RPM » Kristie Addison

Sound Design for Derelict

Games, Gear Reveiw, Music, Recording, RPM, Sound Effects 3 Responses »

Jul 072008

Derelict Alpha was just released yesterday, I downloaded it shortly after midnight and began playing my way through (slowly, because I’m terrible at games). Even though I’ve worked on the game it was just as exciting for me because I hadn’t played it since the beta which didn’t have my sounds or music in, and theres been a lot of other changes too.

A huge congratulations to ERIC HOGAN on finishing this big project. Erik is a talented indie game designer from Auckland NZ and he has developed Derelict in his spare time over the last 9 months. You can download Derelict for free from his website.

Notes on sound design for Derelict.

I came into this project as it was nearing completion, there were already a lot of sounds in the game from various soundbanks, and already three tracks of music from the other musicians Samuel Gavin, Edward Clombe, and Bill Norris. I wrote two additional tracks and began working on the sound effects.

One of my favorite effects is the sound the teleport module makes in the game. The teleport looks like a cylindrical blue forcefield, and monsters are transported onto the ship through them. I created the sound for these by plugging an instrument lead into my recording interface, and moved my thumb about on the hot end creating sounds like electrical hum. Then I just chucked in a little phaser, a touch of reverb and that was it.

The sounds the monsters make in the game were a lot of fun to do. I used my Digitech Vocal300 vocal effects processor to pitch shift the signal down and my old reliable Audix OM2 dynamic mic. Just recorded snarling and lurking and scary breathing all pitched down, again a touch of reverb to replicate the sound of a big deserted spaceship.

The footsteps were the most challenging sound for me. Because these sounds were recorded at home not in a studio to keep the budget down as this is not a commercial project, keeping out the background noise was a bit of an issue. Especially when weather is involved. But if it’s not weather it’s dogs barking, neighbors mowing the lawn, or people driving past. In the end, I found the best way for me was to use a dynamic mic instead of my condenser, and to manually silence all the sound between the footsteps. The dynamic mic was a tough choice because I had to get it much closer to my feet for the recording than I had my condenser, so it was tricky to walk realistically in one spot while being careful not to kick the microphone or tread too hard so that vibration traveled up the mic stand into the mic. All in all, I’m reasonably happy with how the footsteps came out.

Here are the music tracks I wrote for Derelict.

The RPM Challenge – Post Mortem

Recording, RPM 4 Responses »

Mar 012008

Well, The RPM challenge is over, and while I didn’t complete it in time I feel it was definitely worth while attempting it because I have written a lot of new material that I otherwise would not have.

Next year, I think I would do a few things differently to make sure I finished in time.

Not starting a week late. I started a week late this time, because I heard of the RPM for the first time a week into February.

Not spend so long on songwriting. I spent so long writing, demoing, then rejecting songs, that I planned to do most of my proper recording and mixing in the last few days. This backfired terribly when I got the stupid flu and spent the last few days lying on the couch feeling like death microwaved on high for 30 seconds.

Take it more seriously. Probably the biggest reason I didn’t finish, is simply the fact that I didn’t make it my number 1 priority. If I had taken it more seriously, I would have been forcibly removing visitors from my home – family or not, recording on those last few days no matter how sick I felt, and recording in the evenings without worrying about annoying the neighbors.

I had actually been planning on having a proper album finished by June, so this was good motivation to get some more material together, and I now have a few new songs that I’m quite keen on (and quite a few I’m not!).

[Actually, if I had really low standards I could just send in ten demo's I've done, but nah. Not gonna happen ]

RPM Challenge – Procrastination continues

RPM, Song Writing 5 Responses »

Feb 242008

Somehow in between all my procrastinating I have managed to come up with my ten RPM Challenge songs Duh duh duh duuum…..

1. Don’t want to wake up (without you)

2. Long Road

3. Wasting time*

4. Lullabye*

5. Ragdoll

6. This world (instrumental)*

7. End of the world*

8. Second Best

9. Autumn Leaves*

10. Song for Dan (Instrumental)*

* Far too many of these songs are rehashed old songs originally written at least 3 years ago! I’ve had writers block all month

Now that I have spent two days tidying and rearranging my workspace in order to maximise my work efficiency, I think I will actually start recording my final versions of these songs.

Off Topic: During my tidying and reorganising process, I came across an old Savage Garden cd. Now, while I am ashamed to admit I was a huge Savage Garden fan as a teenager, I am almost more ashamed to admit that I can still hear exactly what I liked about them. Bar the cheesy lyrics, and the sheer awfulness of Truely Madly Deeply, the songs on their self titled album are really kinda cool! Don’t lynch me! I just love all the synths and harmonies. It’s neat music.

Writers/Composers Block

RPM, Song Writing 7 Responses »

Feb 192008

Musicians can get writers block. I get it all the time, especially leading up to a deadline (like now). Common symptoms include:

Repeatedly playing Stairway to Heaven or Nothing Else Matters on the guitar for no apparent reason.
Listening over and over to previous work just so you can pick out every single little mistake.
Listening to your favourite songs over and over, picking out all the clever bits that are so much better than your own work
Drinking Coffee and eating Toast.
Doing housework, running errands, catching up on paperwork, blogging…

The worst thing is when you can think of a hundred things to write a song about – but none of it just seems any good. My current ideas involve sick frogs, the IRD, and mismatched socks.

The other worst thing is when you give up on what you’re writing a song about and just try to come up with some good music and/or riffs. When you have writers block, everything always sounds too much like something else. Sometimes, it all just sounds crap. Sometime it doesn’t sound like anything because you can’t even come up with anything.

Cures for writers/composers block:

Actually having feelings or opinions to write about. (Rumour has it you can get these by giving a damn – harder than it looks sometimes)
Being almost at the deadline… and dropping your standards to write about things you originally thought were crap when you had a lot of time to think about it.
Finding God (Christian bands NEVER run out of things to write about )
Harnessing random fluctuations in the Time Space Continuum. (eg, open any random book at a random page and randomly point at something on the page and write about whatever that’s about. Also works quite well with like dream cards, the random button on wikipedia, or even your media player set to random. [I secretly suspect all those Christian bands just write songs by doing this with the bible!])
Doing housework, running errands, catching up on paperwork, blogging… Sometimes stopping trying to compose and doing something else for a little while can give your brain a little time to stew things over and come up with some proper ideas.

I think I’m ready to get back to work now

The RPM Challenge

RPM, Song Writing 2 Responses »

Feb 062008

The RPM challenge is to record an Album in 29 days. I read about this in a blog, checked it out, and was horrified to see that it runs for the month of Feb, and I’ve already wasted a week simply by not knowing about it! Ahhhh. RPM stands not for Rev’s per Minute, but in this case for Recording Production Month. I think it’s a brill idea and signed up right away. You’re allowed to use pre-written material so that’s a big help since I’m starting a week late. I’ll still have to do some writing too, but not a whole albums worth in two days I’m trawling through a ton of ancient demos and lyrics to try and find what is easily salvageable or rewritable. I plan to have ten songs really roughly demo’d by midnight tomorrow night. So far since this morning I have five songs chosen for resurrection, have written two more songs, and still need to pull three more out of somewhere… Deadlines are great motivators.