Improving Communication With Your Sound Designer Part 1
by Kane Minkus

Contents   Introduction   Tools of the Trade   Creating Audio: Sound Design   Creating Audio: Composition   Printable version   Discuss this article The Series   Part 1   Part 2

Steps to Creating Audio

Understanding the steps to production will help you isolate where a problem is coming from to help correct it:

For Sound Design:

1. Pre Production
2. Recording Sounds
3. Editing & Sound Sculpting
4. Mixing
5. Delivery

1. Pre Production
2. Writing
3. Recording
4. Editing/Mixing
5. Mastering

Sound Designer

Pre Production

This is where the creative conversations take place (we will talk about effective creative conversations in the next article), reference material is found (this is a great time to reference another film, game or project that contains sound design that you like or dislike), integration and audio engine considerations take place here as well.

Recording Sounds

The sound designer might need to (or choose to) record original sounds for a palette they will use later. These are sometimes labeled Foley Sessions (sound effects sessions that are related to materials being used to create sounds – footsteps, bags being hit together, rustling of clothing, smashing of things, anything you can think of can be recorded here.) Another option is to purchase a massive library of pre-recorded sounds. Be aware that, a sound designer having purchased libraries does not make the sound design finished. A good sound designer will layer sounds, sculpt sounds and use all sort of audio/editing tricks to get an appropriate sound for a game. At SomaTone, although we have an enormous library of digitized pre-recorded sounds, we still find ourselves recording new material constantly to layer it over existing material.

Editing & Sound Sculpting

This is where the sound design starts to come together. The sound designer will begin sculpting the sound, through editing features on his sequencer. They might use effects (like reverb, delay, flangers, EQ), use fades/crossfades, layer many sounds on top of each other, take a pre-recorded sound and run it through a synthesizer to effect it, etc.

For example, the sound of a growl for an alien character in a game, might be (and there are an infinite amount of ways to make a sound – especially a non-organic/real one) a combination of a dog growl, a metal door slamming together, stones rubbing together and a harsh synth tone. This is where the creativity of the sound designer really starts to make a difference in the quality of the sounds. And there are many, many tricks that one can learn to make things come out like a sound that works for a game (like chaining effects together, time stretching/pitch shifting sounds or processing in advanced synthesis engines like Csound, Kyma, Metasynth or Reaktor). It is pretty much an “anything goes” approach, but a good sound designer has a sense of what should be layered in (both sounds and effects) to make a sound effective, clear and impactful. Good sound designers also know ahead of time what they are looking to hear and how they are going to roughly get there – this eliminates endless additions or tweaking.

Mixing

The sound designer will then mix all the individual elements of the sound to give the final sound and, separately, each sound efx proportionally with the others in the game, to give an equal balance from one sound to the next. These are simply volume (or referred to as Gain) adjustments.

Delivery

Once the sfx are mixed, the delivery of them should be kept at these levels and they need to be individually bounced out (keep reading for the definition of “bounced out”). This makes it easier for the programmer to integrate them and keep a dynamic sound to the game (instead of “normalizing” all the sfx – a process of making each sound as loud as it can be). If the sound designer is actually creating environment loops, they might choose to keep the “panning” (sound location in the 3-D space), or deliver a full looping file with all elements integrated. Often the final files are called “bounced out” meaning they are put into a final form (.wav, mp3, or OGG format) that can be posted or emailed (versus still sitting in the sequencer). Another term “2-track mix” means the final mix of the sound effect is in a 2 track form (this is your basic stereo track with a Left and Right channel – like a regular musical CD). The “2 Track” is usually referred to when the sound effect track is continuous - versus the individual elements being delivered. Another common term is “Sound EFX Stem” – this comes from the film industry where you have just the sound effect separately - versus having them mixed in with the music or dialogue. Sound EFX stem and 2 Track are interchangeable – if you are only talking about the sfx (because some 2 Track mixes can have the music and dialogue “married” or mixed together.)

Creating Audio: Composition