I'm having a ton of fun creating sound files for BZII

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

A few voice overs here, a few engine sounds there; I never realized how much fun a modeler can have with a simple recorder application. I do notice though that BZII has a tendency to alter things like engine and track sounds ingame, but the recorder allows you to alter sounds like changing the pitch or even reversing the track to more or less disquise the human voice. Need to work on my explosion voice a bit more as ka-boom just doesn't soung to sweet. Does anybody have any tips on creating different sounds for the game?

[OvermindDL1]

One thing I notice is that many explosion sounds sound so horrible.  The reason being is that it is not very dynamic in range.  What I mean by that is they are usually very deep, or very tinny, or so forth.  However a real explosion has an initial 'foom' that always happens before a high-pitch shock wave travels past in a dopplarish effect then followed by the main shockwave.  If you are close to the explosion they practically happen at the same (some games, like Frontlines actually model the sounds different depending on range, it works wonderfully well), meaning you need to have all those effects.  That is just for a simple explosion like bomb or so, now you also have to model things like metal impacting metal (a tank round hitting a tank mode at the time of the explosion), which, although muted, is still there.  If it is a big explosion then it will probably hit other structures, ground, etc... which is a lot of stuff to model, but all makes it sound better.

After you start breaking up a sound, like an explosion, into its constituent parts, then you can start to find things that model that specific sound that you can record, tweak the pitch, tones, speed, etc... then finally mix it all together.

Etc....
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[AHadley]

I use GoldWave for all my effects, it's the only piece of paid software I use in modding at all, apart from the game. Still need to learn most of the effects.

For sound effects, most guys just take them from other games (I think BBB used the grenade from HL2 as his 9mm cannon, that worked out pretty well).

[OvermindDL1]

The ancient program Cool Edit Pro still trounces the modern GoldWave, by far, and it was only like $15 back then when I bought it.  Adobe bought it out, renamed it to Adobe Audition, and now sells it for $349.  They have barely added anything new to it since it was Cool Edit Pro, so I still got the vastly better deal.
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[AHadley]

$349 is too much for me.

[OvermindDL1]

Yep.  Should have bought it before they were bought out.
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[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I notice too that BZII has a hand at manipulating the initial sound by somewhat modulating the audio based on distance, movement and speed. I did an engine and tread sound for my gun bike based around a simple method we all used as children when playing with our childhood toys. You know stuff like kaaaa-boom, ahahahahah, Suuuuu-pooooo. Right off the bat it was both low and too human like, but after realizing this; I reloaded the wav file back into the recorder. Then I increased the volume level several times and decreased the speed one click and wala the human element became much more pleasing to my ears. When I was happy with the effect I simply re saved the file again.

Another way to simulate stuff like alien voices can be faked fairly well by modulating the speed or even reversing the audio track and adding an echo effect. I'm also thinking that a technique where you cup your hands over the Mic and your mouth can be useful for creating some muffled distorted sound effects. I would imagine that even common household appliances can make some cool sounding effects with a bit of manipulation. I have Audacity, but haven't really even delved into that yet; it supports a vast array of adjustable parameters and multiple track mixing, and best of all is that it's absolutely free. BNG 

BTW: Seasons greetings to all and may the new year totally Rock!

[TheJamsh]

i always find the volume of BZII effects very low...

i could of course increase, but doesn't quite play at the same level it would in say, media player...

[Nielk1]

Mixing in with your original sound a version forced into a square or sawtooth waveform makes it harsher and hence makes it seem louder.

[bigbadbogie]

Thats actually a good idea. I may adopt that one.

[Darkplanet01]

I notice too that BZII has a hand at manipulating the initial sound by somewhat modulating the audio based on distance, movement and speed. I did an engine and tread sound for my gun bike based around a simple method we all used as children when playing with our childhood toys. You know stuff like kaaaa-boom, ahahahahah, Suuuuu-pooooo. Right off the bat it was both low and too human like, but after realizing this; I reloaded the wav file back into the recorder. Then I increased the volume level several times and decreased the speed one click and wala the human element became much more pleasing to my ears. When I was happy with the effect I simply re saved the file again.

Another way to simulate stuff like alien voices can be faked fairly well by modulating the speed or even reversing the audio track and adding an echo effect. I'm also thinking that a technique where you cup your hands over the Mic and your mouth can be useful for creating some muffled distorted sound effects. I would imagine that even common household appliances can make some cool sounding effects with a bit of manipulation. I have Audacity, but haven't really even delved into that yet; it supports a vast array of adjustable parameters and multiple track mixing, and best of all is that it's absolutely free. BNG 

BTW: Seasons greetings to all and may the new year totally Rock!

Alien voices could also be made, I would imagine, by speaking through a fan when its turned on. Anyone tried this?

[Warfreak]

Actually, many sound programs can give that effect WITHOUT the fan. 

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I believe apps like Audacity have phase modulation controls to simulate different sound effects as well. The old fashioned manual techniques are pretty cool too. Doing stuff like cupping your hand over the mic to simulate a muffled effect work quite nicely. Common items like cell phones that vibrate sound like a mini gun burst which if placed on tin plate for amplification work good as well. I think most of us are at least vaguely familiar with the sounds created by Foley Artists for the motion picture industry, and regular peeps can try some of the same techniques on a less professional basis.

[BNG Da BZ Fool]

I really get a kick out of doing voice overs with accents, so anybody that needs some done can PM me with a basic script to work from and any special accents or whatever. I do a mean Russian pretty well. BNG.