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Free Sound Samples?
TwistedSquare asks: "I like to write small games from time to time, and have often wondered about adding sounds. Searching around on the internet, I can find loads of GPL sound libraries but no sound effects/samples that are both royalty-free and free (as in beer). Can anyone suggest how I could find such effects and does anyone else find it odd the contrast between the amount of GPL software and non-GPL-type items in areas such as sound effects?"
There are a variety of stock sound effect cds that can be used. Some are royalty free, others require license for certain usage (need to read the agreement).
Sound designers, like any other artist, enjoy making unique sounds that fit the usage exactly. It represents their craft.
Instead of looking for stock SFX cds. Try hooking up with a young Sound Designer looking to get into games. (try colleges/schools with music engineering programs - Berklee, Full Sail, etc). When I was in school, I would be more than happy to work for just a screen credit so I could put it on my resume.
This sort of thing is not similar to OS development - it is more of an art form. Clip art might be something that could be open source, but good art will never be. Sound design is much closer to art than coding.
Before you disagree, think about good code being usable in as many places as possible, and then think about whether sound effects for your favorite movie or game can be leveraged into every other movie or game and give you the same feeling.
Many people could produce random noises, but there's no point. "Here's a game over sound. I think it works for most every game I've played, so I'm releasing it."
I forget what 8 was for.
Sounds like you could start a webpage on this!
*Laugh* In all my free time...
On a side note is there a good free (as in beer, and preferably as in freedom) sound editor out there for Windows that could let me do this?
I don't know...as the old saying goes "I don't do windows."
But more to the point, what you'd really want for doing this is a programming language. You could generate the values with a simple loop and then either pump them out to the speakers (/dev/something under *nix, not sure under mswin*), which would give you instant gratification, or write them to a file & play them back (which would be easier).
-- MarkusQ
P.S. It wouldn't have to be a WAV file, that's just the first hit I got from google.
Well, except for that trademark explosion sound you hear in almost all eighties action movies and TV series. And the Dirty Harry Magnum gun too, I think. You all know what I'm talking about, right? :-)
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
Why do we still use sound samples? It seems to me that a sound engine or chip that could generate sounds by using physical laws to simulate real materials producing sound in a computer would be able to create a far wider range and more unique sounds.
For instance, instead of recording the sound of a door slamming, the device could simulate a large wooden slab turning on hinges and hitting the door jamb. In most games that have doors slamming, its a prerecorded sound that doesn't vary. A simulation could produce the sound of the door a various velocities and types of material, ie. if you slam a door really hard versus just nudging it, it'll produce a very different sound, and the same goes for a metal door versus a big heavy oak one.
I have no idea if this is possible, but it just seems odd that we're still using recorded samples, and PC gaming audio technology doesn't seem to have advanced very much, especially with respect to the pace of graphics development.
For many years now, sounds for movies and television were created by a specialized studio and a Foley Artist. This harkens back to the days of radio, when sound was the special effects area du jour.
These days, creating new sounds isn't very difficult, since the investment in a Foley studio has been completed and most of the materials are everyday items: An old pair of shoes walking in various boxes of glass, gravel, tile, etc. A cardboard box of broken glass and screws. An old bakelite telephone for handset noises. Creaking boards, squeaky doors, etc are all kept in a large prop area and rolled into the recording area when needed.
It can take a long time to put all the environmental sounds of a single scene together, but you'll not miss the poor audio a shot will sometimes deliver from location. Wind noise, planes flying overhead, horribly wimpy explosion pops or crappy gunfire are all part of getting the visuals correct.
Digital sounds are also used more widely though: Storms, gunshots, car crashes, screams, plus all the alien and ghostly noises we've come to take for granted. Think of how overused the "reversed echo" voice is for Voices From Beyond. People have come to make simple associations between the chosen representional sound and it's source, even if it's totally fake. Most people won't question lasers making noise, space carrying sound, or a silent underwater scene. All bogus, but part of the entertainment. Funny how people will scoff at these libralizations while watching Star Trek, as if the rest of it is even close to reality.
If you're creating you're own game, sounds are just another piece of the design like drawing sprites or capturing and cleaning up cutscenes. If you're taking photos for good textures, then you can record your own sounds. If you're not using anything realistic at all, just go to a music store and tinker with the electric synths in the corner and bring your tape recorder. Lots of clean funky presets ready for the taking.
mug
I had no idea there was actually a formula you could use to generate a 'waterfall'
Well, if you think about it, the waterfall you see in a game is generated by a formula (or, if you rather, by a whole nested series of formulas)...so why shouldn't the one you hear be created the same way?
any other fun ones?
I suspect that there are a whole bunch of easy sirens, whoops, and machine/robot sounds. After a point (and maybe right from the start) the thing to do is try all sorts of combinations and find sounds you like. That's what physical folly artists do, making use of what they have. We (programmers) just have a different starting kit.
-- MarkusQ
P.S. As for other specific ideas, I suspect sin(t*t/f1)*(1+sin(t*t/f2)) would be a good starting point for a "damn it Spock, you're going to blow up your tricorder again!" sound.