SFX Looping Tutorial - like minigun or flamer loops

[Fiddlestickz]

Greetings

 

When you want to edit the weapon sounds of the game, it's no trouble replacing the single sounds of the game. But what gives the trouble are the soundloops, because if you just replace it with a regular 'unmarked' wav it just loops endlessly ingame.

I made a thread asking how to create minigun loops and FLOW pointed out a nice little straightforward program which lets you create loops really easy. Of course you have to learn it to get all the crackling and unwanted sound out of your sounds, but that's advanced.

 

Anyway the program is called 'Wavosaur' http://www.wavosaur.com/

I am sure crafty audiodesigners have better programs or workflows to get it to work, but this will do for a BASIC loop.

 

Making a loop, like a minigun loop, is actually pretty simple. You take the original file as reference, this will give you an idea how they pieced together their sounds or how long it is. The longer the loops the more variation you can give it.

You have to do two things:

1) Tools/Create Loop, which sets a loop on your current selection. but you can move it around and finetune the positions so they start and stop on zero amplitude parts to minimize unwanted sounds.

2) Tools/Slicing-Region, there i used the 'auto slice' which automatically set points at zero amplitudes, this can also be used as help for the clean loops. From what i've seen these markers are here so the game can detect almost instantly when you stop firing and skip to the finish spin_down, 'bullet'hurl' or what ever finish sound there is, while the loop makes sure that only the relevant part gets looped while you hold down your fire key.

 

 

To put a picture to my words:

http://s1.postimg.org/60ftm5kan/loop.jpg

 

In the picture we have 3 sounds mixed together, the barrel spin_up + barrel LPM (LooPMode?) + barrel Spin_down. The tactic is to make a loop out of the pure barrel soundloop (yellow markers) you hear in the background when holding down your firebutton. The "barrel spinup" sound plays when you press once and the finish plays when you release your firebutton. After you've set the loop point i did 'auto slice' for the part that matters (in this case only the first 2 parts of the wav) where the program searches the zero amplitude parts and connects there so you minimize crackling (White 'M' Markers)

 

 

Or another example:

http://s23.postimg.org/l4aued5rv/loop2.jpg

 

Here we have the minigun fire loop + barrel Spin_Down in one. This is the sound the game uses once you start firing. Here tactic is again, to catch the pure fire loop and then auto slice that. The barrel slow down sound, the finish, is left out again. (The last marker after the loopend is most likely unnecessary)

 

 

If you manage to create one of these you can make all the loops you want. Now i realize why sounddesigners like this function so much.

To let you get started right away you need two wonderful tools and you are all set to edit the sound department of Fallout 4 to your hearts content:

 

1) B.A.E. - Bethesda Archive Extractor (Extract 'Fallout4 - Sounds.ba2')

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/78/?

 

2) Skyrim Audio Converter (Most of the sounds are '.xvm' files, you can convert them back and forth with THIS tool)

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8303/?

 

Additional Advice:

The game uses wav AND xvm, make sure to double check if you have the correct format, filename and filepath. I had it a few times that i missplaced a file and then forgot about it, big mistake.

 

 

This deserves an own thread as it goes under in the other thread. Anyways like i said if you do all the easy steps correctly you can make all the loops you wants. I hope i expained it in an understandable way, if you have questions or feedback, just fire away.

 

Have fun modding your soundloops in FO4!

Edited December 9, 2015 by Fiddlestickz

[domoappo9]

Holy s#*! this actually worked. Thanks so much for the tutorial! it was a little confusing at times but I managed to successfully make a custom gunfire loop.

[WanBelltrum]

are the zero amplitude points are when a shot ends or when there's no sound? I'm assuming the former but I can't tell because the pictures won't load