I hire an audio professional for my projects. Then it's up to him where to get the assets, or to make them. Sometimes I hire an audio professional for sfx and VO, and a musician for the music.

Would like everyone's thoughts. Thanks!

You're welcome!

after 8 years of making games, i finally broke down and got a copy of The General 6000 series sound effects library from Sound Ideas out of Canada. 50 CD's of effects. $1000 (in 1996).

a few sfx .wav file are available online for DL.

i've gone as far as making my own primitive bow and recording the sound of it firing to get the sfx i needed.

for music, i just make my own. either midi stuff, or loop based wav samples of drum machine, guitar, etc.

once upon a time, one used to program the OPL3 chip on a SB compatible soundcard (via port 220H as i recall). this was a great way to get synth type custom sfx.

Thanks for the tips! Do you think that if there was a way to put out a custom listing for sounds/music/effects etc... it would be useful?

they can do ebay and priceline and beemp3, so why not?

useful: yes.

would it take off? not so sure, limited demand, i'd say. limited demographics, both on the user side, and the supplier side. only folks who needed music or sfx would be "clients". only "sound guys/gals" who found it worth their time would be suppliers.

BTW: Sound Ideas has a number of different libraries at all price points. They're pretty much the industry standard for stock "sound footage", used by all the major movie studios. they even have a library of nothing but classic Warner Brothers cartoon effects (bugs bunny, etc). You may want to check them out. their prices traditionally start out at about $100 for something like a 3-5 CD library. and a single CD can have over 100 tracks on it.

what might do well would be a turbosquid type site for sfx and music, if one does not already exist.

or an audio version of pyromania

Hey Vinylmint,

Sound effects and music would probably fall under the "creative" umbrella in your game development process. These assets are produced by

1. Composers and sound designers, and as Tom mentioned, it's quite common to either hire a contractor to source and produce the audio for you.
2. Alternatively, on bigger projects, someone on your team (audio lead) creates and manages a group of sound designers to create and implement the audio content for your game.

The advantage of using the above methods as opposed to looking for assets to use on the web is that you're able to consult with professionals who actually know something about audio and who can be a part of your iterative process. It's more expensive but you'll benefit from audio that's been tailored EXACTLY for your game. It's not only huge games that have unique music and sound effects.

Audio communicates with players in a very basic and primitive sense, and can be extremely important for your game's branding.

---

I've seen lists of sound effects like what you're talking about, where people put up what they need and offer a price. It's an idea that might work, but in my experience, everyone ALWAYS underbids to the point that it's ridiculously insulting - if your company name is on the Ad, you'll raise a lot of red flags and alienate freelancers, and attract only desperate contractors with no clients who won't do a good job.

---

Hope this helps! I'm a Composer and Sound Designer and I've had to explain this to quite a few developers already, so I know whereof I speak.

The advantage of using the above methods as opposed to looking for assets to use on the web is that you're able to consult with professionals who actually know something about audio and who can be a part of your iterative process. It's more expensive but you'll benefit from audio that's been tailored EXACTLY for your game. It's not only huge games that have unique music and sound effects.

yes, definitely don't trivialize the difference between using stuff you download and having a real sound guy. i'm able to do my own sound because i have 46 years experience as a musician, 45 years experience as a composer, 25 years experience as a game audio programmer, 25 years experience as a game musician, 25 years experience as a game music composer, 25 years experience as a game Foley artist, and 15 experience as a recording engineer. and its just a hobby! i'm really a programmer! : P

a lot goes into making good music and sound for a game, from the creative, technical, and design directions. someone (you or a hired gun) should take the time to do it right.

if you can't afford a hired gun, get some cheap sfx libs and a free wav mixer, and learn to mix your own custom sounds. find a musician buddy to do some midi or something. that kind of thing. anyone can learn the tools, although natural composition talent is another issue. this is mostly just an issue when original music is required. one possibility for music is using music that's old enough to be in the public domain. this can work well with games whose time setting in history is older (such as medieval fantasy rpgs). and don't forget family and friends. My girlfriend at the time was the computer voice for SIMSpace.