Engines and Middleware 1 - Assignment 1: Audio Implementation

---

One of the big pieces of work I submitted back in April this year was the audio implementation assignment of my Engines and Middleware 1 module. Working in a group with my friends and fellow game audio students Adam White (@AdamRWhitehead) and Aaron Turner, the objective for this module was to take an existing Unreal Engine 4 game with all the original audio assets removed, and substitute them with our own (hopefully suitable) replacements.

The specific game we were given for this task with was the tower defence strategy game from the UE4 example game projects collection.

---

Manchester Field Recording with Martyn Ellis

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to go field recording with audio engineer, Foley artist and all-round audio wizard Martyn Ellis (@Ellis_Audio). It was an incredibly fun and rewarding experience, so I thought I'd throw a few sentences together about it on here!

Over a two-day period, we scouted out several locations around Manchester to record interesting ambiences and capture a variety of city soundscapes; all the while experimenting with different configurations of mic types, polar patterns and mic positions, including mid-side & binaural recording setups.

Along with fellow game audio students Adam Whitehead (@AdamRWhitehead), James Balshaw and Josh Hindle (@BassFaceBindle), we set up our recording gear (including our very own disembodied polystyrene head for the binaural sounds, which definitely drew some funny glances from onlookers) and got to work. Whilst we were out and about, we also had a fortuitous encounter with NJ Apostol - the audio designer from White Paper Games - and got to briefly chat about game audio with him. Very cool indeed!

Fancy a listen? Here's a few samples of what we recorded :

New Bailey Street/Chapel Street Crossroads

Binaural Head Recording - Sennheiser Lav MKE2 Gold Mic Pair

First up is a binaural recording we sourced from the junction of New Bailey Street and Chapel Street, right next to Salford Central station. The mics were taped to either side of the head, and covered with Rycote Ristretto Lav mic windshields to attenuate wind sounds. I like this recording a lot as it's really cool being able to hear a busy detailed audio picture in your head of cars passing by on the left and right. We were even lucky enough to snag the sound of a rattling overhead train as it makes its way into the station.

Binaural Recording - Manchester, New Bailey Street/Chapel Street Crossroads

Deansgate

ORTF Pair - Superlux CM H8Ks with Omnidirectional Capsules

Another roadside recording, this time we were situated on Deansgate, the busy main street of Manchester. As you might have guessed, we were to capture some really beefy passing car sounds from the traffic from this position! The omnidirectional capsules on the Superlux mics really helped to capture the detail of the scene without also picking up extraneous wind noise.

ORTF Recording - Manchester, Deansgate

Trinity Bridge Construction Site

Mid-side Pair - Sennheiser MKH 8060 (Mid) and AKG C414 (Side)

For this recording, we set up just outside a loud construction site close to Trinity Bridge. What was good about this location was that the tall buildings and walls surrounding the construction site provided a lot of hard surfaces for all the bangs and engine rumbling to reverberate against, which created a nice sense of distance and depth in the recording.

Mid-Side Recording - Manchester, Trinity Bridge

Big thanks to Martyn for showing us game audio greenhorns the field recording ropes, it was really useful! 

Simran Whitham - Sound Design for 'The Stages'

Alongside my core Game and Interactive Audio studies, I had the opportunity to provide sound design help to my friend Simran Whitham with his Unreal 4 game 'The Stages' during my first year studying at Futureworks. The Stages is a first-person platforming game in which the player has to pause the flow of time (using a fancy-schmancy time glove) to navigate otherwise impassable obstacles.

When thinking about how to create interesting sound assets for the time stop mechanic for The Stages, I was heavily inspired by the excellent sound design found in Remedy Entertainment's Quantum Break; a game centred around the concept of time travel. I wanted to come up with something similar to the tinkly, crystalline glass sounds used in Quantum Break to signify the distortion and manipulation of the flow of time. 

Below is the collection of sound effects and variations I put together for The Stages:

TheStages_TimeStop_GlassReversed

TheStages_TimeStopDry

TheStages_TimeStopDelay

TheStages_TimeStopTickingClock

TheStages_CarpetFootsteps

TheStages_FlagstoneFootsteps

TheStages_WoodFootsteps

I created these audio assets through a combination of recording my own original sounds and editing together and manipulating a couple of pre-existing audio samples. Here's some more detail on each specific sound:

Time Stop

To achieve the core time stop effect, I reversed a glass breaking sample to get a nice glassy 'woosh' effect, and combined it with a reversed lightbulb pop sound to give it a percussive finish.

Glass breaking sample: GN2013, 'Breaking Glass Stereo' freesound.org/people/GN2013/sounds/199906/

Lightbulb pop sample: jorickhoofd, 'Exploding Lightbulb 2' freesound.org/people/jorickhoofd/sounds/179264/

Time Stop (Delay)

For this variant, I added a low rumble to the crescendo of the glass sample to give the effect a bit more of a dramatic, unsettling feel. I also added a tape delay to the glass and pop sounds to give the treble elements an eerie decay.

Wood Footsteps

I recorded these footstep sounds on the wooden floor of Futureworks' Custom Pre studio live room. I enjoy the percussive trebly clack to the these footsteps, but the mic also picked up a lot of trouser rustling noises from my jeans. Need to wear quieter trousers next time!

Carpet Footsteps

These sounds were recorded on the carpeted floor of the Custom Pre studio control room. Struggled to eliminate the background hum from this one; managed to get most of it out with some surgical EQ-ing, but lost some of the detail and top-end in the process.

Recording and Production 1 - Creature Comforts (Assignment 1)

After several months of hard work, I submitted Assignment 1 for my Recording and Production 1 module at Futureworks today - phew!

Working with my fellow game audio students Joe Foulds (@Foulds_Joe) and Josh Hindle (@BassFaceBindle), our brief for the assignment was to replace all the original audio from a Creature Comforts clip with our own recorded sounds. I was primarily involved with recording the musical elements of the project, recording and performing Foley work and transcribing and editing the script for the VO actors.

Here's the finished production we came up with:

Creature Comforts Intro - Music Re-Design

I’m really pleased with how this one turned out (if I do say so myself). Anyway, onwards, ever onwards; Assignment 2 will be due in shortly, so I'd best get cracking with that!