Robot Cousin Soundworks

I’m blown away. I have heard audio heaven, and it is programmed via FMOD. Now, years ago, I heard about FMOD and was immediately interested in it, but didn’t know where to go from there. I’m on a mac, so I don’t have access to UDK/UnrealEd to really test out whatever I could make in it (my Presonus and WinXP don’t play nicely together, so sound design via bootcamp just isn’t happening anytime soon). Plus, it was an extremely complex program. Needless to say, I was disheartened by what seemed like a huge brick wall in front of me, made worse by the fact that I could hear the wonderful, gorgeous, dynamic sounds of Bioshock on the other side of said wall.

Well, today, I’m just checking around online, and I pop over to my new favourite sound blog, Designing Sound. Right there, as the recent update was a post about how the FMOD dev team have begun posting video tutorials of FMOD. I excitedly started watching, and didn’t stop until I had seen them all. I didn’t stop because I couldn’t stop.

I think I’m in love. My heart is pounding, I feel dizzy, all I can think about is our future, myself and FMOD. And I wouldn’t be half as excited if I hadn’t brought it up to a few important people at work, and they genuinely took an interest in perhaps integrating this into our programming and games!

Wow. Wowee wow wow wow! /Walken

Now myself and my fellow sound designer can’t stop imagining all of the possibilities that would be opened up to us, if we start using this. Right now, the programmers take our sounds, just as we make them (music and SFX both) and just place them into the games. There may be some looping, or slight volume adjustments, but nothing truly dynamic. And to be fair, doing that is a TON of work, and it’s not like we just put out one game every 2-3 years.

But if we used FMOD (and I’ll admit, FMOD isn’t the only sound API out there, but it seems to be among the sleekest/most user friendly), then we, the sound designers, can have that much more control over our content, and exactly how it works in our games. Right now, if we have a game that involves tiles being smashed like glass, and they want a random sound, that means that we have to create 3-4 different sounds, and the programmers just set them up to play randomly.

With FMOD, as you’ll see if you check out the videos, I could take those same 3-4 smashing sounds, and put them into one smash ‘event’. I would then tell this event to randomize the pitch by a set number of semitones, randomize the volume from 0 to perhaps -3dbfs, increase the polyphony and timing, and voila! I’ve now created a virtually-endless set of sounds to occur, and all the programmers have to do is call on that one event. FMOD handles the rest.

This is something that I will definitely be pushing for. A lot of people may think of FMOD as something that’s used in most big-budget retail games, but it’s actually applicable to anything you may wish to program, outside of Flash.

Here’s hoping. Either way, I will definitely be spending a fair bit of time outside of work playing around with this, now that I at least know how to get started.

I’m interested, primarily, in two things: Audio and Video Games. I’d like to talk about both for a little bit.

My fianceé and I have recently been very taken by Fallout 3. Everything from its epic scope to the setting, the humour, the style… it’s all so well done. For anyone who’s not aware, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic action-RPG (role-playing game). The basic setting is that after World War 2, in a separate timeline than of our own, technology really sped up and the world became very advanced, yet still maintained the “Leave it to Beaver”-esque society of quiet America. Then, in 2077, the bombs fell. All across the U.S., a company called “Vault-Tec” had installed hundreds of underground vaults, meant to maintain life and lifestyle well into post-apocalyptia.

The game begins 200 years later. You are born and raised in Vault 101 (Fallout 1 started you off in Vault 13, Fallout 2 didn’t start you in a vault at all). One day, in your late teens, your dad mysteriously leaves the vault, something you’ve been raised to believe was prohibited.

So, Fallout 3 takes you on one hell of a journey to find your father in the “Capital Wasteland” (ruins of Washington D.C. and its environs. On the way, you’ll meet raiders, ghouls (both friendly and non), scavengers, sentrybots, super mutants, and worse. As bleak and as harsh as it gets, you always have “Three Dog”, the sole DJ of the “Good Fight” radio station, Galaxy News Radio. He’s got a collection of 20-or-so 45s and he fills the air with tips, praise, disdain, and sweet, sweet music. Within a few hours, you’ll find yourself singing along with the Ink Spots, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and others, as you blast the hell out of anyone who crosses your path and wants to cause trouble (and even the ones who mean you no harm!). They even have a few episodes of “The Adventures of Herbert ‘Daring’ Dashwood and his stalwart ghoul man-servant Argyle”, which is highly entertaining on its own. My favourite part of that is meeting Dashwood in the game, and him mentioning to you that he hasn’t seen Argyle for years, but he believes he’s still out there. I haven’t found him yet.

Three Dog himself is quite entertaining as well. Bethesda Softworks has programmed and designed the radio station in such a way that, at first, he’ll start talking about strange or interesting goings-on in a particular town or spot. It’ll basically be a lead-in to a quest that you can complete, and either come out the good guy or bad guy, depending on how you handle it. The best part is, Three Dog will eventually get wind of how it all went down and update his listeners on what happened. It really pulls you in to the experience, and feels like you’re effecting the world around you, bit by bit.

One alternative to GNR is ‘Enclave Radio’. The Enclave is the apocalyptic version of America’s army. Well, maybe that’s being too harsh. They’re closed-minded, brute squad under the command of President Eden, who also happens to be the main voice behind their radio broadcast. You’ll find regular, public-domain American pomp and circumstance-ish tunes on there. I honestly haven’t listened to it that often, as I’m still thoroughly entertained by Three Dog and his selection of oldies.

Another voice among the dust and rocks is that of Agitha, a lonely woman who gets by in a small shack hidden out of view from most people. There’s a quest that involves traveling to a vault that was originally meant to contain all records of artistry and artistic ability. It is there where you find her the Stradivarius violin that she once lent to a friend. When you bring it back, she uses her HAM radio to broadcast her playing, which sets a very eclectic and disturbing tone to the sheer amount of violence and despair you’ll experience. Sweet sounds as heads fly through the air.

The sound design is spot on. The wind, the footsteps, the weapon noises… everything is done so well. You hear the meaty thud when your super-sledgehammer makes contact with the side of a super mutant’s head. The zap and then the eventual fizz from a laser rifle as it melts Talon mercenary to a pile of goo. One of the best/worst (’worst’ as in “so good it gives me shivers due to subject matter”) would be when you open up what is known as a “gore bag”. They must’ve recorded wet cabbage pulled apart while submerged in mud to get that one. (A gore bag is what it sounds like. Kept by the super-mutants, they’re almost like trophies of past victims.)

I’m impressed by the voice acting, for the most part. The inflection of the dialogue that’s spoken is really well done, but just like Morrowind and Oblivion, you have about 4 or 5 different voice actors playing a LOT of different parts. Every ghoul sounds the same, as well as every super mutant. There are some big name actors, however. Liam Neeson plays your father, Ron Perlman is the narrator (just as he was in Fallout 1 and 2), and Malcolm McDowell voices President Eden, something I actually didn’t realize until I happened upon that information on imdb.com. As for most of the other characters, you’ll hear voices thanking you for saving them, and then, not 5 minutes later, those same voices might be cursing you as they try to blow off your arms.

To me, sound and music is an integral part of the whole video-game experience, and Fallout 3 doesn’t disappoint. The score is moody and brooding, and contains hints of the music found in Morrowind and Oblivion, which is somewhat odd, since F3’s score was composed by Inon Zur, whereas Morrowind and Oblivion were scored by Jeremy Soule. Maybe Bethesda had strict guidelines in terms of melody. Reading about guys like Soule and Zur really light a fire inside me to become a better composer and get more work.

For now, though, I think I’ll just sit back, close my eyes, and listen to some GNR… but not while out in the wasteland; I’d probably get smashed by a Deathclaw.