Audio presentation

I was set the task of producing a PowerPoint presentation about my favourite musical tracks from videogames that I have played over the years.  Below is a list of the slides in order of appearance in my presentation.

1. Outrun 1989.

http://www.retrogamer.it/music/xbox/16_Keep_Your_Heart_1989.mp3

Even though I technically didn't play this game I really do like the music that the limited hardware of that era could produce.  It does try its best to sound like a rock track despite the synthesised tune.

2. Sonic the Hedgehog 1991.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF9ZLNxHaBY

The tune from the very first level of this game is very memorable to me because it was the only level that I played this game before I got bored.

3. Crash Bandicoot 1996.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e68I_a6Y8rY&list=PL8C041F1815433023

The music from the very beginning of the game has a very wacky and strange feeling to it.  This tune provides an idea of what the theme of the game is like.

4. Spyro the Dragon 1998.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYYlSVwEle4&list=PLF63785DB3AF5C3EC

Despite the fact that I played the second instalment before the first one, I still find a special place in my heart for this tune.  The music has a very mystical and fantastical feel to it.

5. Ratchet & Clank 2002.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj3dgToY_Fg&list=PL08427B6950D56659

I really like the mix between orchestral and techno music in this level because it provides a very lively and catchy melody.  It also heightens a sense of urgency as well.

6. The Hobbit 2003.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hICjXaJ_UzA&list=PL2ECAAF91839A9227

This song is played in the mill section of the first level.  The music in most fantasy games is always very grand and orchestral but this tune is an exception because of the use of acoustic guitar.  It is a very relaxing song.

7. Unreal Tournament 2004 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWeIiZl3G50

Like number five, the techno and orchestra musical crossover provides a sense of heightened danger and urgency.  This is my favourite map of the game and my favourite tune.  I do like the result of the buildup that music provides.

8. Ratchet & Clank 2 2003

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITiiYXC51aU&list=PL654B950899921E2E

This song has the elements of a spy and military movie with a mix of techno music for good measure.  This really suits the mood of the level very well.

9. Ratchet & Clank: Tools of destruction 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOWDqwgmmTk&list=SPD1D00C5A27B384EE&index=6

This song is very charming to me because of the grand sounds of the orchestra and the small electronic beats provide.

10. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RN3HxpT546w

I still hold this song in high regard as it was the music that played on the transport ship to the location that this expansion takes place in.  This melody made me appreciate Scandinavian music and instruments.

11. Uncharted 2 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfjA52nlozo

This song was played for the trailer of this game and also for a cut scene near the end of this game.  This tune basically drew my interest to this game and an interest in string instruments from other parts of the world.

12. Oblivion 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS0cYfcGQVI&list=SP05750205E28BA02A

After questing in the land outside of the villages, this song and many others like it helps to ease the player into a sense of security and serenity.  Despite my few complaints about this game the music is always what remains in my mind.

13. Outrun Coast 2 Coast 2006

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tacLuk64YbE

Whenever I played this game I always selected this tune as the background music.  This is the only song that really gets you excited and drawn in to this game.  All the other melodies don't seem to cut the mustard for me.

14. Mass Effect 2 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Agrkx5MeNJc&list=PL208E1C78E9C9303E

In the context of the cut scene this melody is very dramatic and glorious.  I really like it because it is very stirring and engaging.

15. Scott Pilgrim vs the world 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opYv6GuOSEk

This song plays during the start screen of this game which gets you excited and anxious to play this game.  The music has a very retro feel to it as the music features 8-bit tunes and melodies.  I loved the music so much that I bought the soundtrack on iTunes.

Storyboard script

The player character drives his car through the open gates in the pouring rain.  The driver proceeds forward and turns the car to the right and parks just behind a police car.  The player's character turns his head and focuses on the seat to his right and reaches for an umbrella then rests it on his lap.  The character reaches for the door and opens it and exits the vehicle, venturing out into the deluge.  The driver opens the umbrella and raises it over his head to shield himself from the downpour.  He starts walking towards an apartment where two people standing before the entrance that is sealed off by yellow police tape.  Upon arriving in front of the men the player's character reaches for a badge in the front pocket of his jacket and presents it to them, both of them take a glance at it and then move apart allowing the character to proceed to the front door that is shut.

As the player is about to open the door he closes the umbrella and pushes the door open.  He rests the umbrella against the wall and then begins to walk up the stairs towards the crime scene.

Audio used in my level

This sound was used for the steam inside the warehouse. 

https://soundcloud.com/jkitcher/steam-rushing

This one was used for the machines at the back of the warehouse.

https://soundcloud.com/jkitcher/machinery-buzz

The sound here was used for the machine underneath the walkway in the warehouse. 

https://soundcloud.com/jkitcher/machine-buzz2

I used this sound for the water leaking out of the pipes in the warehouse. 

https://soundcloud.com/jkitcher/pipe

This sound was originally going to be used for the exterior of the level, but due to the sound of voices over the loud speaker I recorded, it didn't fit in with my style for the level.

https://soundcloud.com/jkitcher/mono-000

Again, like the previous sound, I wasn't able to find a suitable location within my game level for this sound.

https://soundcloud.com/jkitcher/mono-001

Evaluation

The original intention was to create a 1940s street scene sandwiched between circular castle walls.  My original idea was to use a fantasy theme set in the 1940s and using technology from that era.  I thought that it would be good to set fantasy in a different time period.  High fantasy is often set in mediaeval environments such as World of Warcraft and Dungeons & Dragons.  The circular castle walls were chosen to create contrast.  I used Mount Saint Michel and Alan Lee's drawing of Minas Tirith from the Lord of the rings as inspiration.

The level was going to be very expansive with the multitude of apartment buildings in which one was only accessible to the player with two warehouses and a tram line.  The player could explore a storm drain.  My original idea was to use a bridge with the drain running underneath it.  In the final concept storm drain is blocked off at both ends.  The level that I ultimately created consisted of three apartments, a warehouse and a path to one side.  The plan was originally going to be a railway track but it ended up being a road with pavement.  Due to issues of time the railway track ended up as a road.  This was also the issue with the storm drains and the number of buildings.  The Environment that I have created has the potential to offer a gamer with lots to explore.

The sounds I wanted to use were the sound of traffic, footsteps, steam, machinery and running water from a burst pipe.  The sound of traffic would be ambient sound coming from outside buildings.  The recording I made of traffic would need to be manipulated to make it more muted so it became more like background noise.  To get footsteps I recorded crowd noises in Drake Circus.  The sound I collected was good but in the end was not relevant to the theme.  Most of the sounds that were to be used in my level were obtained from browsing the Internet for free sounds.  It was not easy because most of the sites required me to pay a fee to download the audio and other sites had sounds that were not up to my liking.  In the end I managed to get some decent sounds that I will mention below.  I got the sound of steam from the Internet on a website called Sounddogs.  The sounds were royalty free and therefore would not break any copyright laws.  I also found the sound of a spaceship door opening which I used for a piece of machinery below the walkway, a buzzing noise for the machines at the back of the warehouse and the sound of rushing water to be used for the burst pipe leaking water from soundbible and soundJay.

The sounds that I gathered myself came from three sessions when I went out to record sound.  I used an ME67 directional microphone which is good for picking up distant noises and a Zoom to record sound digitally.  This was stored as a 24 bit WAV file.  This file type is appropriate to use with the Unreal Development Kit.  By recording selected sounds myself I was able to gather material specific to my needs.  On the first recording session I wondered around the city centre, looking for random sounds that could be incorporated into my level somehow.  I first travelled to the bus station just behind the bank to collect the sound of footsteps in a stone tunnel accompanied with an echo.  These sounds weren't usable in the end because of the sound of voices and music that emanated from the speakers and from the disco.  I then left the bus station and made my way around to the front of the bank.  I used the location to record traffic sounds which I have mentioned previously.  I proceeded towards the shopping centre where I recorded the sound of the crowd passing through the main entrance and the sound of running water from a tap.  On the other recording sessions I travelled down to the market at the bottom end of town in order to capture more crowd sounds in a vast, enclosed space.  After that I proceeded towards the overhead road crossing and onward to the multi-storey car park.  The environment there was expansive and empty which made it the perfect spot for recording echoes.  Around the outside of the car park was a tunnel that went along outside the car park and back in again, it then travelled over and through the toy shop and into the charity shop where it ended at a locked gate.  Near the sealed gate was a coin vending machine that permitted a buzzing noise which I thought would make a great addition to my level's ambient sounds.  Finally I travelled to the subway under the roundabout near the hotel.  I used this location to record echoing footsteps to be used around the indoor sections of my level.  On returning to the studio some of the recorded material was very quiet.  The sounds in question were obtained during my second excursion in which I went to the market, multi-storey car park and the subway.  The main recordings seemed to be louder from the Zoom but not when I play them back from my computer.  This might have been because of the format the audio was saved in which was stereo not mono.  It was possible to manipulate the sound levels towards a higher volume in the studio.  This was achieved using Adobe Audition which is designed to record and edit sound.

Adobe Audition was used for meddling and altering sounds which I gathered from the three recording sessions and the Internet.  I slowed down and stretched the sound of the spaceship door opening in order to synchronise the pulsating buzz with the slow moving light of the cylindrical machine inside the warehouse, below the walkway.  I also reduced the speed of another buzzing noise for use with the machinery.  I stretched the sound of rushing steam to add latency to the audio.  I decided in the end that the audio that ended up being too quiet to use for the level was not worth editing because I didn't really need them in the end due to the fact that none of them had any real practical use for my game environment.

Adding sounds into UDK was a very straight forward process once i learned how it works. I had to use triggers to initiate sound and Unreal Kismet to program the triggers to start and stop the sounds in response to the player's position. I thought the chosen sounds were appropriate to the level I designed.  This sounds inside the warehouse help to maintain the industrial theme.  I think that the inclusion of creaking door sounds would have added to the ambience of the level.  I really would have liked to record all the sound myself but it was difficult to know where to find some of the noises or how to create them artificially.  As levels become more complex this process also becomes more involved.  I am pleased to have finished this project on schedule.  I have found the assignment useful with regards to learning the process of recording sound.  If I were to retry this project I would spend more time planning the recordings and making decisions regarding what to record.  I will also investigate the sound files held in the college library which i only discovered it at a late stage in the project.

Adding sound to UDK

UDK sound trigger

• Right click on any surface in UDK to open menu. add actor > add trigger.
• Double click green switch where the trigger was created to open properties.
• Click the trigger tab. > click arrow next to cylinder component to expand settings list.
• Adjust height and radius accordingly.
• Open UnrealKismet.
• Right click anywhere in the blank space.
• Neweventusingtrigger_0 > touch.
• Right click on blank space again.
• New action > sound > play sound.
• Sequence act play sound.
• open content browser in order to find the appropriate sound.
• with the right sound selected, click the green arrow in kismet, on the play sound section in the properties window.
• link touch node to play node.
• to adjust max trigger count, left click on the trigger touch node, then go into properties and under the sequence event tab and adjust the numbers. 
• 0 = infinate.

Adobe Audition

Adobe Audition is a sound editing and recording program. I have used this program to chop-up, noise reduce, pitch-shift and rearrange audio. I have used Audition to slow down the electric whirring of the machinery, convert an mp3 file to a wav file and to increase audio gain. I have had previous experience with audio editing software from using Audacity, a free download with some, if not all of the important tools that Audition has. It was almost second nature for to use.

Zoom recorder and recorded sounds

We are required to record our own sounds for inclusion in our UDK levels. In order to do so we had to use the Zoom recorder. An induction had to be undertaken so that we could understand how it worked and what microphones are available for use.

The Zoom has two microphones on top of it and a screen for displaying sound levels and menus. Once the demonstration was complete I went out to record sounds around the city centre. My first location was at the bus station. I used this area to acquire the sound of echoing footsteps in a tunnel. Unfortunately the sound of voices and the music and announcements from the tannoy made the sounds ill-fitting for my level. I then collected sounds from passing traffic and inside the shopping centre for use in the exterior and interior of my level. These suited my needs perfectly.

I did record other sounds from around town but these proved unusable because they were too quiet or non existent. Overall though i am happy with the sounds i have and i hope for next time to get more.