Mixing Good Audio for your Guns

[ARahimi]

I am by no means an audio engineer or foley expert, but I do play instruments and know what sounds good to me. I'm sure everyone has a feeling on what sounds and feels good too!

 

But choosing good audio to compliment your guns is a big deal.

 

The entire gestalt of your mod should work in unison. To ruin a great model with sounds that are too loud, too punchy, too mechanical, too real, or too fake, is a great tragedy. Many a modded gun sits in a container because I value my hearing more than a good looking gun. A good balance, and a sound that is good to hear over and over again is absolutely a big deal and overlooked.

 

This is especially true when weapon mods on the nexus use a single shot audio file to also be used on the automatic receivers. This can hurt your ears very quickly. Sound is never the same with every shot, even on the same caliber, mechanical pieces, environments. Short of hearing a gun with your own ears, audio mics cannot pick up gun sounds accurately, as each mic will pick up an entirely different profile. They mix many audio tracks to make a sound that is appeasing to hear, and simulates a sense of realism. It is absolutely not truly real, gun sounds should be made so sound good, satisfying, and an illusion or perception of realism.

 

From what I know Fallout 4 uses audio files that are single shots, and a different system for Automatic fire. If your gun can go automatic, you need to use the other file, (LPM I believe? Looking at some files they have something like multiple files named 400_fire too 900_fire. RU556 mod uses that file structure, and it's a good sounding gun.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roC1zkskiG0

 

I think this video is a great resource, and If I could find that GDC conference on audio I'd link that too. At 10:20 and 11:25 in the video, look at what he does and the sounds he plays. That is what most mods using automatic do. Yikes! That hurts.

 

I've heard before that DICE and Battlefield are apparently bad for gun sounds, I don't know where and how someone got that opinion but take it as you will. They aren't trying to make it real, they're just not trying to bust your ear drums in a game where shooting guns is the only sound you'll hear for 30 minutes a piece.

 

PS. In fact Call of Duty is great at making gun sounds because they aren't real at all, just made to sound cinematic and non-repetitive. Their whole business model is guns after all.

Edited May 9, 2017 by ARahimi

[N7R]

One problem with gun sounds comes down to copyright. Since a mod author can't just take any sound they find on the internet it usually results to whatever they can find that is royalty free (which is very limited), they have connections with someone that has a good collection of sounds they are willing to share, or the last option make the sounds themselves.

 

I went the route of making my own gun sounds. I have a really good yeti microphone and I recorded a stapler for a firing sound lol. After heavily altering it in my audio program it sounds nothing like a stapler anymore but turned out well when I put it in the game (to me it sounded the way I wanted at least). Sometimes really simple household objects can create good sounds for a mod.

 

As far as the files you speak of yes there is a single shot audio fire and a looping sound file which has markers set in it and loop start and end points so when you fire an automatic it knows when to stop the loop section and begin the outro of the audio clip. This allows a seamless transition of the firing sound dying down instead of just an abrupt halt.In the end There are several speeds of the loop files too so if a user changes the gun's fire rate in the CK the correct loop will play in game I don't expect much from mod authors when it comes to sound though, they provide the best they have to offer or could make. Not everyone has the ability to make scratch made sounds let alone find ones that they can use without copyright issues. Just like modeling, textures, or animation for a weapon mod creating sounds takes certain equipment and skill-set too.

[ARahimi]

That's a great way to do it too. Jury rig sounds with found objects too.

 

I'm not saying it's easy, that's a given. It's all hard, and if you're acing everything else, it doesn't hurt to ace the audio too.

 

On the copyright issue, it's a shame but I'm sure DICE and big name companies work hard to record those sounds, so I understand.

Edited May 9, 2017 by ARahimi

[N7R]

 

On the copyright issue, it's a shame but I'm sure DICE and big name companies work hard to record those sounds, so I understand.

 

Yeah not even with big companies but its generally not good practice to take audio from even say a YouTube video without permission if it wasn't your gun recording too. Its safer to ask first or if no content can be found the route of making the sounds yourself. It can be pretty fun and satisfying despite the cost of time it takes to make sounds from scratch.