Painting with Sound

[Legacy_Leurnid]

               Sound is an important (but often overlooked) element to area design. Beyond setting mood, sounds can foreshadow coming encounters, indicate hidden dangers, or serve as clues to the location of important features, just as a few examples.

A quick search of the vault reveals that many people have musical talent and have shared it with the NWN community, far fewer are willing to voice act, and the most neglected catagory is other sound effects... and this makes sense: far more people have musical tallent, some have tallent for voice work, but very few consider themselves foley artist, let alone know what one is.

Music is the fastest and easiest way to set mood, as long as you can find music to suit the mood you want. The problem with using music to set mood (in my opinion) is that it creates a cinematic experience, not an immersive experience. If you as a module designer want to tell a story, and view the players as an interactive audience, the cinematic experience is ideal, but if you desire to draw the players into your 'reality', one might want to avoid or at least minimize the use of music to places where it might actually be heard. Although the kobold orchestra is re-known for their exciting dungeon combat music.

Voice acting can help set mood or tell a story, but can quickly become a distraction. The ambient sound tracks for city, town, and tavern, include voice work meant to create the sense of a groups of people speaking, or 'Walla' - an onomatopoeia of the sound of groups of people speaking amongst themselves. Generally, one should not be able to make out entire phrases or sentences in walla, just stray words and inflections to give it a sense of realism. In radio productions, walla does not usually contain intelligible words at all, only murmuring. In NWN, the intelligible voices of the ambient audio tracks distracting for the same reason that professionally it is avoided. It draws attention to the sound, and as one hears the same phrases repeated more and more often, it erodes the sense of immersion that one as a builder is normally trying to achieve. Placeable voices have similar problems, but through precise or limited use can be effective tools for mood and story. Over-the-top accents or comical tones in voice work can quickly turn them into a liability though, unless they match the tone of the module.

Finally, sound effects. Nothing helps paints an immersive picture quicker than good sound effect layering: the rustle of leaves, wind in the trees, and distant animal cries. The sounds provided with NWN are good enough, but many have inconsistent recording levels, and some are simply bad. Recording good sound effects takes good equipment and knowledge of recording that not even most musicians and singers have, it is the domain of sound engineers and foley artists, and it explains why so few good new sound effects have made it into the NWN Vault.

I have explained some of my back-ground understanding of sound to help the dialog along, but what I am really interested in is what sort of sound-design philosophies and techniques do you fellow builders like to employ to make for richer environments, engrossing stories, and immersive experiences?


TL:DR '>
What kind of strategies and tricks do you use to paint with sound?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Fester Pot]

               For the weather system I've used and modified, I turn on the sound of rain hitting the rooftop on second or the upper most floor of interior areas, as well as thunder. So when a player happens to be talking to an NPC in a tavern and hears thunder rumbling quietly (never as loud as it would be if they were outside), they know it's raining.

In a wilderness setting, a player will hear different birds and sounds based on the time of day. So there are morning sounding birds, and by afternoon, those birds are no longer heard as the wind picks up and rustles trees, while different birds sing their tune. As night draws near, evening birds can be heard, along with the haunting calls of loons in the distance, and the creeping sound of crickets. With time ticking on by, the sound of crickets becomes louder as night settles in.

Other ideas I use are the howls of wolves or creatures in an area. If a player hears them at a specific hour and happens to walk through a spawn trigger, the creatures they may have been hearing will be spawned and drawn toward the player. A pack of wolves, for instance or even harpies flying down from above. If a player kills the harpy nest or the wolf den, the sounds of such creatures are never heard again in the area, as the threat has been taken care of.

While in a previous module, the sound of an owl hooting in a temple could be heard whenever the player entered, flapping along from one wooden beam to the next. When the player required an owl's eye to brew a potion, and the player returned to the temple, the owl was flying about. The player had to kill the owl to scoop out its eyes, at which point, the sound of an owl hooting and flying about were no more. Sound was used as a subtle hint to the player to let them know an owl lived in the temple - there was a conversation description for the temple when the player entered for the first time as well - but sound helped move this along quite well.

Sound is a great way to bring an area to life, and if care is taken to do so, music is not required. In fact, it could ruin the mood one it trying to set.

FP!
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Fester Pot, 25 mai 2012 - 04:07 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Leurnid]

               You bring up another great point, at least tangently, that I was hoping to have a sound discussion on as well... and that is volume.

I am curious what sort of volume preferences people have, both as they play, and as they design.

When I play, I usually have the 'Voice' channel dialed down to 5-25%, music will also get dialed down to 5-25%.  I really dislike both the voice acted prompts from the player character and the NPCs, and if music is used, I want it in the background. Othersound effects I usually leave dialed between 50-100%, depending on my mood and the amount of sound in module.

As a designer, my first instinct is to keep most of my sound dialed in around a 5, so I can crank some up to make them pop, but me second guessing that strategy is in large part why I started this thread. I figure getting sound advice (pun intended) from other builders would help me find a good strategy for sound volumes on placed and ambient sounds.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ehye_khandee]

               When building an Area, I specifically look for placeable or tile features that would be conducive to having suitable sound placed near it. All sounds should be set for a radius of 40m btw, as anything less is likely not to be heard by the PLAYER who generally keeps their camera zoomed out (and the engine determines if a sound is heard based on that distance iirc).

Pretty much all my wet caves have dripping sounds, all my ponds water lapping, my streams feature the noise of them that can usually be heard in whole Area (if large body like a river) or only nearby if a spring/small stream. We too have sound linked to weather in all outdoor Areas. Some indoor Areas have muffled weather sounds too iirc.

Basically, sound is a tool of immersion and we treat it that way. We seek to increase immersion with all our efforts, especially scripting-wise.

I do not set music on most Areas, unless they feature a band or other source of music. I leave musical choices, including when to turn them on and off, to the DM as they are best able to determine what fits the scene they seek to portray.

In wilderness Areas, we use a system to vary sounds such as breezes, avian movements, snapping twigs, etc.... some of these are also linked to events like monster spawns or weather. We too do the day/night variance in sounds.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par ehye_khandee, 25 mai 2012 - 03:25 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Leurnid]

               

ehye_khandee wrote...

When building an Area, I specifically look for placeable or tile features that would be conducive to having suitable sound placed near it. All sounds should be set for a radius of 40m btw, as anything less is likely not to be heard by the PLAYER who generally keeps their camera zoomed out (and the engine determines if a sound is heard based on that distance iirc).

I find it a regrettable convention of most video games that the audio pick-up and levels are based on camera location, not character location.

Out of curiosity, when setting the 40m radii, what volume levels do you go with?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_ehye_khandee]

               I tend to vary the volume setting (on the sound object) to suit the object, e.g. a large waterfall I'll make very very loud, but a brook would hardly make much sound (low low volume).  As mentioned, you can never guess what the users' settings on their game might be, so I just go for keying volume of object to the object itself. Hope that helps answer your question. '>

Oh, did I not mention trigger based stuff like a 'squeeky floorboard', or the sound of a stone dislodged as PCs approach a precipiece?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Quillmaster]

               Sound can go a long way adding to the ambience of an area.  A trick I’ll often employ is to consider the sounds present in an adjoining area.  For example, imagine a dockland area that contains a shop.  The docks themselves will benefit from the sound of seagulls, so there’s no reason that the seagulls shouldn’t be heard within the shop too.  If you place the same sound with the volume reduced (to allow for the fact that it originates from outside), within the doorway of the shop, it does much to the feeling of immersion.

Even without scripting knowledge you can take advantage of sounds within conversations, and you don’t have to be restricted to voice sets.  For example, you could have someone say “what was that noise?” and select an appropriate sound to play, or if you really feel adventurous, find a sound meant for something else that sounds like what you’re trying to imply.  I’ve used this technique to indicate pages turning in a book by using the sound reserved for a birds wings flapping.

You can also take advantage of voice sets for a designated NPC, although it must be said this can be quite time consuming.  Once I’m happy with an NPC voice set, I’ll often preview all the speech available, making note of anything I think I can use.  In an extensive conversation file such as that for a henchman, it can be a good idea to write down the sentence along with a note of the associated sound file so that you can find them easily when required.  In some cases you might even get lucky and find something that will inspire your creation even further.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Leurnid]

               I have been toying with the ambient sounds, and on further review, most of the 'walla' isn't as bad I remembered it being. It does still have the issue of being to dense with chatter to be of much use outside of a crowded market or similar environ thick with npcs.
I do wish there were some placeable walla, but most of the placeable voices are distinct phrases or conversations, making them distracting (imo).

I have collected some nice period instrument riffs and tunes I was going to set up as placeable sound objects, but am finding the process is more involved than I want to get in it right now, so I am putting that on hold until I get some other projects cleared. The one tut I found that seemed to address this was a bit dated (2002) and was not terribly comprehensive. Other tuts I have found are for voice-sets and music, both of which seem to be handled differently than the sounds available for use on placed  sound objects.

If anybody knows of a good tut or can give some clean step-by-step on making wav's available in the toolset, it will be appreciated.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Noldorsteel]

               Well when I build Underdark settings, I like to use "infinite dungeons" track because it is so epic and I always keep thinking in drow when I hear it. The "beholder caves" track is also great, but I tend to use it for mindflayer cities more. For the actual beholders I like the "sewers" music track because it is somewhat slower and  helps to create an  and twisted atmosphere for the tunnels.

For the forest and mine/caverns settings, I tend to leave the original music tracks because it fits them quite well.

But yes, sometimes a dark and narrow cave  without music tracks and only  "water drips"  ambient sound is just perfect. If the character happens to be from a race that can''t see in low light enviorments and/or has no source of light near.. Well the experience  of  just walking inside that cave can become really scary. (More if the character is a low lvl and is alone)

For a haunted/dark forest, cript or rural area I often put sounds of beasts, ghosts and strange animals combined with darker and slower music tracks like "Wyvern Crown Cormyr opening".

In urban settings my creativity just dies. I don't know why, but I enjoy to work with sounds in natural and wild areas more.  
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Noldorsteel, 05 juin 2012 - 12:22 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy__six]

               

Leurnid wrote...

If anybody knows of a good tut or can give some clean step-by-step on making wav's available in the toolset, it will be appreciated.

Just putting the sounds in a hakpak attached to the module should make them available in the properties of a placeable sounds (the Add Sounds button). However, to make them visible you have to click the radial button which says "Hakpak Resources only" inside the sound selection dialogue as I recall. There may be some requirements with regards to bitrate or whathaveyou, but I've always had sounds just work first time.

It's worth noting that only mono wav files will work for locational sounds, for hopefully fairly clear reasons.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par _six, 06 juin 2012 - 02:29 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Leurnid]

               

_six wrote...

Leurnid wrote...

If anybody knows of a good tut or can give some clean step-by-step on making wav's available in the toolset, it will be appreciated.

Just putting the sounds in a hakpak attached to the module should make them available in the properties of a placeable sounds (the Add Sounds button). However, to make them visible you have to click the radial button which says "Hakpak Resources only" inside the sound selection dialogue as I recall. There may be some requirements with regards to bitrate or whathaveyou, but I've always had sounds just work first time.

It's worth noting that only mono wav files will work for locational sounds, for hopefully fairly clear reasons.

No wonder I couldn't find a tutorial for placeable sound,  that is criminally simple.

Thank you! '>