How to approach sound for an Open World game || Waveform

[@XGames-94]

When I was little i used to mute the music in open world games for a more immersive experience. A friend used to tell me it was like watching a movie without a score and that it was boring.

[@budderslime67]

How are you not famous

[@budderslime67]

Best Quality content I've seen I a LONG while.

[@youhavenoprivacyandownnoth8289]

cause he talks shit with the games he gives as examples

[@lewis1341]

2:30 "So which one of these two versions do you think would sound better in the game?" *Listens to both* "Oh, number two without QUESTION." "I would pick number one." *fuck*

[@gab_gallard]

Man, I was literally two years searching for a channel like yours! Keep up the good work. You're doing a great service for the game audio community :)

[@minimatamou8369]

"Wind's howling..."

[@Daniel-wy1uq]

It is funny what you say about ambient dialogue and how it makes you feel like the gameworlds keep going even when you turn it off. I am of the complete opposite opinion and I have not really seen a game do ambient dialogue in a way that actually make the world feel more immersive. The reason is that it is so obvious how the characters in games just stand and wait for the player like signposts and then trigger their pre-scripted dialogue when you get into range for you to hear their bit of dialogue. That really gives the opposite effect of makiging you feel like the world is existing when you turn if off or are not there. It literary reminds you constantly that everything is revolving and triggering around you as the player.

[@danemx5]

These videos are incredible. Found your music now i found this! Fantastic.

[@MarshallMcGee]

+Dane Flannery thanks my friend! New stuff on the way soon.

[@Joseph-le8nu]

a video about future type sounds would be cool.

[@stevebrooks1331]

Can't believe this channel exists

[@MarshallMcGee]

Believe it, bud.

[@stevebrooks1331]

@@MarshallMcGee Can't wait for the next episode! Really inspiring stuff! Especially the 'how you got into the industry' ep. That's almost the same way I got into post production audio! Keep at it mate!

[@smartmars603]

I mute the music because music doesn't play in the background in real life.

[@snugswashere6504]

I cannot tell you how many guns I have used in FPS games simply because they sounded cool. One of my all time favorites is the HK21 from the original COD Black Ops. The reloading sound effect used in for that gun was music to my ears. It was my go to in zombies simply for that.

[@YuriNoirProductions]

the video description is so true and sad at the same time. but there is a rising amount of people actually appreaciating these things and beeing aware of it :)

[@ConnorGrail]

I am so glad I just stumbled across this channel. Not enough people make quality content discussing game sound!

[@mat-rp5vq]

I think sound design May become my new hobby, your vidéos are great !

[@shadlad91]

Well as it always is I am late to the party sort of speak. None the less I am now subbed to your channel. It is not often enough that Audio/Videophiles like myself get a channel that talks about games and sound with a passion like our own. I am a gamer and I like your self turn off the music when i play most of my games. I have put a lot of money into my gaming room sound setup and because I too need to hear all of the smaller details which improve my immersion. I could not imagine having to play games with out my setup. Nothing beats playing say Crysis 3 for example and taking that sniper shot and feeling the sub woofers kick and the speakers carry clear gun trails after shots. Hearing the slight wind noise rustling the trees and grass or the rain in first stage fill my room like i was right there. On the other hand I hear games that are not the great and that can ruin the experience. Many have spoken highly of Battlefield 4 for example on war tapes but for me i can hear the flaws. Try the raining stage where you extract the vip from the Chinese Hotel building. As it is raining and the water fountains spray out you can hear others sounds being compressed or cut in order for the fountains to make their sound with war tapes selected. Hearing it in game would probably make more sense but you get my point. Anyways I could go on with how much i love game sound and all the details but long story short i really enjoy your videos my friend. Great content keep it coming . Maybe do a video on the bit rate of games sense we now have Dolby HD or DTS HD bluray sound. I see alot of misunderstanding about games and what bit rate they produce. Some feel putting windows or your sound card to 92/24 bit makes the difference or sound cars need hdmi output and such. Most games are still 44/16 or 48/24 so optical out sound cards that can support DTS interactive or Dolby digital live a related will be more then enough for a great 5.1 surronf experience. Great videos my friend take care. !

[@DestroyedArkana]

I enjoyed this video a lot, even though it was a little bit simplistic. I would love to see a video about music looping, because many games have short tracks of a minute or two but we hear them for quite a lot longer than that. Either that or a video on using the same theme or main melody in multiple songs, the first thing that comes to mind for that would be Undertale.

[@arddermout6946]

first you have an intro and after that the theme starts repeating itself without the intro appearing again in the loop. that's one way to do it I guess

[@xcryosonx]

Yep! Working with some of this stuff I can say its exactly as ard commented. You can simply set it up in middleware to have an intro play (something bombastic as part of your SONG, its up to the composer to write this of course) but then find the exact bar or waveform on the piece of audio to set your loop region at, some once that event is called up by the game, it'll play once then loop indefinitely. A great example of this I can think of off the top of my head is the more modern Pokemon games. If you play Alpha Sapphire for instance, and challenge an elite 4 member - it will cue the dramatic start for the battle initiation then seamlessly stitch that into the battle theme, which is simple 1 to 1:30 sec piece of music which is designed to continually loop. Writing loopable music on the other hand can be a real challenge, especially if you know its being used for long periods of time and you're trying to refrain from keeping it repetitive. The best thing you can do in this case is make the piece of music longer - think open world games that have vast expanses or stretches exploration that need some music, like GTA V (when you're not on the radio), they had an ambient score provided by Tangerine Dream that was closer to 2 - 3 min track lengths for those areas of the gameplay.

[@CorgiBear]

Hello Marshall. I'll start this off by saying, this is the first video of yours I have seen, and I think I am already in love with your content. I love learning about new things, that before I had no interest in, and I also really enjoy your editing approach. Your videos are as well put together as million subscriber content creators such as CGP Grey, Vsauce and CrashCourse. (If you are familiar with those channels) Anyways, I'll probably be watching the rest of your videos today. P.S. If you are curious how I came across you, it was through /r/Terraria. I was looking through your Weekly Building Contest posts on your profile, and saw an interesting video title and went ahead and clicked it. I wish you the best of luck in growing this channel, and thank you for the content ʕ ᵔᴥᵔʔ

[@JacobKinsley]

Man I'm just out here trying to find out the most scalable and robust way to approach playing sounds in a game where every object can have the ability to play sounds... The way I was thinking of doing it was having an object essentially create a floating sound source where the sound should come from. Like an animated water drip model spawns a sound player once it's created which plays a water drip sound whenever the animation is played. But every approach is like "noooo you can't use that it's not good programming practice" and you ask "ok, what should I do then" and people are like "hmmm... Uh... Well... I mean... You... Well, not that!"

[@TaraWindwalker]

excellent. So well done. I'd love to see/hear more informative videos like this. Thank you

[@schultenmedia9827]

I'm an audio engineer and this is a Great video. But I think that the music is also part of the overall soundtrack of a game

[@nicolacamposd]

C'est magnifique, well done mate!

[@soundfxlab2837]

I love your videos mate! See you in future videos

[@TheJayson8899]

I’ve noticed that when I got my new headphones (DT250’s) I started muting or severely decreasing the soundtrack in most games I play. Especially open world games.

[@MasterFGH]

Another great video, keep it up!

[@momissimo4087]

I am amazed!!! Thanks for your great job. I am looking forward to watching new videos

[@adrianogodinho8449]

I don't agree. A good sound in a game isn't unnoticed, it give you pleasure listening to it. I remember I loved to hear the stalker walking, in horizon zero dawn.

[@oa793]

no idea how these videos are on so little views, keep it up dude.

[@mariodeabreu]

Great videos man! Keep it up!

[@WangleLine]

How do you not have a gazillion subscribers?

[@The-Vay-AADS]

thank you marshall for your informative video! :) I'm a young, aspiring sound guy myself, currently working on an animation film for a portfolio. what you say here makes sense. the more advanced we get, the more "broad" the decisions are, they are less technical and more artistic. so sweet! :) can you maybe talk a little bit about your animation film workflow? i personally have it all in one project, going left to right with markers which are named after important sounds in the moment. this is a bit of a mess and its hard to keep track of evrything in my head. do you have any tips perhaps? I would be very greatful. :) thanks again, i wish you the best!

[@MarshallMcGee]

M3G4G0TH thanks for watching dude! Sure! To be honest I never use markers at all. It seems kind of silly to me to mark things that so obviously need a sound effect. I find that they clutter my daw and make the project less accessible. I like to mute everything except for dialog and get that all set first. Clear dialog is like the most important thing in film and animation so getting that squared away first is important for me so I have some good motivation that the rest of the project can sound good too haha. Next I go back and do all the ambience and background sound design. Wind, room tone, outdoor birds, chatter. Things like that. Then I'll do the foley and recorded sfx for things like cloth motion and small textures. At this point the animation is starting to sound like a real thing, and we're just missing big SFX and music. Then I'll do the fun design for things like monsters or weapons or whatever big props are in the animation. It's important to me not to do those at the beginning, because hearing them in the context of the rest of the sounds is really important for the design. Then I finally lay the music. This forces me to make the sound as moving and powerful as possible before the aid of music. Your animation and the emotion in a particular scene should come through well before you get to slap a song on there. Hope that helps. -mm

[@The-Vay-AADS]

Marshall McGee thank you, this is great advice. :)

[@DanHackettSound]

Great content, thanks so much!

[@yammoyammamoto8323]

0:26 - 0:32 That's all that needs to be said. Putting flat music into a glorious open world - turns it into a SuperMario platformer. NO-music, is the only way to experience Fallout, Witcher, STALKER... :)

[@mischiefner]

great vids, thanks

[@RyanBCreative]

Nice one Mr. Marshall ;)

[@doom4369]

OOOOOOH AND IM THE TYPE OF GUY THAT LIKES TO ROAM AROUND

[@gilbertofurtado5789]

Love your videos, keep up!

[@MrKohlenstoff]

Your videos are good, Sir!

[@papigaba8106]

Your content is awesome!

[@SophiaWoessner]

New Vegas not mentioned??

[@marcomamoto]

Nice channel

[@Rexodiak]

4:12 is that a minion?

[@cheeseball4421]

Him: *Mutes music in Fallout* Me: "Nooo stop!"

[@danger6204]

I'm sorry but playing a game like Skyrim without music is probably one of the stupidest things you can do. The music is some of the best of any video game ever and if you turn it off you are missing a major part of the game in my opinion.

[@youhavenoprivacyandownnoth8289]

Not mentioning Morrowind's wet, warm, marshy, ancient, cultish seed or feel.

[@kieran8266]

As a developer it's really weird hearing someone say that sound design isn't as "glamorous" as development

[@whowantsabighug]

I need to point out that Fallout 3 has some of the worst ingame voice acting I've heard. It's that really wooden VA who voices the rivet city guards and a few of the brotherhood.

[@MrGammer007]

Ahoy of sound design

[@diondimucci622]

That's a copyright strike

[@youhavenoprivacyandownnoth8289]

How exactly is the most cringe worthy protag ever, Geralt of Rivia, written by 'masters of the human psyche and heart'? Also, why put the voice actor numbers of Skyrim, as if it supported your point, when everybody still sounded the same? And how exactly are the number of sounds contributing to the quality of an open game? Dark Souls is silent for the most part and its one of the most immersive games ever.

[@Marauder1981]

way too superficial and short this video. Thumbs down.