Future Of Game Audio Asbjoern Andersen


What’s ahead for game audio? That’s the question we’re looking to answer with this brand-new interview series, with some of the leaders, heroes and influencers in the game audio world. And to kick things off, we’re excited to share this interview with Matthew Smith.

Matthew Smith spent more than 11 years at Rockstar North, as audio director overseeing the sound for legendary franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption and more. Now, he’s branched out into the non-audio side of games, while still continuing to work with audio plug-in development at Krotos, Ltd.

In this exclusive interview, Matthew shares his insights on what’s next for game audio:


Interview by Jennifer Walden



 

What’s one advancement you’ve seen in game sound in the past year that you’re excited about?

Matthew Smith (MS): Modelling the effects of an environment on a game’s audio, and how it reaches the player’s ears, has long been a passion of mine, and while there has been much work done on this over the years, it’s always remained a little niche. HRTFs, binaural, Ambisonics — they all seem to pop up every few years and then never properly take hold. The rise of VR seems to be finally changing that. I hope in a few years we’ll take far more immersive (which is not to say realistic) audio for granted.
 

What’s the biggest challenge for game audio at the moment – and how do you see that resolved in the future? Tech wise, what would you want to see for game sound?

MS: I think a bunch of the traditional audio tech concerns are borderline solved at this point. I might be expelled from the secret society of sound designers for saying this, but in-game I can’t tell the difference between a 48 kHz/256kbps mp3 file and the uncompressed 96 kHz file it was created from. Likewise, increasing simultaneous channel-count is a game of diminishing returns.

Instead, I think the fun and the challenge is increasingly in the tools — enabling the creation of huge quantities of crazy-detailed interactive SFX, and giving sound designers control of the huge resources available to them.

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with Krotos over the last year, makers of Dehumaniser. And what drew me to work with them wasn’t the tech behind the scenes, it was how instantly intuitive and natural their tools are for sound designers. Using it, you think, “Awesome Monster!” not “Awesome DSP!”
 

Creatively, what would you like to see in the future for game sound?

MS: Audio still gets dragged along by the rest of game development all too often, having to react to changes rather than being thought about as a core part of a designer’s toolset. Music and dialogue far less so, but certainly the overall sound design. And when you play a game like Inside, where that quite clearly wasn’t the case, it’s obvious how much sound design can offer beyond just the nuts-and-bolts of matching the visuals.

For years I thought it was a 99% cultural problem, but perhaps there is a tech route through it too

But enough whining, what’s the solution? No one single thing, for sure. For years I thought it was a 99% cultural problem, but perhaps there is a tech route through it too. If audio tools were good enough that mere mortals could create passable placeholder audio trivially easily, maybe people would experiment more in the early stages of design?
 

In terms of your own work, any exciting stuff on the horizon you can talk about?

MS: The team at Krotos have some amazing products in the pipeline. One thing we’ll be showing at GDC is Dehumaniser running real-time in-game. You get so used to most voice-changing tools sounding cliché and comedic; it’s a breath of fresh air to hear something sound totally natural and yet super-flexible. In a VR environment especially, where your sense of presence is that much greater, sounding like you really are someone/something else is incredibly powerful.
 

What opportunities do you hope VR will offer game sound pros?

MS: It’s a huge opportunity, in lots of different ways. What surprised me most about VR was the level of intimacy it brings to seemingly mundane things. I was instantly absorbed just blowing up balloons in the Vive setup tutorial, in a way a non-VR experience couldn’t possibly replicate. That level of detailed interaction lends itself so well to creating realistic, interactive sound design that will make or break the reality of a VR experience.

VR opens up a whole order of magnitude of useful detail you can go into and the interactivity is even more important, because you feel able to gently poke everything in the world, not just blow it up.

In my Rockstar days, we were blessed with the resources and talents to create super-detailed and expansive soundscapes, and I felt like the raw detail of the SFX we’d create had almost hit a wall. At times there was no need to make things any more detailed, as it would be lost. The challenges started to become interactive mixing, and higher-level problems. But VR opens up a whole order of magnitude of useful detail you can go into and the interactivity is even more important, because you feel able to gently poke everything in the world, not just blow it up.


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    Reward your players with the jackpot of 340 high-quality (170 original sounds), easy to use audio files that provide you with all the sports-themed audio your games will ever need!

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    ALL SLOT GAME ELEMENTS YOU WILL EVER NEED

    With numerous INTERFACE SOUNDS, such as REEL SPIN START BUTTONs, REEL SPINNING noises, REEL STOPs, BET INCREASE and DECREASE sounds, and all other interface buttons and TRANSITIONS, as well as WIN PAYOUT SOUNDs, such as short WIN TUNES, MUSICAL PAYOUT ROLLUP COUNTERs, SELECT and REVEAL jingles, various SYMBOL sounds, and FREE GAMES / FEATURE MUSIC LOOPs to fit any scene or situation (from strip-back relaxing background to upbeat catchy themes), this library is a perfect choice for your Online Video Slot, Mobile or even Land-based Casino Games!

     

    SPORTS-THEMED SOUNDS FOR YOUR FEATURE GAMES

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    With all essential action and foley sounds for most common Oympic Sports that have been included in this pack, along with ambiences and miscellaneous sounds – such as AIR HORNS, ARENA AMBIENCES, CROWD CHEERING and CHANTING, JUDGE WHISTLE, and more – this sound effects library will leave nothing to be desired!

     

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    Immerse your players in gaming experience like no other with almost every music genre commonly found in sport events, games and tv program. We have also included multiple variations and edits to make your workflow as fast and easy as posible.

    From INDIE ROCK, HARD ROCK and METAL, to multiple sub-genres of ELECTRONIC Music, FUNK, ROCK BLUES and other genres, from SHORT STINGS, JINGLES and DROPS, to LOOPS, music mixes in VARIOUS INTENSITIES, included content here is a must have in your audio collection.

     

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    Enrich your slot IP in seconds with beautifully mixed, AAA quality sounds brought to you by our team of industry veterans, whose 1000+ slot games worth of experience have culminated in this extraordinary sound pack!



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We’d also go to great lengths on Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption to try and capture the acoustic effects of an environment — helping to make a subway feel oppressive, or a sweeping vista seem grand, but in non-VR games it’s all about the space and relatively little about the player.

In VR, that whole world of super-subtle spatial audio clues is available to sound designers

The subtle differences in audio that everyone’s brain subconsciously reads with a simple tilt of the head, or moving close to a wall, are impossible to capture with the blunt movement of a third-person character, or even in first-person. In VR, that whole world of super-subtle spatial audio clues is available to sound designers.

On the same theme, the scope for conflict between visual and motion senses to cause nausea are pretty well understood at this point. I wonder how much we have left to learn about the role audio has to play in creating a complete feeling of presence.
 

 

What advice would you give to game audio pros, both those already in the industry and those looking to join it?

MS: I spent a good chunk of last year working on the non-audio elements of game development, making whole games from scratch with a tiny team, and it was a real eye-opener working hands-on in so many different disciplines.

It’s difficult of course to make the time to do that while you’re buried deep in the detail of a specialism, but these days it’s so easy to download a AAA-quality game engine for free and just dive in, following some YouTube tutorials. The perspective and empathy it gives you is incredibly valuable. So I’d encourage anyone in or wanting in on the game audio community to carve out a wee chunk of their time to find out what it really means to be an animator or a physics programmer, and hopefully become a better audio professional as a result.

That idea of a T-shaped person is nothing new, but in an industry that changes so quickly, it feels more relevant than ever.
 

A big thanks to Matthew Smith for his insights on the future of game audio – and to Jennifer Walden for the interview! As mentioned, we’re just kicking off this new series, so stay tuned for more thoughts and insights on the future of game audio.
 

Please share this:


 



 
 
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A Sound Effect gives you easy access to an absolutely huge sound effects catalog from a myriad of independent sound creators, all covered by one license agreement - a few highlights:

  • Introducing MOTION GRAPHICS, a complete Motion Graphics sound effects library from SoundMorph!

    Motion Graphics focuses on all the elements you might need for sound design on a trailer, a cinematic scene or a visual that is heavy with motion graphics, whether it be abstract or straight forward, Motion Graphics has all the elements and textures you could think of. Motion Graphics are something all of us sound designers run into at one point or another, so this library is an excellent addition to your sound effects tool box.

    Motion Graphics was created by and in collaboration with sound designer Rostislav Trifonov (SoundMorph Elemental library contributor).

    Motion Graphics features 650 24bit/96 kHz .wav files, all meticulously embedded with Soundminer & Basehead metadata.

    The library features:

    • 450 + designed sound effects
    • 190 + source audio files
    • Whooshes
    • Impacts
    • Risers
    • Stingers
    • Low end and Sub Bass
    • Impulse Responses
    • Passbys
    • Textures – noise, grit, glitch
    • Ambiences
    • Buttons and Clicks
    • Mechanical Elements
    • Granular effects
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  • Bloody Nightmare is a modern horror cinematic library aimed at the most cutting edge bone chilling productions out there.

    Whether you work in sound design, as a composer, trailer editor or as an electronic musician, Bloody Nightmare is a valuable new wave of Horror sounds that will surely cause visceral moments of terror and dread!

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Explore the full, unique collection here

Latest sound effects libraries:
 
  • A collection of 135 potion sound effects.

  • A collection of 140 individual power up ability sound effects.

  • A collection of 103 bowling sound effects.

  • São Miguel – Flows (supporter pack) is a collection that includes 14 looped files.
    The palette explores the sounds of the ocean, waterfalls, and hot springs. These recordings were captured in Moihnos (Cascata do Limbo, Praia dos Moihnos), Ribeira dos Caldeirões, Ponta do Arnel, and Furnas (Caldeira).
    Recorded in 96 kHz/24 bit, these sounds are easy to navigate and were captured using a Sony PCM D100.

  • ATTENTION: The audio preview only simulates gameplay to demo just a portion of the library’s content.


    Reward your players with the jackpot of 340 high-quality (170 original sounds), easy to use audio files that provide you with all the sports-themed audio your games will ever need!

    Create a casino masterpiece and a true immersion in your slots with this one-of-a-kind collection of royalty free sounds and music, expertly handcrafted to be a perfect fit for your games.

     

    ALL SLOT GAME ELEMENTS YOU WILL EVER NEED

    With numerous INTERFACE SOUNDS, such as REEL SPIN START BUTTONs, REEL SPINNING noises, REEL STOPs, BET INCREASE and DECREASE sounds, and all other interface buttons and TRANSITIONS, as well as WIN PAYOUT SOUNDs, such as short WIN TUNES, MUSICAL PAYOUT ROLLUP COUNTERs, SELECT and REVEAL jingles, various SYMBOL sounds, and FREE GAMES / FEATURE MUSIC LOOPs to fit any scene or situation (from strip-back relaxing background to upbeat catchy themes), this library is a perfect choice for your Online Video Slot, Mobile or even Land-based Casino Games!

     

    SPORTS-THEMED SOUNDS FOR YOUR FEATURE GAMES

    Need BASKETBALL game sounds, SOCCER / FOOTBALL, HOCKEY, BASEBALL, GOLF, TENNIS, TABLE TENNIS / PING PONG, SKIING / BOBSLED, SWIMMING or WATERPOLO, BOXING and even more? We got you covered!

    With all essential action and foley sounds for most common Oympic Sports that have been included in this pack, along with ambiences and miscellaneous sounds – such as AIR HORNS, ARENA AMBIENCES, CROWD CHEERING and CHANTING, JUDGE WHISTLE, and more – this sound effects library will leave nothing to be desired!

     

    ENGAGING SPORTS MUSIC IN ALL GENRES

    Immerse your players in gaming experience like no other with almost every music genre commonly found in sport events, games and tv program. We have also included multiple variations and edits to make your workflow as fast and easy as posible.

    From INDIE ROCK, HARD ROCK and METAL, to multiple sub-genres of ELECTRONIC Music, FUNK, ROCK BLUES and other genres, from SHORT STINGS, JINGLES and DROPS, to LOOPS, music mixes in VARIOUS INTENSITIES, included content here is a must have in your audio collection.

     

    With each audio file being drag-and-drop ready, presented in high quality MP3 and WAV formats with meticulously labelled keywords for your convienience, you will create the perfect gaming experience for your players in a matter of moments!


    So STEP UP YOUR SLOTS, GRAB ATTENTION and BUILD CONNECTION with YOUR PLAYERS! 

    DOWNLOAD NOW!


    SPORTS SLOTS at a Glance:

    • Symbol Sounds, Buttons and other Interface Sounds, Reel Spin and Stops, Trigger Sounds, Selection and Reveal sound effects, Music Loops for every scene and situation, Win Tunes and Rollups, Payouts and other short Celebration Tunes + much more!
    • Sports-Themed Feature Sounds: Basketball, Soccer / Football, Hockey, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, Table Tennis / Ping Pong, Skiing / Bobsled, Swimming, Waterpolo, Boxing and more
    • Numerous Variations and Edits of the assets, such as multiple lengths, intensities, looping and non-looping variants, and more;
    • Ready to use – requires no editing, labelling or splicing. Categorized, organized and individually labeled files for maximum use efficiency;
    • FREE Updates to higher versions, FOREVER!

    Enrich your slot IP in seconds with beautifully mixed, AAA quality sounds brought to you by our team of industry veterans, whose 1000+ slot games worth of experience have culminated in this extraordinary sound pack!



    DON’T DELAY any longer, you are only a step away from bringing your game to life. Take action and DOWNLOAD NOW!

    10 %
    OFF

   

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