How to make good sounds

Brundi

Hi, How can I make great sounds in my game being a beginner and not having much skill at making games.

I know it says Working with GS (Mac) but, I also have an available PC

What are the best programs for making sounds for a beginner for PC and MAC
(just sounds, not music)

Thanks, Brandon

jonmulcahy

garageband has sound effects you can use
http://www.bfxr.net/
soundsnap.com
freesound.org

alarm656

Use FL Studio very easy

Socks

To make sounds:

Buy Logic X, Pro Tools, FL Studio . . . . or any current DAW.

How to make good sound sound good on an iPad / iPhone - a quick guide !

EQ: Depending on the sound I roll off everything below 100-200Hz with a steep high pass filter - if you want to keep some bass in the sound then you could go as low as 50Hz - but I'd always kill stuff under 50Hz, the device speakers can't reproduce it and it just eats up your headroom (means you can't make your sounds nice and loud).

Limit the sound like mad ! For TV/Radio/CD the rule tends to be to limit stuff so it's -0.3dB below full scale (or just below where digital clips) this is designed mostly to prevent CD players overloading (for reasons too complex to go into detail here), but iOS devices don't appear to need the 0.3dB safety buffer (at least as far as my testing has shown) so when you limit your sounds, go for a full scale 0dB level, nice and loud !!

Also, iOS devices (speakers) seem to react really well to distortion - by that I mean intentional musical distortion - rather than 'OMG why are the cones on my speakers on fire' distortion - which is basically introducing specific harmonics to your original sound - this can give the sound presence and punch, so the sound of those exploding alien spaceships really cut through the background music (without having to have the background music turned down so you can hear the effects).

So, in short, buy yourself a platform like Logic or FL Studio, make up or record some sounds, high-pass everything, add in some harmonic distortion and limit it like mad = loud punchy sound effects !

Hopscotch

@Socks, thanks for those great tips!

Hopscotch

http://www.audiosauna.com/ is also cool to play around with.

Socks

@Hopscotch said:
Socks, thanks for those great tips!

Here's a very quick example of that same EQ > Distortion > Limiting chain, I took the intro music from your Avis Fluito Automatron video (the Hillbilly stuff ! ) and dragged it through that basic process, besides simply making it louder, you can hear how the mix cuts through more on little iOS speakers.

Before: http://www.mediafire.com/listen/za4zum37pdeozhy/1.mp3

After: http://www.mediafire.com/listen/kh0cfz96q67e96n/2.mp3

(click the links, they open in a new window)

Hopscotch

Yep, see what ya mean. Cool, 'll shurr be expepermintin' with it.

Seriously, great info @Socks!