Psychology of Sound
Exercise 1
The three games I will be analyzing for sound are Super Mario Bros., Bully and Grand Theft Auto V.
Most Super Mario games are really good at using sound as information. In the original platform games, the music that plays when you get a star changes from the normal steady level theme to a more rapid theme. This tells the player that they are invincible and that nothing can kill them (apart from falling through a gap), and the increase of speed adds to the player's determination to complete the level quicker now touching Goombas and Koopa Troopas kills them instead of the player. It's such an iconic theme that if it plays in public, people will probably think they're invincible themselves. Also, when you've been dawdling in a level and you're in the last 100 seconds before time's up, a dramatic piece will play to tell you to hurry up and then the level music will play at a faster rate, to try to increase determination to finish the level.
In Bully by Rockstar, most of the music is very suited to the situation. The normal running music is nice and leisurely, to try to tell players to just explore the world without causing trouble. A more upbeat and dramatic song plays when you cause enough trouble that the prefects start chasing you. I also really like the fight music for each clique, especially the Preppies, Greasers and Dropouts. The Preppies theme doesn't sound as dramatic as the other fight themes because they're just a bunch of posh idiots, and to me, creates more amusement than determination to fight them because of their stuck-up attitudes and over-dramatic reaction when they get hurt. The theme for the Greasers is a dramatic rock theme that gives players (if they were around at the time) that throwback to the 1950s, and that they're fighting people a lot tougher now. This theme actually makes them look tougher than the Jocks as their fight song just sounds more like something you'd hear in a game of football. Finally, the Townies fight theme is a punk rock song which is very appropriate when they all support punk looks. It also gives players that impression that they've stepped into the wrong part of town and are really messing with the wrong people.
Rockstar's most popular game to date, Grand Theft Auto V also has a really good soundtrack. My personal favourite music is the one that plays when Michael has had to fly back to North Yankton at night to stop Trevor digging up his grave (he faked his death) to see what was really buried under it, and Michael can hear himself shouting what he shouted in the prologue mission and him convincing his wife to go ahead with the escape to Los Santos. At the end, I really love how Michael hears himself saying, "Just this one job and everything is done," then as he arrives at the graveyard the music stops and then all you can hear is his mind repeating, "everything is done" over and over as it slowly fades away. It's so good it even plays when you get an escalated wanted level.
Exercise 2
Music and sound FX is very important within games development because it helps to define the situation. For example, a horror need some sinister sound effects and soundtrack to build an anticipation for a sudden scare to put fear into the player. Without them, the game probably be seen as scary as the developers would hope. Another example of this would be the music used for the first level in Super Mario Games. Nintendo usually try to ensure that they have music to create an anticipation of excitement and determination to explore the world and complete whatever the task is, whether that's just get to the end of the level in the platform games like Super Mario Bros. or look for the collectibles in the 3D games like Super Mario 64 to advance in the game. Without a soundtrack, the game would no excitement at all and probably just feel like a waste of money. The exciting music for a first level was at its best in Super Mario Galaxy as the level concept was something completely new, as Mario was running around planets in space, using launch stars to get across them.
The term 'waveform' refers to the shape of a sound wave at any given time. There are many different elements to it. The amplitude of the wave shows the amount of energy carried by a wave. A higher amplitude shows a higher amount of energy. You can tell the amplitude from the distance of the crest and trough from the line in the middle. If they're further, it's a high amplitude while a low amplitude is shown when they don't go as far. You can also use this tell how loud a sound effect is. A higher amplitude means it's very loud while a low amplitude means it's a lot softer. This is measured in decibels (dB). A wavelength is the distance between the two crests. The frequency is determined by how high or low that wavelength is. A longer wavelength means it's a low frequency which also means a low pitch, while a shorter wavelength means the sound has a high frequency and therefore, a high pitch. This is measured in hertz (Hz).
Loudspeakers also have a high importance. The smaller the speaker. the poorer the low frequency production is. Loudspeakers that don't have enclosures do a very bad job at producing sounds where the wavelengths are longer than the loudspeakers diameter. An 8-inch speaker can only manage a wavelength of about 1700Hz.
The Foley technique is named after Jack Foley, one of the first men to use the technique of recording and sampling to achieve a perfect sound in the early 1900s. He would recreate sounds seen on-screen by using random objects. To create the sound of a sword being pulled out of its sheathe, he just slid two metal pipes together. A very famous example of this is the film Terminator 2 in that scene where the T-1000 walks through the bars of the prison and you hear the sound of his metallic alloy body squishing through the bars. On-screen when listening it sounds perfect, but behind the scenes there was no terminator squeezing through metal bars. It was just sound designer Gary Rydstrom recording dog food being slowly sucked out of a can. The Foley technique is good at covering up unwanted sounds that can be heard on-set, such as airplanes flying over or passing traffic.
The three games I will be analyzing for sound are Super Mario Bros., Bully and Grand Theft Auto V.
Most Super Mario games are really good at using sound as information. In the original platform games, the music that plays when you get a star changes from the normal steady level theme to a more rapid theme. This tells the player that they are invincible and that nothing can kill them (apart from falling through a gap), and the increase of speed adds to the player's determination to complete the level quicker now touching Goombas and Koopa Troopas kills them instead of the player. It's such an iconic theme that if it plays in public, people will probably think they're invincible themselves. Also, when you've been dawdling in a level and you're in the last 100 seconds before time's up, a dramatic piece will play to tell you to hurry up and then the level music will play at a faster rate, to try to increase determination to finish the level.
In Bully by Rockstar, most of the music is very suited to the situation. The normal running music is nice and leisurely, to try to tell players to just explore the world without causing trouble. A more upbeat and dramatic song plays when you cause enough trouble that the prefects start chasing you. I also really like the fight music for each clique, especially the Preppies, Greasers and Dropouts. The Preppies theme doesn't sound as dramatic as the other fight themes because they're just a bunch of posh idiots, and to me, creates more amusement than determination to fight them because of their stuck-up attitudes and over-dramatic reaction when they get hurt. The theme for the Greasers is a dramatic rock theme that gives players (if they were around at the time) that throwback to the 1950s, and that they're fighting people a lot tougher now. This theme actually makes them look tougher than the Jocks as their fight song just sounds more like something you'd hear in a game of football. Finally, the Townies fight theme is a punk rock song which is very appropriate when they all support punk looks. It also gives players that impression that they've stepped into the wrong part of town and are really messing with the wrong people.
Rockstar's most popular game to date, Grand Theft Auto V also has a really good soundtrack. My personal favourite music is the one that plays when Michael has had to fly back to North Yankton at night to stop Trevor digging up his grave (he faked his death) to see what was really buried under it, and Michael can hear himself shouting what he shouted in the prologue mission and him convincing his wife to go ahead with the escape to Los Santos. At the end, I really love how Michael hears himself saying, "Just this one job and everything is done," then as he arrives at the graveyard the music stops and then all you can hear is his mind repeating, "everything is done" over and over as it slowly fades away. It's so good it even plays when you get an escalated wanted level.
Exercise 2
Music and sound FX is very important within games development because it helps to define the situation. For example, a horror need some sinister sound effects and soundtrack to build an anticipation for a sudden scare to put fear into the player. Without them, the game probably be seen as scary as the developers would hope. Another example of this would be the music used for the first level in Super Mario Games. Nintendo usually try to ensure that they have music to create an anticipation of excitement and determination to explore the world and complete whatever the task is, whether that's just get to the end of the level in the platform games like Super Mario Bros. or look for the collectibles in the 3D games like Super Mario 64 to advance in the game. Without a soundtrack, the game would no excitement at all and probably just feel like a waste of money. The exciting music for a first level was at its best in Super Mario Galaxy as the level concept was something completely new, as Mario was running around planets in space, using launch stars to get across them.
The term 'waveform' refers to the shape of a sound wave at any given time. There are many different elements to it. The amplitude of the wave shows the amount of energy carried by a wave. A higher amplitude shows a higher amount of energy. You can tell the amplitude from the distance of the crest and trough from the line in the middle. If they're further, it's a high amplitude while a low amplitude is shown when they don't go as far. You can also use this tell how loud a sound effect is. A higher amplitude means it's very loud while a low amplitude means it's a lot softer. This is measured in decibels (dB). A wavelength is the distance between the two crests. The frequency is determined by how high or low that wavelength is. A longer wavelength means it's a low frequency which also means a low pitch, while a shorter wavelength means the sound has a high frequency and therefore, a high pitch. This is measured in hertz (Hz).
Loudspeakers also have a high importance. The smaller the speaker. the poorer the low frequency production is. Loudspeakers that don't have enclosures do a very bad job at producing sounds where the wavelengths are longer than the loudspeakers diameter. An 8-inch speaker can only manage a wavelength of about 1700Hz.
The Foley technique is named after Jack Foley, one of the first men to use the technique of recording and sampling to achieve a perfect sound in the early 1900s. He would recreate sounds seen on-screen by using random objects. To create the sound of a sword being pulled out of its sheathe, he just slid two metal pipes together. A very famous example of this is the film Terminator 2 in that scene where the T-1000 walks through the bars of the prison and you hear the sound of his metallic alloy body squishing through the bars. On-screen when listening it sounds perfect, but behind the scenes there was no terminator squeezing through metal bars. It was just sound designer Gary Rydstrom recording dog food being slowly sucked out of a can. The Foley technique is good at covering up unwanted sounds that can be heard on-set, such as airplanes flying over or passing traffic.
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