A man who's hearing takes a beating daily

So computer games aren't just Graphics, Code and Storyline (obviously there are many many more elements!), to truly immerse the player into a game it will require a powerful musical score and appropriate sound effects. Matt Applegate is a sound technician who made his fame working alongside artists such as Little Boots by creating music with old computers.

For the next few weeks he was now our lecturer. Teaching us how to use sound in games, how the environment would need to be built up with sound, Looking at examples from Red Dead Redemption and Dead Rising 2. It was straight away we analysed Star Wars the Clone Wars, for its sound had to be completely built up by a Foley artist. Learning about Diegetic and Non Diegetic sound built up previous knowledge i held from doing Media for an A level however the actual creation of the sounds was extremely interesting.

Finding out that a Laser shot from star wars is actually a metal slinky being suspended with a plastic cup inside one of the top rings, then tapped with a stick. It blew my mind, everything I believed about the sounds gone. We had fun recreating these sounds anyway.
The star trek doors opening? A bit of paper pulled out of an envelope.
The sound of skulls crunching? Made using a cabbage hit by a meat clever.
The sound of crackling fire? A sheet being waved, a crisp packet and a rain stick.
The sound of cracking bones? Made using a frozen stick of celery, snapped in half.

Using software on the Uni computers we then edited these sounds to be what we desired for our games. I would give a preview here but I am not too sure how....

Creating sounds was brilliant fun and so it is very tempting to go into the Foley artists line of work. Everyday would be a different film experience!

Ross, Out.