This is a sound re-design of a montage of clips by various games for a presentation on my abilities to create dynamic and expressive audio for game environments.
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How these sounds were made:
Final Fantasy 7 Remake:
Footsteps – Concrete floor with light saturation and RX7 Izotope tools to help clean up the sound for audio purposes.
Explosions – The explosions were a combination of hitting a metal bin, white noise and fireworks all balanced out with EQ, Compression and delicate use of reverbs to replicate the depth and impact per explosion.
Phantoms flying – The sound of the dodging of phantoms was created using coat hangers being swiped against a microphone, blended with a faded in metal garage bang to add depth and intensity with every passing.
Jump chime – Created using the sound of a metal key being manipulated with a frequency shifter to replicate Japanese dramatics used in animations.
Suspense riser – Created layering subdrops, reversed reverb tails and reversed time stretched garage door rumbling.
Mortal Kombat:
Punch sounds – These were created by blending broken celery, kick drum samples and a sinewave with harsh attack on a low pitch to emphasise weight under the punches.
Dramatic Synthesis – The synth sounds were a creative choice to add drama into the grotesques scene. This was created using FM synthesis in order to create something in-organic and aggressive to match the tonality of the scene.
Shief of blade – Running a metal spatula against a table and time stretching until the transients and tail matched the scene.
No Man’s Sky:
Flight sounds: The rising sound of leaving orbit was a blend of a washing machine recording placed into a sampler, raised to follow the pitch of midi notes to raise into aa smooth transition of intensity to smooth. This was additionally layered with rumbling noises of pitched down cars bypassing, a noise synth layered with reverb to fill space.
Ally ships: These ships were panned with automation to replicate the positioning that’d be implemented in Wwise, as the project was linear. This was created using the same washing machine samples, with low pass EQ shelving to show they’re outside our vessel. This was added with FM synthesis with saturation effects and multiple delay and modulation to add a futurist timbre.
Voice sounds: Sample of my own voice pitch shifted to fit the mix, with additional LA-2A style compression and modulation micro phasing to add a robotic sound.
Lasers: Sawtooth and Square wave synth added with saturation and EQ to create a simple laser “pew” noise.
Sea of Thieves:
Water – Recordings of ambiences before a storm to create the ambience of an open and damp space, combined with pitch shift recordings of water inside a bathtub. Preferably, recordings of a seaside would’ve suited as a better field recording, however, experimenting with mastering time stretching and pitch shifting water yielded interesting results.
Wind – Noise synthesiser with a slow attack with randomisation to re-create a light breeze in the air.
Cannon – Combination of a garage door slamming, firework, metal toolbox clanging and a sub drop to add weight. These were all blended with reverb and compression busses in order to parallel blend all components together as a form of audio glue.
Cannon moving/loading – The cannon moving was the sound of rolling tools over a wooden surface, which were then set to a loop and replayed within Logic to make a sequence. The wick load sound with made using a klopfgeist style click with EQ for softening.
Creaking – Creaking floorboards in my own home.
Shark – Use of bottled water for a fin splashes and my own voice pitched down to re-create a growl.
Dark Souls:
Executioner Smough – Wet vegetables crushed and recorded with pitch shifting combined with Waves “Wet” plugin to make the sound disgusting and uneasy to listen to. This way layered with vile breathing that’s pitch shifted with saturation for warmth to insinuate that he’s a creature with large warmth and size.
Dragon Slayer Ornstein – Sinister whispered phrases were recorded and placed with a large, wet reverb, followed with processing the phrases backwards to make the voice sound unreal and evil. This was then layered with a reverb riser to add suspense with each time moment of speech.
Executioner’s hammer – Spanner hit against another spanner with reverb and pitch shifting. Layered with a kick drum sample.
Ornstein’s armour – Rattling a tambourine and keys pitched down.
Reverbs – The reverbs played a vital part in the Soul’s sound, which is why the chamber was set with two kinds, both being large, which all sounds were sent to in order to replicate the large cathedral style room.
Unfortunately there isn’t enough space to mention all my recording and mixing methods, but I hope this gives an insight in my practices and methodology.
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