The video above is a montage of three videos of different environments for which I had the pleasure to produce, edit, and implement audio assets and sound effects for a school project at Full Sail University. The three environments are a forest, a graveyard, and a science fiction facility. 

 

   Some audio assets and sound effects were recorded with a Zoom H5  recorder while others were provided from “westarmusic.sourceaudio.com”, a website that contains a vast database of audio assets including loops and one-shots.

 

   All sounds added associated with above environments are 24bit 48kHz wav type files and normalized to -3dBFS.

 

   After collecting assets from the Zoom H5 and/or Westar, I imported the files into Pro Tools for editing. My editing process included track and clip organization, trimming, layering, fading, volume control, and effects printing.  

 

   Once exported from Pro Tools, I imported my sound assets into Wwise for further processing and implementation into the three environments. Wwise was able to set delays and looping characteristics to the looping assets, randomize stinger assets, and blend ambient assets. In addition, Wwise is able to set attenuation curves and positioning to the assets. For example, if I walk to a tree, the chirps of a bird will get louder as I walk closer. If I walk away from the tree the volume of the chirping from the bird will decrease. Moreover, if I turn my head left in the game, the left channel will be louder than the right. 

 

  For the forest, I recorded the main ambience in my driveway in the morning with the Zoom H5. The wind and bird loops were downloaded from Westar. In my search for loops, I only chose birds that were native to eastern Missouri.

 

  For the graveyard, I recorded the main ambience on my deck at night with the Zoom H5. The main ambience is layered with three different loops to enhance the experience within the graveyard. I also use a plugin from SoundToys called Crystallizer to generate an unrecognizable grittiness to the loops to build suspense in the listener. The wind, owl, and thunder loops were downloaded from Westar and post processed in Pro Tools . The whispers in the game are layered with three sounds. I have added EQ, reverb, and delay to give the voices movement. I wanted to create a sound that pulls the listener in even though they may not want to. Although thunder is loud and sometimes scary, I really enjoy the phenomenon. With the thunder asset, I edited the thunder based on what I enjoy about thunder; the crack, pause, then the boom.

 

  The science fiction facility was by far the most challenging due the reflection of sounds that are expected in an environment that has metal walls and floors and narrow corridors. All of the assets were worldize to simulate sounds sharing the same space. I accomplished worldizing by using the same reverb settings on all assets. All sounds such as ambience, alarm, vocal phrases, computer mainframe, doors, and air bursts  for the sci-fi facility were downloaded from Westar. However, every asset was modified to better fit the environment. Some of the changes included stretching loops to reduce low end, EQ, reverbs, and delays. Most assets in the sci-fi facility were layered sounds. The CPU loop was created using four layers of sounds. The door effects and one of the air burst stingers were 3 layers, and the alarm loop contained 2 layers.