Random or not?
I’m not sure if this is information most people taken for granted or not, but thought I’d post it anyway, hoping someone gets some use out of it!
Nowadays in audio tech, it’s very easy to randomise the pitch and volume on individual sounds or sets of samples. This is often used to avoid repetition in things like footsteps, or gunshots, things that the player might hear a LOT. It helps to direct attention away from the fact that we’re using a group of maybe 3 or 4 samples, depending on situation. Another case random pitch can help is if three instances of the same sound are being triggered at the same time. Here, random pitch helps avoid phase issues.
Of course, not all sounds would benefit from this. In some cases it might actually detract from the effect the sound is supposed to have on the player.
Take for example, the codec ring in Metal Gear Solid. Iconic! But if that sound was modulating in pitch and volume every time we heard it, it would probably be less effective in conveying to the player that they were moving into a conversation.
Or another example, the “death tone” from the Combine in Half Life 2. I’d imagine most people who’ve played Half Life 2 could probably hum this tone within a few semitones of accuracy. And with good reason, it’s effective because it stays the same (with exception to killing another Combine in quick succession, but the first tone is always the same pitch). Again, can you imagine if that tone had been modulated in pitch and volume? I think it’d be far less memorable.
I raise this point because today at work, I added a new sound in line with the two examples mentioned above. Feedback for the player, something they’ll hear often enough, but something that should signal instantly (and iconically) to the player “THIS IS HAPPENING!”. Through habit, I added a bit of randomised pitch and randomised volume to this sound. My colleague then asked why I’d done this and pointed out to me that maybe it wasn’t needed on the sound, either for hiding repetitive triggering or to get around phasing between multiple instances. Of course straight away I realised how these properties would be detrimental to the feedback I was trying to give to the player and removed them.
I guess what I’m trying to relay with this story, is that despite the fact it’s easy to add dynamic features to a sound or a group of sounds with the audio tech available today, this isn’t always necessarily a good thing. Think about what the sound is doing for the player and whether you want the sound to be the same, or different, each time the player hears it. With this in mind, hopefully the sounds you need to stand out to the player will do so (not to mention your colleagues won’t pick up on your faults :P).
EDIT: Had to add this, too good not to. Related blog post from @lostlab - Shadow of the Colossus: A Sonification Case Study.
