suggest you do it.
Watch for my uploaded video in a month or so.
Tags: Challenge, Contest, design, FreeSound.org, practice, Social Sound Design, sound, sound design
I feel kind of bad for not posting this sooner.
Jonathon Duerig, a Flash game designer I had the privilege of working with at GEEX (I wrote the Victorian piece for him) has released his Tile Factory game — a game akin to Pipe Mania, but instead of moving liquid, you’re moving tiles — and it’s a pleasant game, for sure.
The reason I’m mentioning it is because he was the first person to take advantage of, and truly the inspiration for, a service I’ll be offering soon — $5 Sound Effects. Watch for more on that, later.
The $5 Sound Effect I created for him is the sound of the tiles shattering… when I made it, I hadn’t heard the rest of the sound pallet, and I’ve got to agree with Jon when he says it fits the overall sound perfectly.
Give it a play!
Tags: Flash, GEEX, Jonathon Duerig, sound, sound design
Over the next little while, I’ll probably be posting quite a few sound design videos, as I get things together for my demo reel. Uploading them early gives me a chance to take any constructive criticism I receive and apply it to the sound design before I render a final version of my reel, and I feel like it gives me the best chance for success in the long run.
My first video is a redub of the 38th cut scene in Silent Hill 3. In the video, the protagonist, Heather, finds an unconnected payphone ringing in a rusty locker… This is only 30 seconds long, but that’s all I need for what I’ll be using it for.
This is my first attempt at hosting anything on Vimeo, as well as my first rendered video with Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0 (Seriously, Sony… shorter software titles PLEASE), and my first use of the free convolution reverb plugin SIR, AND the first thing I mixed / mastered on my new Tannoy 601p monitors. I’m not entirely sold on the particular impulse I used in the locker, so that may change as I get closer to my finalized reel.
So, without further interruption, I present my SH3 Redub.
Silent Hill 3 Redub from Dave Matney on Vimeo.
Constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated.
Tags: design, FreeSound.org, SH3, Silent Hill, Sonar, Sony Vegas, sound, sound design
This is a tech-heavy post, specifically regarding XNA, XACT, and the in and outs of video game sound design.
This post isn’t for everyone.
Up to this point…
All the sound in Siphon Spirit has been implemented using the basic soundEffect.Play(); functions for all the sounds within the game, which has given us — specifically me — very little control on the audio within the game. Play, stop, loop, and volume — all with their own quirks and downfalls. Two audio files played simultaneously would never sync, things looped with an audible seam, and if I wanted to add pitch variations to common sounds, I had to make that many sound files and play them at random. So, not ideal.
Luckily for us…
XNA Game Studio comes with a built in audio engine with far more flexibility and functionality than can be achieved with code alone. Seamless looping: check. Automatic pitch variation: check. Ability to pan: check. Take audio control away from the coder and give it to me, much to his chagrin: check! And, like everything else XNA, it’s free. Not just free to download and use on projects that will never make money, like fMod and WWise, but free to every XNA project you ever build.
But…
XNA documentation is awful — Not Microsoft-awful, but awful in general — and the sections on XACT are less informative than the rest of it. To figure any of it out, you have to be both a programmer and a sound guy, and you pretty much have to have the code and the audio library open at the same time to get things working correctly. In our case, that means I work on the audio library at the same time as our programmer, Curtis, implements the code, and we tackle any bugs that pop up via IM, Dropbox, and Google — because, like I mentioned, XNA documentation sucks, and all of our solutions have actually come from 3rd party / frustrated-user tutorials. And, like all things Microsoft, sometimes things will work in one build and not in the next, even though nothing was changed.
So…
- Why not use fMod or WWise? Because we want to make money, but don’t have the initial flow to pay for licensing.
- Why not use the built in sound functions, and just live with it? Two words… seamless looping. Actually, scratch that.. more control.
- What about *insert other audio middleware / library here*? Because, honestly, I don’t know of any other.
In conclusion
XACT will, I believe, reveal itself to be time well spent. Not only can I put this experience on my resume, but the feel of Siphon Spirit, and any other XNA game I work on will benefit from the headaches I’m suffering through right now. And it’s actually really nice to feel like I’m part of the creative process beyond just the assets I’ve been creating.
And the real reason I wrote this post…
Was to link this blog post by Kevin Gadd about simple dynamic audio within XACT. If I didn’t find that, everything XACT related would never have made any sense. If you found this post because you’re frustrated with XACT, check out that link.
Tags: composing, design, Game Design, Music, sound, sound design, xact, xna
Last time we met, it was April — for those of you who are like me, that last post three months and twenty one days ago — and I said I’d give you two blogs that week. Let’s pretend I did that, and kept doing that all this time, so there’s no hard feelings.
So, what’s happened since I dropped off the planet?
Lots, actually, but only a few things are really worth mentioning, and I’ll do that in bullets, because I’m feeling neat, tidy, and list-like today.
- Someone actually validated my least-popular blog where I said you should work for free. Until I read that, I’d been wondering if I was all wrong… now I know I’m not.
- Siphon Spirit is going strong, though our release is looking farther and farther away, thanks to feature creep. But it will be awesome, I assure you. One thing I’m incredibly happy about is that I’m getting to use XACT for the first time, and finding it really helpful.
- Violet Kiss (the website is down, apparently) was finished — I may have mentioned that — and is being submitted to film festivals around the country. If you’re interested in seeing it, let me know, and I can try to find out the dates and locations.
- I participated in the 48 Hour Film Project, and though my team didn’t win, I had a great time. You can watch the final video here, and our practice run here.
And now, the bigger news.
In Salt Lake City, there is a gaming and electronics expo called Geex (if you’re in Utah, are a games publisher, or an electronics manufacturer, you should check it out), where, at the very least, there were a bunch of sweet game tournaments and contests, one of which was a Game-in-a-day, where I wrote music and sound effects for a small number of games (two with music, three with sound effects). My official team came in third place, and one of the teams I did sound for came in first.
Rick Bradshaw, Dave Matney, Chance Thomas
But that’s not the big news… See, at Geex, there were a myriad of panels, one of which was Audio in Games, featuring some pretty big names in the local, and even global, game audio community.
Hosting the panel was Mike Neilsen, from Wahoo / NinjaBee, who did a great job and kept things rolling. On the panel with me were Rick Bradshaw, a sound designer from Disney Interactive, and Chance Thomas, from HUGEsound.
My initial thoughts on the panel were that it would be dull, and we’d have maybe ten people in the crowd, and we’d probably end up finishing early because of lack of interest.
Boy, was I wrong… there were probably 20-30 people in the crowd,with every one of them asking incredibly good questions and keeping things moving — Mike only had to step in a few times to offer new topics. We were given an hour, but since we were the final panel of the day, we ended up going somewhere between 30-40 minutes over.
The best part of the panel experience, in my opinion, was that there was a mutual respect between us, and we all seemed to really get along. Though Mike and I only have a few years experience, against Brad and Chance’s twenty-plus years each, both Mike and I were able to have valuable input, with none of us really taking center stage. I particularly liked that, for almost every question, the panel would end up discussing it like we were talking over coffee — someone would ask a question, one panelist would offer their opinion, then turn to the rest of the panel, and we’d discuss it with each other. It felt really nice to shoot shop with people who have far more experience and shipped titles under their belts, and not feel like I was the odd man out.
So, now what?
Back to working on Siphon Spirit, most likely, as well as a few MonkeyEgg projects that haven’t really taken off. I’m also working on a bid piece for a short horror film, and I should be officially compiling my demo reel over the next couple of weeks. In the mean time, I’ll try to update here, more often… and I’ll get some music uploaded so you can hear what I did for the Geex Game-in-a-day.
Tags: composing, Game In A Day, GEEX, MonkeyEgg, Music, sound
You’d think that, after last week’s post, I would have stuck to my guns and not picked up any more projects. I know I thought that, and I turned out to be wrong. Not only did I pick up two new projects (the prospect of paid work was too enticing to turn down), but their turn around times are almost uncomfortably fast. If I were doing just one fast turn around it would be one thing, but I’m doing THREE. I’ll get stuff done, but I might not get much sleep.
Speaking of getting things done, I’ve had trouble, lately, writing anything that I feel fits the projects I’m supposed to be working on. I don’t know what it is, but, though I’m still writing music, nothing seems like it fits. So, I’ve been playing with tons of loops (specifically, Cosmo D’s loop pack, which I HIGHLY recommend, and it’s got me thinking in styles and keys I’ve been unintentionally avoiding.
So… without further adieu… my loops:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
These first three were my freshman attempt at really developing anything worthwhile around melodic loops. I’ve used rhythmic loops before (and you’ll see that I use them a bit later, too), but I’ve always been a bit hesitant with melodic loops. These three are presented in the order I made them, so you can see my improvements.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
As is indicated by the title, I wrote this Wednesday night. Again, it’s just loops with a guitar under-track that I threw down, and I really think this is something I could clean up and develop further into a video game track.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This is the second loop I wrote on Wednesday, and I started moving away from looped drum tracks to programming my own, which I’m getting more and more comfortable with as time goes on. Again, I think I could develop this into something good.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This is the third track I wrote on Wednesday, and I’m particularly happy with it because it’s a venture into a style that I’ve NEVER written in, also, I think it sounds pretty good.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
By Thursday, I felt I had pretty much exhausted myself with loops (not entirely true, Cosmo D’s comes with 3000 loops, so there’s no way I could really exhaust myself), but I wanted to give it one last go. I like this track a lot, too, but I don’t know if I’ll ever use it for something.
All in all, working with loops is a blast, but it’s not something I could seriously use as a technique to write a melody (as a counter melody, MAYBE). Luckily, I think all this play opened up my mind, and I can get back to writing what I need to be writing.
That’s all for now. ►►
Recently, I picked up The Complete Guide to Game Audio and I must say, it’s an amazing book. It’s answered just about every question I’ve had that I couldn’t find in an article, forum, blog, or otherwise, and I highly recommend it. But this isn’t a book review, this is a realization. The realization that I wasn’t taking myself, or my future as a career composer / sound designer, seriously.
In fact, I was treating it as a pipe dream — something that would be nice to have, but not something I could ever get. And that was effecting everything I was doing outside the actual music and sound design.
Once I realized it, I made a vow to myself and the world (via my Twitter account):
[Dave Matney] will be living entirely off money made through music and sound design by 2013.
On January 16th, 2013, I will be turning 30, and I don’t want to be the 30 year old that doesn’t at least have a foot in the door toward the career of his dreams. The career I’ve been working toward since I was six years old when I first started writing goofy little songs on my mom’s piano. (Sure, I wanted to be a rock star, but, in 1989, I didn’t know people even made video games, I just thought they existed.)
So, I need to make some changes.
First off, I’m done working for free.
I’ve advocated working for free in the past, despite all evidence to the contrary, and I’m now realizing that I was wrong. With few exceptions (Open Source projects, for example, where everything is strictly voluntary, or one-time personal favors), no one should ever work for free. Even if you’re working for a church or other non-profit, you can still get a letter of charitable contribution, which is a tax write off.
So, it comes down to this: If the person I’m doing the project for is getting paid, and/or if anyone else working on the project is getting paid, I am getting paid. I understand each project is different — students don’t have the kind of money a corporation has, and some projects pay on the back end instead of up front — but the fact of the matter is I have worked twenty-one years of my life toward this goal, and I deserve it.
Second, I’m done taking on new work until my demo reels are complete.
I have enough experience, and almost enough footage, to put together a demo reel. So, as I polish off my plate I will begin the process of putting together my demo reels, both for sound design and music. I need to show the world that I am worth what I am charging.
Finally, I will be overhauling my site, and blogging regularly.
My brother and I have been kicking around ideas for this site since I started it, and that’s been keeping me from moving forward with business cards and such, as I’ve been waiting to get everything properly, and uniformly, branded. So, when I roll out my completed demo reel, I will roll out a new site.
In the mean time, and even after then, I will be blogging regularly. Not every day, but I will promise at least weekly updates. I won’t be don’t weekly links, and sometimes my weekly updates will be slightly anorexic, but there will be a weekly touch down from me. Probably every Friday.
All in all, I think these are the best moves for me, my family, and my career. And, like I said, by my 30th birthday, I will be living entirely off money generated from music and sound design (and, if possible, game design and game writing, but that’s not my focus.)
Here’s to moving forward. ►►
Tags: Business, composing, Freelancing, Game Design, Music, practice, sound
This last weekend I had the privilege to participate in the 2010 Global Game Jam, held at our local branch of ITT Tech building. It was a lot of fun, overall.
This year’s theme was “Deception,” and the area restraints were “Trades, Raids, or Maids.” Some teams were formed before the opening night, which I feel took away from the overall experience, but those teams still had the experience of cranking out a game in 48 hours.
I was officially part of one team–made up of Tim Tillotson, Mark Schmelzenbach, and Jacob Kinney– at the start, with a self-imposed time limit of being done at Saturday by noon, which worked just fine for me, because I wanted to do audio for as many people as I could. We cranked out as much as we could, and when noon came around we saw that we weren’t close to finishing our project, but we saw an end in sight, so Mark and Tim both agreed they could work ’til 3, which we worked to and had to simply cut our losses; it was close, but it still wasn’t a playable game. With Tim saying he was going to work on it a bit more that night –which he did– he, Mark, and Jacob all went their separate ways, and I stayed behind to do sound for anyone else who wanted it.
I could give you tons of stories, but I’ll just get onto the games and audio.
First up, is The Ant Thieves, the game that my team put together. You can play it here.
I am really happy with my audio for this game… I took The Ants Go Marching, and blended it with the James Bond and Mission Impossible themes, for an ant-spy feel. I made two versions, one with a subdued chord progression and one made to feel victorious. As for sound design, I pitched up a scream sound and made a “stomp” sound with some impacts and a drum, then added some distortion.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Next up, Treasure Raiders is an XBox 360 game with a rock-paper-scissors mechanic and some campy art. It should be mentioned that none of the people on their team were artists. I hung out with these guys almost exclusively after my team left. You can download the Windows version of the game from the link above, or you can wait for it to show up in the XBox Live Arcade (it won’t be free… but all the money is going to charity.)
I had a lot of fun writing the music for this project. They wanted something like Castle Crashers, giving the game a cheesy epic feel, and I was loving me some French Horns when I wrote the music. As for sound design, I tried to use musical instruments for as much of it as I could, to keep the campy feel, but had to resort to recorded sounds for the combat.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Third up is Dust Bunnies. I really don’t know what to tell you about this team. They were mostly ITT Tech students, with two exceptions. Every time I went into their room, I never knew what to expect; someone could be sleeping on the floor, or someone could be rapping, and over the Saturday-to-Sunday crunch, they had rap music videos projected on their wall. It was a blast, and you can play it here.
These boys didn’t know what they wanted… they first asked for elevator music, and then something by Ry Cooder. By the end of it, they had settled on a Sim City-sounding reggae tune that I had actually cast aside, because I didn’t think they’d want it. I’m glad they did, though.. I always ove writing reggae. For sound design, I took two vacuum tracks, layered them, and trimmed them so the start and stop would be shorter, and cleaner.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Finally, I did sound design for two additional games.
For the first one, Maid of Discontent, built entirely by one man, the sound was almost an afterthought. He had asked me for two sound effects earlier in the night, but he insisted it wasn’t a big deal, so I focused on everything else. If he hadn’t had trouble uploading the file, I don’t think I would have even been able to get the two sounds in. Yeah, that’s right… two sounds. A coin dropping into a vending machine, and a door closing, both FreeSound sounds that I simply cleaned up and balanced out.
The second sound-design-only game, and final game I worked on, was ConRaid, a fun flash game where you hide crowns from raiding orcs. I feel I had more making these sound effects than any other project, due to their simplicity and speed. I simply played guitar, then bitcrushed and downsampled them ’til I was happy. Because of their melodic roots, they give the game a sense of having a soundtrack, even though there’s not one there. You can play it here.
Oh, and one more thing:
The games posted in this entry use the following sound files from Freesound (http://www.freesound.org):
Woman Scream AAA, Thijs loud scream, from thanvannispen
Wilhelm from SweetNeo85
Scream Boom 01 from studiorat
Scream from analogchill
banda fort sample from snog
Door Creak Short from Percy Duke
Single Coin Return from tweeterdj
I’ll happily do this again, next year.
Tags: composing, design, FreeSound.org, Game Design, Game In A Day, Global Game Jam, IGDA, ITT Tech, Music, sound
Over the next few weeks, I plan on compiling my knowledge, both first and second hand, on (as the title suggests) guerilla / punk rock marketing for modern composers. The information I’ll be given is freely available on the internet, but it’s either hard to find or adapted from other sources not intended for composers.
Also, this information can easily be adapted to any other field, creative or not, within reason, so please don’t feel like this is just for composers.
Finally, this series of entries will be updated as I do, and learn, more things.
So you fancy yourself a composer, huh? Or you want to be? Awesome. I’m not going to ask you why, or try to deter you in any way. What I am going to tell you is it’s going to be hard. Movies are relying less and less on original music. it’s getting harder and harder to break into the video game industry, and as home recording is becoming more accessable, the independent music and sound category is getting saturated with people who want the same thing as you. To write music. So, it’s going to be hard.
Now, I can’t make you a better composer. But I can show you where to start, and point you in the right direction.
Step 1: Establish an Online Presence
What, you expected some thing different? Maybe some thing that actually involves music? Well, that’s coming, but as search engines base your ranking on the age of your site, the longer you’re online, the better.
- Get your own domain. (Yes, that’s an acting blog, but the principals apply here.) You shouldn’t use MySpace, SoundClick, or any other social networking site as you only contact info. Why? First off, not everyone has an account on those sites, and most of them require an account for contacting you. If you expect all of your potential clients to use MySpace to contact you, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Second, it’s unpforessional. Think about this: which sounds more like I’m serious about my craft? “My website is MySpace.com/DaveMatney” or “My website is DaveMatney.Com“ Easy pick, and at less syllables and characters, it will flow off the tongue easier, and fit better on business cards and things like Twitter. Also, my final thought on this is to pick something only you will have, like your name or a nickname you will ALWAYS use. Once you set up this site, you should NEVER pull it down, as long as you’re trying to market yourself.
- Build the best site you have access and ability to. If you’re not comfortable with web design, graphic design, or photography, ask around; chances are, someone you know is and will be willing to help you for cheap or free.
- Set up an email address with your new domain. This is you business email. Use it for nothing else. Even if you have it redirect to GMail, hotmail, or something else, anyone that contacts you should send emails to, and recieve emails from, your business email. Why? Again, it just looks more professional. Also, over the phone, explaining your email address is “Dave at Dave Matney dot com” is WAY easier than “Dave dot Matney dot UT at GMail dot com.” (the second email address doesn’t exist, but Dave.Matney@gmail does, and it isn’t me.)
- Join every social networking site, and related internet forum, you come across. Stick with a single username (I suggest the same one you used for your domain), link you own domain from them, and at least post a hello in the introduction threads. Why? Search Engine Optimization, first off. The more sites that link to your site, the higher you ranking. Second, personal Search Engine Optimization. What’s that? Google Dave Matney. At the time of this writing, all but two of those links were related to me. What does this do? When I introduce myself to someone, it becomes easier to find me.
Step 2: Prepare to Make Your Music Digital
Yeah, you’re right; this isn’t “write music,” either. Why not? One simple reason: people aren’t going to wait for you to “get ready.” They’re going to want your music, and they’re going to want it immediately. They’re not going to wait for you to purchase software, hire musicians, record, digitize, and send it to them. In most situations, they’re not even going to pay you up front for your work; they’re going to expect you to have everything you need to make music for them, and get it to them. That includes access to funds to print the score, hire and record an orchestra, if that’s the method you’re expecting to take. For most of us, that’s not the kinda scratch we have laying around, so we’ve gotta figure something else out.
If you already have a system that works for you, then feel free to skip this step. If you don’t, I’m not going to explain the absolute nitty gritty when other people already have. I am going to say that you don’t HAVE to write and record all of your music on a computer if you’re more comfortable with a piano, manuscript, and have access to a multi-track recorder. Going that route may be easier or cheaper, given your experience and the amount of gear that you already have. But, if you’re totally new to this, start digital.
Also, whether it’s on a Mac or a PC doesn’t matter, anymore. So stop arguing.
Step 3: Build Your Portfolio
This is the stage of the game I’m currently at.
Finally, you’re writing music! So, what should you write?
Well, whether or not you’re planning to write music for role playing games, I don’t feel like it’s a stretch to say roleplaying games require the most musical versitilty. And, lucky for us, Patrick Gann, at RPGFan, has made a list of the types of music all RPGs have.
- Overture (Opening)
- Castle
- Town
- Field
- Dungeon
- Battle
- Final Battle
- March (Ending)
So, write that.
If you’re not the type to just write without a project, you’re not out of luck, you’re just out of easy options. Ask around for leads on independent films or video games that may need music, and check places like Craigslist, GameDev, and IndieGamer. Contact them, offer to write music for them for free (explain you’re looking to build a portfolio), and hope. You’ll send out far more emails than you’ll recieve replies, and you’ll recieve more replies saying they don’t want you to help them than you will people that are willing to accept a blind offer for free music (go figure).
This is the stage I suggest linking any and all previous band experience you have, if you have any.
A few things about building your portfolio:
- The average person doesn’t hear beyond sound quality. No matter how good your songs are, if they don’t sound good, people won’t think they are good. Write the best quality music you can, using the best sounding microphones and VSTs you can afford (there are tons of great, free, VSTs that sound awesome, even if they’re somewhat limited. I personally recommend Native Instruments’ Kore Player and Compilation Vol. 1.)
- At this stage, never ask someone to pay you for your work. They’re doing you a favor, not the other way around. In fact, offering to people to write music for them forever, for cheap or free, if they give you this one chance isn’t a bad negotiation tool. But, if they offer money, don’t turn them down.
- Be appreciative. No one owes you anything, so treat everyone fairly. Be honest and up front about your skills, how fast you work, and your limitations. You’re not trying to sell anything, you’re just trying to build a portfolio and a reputation.
- Ask for testimonies about working with you, and the quality of you work; it will give your website and portfolio credibility.
In closing, I hope this helps. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact me or leave a comment.
Tags: Business, composing, Freelancing, IndieGamer, Kore, Music, practice, sound, Writing
Legal
Unless otherwise noted, everything within this blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.