- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Is Marty still enjoying his genelecs? I was disappointed not to see the taiko drums in the Channel9 video.
By the way, I can't wait for that Vol 2 soundtrack. I was playing Halo 2 the other day (no really) and hearing some really nice cues that I hadn't noticed before.
I've been playing with headphones lately, and it's really nice to hear all the ambiences that were layered in.
I'd like to encourage Marty and his audio team to push the envelope on this next one. Think in terms of bringing more discrete effects into the mix - you guys will have more voices to work with in the 360, no? One of the things I hate about FX librarys (i.e. Sound Ideas 6000 series, etc.) is that discrete sounds get smothered onto one stereo pair, so in addition to the car or cricket that you do like, you've got half a dozen sounds that you hate (like freakin' wind chimes during a thunder effect). I know that you guys create a lot of your own stuff, but I'd just suggest that instead of layering sounds to create a stereo pair or a spacialized mono-source - try keeping the discrete effects unlayered as much as possible. So that the fly whizzing around my head really does give me the creeps.
Also- you may try playing with sound-masking algorithms. Sound masking, for those who don't know, is where you have a sound which is masked (and muddied) by a more dominant sound - usually in the same frequency range. A sound-masking algorithm would detect when ambiences get "smothered" by louder, frequency-similar sounds - and automatically drop the BG sound to make room for the other. It's what usually happens at a mix - when you've got 10 different things going on at once, and it sounds like crap, so you start dropping out the unimportant stuff that's being masked by the more dominant sounds. Maybe it's similar but slightly different to the sonic priority system that you guys currently use.
I know you've got code that preserves voices for sounds originating in proximity or "on picture" - but I'd also recommend employing some techniques from feature mixing, where essentially silent scenes aren't all that silent, due to the fact that ambiences and incidental noises (and distant sounds) are boosted slightly. It's like compression, except it's more expressive. I know a lot of sound fx editors (one who worked on LOTR) who just love to cut ambiences to create mood and atmosphere. The LOTR guy would take some bassy rumbles and insert them into the scene to heighten the tension - it's also a great way to give a very distant effect some presence without overpowering the FG. Some of this involves (as you guys did on H2) EQ and adding reverb - but hey, it might be interesting to tweak that even further, and create a different explosion or rumble which represents the very "distant incarnation" of that effect.
Of course, you guys might do all of the above or none of the above, and the game will still kick ass and sound great. Best of luck.