Sound editor and recordist Fred Pearson got the opportunity to speak with the audio team from CD Projekt Red, and in this special interview, they give you the inside-story behind the sound for this massive game:
The debut trailer for The Witcher 3
Fred Pearson: Firstly, congratulations on your recent Golden Joystick award wins (Ultimate Game of the Year, Best Visual Design, Best Gaming Moment and Best Storytelling). The audio is such a big part of The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, when competing with so many other assets, what challenges did you face fitting so much audio content into the game?
Krzysztof Lipka, Senior Sound Designer: Thanks for your kind words about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt! On the creative side, one of the toughest challenges was to shape a soundscape that would support the story. Given how deeply nonlinear the game is, we had to rethink and often completely change our approach. This involved making loads of tweaks on our custom sound implementation tools to grant every in-game scenario its own vibe. Possibly the best example here is the weather system. On the one hand, it can run wild, do its thing, while set free to roam, but on the other hand it can be carefully controlled during important story moments that required custom treatment.
The second major “creative” challenge was to deliver audio layers that would be very natural and organic and yet be a magical gel bringing together all other in-game assets. Basically, our aim was to pollute the world with plenty of believable and highly detailed, specific sounds that wouldn’t feel repetitive, that would feel very organic.
We consciously took a kind a rebel/garage approach towards sound design to to make players feel that this was not an average RPG game, not a standard title, but something that was in some way “dirty” and natural
So we created tons of sfx variations for everything that needed sound support… You can imagine how hard it was to make that happen. Simultaneously, we consciously took a kind a rebel/garage approach towards sound design to to make players feel that this was not an average RPG game, not a standard title, but something that was in some way “dirty” and natural, and thus mature. Besides that we faced loads of technical challenges, but that’s far too broad a topic to discuss briefly.
Fred: From an auditory perspective, the environments are one of the highlights of the game for me – my first ‘wow’ moment was when first riding into the forest and wind started whipping up and rushing through the trees. I ended up standing still and just listening for 10 minutes. How did you go about implementing that and making the weather so dynamic and believable?
Paweł Daudzward, Senior Sound Designer: Thanks. We put a lot of effort into this area, since it’s a layer that is with the player at all times. We opted to base everything on dynamic, living systems rather than resorting to single tracks that would have the full set of ambient sounds burned into them. So we set everything up to respond dynamically to various parameters such as wind speed, rain/storm intensity, time of day, location… To work, everything had to be split into its individual components: wind characteristics, water components (wave intensities, water types), leaves rustling (a few different types and intensities), branches cracking or other elements breaking due to stormy conditions, rain, thunder, etc.
Likewise, birds and other wildlife had to be assigned separate, clean sounds… Our most difficult job was to remove any unwanted noise from all those elements, all those components either we recorded ourselves or gathered from sound libraries.
Birds and other wildlife had to be assigned separate, clean sounds
Each sound had to be fine-tuned to the system, to everything down- and upstream of it, so that the resulting mix of components was not muddy, instead, letting all the important gameplay sounds come through. Having all those ingredients reacting independently to the various factors, then supplementing that with asset randomization, resulted in the soundscape you hear, a soundscape that is thoroughly dynamic and hardly ever identical in technical terms.
A look at the many different worlds of The Witcher 3
Fred: The Witcher is extremely dialogue-heavy and the story firmly depends on it. Roughly how many hours of dialogue do you have in the game and how long did it take to record it? Do you have any interesting stories from the recording process?
Krzysztof: Dialogue recording sessions were a constant throughout the production process. They were a major team effort that involved a dedicated localization team, outsourced dubbing studios and, of course, a lot of support from the game’s sound designers. The recordings started in the project’s early stages and went on for nearly a year. In the end, the game included around 45 thousand lines. You need to take that number and multiply it by 7, because that is the number of full language versions we had. I believe, on a per language basis, dialogue voiceovers totaled more than 48 hours of audio.
The outsourced dubbing studios handled 99.9% of the voiceovers, though there was a handful of special cases for which we recorded material in-house, though this mostly applied to the Polish language version. We also handled all of the VO mastering and the post-processing of specific lines (around 9 thousand lines per language) internally.
I remember this being a blast that gave us tons of cool material to work with, not to mention having our sound studios filled with game devs screeching, hissing, roaring and shouting for hours on end
Finally, we also organized the recording sessions for monster noises as well as human grunts and taunts. I remember this being a blast that gave us tons of cool material to work with, not to mention having our sound studios filled with game devs screeching, hissing, roaring and shouting for hours on end. One of the coolest sessions involved recording sounds for all the sex cut scenes in the game. By the time we were done, we had more than 2 hours of raw material that we later trimmed down to something that accounts for no more than 2 minutes of the in-game audio.
Limited offer – article continues below:
NB: If you don’t receive the email with the download link, please check your spam folder. Oh, and existing newsletter subscribers can of course get the sounds too.
0334 – night frog orchestra.wav
0490 – nature rain.wav
076_Foley_Footsteps_Concrete_High_Heel_Walk_Normal_Distance.wav
136_Foley_Footsteps_Gravel_Boot_Walk_Normal_Distance.wav
256_Foley_Footsteps_Hardwood_Business_Walk_Normal_Distance.wav
356_Foley_Footsteps_Carpet_Boot_Walk_Normal_Distance.wav
515_Foley_Footsteps_Timber_High_Heel_Walk_Normal_Close.wav
Ailing Machine 01.wav
Air Compressor_Quick Pulses_Contact.wav
Air Horns 3-Air Hornes,Referee Whistle,Crowd Ambience.wav
Alien Insects.wav
Animal Screech On By.wav
App Button Beep Vintage 1980.wav
Applause 1 – Applause, Clapping, Crowd Ambience.wav
Audience applauding 06.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Ambience & Backgrounds – Bar Crowd.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Ambience & Backgrounds – German Toasting Song.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Ambience & Backgrounds – New Mexican Diner 01.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Cash Registers – Cash Money Ringer.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Champagne – Champagne Cork 02.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Drink Mixing – Ice Machine Dig Into Glass 02.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Food Prep – Chef Sharpens Knife 01.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Glasses – Stacking a Glass 01.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Kegs – Moving a Keg 01.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Pots & Pans – Pots and Pans Noise.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Soda Guns – Soda Gun 02.wav
Bars & Restaurants – Toasts – Glass Clink 02.wav
Bend Deluxe.wav
Bent Beat 01.wav
Camera digital SLR Canon 60d shutter clicks-burst .wav
Cell phone HTC H2 beeps-camera .wav
Confirmation_Consonant_05.wav
Confirmation_Consonant_13.wav
Confirmation_Light_03.wav
Confirmation_Light_08.wav
Confirmation_Light_14.wav
CONTACT_MIC_MONO_Glass_Door_Slide_1.wav
CONTACT_MIC_MONO_Glass_Door_Slide_Muted_1.wav
CONTACT_MIC_MONO_Glass_Door_Slide_Rails_clicking_1.wav
CONTACT_MIC_MONO_Shaking_Glass_Door_1.wav
Data Scanning_01.wav
Data Scanning_03.wav
Data Scanning_07.wav
Data Scanning_11.wav
Data Scanning_17.wav
Denial_Simple_06.wav
Denial_Spectral_04.wav
Denial_Tonal_05.wav
Denial_Various_09.wav
Deny Selection.wav
Eternal Encryptor_Drone.wav
Female genuine belly laughter 02.wav
Force Field 01.wav
Hard Laser Zap.wav
Hawk’s Arrow Flies Bow and Arrow shoot 1.wav
Human – Burping – Burp 1.wav
Human – Drinking & Swallowing – Slurp 5.wav
Human – Eating – Chewing Celery 1.wav
Human – Footsteps – Clogs on Concrete.wav
Human – Gasping – Male Gasp 3.wav
Human – Groaning – Female Moan Mmm 3.wav
Human – Kissing – Big Love Kisses.wav
Human – Laughing – Female Giggle 2.wav
Human – Sniffing & Sneezing – Male Sneeze 2.wav
Human – Spitting – Spitting Liquid 1.wav
Human – Urinating – Urinating 5.wav
Human – Yelling – A Male Yells Yeah.wav
Human Whistle Notification Sound 01.wav
Indian Woodwind Notification Sound 03.wav
Interference 01.wav
KBMacbokpTk01IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk01IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk01IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk01IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk01IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk01OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk01OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk01OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk01OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk01OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk02IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk02IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk02IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk02IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk02IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk02OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk02OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk02OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk02OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk02OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk03IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk03IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk03IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk03IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk03IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk03OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk03OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk03OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk03OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk03OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk04IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk04IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk04IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk04IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk04IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk04OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk04OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk04OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk04OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk04OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk05IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk05IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk05IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk05IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk05IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk05OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk05OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk05OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk05OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk05OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk06IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk06IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk06IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk06IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk06IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk06OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk06OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk06OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk06OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk06OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk07IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk07IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk07IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk07IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk07IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk07OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk07OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk07OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk07OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk07OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk08IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk08IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk08IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk08IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk08IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk08OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk08OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk08OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk08OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk08OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk09IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk09IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk09IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk09IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk09IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk09OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk09OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk09OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk09OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk09OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk10IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk10IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk10IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk10IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk10IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk10OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk10OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk10OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk10OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk10OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk11IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk11IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk11IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk11IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk11IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk11OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk11OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk11OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk11OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk11OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk12IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk12IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk12IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk12IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk12IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk12OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk12OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk12OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk12OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk12OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk13IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk13IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk13IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk13IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk13IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk13OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk13OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk13OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk13OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk13OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk14IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk14IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk14IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk14IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk14IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk14OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk14OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk14OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk14OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk14OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk15IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk15IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk15IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk15IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk15IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk15OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk15OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk15OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk15OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk15OT_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk16IN_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk16IN_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk16IN_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk16IN_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk16IN_91_115.wav
KBMacbokpTk16OT_116_127.wav
KBMacbokpTk16OT_1_20.wav
KBMacbokpTk16OT_21_55.wav
KBMacbokpTk16OT_56_90.wav
KBMacbokpTk16OT_91_115.wav
KD Drone Approaching Plane.wav
Lengthy Glitch 01.wav
Lengthy Glitch 03.wav
Lengthy Glitch 09.wav
Lengthy Glitch 14.wav
Lengthy Glitch 18.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Retro 01.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Retro 02.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Simple 02.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Simple 03.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Synth 01.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Synth 02.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Tiny 01.wav
LV-HTIS Beeps Tiny 02.wav
LV-HTIS Buttons 01.wav
LV-HTIS Buttons 02.wav
LV-HTIS Buttons 09.wav
LV-HTIS Buttons 26.wav
LV-HTIS Buttons 35.wav
LV-HTIS Buttons 59.wav
LV-HTIS Clicks 05.wav
LV-HTIS Clicks 14.wav
LV-HTIS Clicks 17.wav
LV-HTIS Data Processing 08.wav
LV-HTIS Data Processing 10.wav
LV-HTIS Data Processing 20.wav
LV-HTIS Data Processing 26.wav
LV-HTIS Electric Sparks Song Synth.wav
LV-HTIS Energy Burst 01.wav
LV-HTIS Micro High Tech 05.wav
LV-HTIS Micro High Tech 07.wav
LV-HTIS Micro High Tech 11.wav
LV-HTIS Micro High Tech 24.wav
LV-HTIS Micro High Tech 46.wav
LV-HTIS Power Down 01.wav
LV-HTIS Power Up 01.wav
Machine Charge.wav
MAFX001 wind wren robin blackbird -excerpt-.wav
MAFX002 Leather Mic Pouch coil zipper – fast zips.wav
Male crazy cackling laughter.wav
Male Huff 01.wav
Medium Glitch 08.wav
Medium Glitch 16.wav
Medium Glitch 20.wav
Medium Glitch 23.wav
Medium Glitch 29.wav
Metallic Hit Notification 03.wav
MSMacbokpTk01IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk01IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk01IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk01IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk01IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk01OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk01OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk01OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk01OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk01OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk02IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk02IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk02IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk02IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk02IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk02OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk02OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk02OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk02OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk02OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk03IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk03IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk03IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk03IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk03IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk03OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk03OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk03OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk03OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk03OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk04IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk04IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk04IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk04IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk04IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk04OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk04OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk04OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk04OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk04OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk05IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk05IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk05IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk05IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk05IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk05OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk05OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk05OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk05OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk05OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk06IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk06IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk06IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk06IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk06IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk06OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk06OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk06OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk06OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk06OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk07IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk07IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk07IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk07IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk07IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk07OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk07OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk07OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk07OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk07OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk08IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk08IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk08IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk08IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk08IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk08OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk08OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk08OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk08OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk08OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk09IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk09IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk09IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk09IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk09IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk09OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk09OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk09OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk09OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk09OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk10IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk10IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk10IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk10IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk10IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk10OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk10OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk10OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk10OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk10OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk11IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk11IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk11IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk11IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk11IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk11OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk11OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk11OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk11OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk11OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk12IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk12IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk12IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk12IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk12IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk12OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk12OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk12OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk12OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk12OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk13IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk13IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk13IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk13IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk13IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk13OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk13OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk13OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk13OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk13OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk14IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk14IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk14IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk14IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk14IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk14OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk14OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk14OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk14OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk14OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk15IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk15IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk15IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk15IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk15IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk15OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk15OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk15OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk15OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk15OT_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk16IN_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk16IN_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk16IN_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk16IN_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk16IN_91_115.wav
MSMacbokpTk16OT_116_127.wav
MSMacbokpTk16OT_1_20.wav
MSMacbokpTk16OT_21_55.wav
MSMacbokpTk16OT_56_90.wav
MSMacbokpTk16OT_91_115.wav
Navigation_Button_01.wav
Navigation_Button_05.wav
Navigation_Button_08.wav
Navigation_Button_12.wav
Navigation_Close_02.wav
Navigation_Close_09.wav
Percussion Rhythmic Alarm 02.wav
PLUNGER_Hit_Water_Bucket_Room_Reverb_10.wav
PLUNGER_Push_Air_Water_Drops_Bucket_Room_Reverb_1.wav
PLUNGER_Push_Expressive_Water_Drops_Bucket_Room_Reverb_2.wav
Pony Blow_03.wav
Pony Nicker Heavy_05.wav
Pony Nicker Soft_07.wav
Pony Whiny Heavy_06.wav
Pony Whiny Heavy_08.wav
Pony Whiny Heavy_10.wav
Pony Whiny Soft_04.wav
Portable Old Cassette Player, Clunk of play button with static noise.wav
Protests_99_Percent_03_Ravenswood.wav
Protests_Cheer_04_Ravenswood.wav
Quick Glitch 01.wav
Quick Glitch 06.wav
Quick Glitch 11.wav
Quick Glitch 35.wav
Quick Glitch 41.wav
Quick Glitch 43.wav
Quick Glitch 54.wav
Quick Glitch 57.wav
Quick Glitch 61.wav
Quick Glitch 64.wav
Rapid Teleportation.wav
Repulsor Beam.wav
reso euro amb Vol 1 Prague Quiet Side Street.wav
reso euro amb Vol 2 Prague Train Past on Bridge R-L.wav
reso euro amb Vol 2 Prague Tram Up Past L-R.wav
reso HK amb MTR Station Announcement.wav
reso HK amb Tram Past with Bell.wav
Retro Radio, Loud, Static and hum with frequency change 03.wav
Riff Malfunction 03.wav
Riff Malfunction 04.wav
Rising Alien To The Rescue.wav
Robot Transform.wav
Robotic Malfunction.wav
Scanner 02.wav
Sci-Fi Alert 01.wav
Sci-Fi Atmosphere – Clipper.wav
Sci-Fi Atmosphere – Proceed With Care.wav
Short & Sweet 01.wav
Short & Sweet 03.wav
Short & Sweet 07.wav
Soundholder Audi A4 B8 20TDI Engine Driving Gas Pedal 2 Mono.wav
Soundholder Audi A4 B8 20TDI Foley Back Lift Mechanism Engine Stereo.wav
Soundholder Baltic Sea Foley Water Movement Slow 2 Mono.wav
Soundholder BMW 114i Outside Passby High Speed Stereo.wav
Soundholder Eurasian Cranes animals birds cranes distant medium group stereoORTF.wav
Soundholder Retro Games 8bit gunshot 21 auto.wav
Soundholder Retro Games 8bit jump 21.wav
Soundholder Retro Games 8bit status 188 loop.wav
Soundholder Roaring Stags animals stag roaring multiple times close and distant mono.clip.wav
Soundholder Summer Nature Ambients Forest Birds One Kind High Pitch Singing StereoMS Loop.wav
Soundholder Volkswagen Golf II 1.6 Diesel Engine Exterior Multiple Gas Pressing Mono.wav
Spacecraft Ascent 01.wav
Spacecraft Hover 01.wav
Spacecraft Shutter Open 02.wav
Speak & Spell FX (1).wav
Speak & Spell FX (103).wav
Speak & Spell FX (14).wav
Speak & Spell FX (21).wav
Speak & Spell FX (23).wav
Speak & Spell FX (29).wav
Speak & Spell FX (39).wav
Speak & Spell FX (45).wav
Speak & Spell FX (48).wav
Speak & Spell FX (71).wav
Speak & Spell FX (74).wav
Speak & Spell FX (8).wav
Speak & Spell FX (81).wav
Subtle Raygun 02.wav
Tape Machine, Fast forward, Reased tape form the reel 02.wav
Telemetry_03.wav
Telemetry_09.wav
Telephone Office Ring Dial Intercom.wav
Teleportation 02.wav
The Web Slinger Shoots 4.wav
Tractor Beam.wav
Traffic at Beach Distant Waves Voices Ducks Splash.wav
Two girls laughing surpised.wav
Vintage Turntable, Play, Slow down then stopped 01.wav
Young male joyful laughter.wav
Zipper 02.wav
Fred: Did you use any special techniques to prevent repetitive sounds from becoming annoying? I have put a lot of hours into the game so far, and find it difficult to recall any lines of dialogue or grating sounds that I’ve heard over and over and been annoyed by (which is certainly a massive compliment to yourselves).
Paweł: Nothing special in this area, I’m afraid. In terms of assets, we produced a lot of variations (different takes) for things that we knew players would hear many times over in the game. Also, the old-school technique of pitch and volume randomization remains irreplaceable, and we applied it in many, many areas. But on top of all that, the game as a whole is deep and varied. That’s important as it greatly helps to mask repetitiveness, dilute any perception thereof.
Krzysztof: Apart from the basic tricks and sound design philosophy Paweł mentions, I would also add that many of the sfx in the game respond to real-time parameters. Quite often real-time changes in, for instance, wind speed or the type/state of rain can enhance or even fundamentally alter listeners’ perception of a given sound, be it the scream of a noonwraith or the sound of sword striking its target. It’s funny, something of a paradox – sometimes the easiest way to avoid sound repetition, audio redundancy, is not to touch the sound itself… but to slightly alter everything else instead.
[tweet_box]’Sometimes the easiest way to avoid sound repetition is not to touch the sound itself – but to slightly alter everything else instead'[/tweet_box]
Fred: In regards to the beautiful score, can you talk me through the process of writing the score for such a huge game? At what point in the process did the music team get involved?
Marcin Przybyłowicz, Principal Composer: We worked on the music for the game throughout the whole production cycle for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The first stage was preproduction – at the start of the project we had to review our tech, tools and workflow as compared to the processes that were in place for The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. We had this idea that we wanted to push the music further, make it an integral part of the game’s narrative. We knew we would need a new approach to implementation and to handling in-game music, so we started working on our own adaptive music system. Our main goal was to make players feel that the music was constantly evolving and adapting to the storylines they chose to follow and to their style of play.
Implementation was handled in Wwise, and we took full advantage of the software’s features. A significant share of the music is layered, so we used a set of parameters and switches to control the behavior of the music and to craft sound on the fly.
A significant share of the music is layered, so we used a set of parameters and switches to control the behavior of the music and to craft sound on the fly
In the meantime, we set some new ground rules regarding the sound and style of our music. Since the Witcher universe draws heavily, though not exclusively, on Slavic mythology, it was obvious that the music would have to incorporate a pretty hefty dose of this vibe, too. Eventually, we decided to blend authentic folk elements with a big, contemporary sound. We ended up with something that now appears to be called “The Witcher” sound. We’re rather proud of that as it seems to indicate that our audience loved our ideas, embraced them.
During production we approached the game as one big adventure split into smaller parts, individual storylines or even quests. We treated the game’s main quest line and all those smaller threads as separate and distinct stories, with each of those stories getting its own cues, custom designed to match.
Popular on A Sound Effect right now - article continues below:
-
-
“Old Engines Grab Bag” is a pack of numerous old, unique and characterful engines from early 1900s. It’s a massive collection of 56GB multitrack 192kHz recordings of old tractors and stationary engines, both diesel and gasoline fueled.
The intention wasn’t to cover vehicles driving, but to get isolated and very closely recorded mechanical elements of engines and exhaust pipes as a source material for sound design. There are many starts, idles, revs, offs, RPMs variations, backfires etc. Some are heavy and large sounding, some are small and funny. Tractors were captured EXT and most of stationary engines INT, but since they are very closely recorded there is just a little amount of reverb on most of them.
Most of engines are 1 or 2 cylinders and low horse power and their RPMs are also low. Thanks to this, many of those sounds aren’t tonal and can easily be used as additional layer with other design elements. They work great for adding vintage character, designing junky or funny vehicles, crazy huge steampunk machines or engines malfunction.
Sounds were recorded using multi-mic setup: Sanken CO-100k (most of the time pointing mechanical parts), Sennheiser MKH-8060 (mainly for isolated exhaust pipe), Schoeps CMC6XT mk41/mk8 (general image) and part also with Trance Audio Inducer contact mics (adding unique mechanical perspective).
The library is delivered as multitrack 192kHz files, as well as stereo mix of all microphones. Thanks to using microphones with extended frequency range, drastic pitch changes can be applied.
All files have extensive metadata created in Soundminer, including leg picker with microphone labels.
Demo files include pitched sounds, which are not delivered with library.
-
30 %OFF -
-
33 %OFFEnds 1714687199 -
38 %OFFEnds 1714514399 -
20 %OFFEnds 1714687199 -
20 %OFFEnds 1714514399 -
23 %OFF
Fred: The two main regions (Skellige and Redania) have very different feels. How did you manage to create the two distinct regions in terms of sound effects and music?
Paweł: The Skellige Isles were going to be a harsh and cold environment – we knew that from the start. The design here was roughly based on the northern reaches of Scandinavia. The most important thing was to prepare the right type of wind, a more aggressive wind, especially at higher altitudes. Also, we focused on creating a different set of animals and birds for the region. Because the assumption was that the median temperatures there are lower, we also chose to reduce the number of insect sounds.
In contrast, for Redania and all the territory south of it that we refer to as No Man’s Land, we set out to create a more gentle, serene soundscape. We based our designs on elements we thought of as evoking the mood of Polish rural areas. Naturally, there were departures from this when we wanted to convey a sense of danger, have players feel the gravity of nature, its powers. But this was true for both areas, really, whenever weather conditions turned drastic and dangerous.
[tweet_box]Inside the monumental task of creating the sound for ‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt'[/tweet_box]
Marcin: Every major location in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has its own unique feel, and the music had to respond to that. The music for the Skellige Isles was inspired by Nordic folklore, Scandinavian sound sets with some Celtic and Scottish elements thrown into the mix. You hear bagpipes in there, as well as a selection of very cool ethnic instruments, including the kantele, the hurdy-gurdy, dulcimers, etc. Tracks laid down for player exploration of the game world are more towards peaceful and atmospheric, while combat music sounds heroic and epic in this part of the game world.
Velen, or No Man’s Land, on the other hand, is a completely different world – a land ravaged by war, a dangerous and dark place that is full of monsters. In terms of dominant sound, this is the most Slavic location in The Witcher 3. For this area, we decided to use the long-necked lute and the kemenche as our base. Vocals play an important role, too, especially on combat tracks. Often, you hear vocals created using a special vocal technique called “white singing” (Polish: biały śpiew), which is unique to central and eastern Europe. The music in Velen is dark, aggressive, unsettling, such at times that I might even call it tribal.
The bottom line was to make music sound distinct in every major area, but at the same time it had to be cohesive, sound as if it belongs within a single musical realm, despite all the differences and variations. After all, whether they’re in Novigrad, Skellige or Velen, players should feel as if they’re playing one and the same game.
Fred: The weapons, mainly swords and magic, sound amazing and again not repetitive. Can you tell me how you went about designing and implementing the weapon sounds?
Paweł: We aimed to be as organic as possible. Early on in the process, we started assembling sounds for various weapon types, recording and gathering sounds for swords, axes, knives, pikes, etc., as well as for sets of armor and shields. This gave us a great base to then further tweak. Later on we used different sound libraries to enhance what we had recorded. On the implementation side, the system’s core was a rather complex matrix of sounds. In essence, it’s a mix of 4 different variables: hit type, weapon type, material type and body part being hit. The vast number of possible permutations of that set of elements is the main reason why players shouldn’t perceive much repetition. A majority of the components were fashioned and implemented by our fantastic sound designer, Laszlo Vincze, who ultimately deserves most of the credit for the final result.
Please share this:
Fred Pearson is an audio assistant currently working at Final Cut Audio. He has recently edited the Sound FX and Dialogue for Danny Sangra’s debut feature film ‘Goldbricks in Bloom’ featuring Jake Hoffman, and Ben Charles Edwards feature ‘Set the Thames on Fire’ featuring Noel Fielding. He also owns Arrowhead Audio, a sound FX company and sell royalty-free sound FX packs at reasonable prices.
-
67 %OFF -
-
-
33 %OFFEnds 1714687199
-
38 %OFFEnds 1714514399
-
20 %OFFEnds 1714687199
-
20 %OFFEnds 1714514399
-
23 %OFF