How sound is created for games

Ellis Hardy

This is an article on how sound and music is designed and created for games on
various platforms over time. There are five main areas I will cover, including sound
design, file formats, hardware limitations, recording systems and audio sampling.
These are the behind the scenes, more technical stuff in which sound developers go
through and use, and what they are limited to, depending on what theyre using and
what for.
Sound design methodology:
Sounds sources in games can come from anywhere these days because of the
internet. They can be from original development where the sounds are made with
computer software and studio recordings, from scratch. This is more time consuming
however it will fit the game better as the sound is tailored for the game. For example
sounds that dont exist in the real world have to be created in original development.
This is mainly for Sci-fi sounds such as weapons (Star wars lightsaber) and enemies
(Dead Islands zombie screams).
The source can be taken from online sound libraries which contain millions of real life
sounds. These can then be edited afterwards to suit the game better. However they
might not fit the scene, for example a sound of footsteps might not fit whats
happening on screen by the sounds being too large/small or too fast/slow paced.
This is more commonly used in smaller budget games or flash games as they dont
have to spend money or time on making the sounds their self.
The music can be taken from stock music databases of royalty free music. This is
quite common for sports games or simulators to get a lot of music from musicians to
suit their wide target audience, allowing the user to listen to what they want and
liking the game better. This also saves time and money for the developing company
as they dont need to record their own material.
The last sound source is Foley which is a technique used to recreate realistic sounds
using basic, day to day equipment, like footsteps, by watching the soundless clip and
making the sounds live to fit with it. If Foley has been done well, the player will think
the sounds are real and wont realise that the sound effects have been faked.
All of the early games didnt have many sounds in them because there wasnt a lot of
storage space for the sounds and there wasnt any available unless they were
already on the computer (like beeps). The game pong only had a single beep for its
sounds as the computers at that time couldnt play any other sounds because it only
had a 1 bit processor.
Sound file formats:
There are multiple ways of storing sound files. The most commonly used are WAV,
AIFF, Mp3, VOX, PCM and ADPCM.
WAV is (Waveform audio file format) an audio file format standard by Microsoft and
IBM for storing uncompressed audio on pcs. This is used for system sounds, games
sounds and CDs. It can be used to interchange between different platforms, such as
Macintosh, so that people have more freedom of use. Because of its flexibility, it has
become the standard audio file in most pcs.

How sound is created for games

Ellis Hardy

AIFF is (Audio interchange file format, not Apple interchange file format) one of the
most commonly used file formats on Apples Macintosh operating system as it was
developed by Apple. The AIFF file contains the raw audio data, the bit depth and the
sample rate. It can also be used for other electrical devices so its not limited to the
pcs. However the format does not support data compression so the file sizes tend to
be larger than other files, but no sound quality is lost from compression.
Mp3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3) is a standard for compressing audio into a very small
file size while still keeping the original quality. It is generally used for download and
play, not streaming. The layer 3 means that it removes a lot of unnecessary sound
during compression. Due to its compressed fie size, it can be easily spread across
the internet with minimal upload and download times.
VOX is an abbreviation for voice operated switch which is used in
telecommunications. It is a switch that is activated by sound. It is also abbreviated as
voice or vocal tracks.
PCM (pulse-code modulation) is digitally transmitting analogue data. It is possible
using PCM to digitalise analogue data as all of the signals are binary (1s and 0s).
This includes voices, music and virtual reality.
ADPCM (adaptive differential pulse-code modulation) is used to convert analogue
sounds to binary. ADPCM is used to send sound down long distance fibre optic lines
and used to store sound with text, images and code on a CD-ROM.
Audio limitations of game platforms:
Here are the limitations of four various different game platforms from throughout the
years from different companies.
The NES was released in 1985 to rival the Atari consoles. As the NES made Ataris
consoles inferior, it became hugely popular because of its power. Even though the
NES was priced at $249. It supported an 8 bit sound processor, 2KB or RAM and
had plug in game cartridges. It sold over 20 million units worldwide however it wasnt
as successful in Europe. Its Super Mario Bros game became an instant classic and
Mario became Nintendos mascot later on, helping the NES sales. As a result of this,
Atari backed out of making video game consoles to prevent further debt from their
systems not selling.
In 1995 Sony released the Play station. Supporting 32 bits and 2 MB of memory, it
became an instant hit and sold over 100,000 consoles in the first few days. It also
used CDs for the games so the games could be bigger and better. As it was easier
to program games for the PS1 than it was for the Sega Saturn, games came out
faster (and still to a high standard) and quickly Sony had control of the market.
In 2001 Microsoft showed off their creation, the Xbox. This was the first console to
be released in the US before releasing in Japan Being an exact replica of the
Pentium 3 computer, it had a huge 32 bit system running at 733 Mhz. Almost double
what the GameCube was offering. It had 8GB of internal storage however it did still
allow the use of memory cards. It offered decent graphics and it allowed the use of
CDs and DVDs. It also had 64Mb of RAM. One of the great classic games was Halo,
which revolutionised todays games.
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How sound is created for games

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More recently, Sony released the PS3. It certainly raised the bar with its 7-core CPU
and high end graphics. It had a built in Blu-Ray reader so games could be larger. It
featured Bluetooth wireless connectivity so that seven players could play locally. It
also featured the ability for gamers to be able to use older PS1 or PS2 games on the
PS3. However its original price of $600 means it didnt sell well initially, until the price
was lowered to $400, which is cheap for what you are getting.
Audio recording systems:
There is many different audio recording software out there however the four main
ones are Audacity, Logic, Cubase and Protools. These range from child friendly to
industry standard. Here is the four different softwares and how they compare to
each other.
Audacity is a free, open source software made by a group of volunteers. This means
that the source code is available for anyone to study and improve to their hearts
content. This also means anyone can contribute to the project by documentation and
testing. Audacity is multiplatform and works equally well on all platforms. As its free,
the features are limited but the basics are there. These include being able to record
live audio and computer playback, cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together and you
can edit WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Mp2, Mp3 or Ogg Vorbis sound files.
The next one is Logic Pro X. Logic is a Mac only software created by Apple. It allows
audio files and I/O resolution up to 24 bit or 192 kHz. It includes a vast array of built
in plugins and its own sound library. It allows up to 255 audio channels at once. It is
also compatible multiple devices including iPad.
Cubase is a powerful audio workstation from Steinberg that has been used by song
producers. It features an advanced MIDI sequencer which includes a key, score,
drum and list editors. It can be used on Windows and Macintosh OS X.
Pro-tools is the most powerful, industry standard, software for creating sounds and
music. Users can use up to 64 bits for their work. It allows up to 256 instrument
tracks, 512 MIDI tracks and 64 video tracks, all at once. It is used by many large
music and gaming companies as there are no limits on this software.
Audio sampling:
A sample rate is the number of times per second that a reading is taken. A sample is
where a value is located at a point in time. The closer the points are to each other,
the better the sound will be. Also the more times the original waveform is sampled,
the higher the quality and file size will be. A sample rate at a lower frequency will be
less detailed and could possibly miss out parts of the sound, making it jumpy and
unclear. The most common sample rates are 44.1 (CDs), 48 and 96 kHz. CDs use
44.1 kHz because of its limited size. This can be troublesome for
creators/developers if they record a (for example) song and it is sampled at a too
high frequency.
The bit depth is the number of bits of information taken at each sample. The higher
the bit rate, the bigger the dynamic range. For example, 1 bit = 6dB. So 24bit gives
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How sound is created for games

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you a maximum dynamic range of 144dB. Higher bit depths are used to record a
wider dynamic range, making them better for quieter recordings, where the sound
would be cut off at a lower bit depth.
Mono sound is when the sounds are mixed up and played through one channel. This
means that all the listeners will hear the same thing but the volume depends on how
close you are to the source. A good example of this is a laptop playing music in the
corner of the room. The sound is only outputting at one spot, so its easy for people
to locate where the sound is coming from and can move closer or further away from
it, depending on if they like it or not.
Stereo sound is when the sounds are played through two independent channels,
instead of one. This means that the sound comes from two different locations,
usually to the left and right of each other. However this does mean that if youre not
in the sweet spot, where you can hear both at the same time, it becomes unclear as
you hear one before the other, or only one source.
Surround sound is when the speakers surround the listener at a 360 degree angle,
unlike the others where they only output from where you are looking (for example a
stage). Again there is a sweet spot, but it is not as obvious that youre not in it as
stereo sound. The sweet spot covers a wider area too, due to having more speakers.
Surround sound is more common in homes now as people can use it in their living
room, and will always be in the sweet spot. However it does ruin the effect of locating
where the sound true source is coming from, as the sound is coming from all around
you.
Conclusion:
In conclusion the background to the creation of sound and music has been
uncovered; its not as simple as you once thought! To recap, I covered the ways
sound is created and with what software, the file formats they use the limitations they
have and some explanations of some of the more technical words. The link below is
to my website.
http://ellishardy13.wix.com/gamingassignment