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THX To Certify Videogame Audio
dan_linder writes "According to an article on CNet News, THX are starting to certify the audio produced for video games. Good, now all I need are something better than my Labtec speakers on my PC..." According to the piece, "When a company signs up as a licensee... THX sends them specifications on what the company's audio and video production rooms should look like, down to the types of desks people sit at when they are working."
'give us your money for a nice logo on the box, please.'
that's what it is really, as the specs can't include "the game must have good music and sound effects that fits into it's atmopshere".
sure, they sat on a certain type of desk or used certain type of devices and software, but where does that really get you in creating game audio that works well with the game? nowhere.
more importantly, when did you buy a game purely for it's audio? and no, i don't think star control 2 would have qualified for this thx logo.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
THX isn't a certification of audio quality. It's certification of audio quality inside an architecturally THX-certified room.
It's the weakest-link thing. If you have a lousy presentation setup (for example, your speakers are misaligned), then you'll get bad audio no matter how good the sound is. But if the sound is good, then incremental improvements in presentation setup can produce corresponding incremental improvements in sound quality. They're making sure that the thing you can't control-- the game's produced sound-- isn't the limiting factor in quality. After that, you get out as much as you're willing to put in.
Unless they also hand out pamphlets on how to arrange your room according to THX standards, you'll get, at best, average sounding audio. At least this is how I understand it. Anyone?
If you put all your speakers in the same place, aimed towards the floor, you'll get crappy sound.
If you put your speakers at the right positions, you'll get a bit better sound-- if the game's sound doesn't suck enough to use monophonic sound.
If you then orient them correctly, you'll get better sound-- if the game's sound doesn't suck enough to have completely wrong frequency response.
If you properly match your speakers, shape the room correctly, properly eq them (though that's the subject of some debate), set appropriate crossovers, etc, then you'll get better sound. But only if the game's sound doesn't suck.
And so forth. The techniques for improving sound presentation are, while not common knowledge, also are not unknown. A lot of this stuff comes in speaker documentation. A lot can be found on the web.
Sure, you can get a THX-certified home theater designer to work on your computer setup. And you'll realize an improvement in sound over an untrained setup, if the game's sound doesn't suck to begin with. But using commonly-available design techniques can also realize an improvement, but only if the game's sound system doesn't suck.
That's what the THX certification can do: make sure the game's sound system doesn't suck (both the production and runtime systems). Sure, it'll probably sound best in a THX-certified room. But you don't need one to reap the benefits.