THE AUDIO TOOLS YOU NEED - Quick Reference Guide

[RP]

Audio Tools For Custom Sound In OFP - Quick Reference Guide

1 - Audio CD 2 Wave Extractor, if you want to rip music from audio CDs.

 I like "Easy CD-DA Extractor", it's very easy to use and also comes with a file convertion tool. Professional sound editors like "Wavelab" (from Steinberg) have this function bilt in. You may want also to grab a Mp3 2 Wave converter, if your sounds are in mp3 format. The important thing is - you need to have a Wave file to work on.

2 - Half decent Sound Editor.

 You need a tool to edit the sound files (cut, paste, add effects, etc.), and to be able to convert stereo to mono, and eventualy change Sample Frequency and Bit Rate (you only need to do this, if the sound files are not 44.1 kh / 16 bit). "Gold Wave" is very popular, and lets you manipulate your sounds in lots of ways. If you can get "Soundforge" (from Sonic Foundry), you will be able to save your files in Ogg format as a bonus.

3 - Wave 2 Ogg converter (if your Sound Editor doesn't do it).

 I like "OggDrop" a lot, you just need to drop your Wave file over the litle window, and you get your Ogg file in the same directory, without menus, or mouse clicks. It couldn't be easyer. It used to be available on this site, just look arround.

4 - (optional) Some inspiration and comon sense.

 I love custom sounds and music in OFP missions, and i usually don't mind making a 10 Mb download to get them. The question is - does it add to the atmosphere and game imersion? Well, infortunatly not every time. I'm a litle tired of seeing a M113 being blasted while hearing dancemusic, like if i was in some kind of a dance club. This is just an example (forgive me dancemusic lovers out there), what i want to say is - you can learn a lot watching great war moovies with great sound tracks. Have several pieces of music in your Mission Folder, and experiment to see wich one fits best to your cut cene. Just because you like this song a lot, doesn't mean it's gonna sound good inside your mission.

 As for the rest of the process of adding sound to your missions, there are excelent tutorials on this site (as you all know).

 Here are some links you may want to check out:

 http://www.ofpec.com/editors/browse.php?browsewhat=3&category=3_4
 http://www.steinberg.net/en/
 http://www.sonicfoundry.com
 http://www.goldwave.com
 http://www.poikosoft.com/
 http://www.syntrillium.com

 And that's about it. I hope this can help some of you. Forgive me if some things i said sound pretty obvious, and forgive me also if my spelling is not that good.

Happy editing.

RP

[RP]

If you have any coments or need further information, feel free to reply.

[toadlife]

You forgot Cool Edit. It's just as good as sound forge or wavelab and way cheaper.

http://www.syntrillium.com

[RP]

Thanks toadlife,

i know there are other sound editors and tools i didn't mention, i only talked about the ones i know better.
I wrote this basic litle guide, because i can stil see some questions in the forums about this kind of stuf, and usualy the sound tutorials focus mainly in the "in game" sound issues.
Thanks for the link, i have now updated the guide.

RP

[toadlife]

Wow. I had never tried GoldWave till now. Got it's $40 price it is a greeat value. It's even got a noise reduction feature, which comes in very handy when working with voice overs recorded on crappy computer microphones.

[RP]

Oh yes, NR can become very handy in all sorts of situations. You can even use it to remove a particular sound characteristic, even if it is not what you would normaly call "noise". If you tell the software it is noise, it will remove it! You can for example remove room ambience from a poorly recorded sound file that way. It's a great tool.

[toadlife]

I tested the NR in Goldwave, and it isn't near as good as CE. It works ok, but the one in cool edit pro/cool edit 2000 works 1000 times better.

[RP]

I'm not a Goldwave user myself. I use Sonic Foundry's NR directx plugin in Wavelab, and most of the times i can get the job done. But if you push it too hard, you can get some kind of a "flanging" effect, which can be minimised by tweaking with the sliders and parameters.

[Jester]

I use Acoustica products...................and the Alto MP3 Maker for ripping CD's to MP3's. Production from Acoustica lets you involve the most overlaying and manipulating contrast's without compromise in quality. (Just my opinion)

[RP]

Hi jester, i don't know the Acoustica or Alto products, can you givus a link to their web pages?

[ebud]

I'm looking for a plugin or a tool that will take a wave sound, such as a voice, then place it in 3d space. Now I have a few that will make the voice sound as if it's in any type of room or auditorium. I tweaked the settings to get something close to an outdoor sound. What I'd rather have is something that will make it sound as if it's 30m away outdoors.... positionally as well.

Any ideas?

[RP]

Hi ebud,
i find it very hard to simulate an outdoor invironement. The digital reverbs (i guess is what you used) were designed to simulate rooms, by adding the sound reflexions coming from walls and ceiling. In an outdoor space like in OFP, we're suposed to hear mainly the direct sound source, followed by very difused low level reflexions, coming from objects like rocks or buildings scattered along the landscape.
The best results i achieved so far, were made using a delay plugin to simulate the reflexions coming from distant objects, mixed with a reverb to give us the "early reflexions" coming from nearby walls or whatever objects we have near us. Try to ajust delay time with very litle feedback, until it starts to sound "natural", than add the reverb with a high predelay setting. Experiment with the output level of the effects, not forgeting they must not be very present, and hopefully, you will get to something usable. Remember to monitor the results in mono, if the file is going to be mono, because the stereo effects tend to sound louder when we hear them in full stereo.
Don't be surprised if your first atempts are far from perfect, because it's not an easy task.
Well, i hope this can help you. I tried not to get very technical here, but i figure if one understands the process, it will be easyer to achieve better results.

RP

[toadlife]

What I'd rather have is something that will make it sound as if it's 30m away outdoors.... positionally as well.

Any ideas?

I would lower the volume of the sound via your description.ext file, and have the sound play 30m away from the player. Which command are you using to play your sound?

I've been working on an advanced sound tutorial (it's far from complete), but you might want to have a look at it. It might give you some ideas on how to get the effec your looking for.

http://toadlife.net/ofp/downloads/tutorials/OFP_sound_tips/OFP_sound_tips.html

[RP]

Way to go, toadlife!
I, as a "sound dude", allways tend to think in terms of preprocessing the sound file. Now that i think about it, the method i described could work very well together with your scripting aproach. It all depends on the kind of efx you're after.

[ebud]

Trust me... doesn't work. I tried that long ago, and settled with it. I just want to make it perfect

If you play the Taxman mission I made with the custom voices that use the "say" command, if a unit "says" a sound file 60m away, it sounds like it's 10m away. If I just tone down the volume, it still sounds 10m away, but just at a lower volume... know what I mean?

I had found a tool that does this, but the demo didn't work under xp.

I'll try your method RP. And if I can't get it, then Toadlife's suggestion will have to do, and I'll leave them as they are.

Thanks guys.

Ebud