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Author Topic: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???  (Read 6024 times)

AxleMC131

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How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« on: March 20, 2017, 08:21:57 PM »

It's been bugging me more and more in recent times that the one thing I never seem to be able to find documentation on anywhere is the creation of custom sounds for mods. Basic mod setup? Yes. Spriting? Definitely yes. Tips and tricks? Everywhere I look. But custom sound effects...? I've never seen anything on it. :-[ Yet it's one of the greatest methods for creating an atmosphere about a mod.

Ultimately, this is all a long-winded way of asking of the modders out there with some of the coolest sounds I've ever heard in their mods (Tartiflette, Dark.Revenant, I'm looking at you): How do you create custom sound files?


EDIT: By the way, if it turns out there actually is a thread or something about this on the forums and I'm actually just being dimmer than a blown lightbulb here, let me know quickly before I lose any more self respect. XD
« Last Edit: March 20, 2017, 09:06:43 PM by AxleMC131 »
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Seth

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2017, 12:02:17 AM »

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but if modders would be so kind to answer me too:
Are you guys also make music yourselves? Some faction specific tracks are simply mindblowing. Can't believe people can be so good at designing gorgeous ships, code it all to work flawlessly AND create their own music...
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Az the Squishy

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2017, 12:34:23 AM »

It varies... Some have the knowledge to produce sounds from sythnisizers. The resources to record their own sounds from real-life samples (though I doubt anyone has gone that far).
I can't say for most modders, I can only speak for myself.

Most of my sounds are vanilla. I have been trying to learn how to make my own music though programs though. For weapon and ship system sounds, they're an edit of vanilla sounds in some form or another.

Saying that, I DO NOT KNOW how to make sounds from scratch, likely it's out of my abilities at the moment. But. If you look around you can likely figure out how to do it your own way.  I used Audacity for the basic edits, and likely there's a way to do custom sounds that I haven't bothered to look up.
There used to be a sound depo, but that was wiped for some reason I've never understood.

Deathfly

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2017, 12:39:49 AM »

I can't get it. Are you asking how to organize a sounds.json, or how to generate/remix a new ogg sound file for mod's SFX, or both?
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AxleMC131

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #4 on: March 21, 2017, 12:42:13 AM »


Most of my sounds are vanilla. I have been trying to learn how to make my own music though programs though. For weapon and ship system sounds, they're an edit of vanilla sounds in some form or another.

Saying that, I DO NOT KNOW how to make sounds from scratch, likely it's out of my abilities at the moment. But. If you look around you can likely figure out how to do it your own way.  I used Audacity for the basic edits, and likely there's a way to do custom sounds that I haven't bothered to look up.


Gah, see I knew Audacity was going to come up somewhere. At which point my second question is HOW DO I USE AUDACITY. I also seem unable to find any easy-to-understand documentation for doing things with Audacity beyond just "recording sound" (I use Audacity for recording commentary for my YouTube videos). People have told me about editing audio to "just use audacity!" but I cannot figure out how.

EDIT: I have tried playing around with stuff in Audacity, and it might just be me, but I really don't find its interface particularly user-friendly. Sliding tracks around and cutting front and back ends off them is incredibly frustrating, for a start.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 12:47:00 AM by AxleMC131 »
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AxleMC131

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #5 on: March 21, 2017, 12:42:53 AM »

I can't get it. Are you asking how to organize a sounds.json, or how to generate/remix a new ogg sound file for mod's SFX, or both?

The second one please.  ;) How to make sound files for a mod.
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Deathfly

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2017, 01:12:43 AM »

If you already have sound files that don't need anymore modification, you can check here to download some coder to convenience your file into ogg.
And make sure to code them into monaural 44100Hz 32bit.
https://www.xiph.org/downloads/

If you don't have any sound source, you can try to grab some real life gun fire sound record or game SFX as source. Or, your can use instrument sound mix with tone generator to make your own source. Then modulate, remix and equalize it.
You can check this post out.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=6552.0
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Tartiflette

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2017, 01:32:33 AM »

Sounds: Well I'm just kitbashing sounds really. I have a decent database of generic samples as well as a many game's sounds. I just take two or three (if possible from very different sources), bash them together, distort them, tweak the envelope and the pitch... And I end up with something new.

Music: Those are usually contracted from a freelance composer. There are a few people here on the forum that have music as their main trade (Cycerin, Psyon, Kazi). Same thing for some of the illustrations you can find in several threads.
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Dark.Revenant

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2017, 02:18:53 AM »

The method I employ is kind of like cheating, but: money.  The sounds I use are often professional custom sound effects made by a member of the community who happens to be a sound engineer and composer.  Some of the artists in the community are skilled at art, and in a couple of cases pursue visual arts as a career.  As a result, the mods I make tend to be collaborations where I either pay with my own skills or literally pay in rote cash to have assets made at a much higher quality than I could muster on my own.

tl;dr the higher quality mods tend to be made by people who use their job skills and collaborate with other specialists.
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AxleMC131

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2017, 02:41:42 AM »

If you don't have any sound source, you can try to grab some real life gun fire sound record or game SFX as source. Or, your can use instrument sound mix with tone generator to make your own source. Then modulate, remix and equalize it.
You can check this post out.
http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=6552.0

This seems fairly self-explanatory, but it's nice to know it's the method used in the game itself for at least some sound effects. :) Thanks for the link!



Sounds: Well I'm just kitbashing sounds really. I have a decent database of generic samples as well as a many game's sounds. I just take two or three (if possible from very different sources), bash them together, distort them, tweak the envelope and the pitch... And I end up with something new.

Similar process, alright. So it sounds like what I need to do to create some of my own is find some cool sounds around the home, then learn how to use Audacity.  8)



tl;dr the higher quality mods tend to be made by people who use their job skills and collaborate with other specialists.

So it would seem. I've noticed a lot of mods around tend to have contributions from other workers - it's one of the hints that Starsector is a game with a very close-knit community. ;) If I had money (or skill of any kind...) I'd join in the trade.



EDIT: Thanks all for the tips! I think I should have a better look for some instructions on editing sound with Audacity, since I have it, and have a crack at it myself. (If anyone knows a good, simple to understand tutorial for the basics of Audacity, please do let me know!)
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cjuicy

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2017, 09:53:48 AM »

The sounds of the Telum Autocannon, Murti CAS Beam, and the Dual Shard Cannon are perhaps my favorite weapons in the game, as they look, sound, and kill beautifully.
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Cycerin

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #11 on: March 21, 2017, 11:05:16 AM »

Most of the SFX in various big mods is my work. I've been doing this for over a decade now, so I recommend starting out how I did: by learning how to mix different sounds into a new result and going from there. With good source material you can get pretty far without having to delve into complicated things. I'd still recommend learning basic audio theory and concepts such as loudness, frequencies, envelopes, time stretching, transients and basic tools like EQ, compressors, and various filters, it's fun and massively increases your ability to do stuff.

There's no magic shortcut for learning any program, like for instance Audacity. If you have zero knowledge related to audio, it will add to the learning curve. You just need to invest time into tutorial videos, documentation and trial and error. I personally use FL Studio, which is a music sequencer first and a sound editing program second, but I find it to be extremely powerful for all purposes, especially because it has a built-in single track audio editor. Any program you're going to be using needs to be able to layer multiple tracks or samplers.

For starter royalty free source material look into the GDC Audio Bundles from Sonniss. Sadly, working with audio takes a LOT of disk space...

Some tips regarding audio in SS:
- In sounds.json, pitch values lower than 1.0 are downsampled, while greater than 1.0 are upsampled. Consider this like playing higher or lower notes on a piano, but with some differences (downsampling will make the sound longer and slower, upsampling will speed it up and shorten it, plus the frequency content is altered). It's a good idea to vary the pitch a bit for each sound. My rule of thumb is to use three pitch variations for a given weapon sound: one should be at 1.0, one at 1.03, and one at 0.97.
- Any sound with a single sample source will self-interrupt ingame, so it can be used for spammy weapons but still have a pleasant tail-end. Eg. you can list the same sample 3 times, it will self-interrupt, but if you list 3 different samples, it won't. "Sample" here refers to a sound file in the mod's file directory. You can refer to the same sample as many times as you want for each sound source.
- Any stereo sound will be played in the UI layer, and won't be placed in the game's stereo field by OpenAL, so it will sound like it comes from "everywhere". Stereo is useful for rarely-occurring, attention-requiring events, or for when you just want something to sound really badass. (I used stereo for the Scalar Deracinator shipsystem in Blackrock)

E: Also for SS sounds, format should be .ogg, 44.1khz and mono. Volume can be as loud as you want as long as it doesn't clip, as a general rule - you set ingame volume levels in sounds.json.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 11:38:42 AM by Cycerin »
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Megas

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2017, 12:06:16 PM »

I am trying to synthesize sounds in Audacity (currently for my mods, but I may attempt an '80s game remake someday).  So far, most of them have been a disaster, but I manage to create a few nice ones by accident.  I made the mistake of not recording my steps on my older attempts, which means the chance of recreating them are remote.

There are some early '80s video game sounds I would love to recreate, but have not yet managed to do so for most of them.  Given hardware limitations of the time, it should not be that hard to synthesize (if I only knew what to do).
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AxleMC131

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Re: How how HOW do modders make custom sounds???
« Reply #13 on: March 21, 2017, 01:26:12 PM »

Most of the SFX in various big mods is my work. I've been doing this for over a decade now, so I recommend starting out how I did: by learning how to mix different sounds into a new result and going from there. With good source material you can get pretty far without having to delve into complicated things. I'd still recommend learning basic audio theory and concepts such as loudness, frequencies, envelopes, time stretching, transients and basic tools like EQ, compressors, and various filters, it's fun and massively increases your ability to do stuff.

There's no magic shortcut for learning any program, like for instance Audacity. If you have zero knowledge related to audio, it will add to the learning curve. You just need to invest time into tutorial videos, documentation and trial and error. I personally use FL Studio, which is a music sequencer first and a sound editing program second, but I find it to be extremely powerful for all purposes, especially because it has a built-in single track audio editor. Any program you're going to be using needs to be able to layer multiple tracks or samplers.

For starter royalty free source material look into the GDC Audio Bundles from Sonniss. Sadly, working with audio takes a LOT of disk space...

Some tips regarding audio in SS:
- In sounds.json, pitch values lower than 1.0 are downsampled, while greater than 1.0 are upsampled. Consider this like playing higher or lower notes on a piano, but with some differences (downsampling will make the sound longer and slower, upsampling will speed it up and shorten it, plus the frequency content is altered). It's a good idea to vary the pitch a bit for each sound. My rule of thumb is to use three pitch variations for a given weapon sound: one should be at 1.0, one at 1.03, and one at 0.97.
- Any sound with a single sample source will self-interrupt ingame, so it can be used for spammy weapons but still have a pleasant tail-end. Eg. you can list the same sample 3 times, it will self-interrupt, but if you list 3 different samples, it won't. "Sample" here refers to a sound file in the mod's file directory. You can refer to the same sample as many times as you want for each sound source.
- Any stereo sound will be played in the UI layer, and won't be placed in the game's stereo field by OpenAL, so it will sound like it comes from "everywhere". Stereo is useful for rarely-occurring, attention-requiring events, or for when you just want something to sound really badass. (I used stereo for the Scalar Deracinator shipsystem in Blackrock)

E: Also for SS sounds, format should be .ogg, 44.1khz and mono. Volume can be as loud as you want as long as it doesn't clip, as a general rule - you set ingame volume levels in sounds.json.

Darn, lots to think about!  :o Pitch work is probably one of the only things that makes sense here since I've got a lot of experience using commands in Minecraft (in this case the "/playsound" command has a pitch tag, where 1 is normal, <1 is lower and slower and >1 is higher and faster.)

File formats are good to know, although I was aware they were .ogg files. Clearly I have a lot to learn still though.
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