the low tech way...
Greetings all. In this tutorial I'm going to address an aspect of editing many of you might dismiss as insignificant: the creation of gun sounds. It's too bad I can't include a voice-over - my point could be more effectively conveyed if I could actually demonstrate the sounds I'm using, so I'll have to wing it using screen dumps, and a good amount of onomatopoeia.
Sound-editing members of mod teams should know how to do this effectively, but even the freelance members of the editing community can find a use for this skill. Let's make no mistake here, replacing the default (dare I say it - boring?) sounds used by HL or CS or whatever mod you're playing is a damn cool thing to do for yourself or if you want to release a full soundpack to the public.
When making a gun sound, you might be tempted to march off down to your local sports store, grab the latest high-tech rifle, point it at the microphone, and pull the trigger. If you try that, though, you quickly see that it doesn't work. Apart from making certain people in your household very unhappy indeed, it's impractical, and recording using a microphone generally results in a lot of fuzzy distortion. It's much better to make up your new sound out of the odds and ends from old ones. (Note: I AM NOT endorsing plagiarism here. If you're planning on publicly releasing a sound effect using copyrighted material, you might find yourself reading this tutorial off your lawyer's notebook. ) In this column, however, I'm going to do so using a program a lot of you probably don't even know exists on your PC... the dreaded Sound Recorder.
Why? Because it works just as well with a bit of experimentation, and a lot of the more casual editors like myself can't shell out for/aren't literate in tools such as the now-extinct Cool Edit or Goldwave and thus have to make do with what we're given.
Now, down to the important stuff. Basically when making my own gun sounds, I tend to break each new sound down into three primary sections, thus ensuring that it doesn't sound at all like any of the originals used in its composition: burst, follow-up, and wake. You could break these sections down even further if you wished, but I find three is sufficient to create a unique effect So, using this principle, I'm going to show you how I go about it, with my recently-created MP-40 submachine-gun sound for Day of Defeat 1.0 as an example.
1. Here, I've created the initial "burst" sound by chopping off (i.e. Delete After Current Position) and then speeding up by 100% the front section (about 0.25 secs or less in - I used 0.10 in the original) of an M1 Garand shoot sound I think is appropriate. I've selected it based on the fact that this particular Garand sound has a very "punchy" opening - most appropriate for a submachinegun. I saved this file and moved on.
2. The German MP-40 generally has a slightly raspy sound to it, so the next thing I did, to create the "follow-up", was head on over to my Counter-Strike folder and grab the G3SG1 shoot sound from which I removed (Delete Before Current Position) the front 0.10 secs or so (just enough so that the burst merges smoothly with the follow up) and chopped off the rear of the sound so that I was left with a clean mid-section. I then went back to the "burst" file, selected a point about halfway long, and used the command "Mix With File" to merge the "burst" with the "follow-up".
Once again, I saved the file.
At this point you will know if your sound is going to be a cool one; if you don't like it, discard the whole thing or either of its two sections and start from scratch.
3. To finish up your new sound, you need a "wake" (i.e. noise of the bullet speeding off into the distance.) In this case I selected a replacement Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) sound, speeded it up by 100% (to avoid the end result sounding too much like any of the originals, but you don't have to do this) and deleted the front half (both the "burst" and the "follow-up"). I then saved the "wake" returned to the half-finished new sound effect , moved the slider across to a point about two-thirds of the way across, and mixed the "wake" with the new sound effect at this point. Voila! We have an MP-40 sound.
Test your new sound. How does it rate for "coolness" factor? Can it be improved on? How? If you're unhappy with any aspect of it, chuck it out and start again. It might seem like a lot of work but once you get used to it you'll find it takes a couple of minutes at most to make a gun sound in this manner. It can, however, take a several hours to get a result you are really pleased with.
Below are a couple of hints as to what kind of sounds are realistic with regard to their respective gun...
Pistols: Pistol sounds should be very short, fairly high in pitch, and forceful with a very soft, inconspicuous "wake" particularly when designing for a smaller-caliber gun such as the Sig-Sauer. A powerful pistol such as a Desert Eagle or .357 Magnum however needs a very loud sound and "wake."
Submachine-guns: Similar to pistol sounds, although the "burst" at the front can be substituted for a "chug" sound depeending on the specific model of the weapon. Likewise, both the follow-up and the wake should be low in pitch and inconspicuous.
Note: When designing for any sort of repeating weapon remember that the player will only hear about the first 0.20 seconds of the shoot sound when loosing a few rounds at once, so it's important to get this sounding right.
Single-shot rifles: These are radically different from pistol sounds. Generally you want a very loud "crack" as the "burst", particularly for sniper rifles - it makes that zoomed-in headshot all the more satisfying.
(Unscoped rifles however, can sacrifice the crack for realism by using a low-pitch "putt" as the burst). For both these types you need a soft follow-up and long, reasonably loud, echoing wake to emphasise the gun's power.
Assault rifles: Like a submachine gun, except basically louder. The sound should also be high in pitch (think of the M-16's in the lobby shootout scene in The Matrix). Very few assault rifles use the "chug" "burst" of the submachine-gun as discussed above. The general idea is to make it sound gutsy.
Shotguns: The "follow-up" in this case should be slightly longer than other guns - additionally, the entire sound needs to be VERY LOUD and tending toward low in pitch. What you are aiming for is a reverberating BOOM. To compensate for this, the wake should be reasonably short, but just as loud. Don't forget to add a "chuck-chuck" sound at the end (in pump-action shotguns) if the code used in the v_model requires it.
Heavy machine-guns: Except when designing for realism of course, you'll want this sound to include a very loud "burst" indeed, with an equally loud "follow-up" and "wake". Plus the entire sound shood be high in pitch. Also, it's often helpful to use the "Mix With File" command to mix the original file, or part of it, with itself at a point barely 0.02 seconds in - yes, you heard right, it means that the end result is a continuous, low rumble which is incredibly cinematic. (I find this effect works especially well with DoD's German MG-42).
And finally, a few other pointers:
-Mixing a seemingly insignificant, staccato "click" with a repeating weapon sound at a point around the centre can create a very pleasing effect indeed, representing the bolt continually sliding back and forth as each round is fed into the chamber.
-Observe the animations of each weapon's v_model, and try to create a sound that complements the firing motion effectively. The same applies for the original reload sounds - listen and use your imagination to co-ordinate your new sound with the reloads.
At last, we come to the end. Assuming you got this far, thanks for listening to me ramble on, and I wish you all a lot of good, clean noisy fun (while the rest of use take bets on how long it is before your parents/roommates/housemates etc - take an axe to your PC because it sounds as if a shootout is taking place inside your home).
Sound-editing members of mod teams should know how to do this effectively, but even the freelance members of the editing community can find a use for this skill. Let's make no mistake here, replacing the default (dare I say it - boring?) sounds used by HL or CS or whatever mod you're playing is a damn cool thing to do for yourself or if you want to release a full soundpack to the public.
When making a gun sound, you might be tempted to march off down to your local sports store, grab the latest high-tech rifle, point it at the microphone, and pull the trigger. If you try that, though, you quickly see that it doesn't work. Apart from making certain people in your household very unhappy indeed, it's impractical, and recording using a microphone generally results in a lot of fuzzy distortion. It's much better to make up your new sound out of the odds and ends from old ones. (Note: I AM NOT endorsing plagiarism here. If you're planning on publicly releasing a sound effect using copyrighted material, you might find yourself reading this tutorial off your lawyer's notebook. ) In this column, however, I'm going to do so using a program a lot of you probably don't even know exists on your PC... the dreaded Sound Recorder.
Why? Because it works just as well with a bit of experimentation, and a lot of the more casual editors like myself can't shell out for/aren't literate in tools such as the now-extinct Cool Edit or Goldwave and thus have to make do with what we're given.
Now, down to the important stuff. Basically when making my own gun sounds, I tend to break each new sound down into three primary sections, thus ensuring that it doesn't sound at all like any of the originals used in its composition: burst, follow-up, and wake. You could break these sections down even further if you wished, but I find three is sufficient to create a unique effect So, using this principle, I'm going to show you how I go about it, with my recently-created MP-40 submachine-gun sound for Day of Defeat 1.0 as an example.
1. Here, I've created the initial "burst" sound by chopping off (i.e. Delete After Current Position) and then speeding up by 100% the front section (about 0.25 secs or less in - I used 0.10 in the original) of an M1 Garand shoot sound I think is appropriate. I've selected it based on the fact that this particular Garand sound has a very "punchy" opening - most appropriate for a submachinegun. I saved this file and moved on.
2. The German MP-40 generally has a slightly raspy sound to it, so the next thing I did, to create the "follow-up", was head on over to my Counter-Strike folder and grab the G3SG1 shoot sound from which I removed (Delete Before Current Position) the front 0.10 secs or so (just enough so that the burst merges smoothly with the follow up) and chopped off the rear of the sound so that I was left with a clean mid-section. I then went back to the "burst" file, selected a point about halfway long, and used the command "Mix With File" to merge the "burst" with the "follow-up".
Once again, I saved the file.
At this point you will know if your sound is going to be a cool one; if you don't like it, discard the whole thing or either of its two sections and start from scratch.
3. To finish up your new sound, you need a "wake" (i.e. noise of the bullet speeding off into the distance.) In this case I selected a replacement Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) sound, speeded it up by 100% (to avoid the end result sounding too much like any of the originals, but you don't have to do this) and deleted the front half (both the "burst" and the "follow-up"). I then saved the "wake" returned to the half-finished new sound effect , moved the slider across to a point about two-thirds of the way across, and mixed the "wake" with the new sound effect at this point. Voila! We have an MP-40 sound.
Test your new sound. How does it rate for "coolness" factor? Can it be improved on? How? If you're unhappy with any aspect of it, chuck it out and start again. It might seem like a lot of work but once you get used to it you'll find it takes a couple of minutes at most to make a gun sound in this manner. It can, however, take a several hours to get a result you are really pleased with.
Below are a couple of hints as to what kind of sounds are realistic with regard to their respective gun...
Pistols: Pistol sounds should be very short, fairly high in pitch, and forceful with a very soft, inconspicuous "wake" particularly when designing for a smaller-caliber gun such as the Sig-Sauer. A powerful pistol such as a Desert Eagle or .357 Magnum however needs a very loud sound and "wake."
Submachine-guns: Similar to pistol sounds, although the "burst" at the front can be substituted for a "chug" sound depeending on the specific model of the weapon. Likewise, both the follow-up and the wake should be low in pitch and inconspicuous.
Note: When designing for any sort of repeating weapon remember that the player will only hear about the first 0.20 seconds of the shoot sound when loosing a few rounds at once, so it's important to get this sounding right.
Single-shot rifles: These are radically different from pistol sounds. Generally you want a very loud "crack" as the "burst", particularly for sniper rifles - it makes that zoomed-in headshot all the more satisfying.
(Unscoped rifles however, can sacrifice the crack for realism by using a low-pitch "putt" as the burst). For both these types you need a soft follow-up and long, reasonably loud, echoing wake to emphasise the gun's power.
Assault rifles: Like a submachine gun, except basically louder. The sound should also be high in pitch (think of the M-16's in the lobby shootout scene in The Matrix). Very few assault rifles use the "chug" "burst" of the submachine-gun as discussed above. The general idea is to make it sound gutsy.
Shotguns: The "follow-up" in this case should be slightly longer than other guns - additionally, the entire sound needs to be VERY LOUD and tending toward low in pitch. What you are aiming for is a reverberating BOOM. To compensate for this, the wake should be reasonably short, but just as loud. Don't forget to add a "chuck-chuck" sound at the end (in pump-action shotguns) if the code used in the v_model requires it.
Heavy machine-guns: Except when designing for realism of course, you'll want this sound to include a very loud "burst" indeed, with an equally loud "follow-up" and "wake". Plus the entire sound shood be high in pitch. Also, it's often helpful to use the "Mix With File" command to mix the original file, or part of it, with itself at a point barely 0.02 seconds in - yes, you heard right, it means that the end result is a continuous, low rumble which is incredibly cinematic. (I find this effect works especially well with DoD's German MG-42).
And finally, a few other pointers:
-Mixing a seemingly insignificant, staccato "click" with a repeating weapon sound at a point around the centre can create a very pleasing effect indeed, representing the bolt continually sliding back and forth as each round is fed into the chamber.
-Observe the animations of each weapon's v_model, and try to create a sound that complements the firing motion effectively. The same applies for the original reload sounds - listen and use your imagination to co-ordinate your new sound with the reloads.
At last, we come to the end. Assuming you got this far, thanks for listening to me ramble on, and I wish you all a lot of good, clean noisy fun (while the rest of use take bets on how long it is before your parents/roommates/housemates etc - take an axe to your PC because it sounds as if a shootout is taking place inside your home).
