Inventory Is Full

Interviewed in The Escapist!

I was interviewed along with Rich Vreeland aka. Disasterpeace about being a freelance sound designer in the games industry.

Check it out!

MONO MACHINE AMBIENCES

MONO MACHINE AMBIENCES
from Damian Kastbauer

coming very soon, bundled with JFFX-04 Buttons, Gear, & Equipment (JordanFehrFX)

New SFX Library Reveal!

I can now reveal that the new SFX library from JordanFehrFX (JFFX - 04) will be a double pack, of mono sound sources. Game Audio folks should take particular note.

Part 1 is BUTTONS, GEAR, & EQUIPMENT.

This is a grab-bag of foley and sfx recordings at 48k/24b mono
Including Buttons, Bags, Zippers, Latches, Switches, Clasps, Cartridges, Plugs, and more.

Part 2 is a release of old material recorded by Damian Kastbauer called

PART 2 is MONO MACHINE AMBIENCES

This is a set of 44k/16b mono recordings of machines, fans, and machine rooms. Perfect for making mono loops for use on actors in a 3D game audio environment like UDK. It also has some bonus machine SFX like hydraulics, turn-on sequences, switches and rattles.

Stay Tuned at https://jordanfehrfx.wordpress.com/

Award Nominations!

Hey all, I have been pretty abominable about posting updates on here, but some exciting nominations have come in on the road to GDC 2013.

Incredipede, the game I worked on with Colin and Sarah Northway, and artist Thomas Shahan is a finalist in Visual Art for the IGF 2013 awards. Well deserved you guys!

AND

Hotline Miami, from Dennaton Games has not only been nominated for Best Audio and the Seumus McNally Grand Prize at the IGF 2013 awards, but also nominated for Best Audio at the Game Developers Choice Awards which afterwards on the same day. In this category we will be up against the likes of Halo 4, Assassin's Creed III, Sound Shapes, and the Grammy nominated: Journey. Feels amazing to be in such company, and to be nominated along with the many great musicians on Hotline Miami for both of these awards!

Kickstarting a new feature film

Hey folks.

The wonderful and talented folks over at Glass City Films and myself are kickstarting a new feature film, that can't get made without your help. If you would like to directly support a feature film and get a DVD or more for your trouble, please help us share the kickstarter and support us!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/glasscityfilms/chrysalis-a-post-apocalyptic-horror-film

Audio Example - Saints Row 3 - Rain on Car

This clip is used for educational purposes only. All rights and credits belong to Volition Inc.

Excuse the low quality visuals, you can't actually see the rain, but know that it is raining in the game.

Saints Row 3 is a great sounding game! Even beyond the high level of voice acting, music, and music licensing that it usually gets credit for, there is a lot of great stuff going on in the SFX.

So, I was driving around in my smartcar and it started to rain. I listened and noticed something great! Even in a game this sonically complex, in a genre that has many games like it, Volition managed to surprise me with their detail. It doesn't rain very often for one thing, so having a special event for this was amazing to see.

When you are in a vehicle, the rain drops make a sound for hitting the exterior of the car, in addition to the standard rain on the street, and thunder ambiences we've come to expect. And when I drove the car under the awning of the gas station, I was delighted to discover the game responded in kind, and the rain drops disappeared. So you get this delightful rain on the roof of the car sound, if you are in a car with open air above you. Great little POV detail I wanted to share.

Cheers Volition.

Poll: Audio Plugins

I asked my twitter network if they could post the 3 plugins they can't live without, regardless of what tasks they perform. If you are reading this and your name doesn't appear here please do post your own in the comments for the group!

These are the individual responses, and summary at the end.

Austin Shannon
-Soundtoys Speed
-Waves L3
-PSP85

Alejandro Betancourt
-Ozone 5
-PSP Vintage Warmer
-PSP85
-Waves L3
-Waves EQ10

Sam Hulick
-Ozone 5
-Valhalla Room

Gavin Harrison
-Logic Tape Delay
-Lexicon Reverb
-Waves Puigchild 670

Dren McDonald
-U-he Ubhik-G
-McDSP 6030 comp
-Logic channel EQ

Eric Van Amerongen
-SSL E Channel
-LiquidSonics Reverberate
-GRM Contrast

Alexandre Saba
-Izotope RX
-Cubase Reverence
-Waves R-EQ

Jack Menhorn
-Logic Channel EQ
-Kontakt 5
-Logic Space Designer

David Mason
-Zebra
-2cAudio Breeze
-Waves R-EQ

Cedric (@technicienduson)
-Speakerphone
-Izotope Ozone
-Altiverb

Fred Pearson
-Digi Phasescope
-Altiverb
-DMG Compassion

Samuel Justice
-Trueverb
-DMG Equality
-Waves R-Comp

Matthew Marteinsson
-Waves H-EQ
-Decapitator
-De-verb
-Speed
-Waves R-Comp

Hrishikesh Dani
-MeldaProduction's MEqualizer
-epicVerb
-Roger Nichols' Inspector

Stosh Tuszynski
-altiverb
-Izotope RX
-Waves R-Channel

TIm Prebble
-reverse
-pitch
-convolution verb

Kpow Audio
-Massey Plugins l2007
-DMG Equality
-Valhalla Room

Jordan Fehr
-Izotope RX
-Pro Tools Time Shift
-u-he Uhbik Plugins (G & S mostly)

----------------------------------------------------
Top 3 Plugins
-Izotope RX
-Izotope Ozone 5
-Altiverb

Others with 2+ mentions
-Waves R-EQ
-Waves R-Comp
-PSP85
-Waves L3
-Logic Channel EQ
-Valhalla Room
-DMG EQuality

Helicopter Study

On Sunday, I was sitting in my studio doing some busy work, when a helicopter started circling the house. I didn't think much of it after the first pass, these things happen in a city. But after the second and third passes I whipped out my Zoom H1 in case it was going to be around for a minute. Sure enough it was circling for a good few minutes, and I got probably 5-6 different bys from fairly close. It must have been some sort of news/weather chopper to be circling low. Who knows what they were looking for.

So after I edited and cleaned the original recordings and filed them away in my vehicles folder in my SFX library, I decided to make some sci-fi sounds out of the recordings. A fun way to spend an afternoon. I had recently purchased the Uhbik plugins by u-he and using those and some EQ/Filter/Compressor plugs I made some fun sounds.

Here is a sample of one of the bys and a couple of other sounds I made from other parts of the recording. (mind you this is an .mp3)

Your Game's Elevator Speech

Some tips from a mini-talk at GDC about explaining your game to an asshole:

Data Request: Audio Controls

I have been thinking about audio options (ie, the options menu in the software) in games. Without getting into a discussion about mixing in game audio, which is a whole other beast, I want to talk about getting some data.

I think there are way too many assumptions and generalizations going around, that are not based in actual facts, about what players do with the audio controls that games allow in their options. I hear things said, and written about what players do and don't do with audio controls (especially music) and why they do them, and I seriously question if they have any basis other than speculation.

When someone says "people usually just mute the music in this type of game and use their own", or "if music is too repetitive, players will just turn it off", where are these things coming from? Logical assumption? Personal experience for the speaker that they are applying broadly? What if I said, "lets mix everything loud, and let the player use the controls to fine tune what they like", what percentage of players would even use the audio menu in the first place?

I have seen plenty of smaller games that track the percentage of players that mute the music, or the sfx(at the bottom of the article) in the options menu and publish that data. This is interesting, but I think we can collect even more useful data.

1) I propose that if you have a game coming out, with more specific controls for audio, say a slider or a scale from 1-10 on sfx, music, and potentially dialog, that you track that data and publish it down the line.

2) If you have already done this with a game, and have access to the data, put it out there for the audio community.

3) If you track, or have tracked this kind of player data, is there other data about how the players play your game that you can track, or have tracked, that we can match the audio controls data with, to try to detect play-style trends and how they related to audio? Perhaps there is an interesting crossover that can help the audio community understand what different types of players do with their audio.

Metal Squeaks

Today I recorded this incredible little contraption for some metal squeaks.

It was given to my wife for Xmas for her to hang jewelry from, who knows where her aunt found it. As soon as I layed my hands on it, I knew we would need to have a session together.

I don't know yet if this could end up being a new SFX library that I would put on sale through JordanFehrFX or not, there is a lot of material to go through.

Here is just a short clip of one take of a slower spin, and then it slowed down to 50% and 25% (recording at 96k originally).

Note, this is an mp3 for ease of upload to soundcloud.

Gamasutra's Top 10 Indie Games of the Year

Jamestown clocks in at # 8 and The Binding of Isaac grabs spot # 2

10. Atom Zombie Smasher (Blendo Games) [Windows/Mac/Linux, paid]

9. Dig-N-Rig (DigiPen) [Windows, freeware]

8. Jamestown: Legend of the Lost Colony (Final Form Games) [Windows/Mac/Linux, paid]

7. Bastion (Supergiant Games) [Windows/Xbox Live, paid]

6. Dungeons of Dredmor (Gaslamp Games) [Windows/Mac/Linux, paid]

5. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Superbrothers, Capybara Games) [iOS, paid]

4. Frozen Synapse (Mode 7) [Windows/Mac/Linux (iPad soon), paid]

3. Terraria ( Re-Logic) [Windows, paid]

2. The Binding of Isaac (Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl) [Windows/Mac/Linux, paid]

1. SpaceChem (Zachtronics Industries) [Windows/Mac/Linux/iPad, paid]