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.

So, work begins on a bunch of new music. A part of me feels like I’ve been lazy, and then the rest of me slaps that first part upside the head, and I realize that I write music for a living now. True, it might not be exactly the type of stuff I’d listen to, simply because it’s not supposed to be, but hey, I love it nonetheless.

I was thinking of different ways to make it, swearing up and down that I’m done with 8-bit sounds. No more of them, none whatsoever, nuh-uh, it’s passed on by. And one day a couple of weeks ago, I was downtown, mentally humming to myself a really catchy tune, and planned the rest of the track out in my head. And to my surprise, it sounded very 8-bit. So I can’t escape, or rather, I guess I’m just ‘not done yet’.

There will be a difference, however, between the new stuff and anything/everything that appeared on Nothing Fancy. Part of what I said before was true; I definitely am done making 8-bit-sounding music, when everything on the track sounds like a retro-video game.

What I want to try is to mix some 8-bit leads, basses, rhythms, or a combination thereof with some actual drums. Piano. Guitar. Really rock the hell out, with a little help from my friends, Squarewave, Trianglewave, and Phasewave. Hey, even the noise channel, why not?

For three months now, all of the music I’ve been making has been under constant (though not negative) review. I can’t just sit down and make whatever I want. But being in that situation is only good, for it keeps me on my toes, and it really makes me feel like I’ve got to ‘get it all out’ when I’m making stuff outside of work. And that’s what this next album will be; me, and the melodies, rhythms, drums, chords that *I* want. It’s about that time that I finally unload some musics that are itching to get out.

Bombs away.

There are always things I want to learn. Sometimes, I find it really tough, other times I find it not challenging enough, but I always want to learn new things, especially if it expands on something I already basically know. I’m going to try and set some goals for myself this year, in reference to me learning new things. For example, this year I want to learn the following (or at least make an attempt)

• 1- Modes (Lydian, Phrygian, etc) – I know what they’re for, but having them memorized would really help. Maybe that doesn’t count in “learning” them, as all it is to me at this point would be pattern recognition, rather than the understanding I already have/had of them, but I want to learn/memorize them nonetheless.
• 2- All of my synths – I know how synths work, so when someone says to increase the attack time on the envelope generator, I know where to go. That’s not enough, though. If you take a synth like the ImpOscar or especially the Minimonstah, even though you know the functionality of each control on its own, I could really use to get to know my synths, as it can only help me get where I want to go faster. See also: quadraSID… that one’s currently a bit of a mystery.
• 3- Flash Scripting (edit – found a good resource!) – quite a change from the musical goals above, but I believe having a basic-to-good understanding on how to actually get something done in Flash would really benefit not only this site, but perhaps any program I may think of making in the future… which brings me to…
• 4- Programming/C++ – This was a goal for last year as well, and I’ve checked out a lot of resources I’ve been given, and this is something I could definitely grasp. Alongside this, I would love to get to the point of making an iPhone app or game.

So, as of right now, that’s what I want to fill my brain up with this coming year. Easier said than done, but I have a number of books on a few of the topics listed above, so at least I could take some of it in while being stuck at work.

So, people out there reading… is there anything you’d like to learn in the near future?

The Ladybug Challenge

My fianceé was doing a fake trailer for a fake game, and needed some upbeat 8-bit tunes. This is what happened. Short and happy, because that’s all it needed to be.

Anything before Windows XP should probably just stop existing right now. I’m serious. You. Yeah, you over there with the CB radio and the Philly’s hat. What are ya runnin’ there, 98? How about you just stop, sound good? At the very least don’t call your ISP and expect a quick and easy phone call.

I gotta say, I don’t know how we did it back then. I don’t know how we were able to have any sort of technological breakthrough that required any access to the internet in the least.

Oh, right… that’s how.

Did you know that, unless I’m mistaken, in Windows 2000, it’s almost easier to set up slow-as-mole-as-is dial up than it is to set up a basic broadband connection?

What’s even better is that we (the ISP I work for) actually don’t have correct documentation to help the few customers left who are still torturing themselves and us with their hopeless cries for help.

That was my last call I took this evening. Left me with a buzzing in my head. So I think a little music is in order, even though I just posted some. Here’s some more.

Speak of the Devil – Level 1 (click for description-o!)