This particular project has really grabbed my interest in the process of making sounds. Before this project, I was rather sheepish when it came to sound, as I felt it too complicated and time-consuming to get into, however now I understand what really goes into sound production. The tools used for manipulating and mixing the sounds I created I found to be quite useful, I didn’t need to create too many original sounds as I could change them to suit their use within the game.
To record the sounds, I used a cheap condenser microphone and did them all through either objects around me or through my mouth. I felt a bit concerned about the wind effects, which I had to make with my mouth due to the microphone picking up too much disturbance, however by adding in a few effects and cutting out the bad parts in Logic, I was able to achieve the haunting wind effect I was looking for. As for the footstep effects I simply recorded the creaking in my bed, I then added in an echo and pitch effects to make it into the normal footsteps for the main character as well as footsteps heard from above. The reason I decided to use these techniques is because they were quick and easy to achieve, I also had better control over the sounds which made them easier to edit.
The sound imports decently into the unreal engine, due to the variety of my sounds I am able to pick and choose what sounds go where, such as boxes, floors, etc. This allowing me to recycle my sounds.
I feel that my sounds don’t quite reach a professional standard, due to the faint disturbance within some tracks, however, with a bit more time I think I could have effectively cut out these sounds.
I found the music to be the most challenging aspect of the project, as I have no past experience within making music or understanding of how it works and where. I had a bit trouble deciding what instruments to use and what would be appropriate for the theme. I managed to produce 2 tracks, however, I feel these aren’t as good as they could have been. For the tracks I decided to research various different music that would be viewed as either creepy or unsettling, I didn’t want anything too scary or too innocent either, in the end I decided to draw inspiration from old music box sounds, which I found worked well.
The experience has been quite interesting for me, as I have had next to no previous experience with music or sound creation, however I feel next time I can achieve better results with better planning and techniques. Layering sounds on top of each other and creating something new is a technique I have briefly experimented with this project, however it has proved to be quite useful and I can see myself using it more and more in future projects.
jobierolfe 