I started by loading up FMOD and creating an asset library folder of sounds I recorded previously on the modular setup at LCC. I then created an extra parameter of distance, going from 0 to 50 meters. Even though the video game I am working on is 2d and doesn’t allow much room for movement and attenuation I thought it would be good practice to understand FMOD a little further after the previous lectures.
I then thought about what sort of experience and characteristics I would want this sound effect to have, this one, in particular, is more factory electronic sounds and I thought it would be interesting to emulate a 3d environment and have the sounds slowly filter and get quieter after a distance. I read in (Stevens and Raybould, 2017) that a typical error most novice sound designers have with implementing attenuation is that they assume volume is enough to propose distance to the listen/player. When in actuality our environment handles and effects sound over distance in a very specific way. The first is the atmosphere muffles higher frequencies significantly more than lower frequencies and that over distance the higher frequencies cut off allowing us to hear conversations and sounds but for them to be unintelligible. I decided to create an automated parameter with the multiband EQ effect on FMOD and make the EQ slowly allow fewer frequencies over time until it’s completely silent by fifty meters or so. Essentially a low pass filter.
I then began to want to include effects within this practice FMOD session. I decided to incorporate reverb for practice. I first thought about positionality within this imaginary game I’m doing this for, as mine is 2d. Where the player would stand and what the environment looks like, what are the walls made of? Are there any walls? I wanted to create an imaginary unreal environment where when the player went close to the wall the audio was dry and had little reverb, then slowly as they went further it increased to a huge amount. I did this by automating the dry level of the reverb and making it automate to 0 when at 50 meters and increasing the reverb time to the maximum at 50 metres and starting at 0 on the reverb time at 0 meters.
I then started using the pan and degree plugin and automating that, alongside the 3d preview to move the sound.
Overall I feel like FMOD has a lot of uses within a game and it’s interesting to see the middleware software and how it can be used in context. I want to try and use this for my hand in if possible and create the songs as an event and have them randomise rather than playing the same song. Also for the atmospheric sounds, layer up a few and make the work in random selection so it’s not the same every time. Perhaps even put a few empty sounds into the randomiser.