The Basics of Sound in RPG's

[Equizer]

Hey,

My name is Equizer and i'm gonna teach you the basics of sound in RPG's!

Introduction

Many times, i play RMXP games and i think, very nice story, good gameplay, but the sound could use some work. Infact, the sound could use alot of work. Not that the music choice and sound effects are bad, but they are just not.. implented that well. Let me explain:

Sound is used to create a mood of a map. When done right, it just immerses you in the enviroment and takes you into another world (so to speak). But many times i hear sound effects and background sounds that are:

1. Badly chosen
2. Edited bad
3. Way to loud

Some people may not notice it, but good implented sound can raise the quality bar of your game up a notch or 2. But, you want to know how to do sound the good way, right? Well, you've come to the right place.

Background Sounds

You've made a map, added some events, made some high quality cosmetic fogs to enhance the atmosphere and dang.. there you have it. You miss some nice background sounds. Don't worry, it's easier then you might think.

First off, go to this site: http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/ and register you for free. Believe me, it's worth it. When you are logged in, click on search in the Search/Browse column. Type in some keyword (for instance forest, city, etc)
and a most of the time, a whole list will show up showing the sounds that match your keyword.

For this example, i'll use a nice forest ambience. So i type in: forest and i get a nice list of forest sounds. When you preview a sound, it previews the sound in low quality. When you download it, you get the high-quality version.
Now for my forest map (with lots of greens and flowers and trees) i chose this sound: http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/download/26254/26254_dobroide_20061121.pine.forest.flac

Don't worry about the .flac extension, a free audio editing program like GoldWave or Audacity can open them. But i prefer GoldWave. You can download it for free at: http://www.goldwave.com/

When you downloaded GoldWave and downloaded the sound effect, open it in GoldWave to edit it. Now some sound effects are very long, 5 to 30 minutes. Just cut your favorite part out (but don't make it shorter then 1 minute) and fade in and out the first and last 2,5 seconds. Then save it as a .mp3 file and insert it in RMXP. This is my edited .mp3 file: http://www.supload.com/listen?s=Sq6-HsA6g2m

Now when you have added the background sound to your map, it just has a very nice ambience, now!

Sound effects

Now your map has a very nice overall ambience, but to further enhance it, you'll need to use sound effects. It may seem over the top, but try to give EVERY object in your map a sound effect. Birds that fly away when you get to close, a crate you move, a door that opens.. all those things need a sound.

Many times i play RMXP games where there's not even a single sound at all at some point. All you hear is a deadly silence. Now you maybe know that less is sometimes more, but keep it realistic. When you don't hear music playing, you must use sound effects and background sounds to make up for the lack of music. It really helps, trust me!

Try to imagine a dialog between the hero and a prison guard. There's no music playing, no background sound.. just deadly silence. The conversation heatens up and at a climax, the hero steals the cell keys from the guard and smacks the guard on the ground. These moments just scream.. play a sound effect. It makes it realistic, and it raises the intensity factor.

Music

Now comes my favorite part of any game. Music! Be aware that i like cinematic games so my opinion about this may be different from someone else.

Music is a section that makes or breaks the game. Try not to have constant music playing in the background. Give room to background sounds and sound effects. It annoys me when there's still a music playing from a town when there's a sad cutscene playing in that same town. It just.. doesn't fit and sounds weird. Suikoden II has those moments. (to give you an example)

Also, use as much original work as possible. If you can't compose, ask someone else who can. It just gives your game that extra punch. There's nothing wrong with music from games like Final Fantasy or Star Ocean for example, but we've all heard that and it isn't surprising anymore.

The music should also fit the moment that's playing. What i also hear sometimes, is you hear some nice little music while you're walking around a town, a cutscene triggers, and the music suddenly stops, and then a more dramatic theme starts. It just feels.. incomplete. Try to use music as a moment enhancer. When there's nothing going on, use no music. But when something starts to happen, play some music. When there's no music playing you're just gonna get immersed in the ambience of that certain town. Then you trigger something, a short song starts to play, and you think.. wow! It gives that scene more impact.

Conclusion

I hope i gave you some advice for your games in the future. But remember, this is my opinion about sound. This is a technique i tried and started to love and now am applying to my games.

I'll post a demo game soon to showcase some techniques if not all things are clear to you.

Greetings,
Equizer

 

[Mimi Chan]

finaly! a music master, well uhh i have a little question that i dont know how to explain very well but i might aswell try, most of the music i heard from any rpg (esp. BGM) has the first 1 to 5 sec as an opening tune then proceed in playing the whole piece but when the piece is about to loop (since its finish playing) the first 1 to 5 sec is omitted making the looped music not playing the opening tune (ofcourse since its looped so it doesnt need the opening any more) I can post some example but im on my way to school...maybe later. Thanks

 

[Calibre]

That's midi's that do thst Mimi, The only way an Mp3 could possibly do that is with a script I think, though I dont even know if that is possible.

 

[Equizer]

@Mimi Chan:

Like Calibre said, that's a MIDI file. A MIDI file is the only audio file that can loop from any point in a song. Since MIDI is directly generated from the soundcard of your computer it loops seamlessly.

As far as i know, you CAN loop a MP3 or WAV file, but it loops from the beginning and not from a certain point.

 

[Elijah von Bose]

You could also loop by doing this (for mp3, wav, and other "Real" sound types:

- First, select the first few seconds of a song, and find a point where it will loop nicely.

- Cut that, and edit it into a new file.

- Save the piece without the intro into a new file.

- Then, you should have two pieces, Intro, and Song. By playing intro, then looping song, you should have a seamless looping perfection :D Have fun!

 

[Khengi]

There's a simpler way I do when composing music for people.

If the song is to be looped, I'll have it end on a note that would sound horrible, would the song end like that, but the moment in ends go back to the beginning which flows.

For example, the song is 2:00 minutes long. At 1:58 minutes, I'll have the words (from the song) *This is the words of-*. By then, the song will have ended and looped back to: 0:01 seconds, and the opening words would be *-song!*, so it would be *This is the song!*

It's hard to explain, but if a song is meant to loop, make it end so It can restart on the first note. If it's meant to be a theme, make it like that, and then make a full version.

But, that's just me.

 

[Calibre]

But that doesnt allow for an introduction that only plays once when you appear on the map or more commonly found when you enter a battle, you know how FF battle themes build up from a simple beat, but it never goes onto repeat that again.

 

[Grandor]

This is a good tutorial. Finally, someone who's as passionate about the sounds in a game as I am!

 

[Equizer]

@Paradox:

You should be aware by doing that, you'll hear a sudden stop between the 2 music files. I assume you use a reverb to wetten the sounds of your song. I do that, and when the reverb gets cut off when switching over to the second MP3 file, it doesn't sound that good, but it IS an option.

@Grondor:

Thank you! I'm not that much of an audiophile though, but i just wanted to give my opinion about sounds in games. Particularly RMXP games.

 

[Mimi Chan]

So only MIDI can do that? What would happen if i convert all my audio file into MIDI? (i know MIDI has a horrible audio quality) so i guess it wont work (im a bit strict when it comes to music)

Just a piece of advice: short music that tends to loop quite fast is annoying (esp. Megaman Battle Network's villain theme)

 

[Equizer]

@Mimi Chan:

Audio isn't convertable to MIDI. An audio file is just a waveform. It doesn't have any playback data.

 

[alexanderpas]

if anyone goes creating his own midi, the following might be interesting.

If a BGM MIDI file contains the control change value 111, that value is recognized as where the song will start repeating after it reaches the end.

 

[luzienne]

So only MIDI can do that? What would happen if i convert all my audio file into MIDI? (i know MIDI has a horrible audio quality) so i guess it wont work (im a bit strict when it comes to music)

Just a piece of advice: short music that tends to loop quite fast is annoying (esp. Megaman Battle Network's villain theme)

I think you misunderstand what a midi file is.

a MIDI file is just a list of notes & commands (think sheet music) that your audio card then converts into music.

 

[Equizer]

I think you misunderstand what a midi file is.

a MIDI file is just a list of notes & commands (think sheet music) that your audio card then converts into music.

I think that sums it up!

 

[sixdd]

...i know MIDI has a horrible audio quality...

Actually MIDI can have excellent audio quality, but it would require a sound card that is capable of that quality. MIDI is hardware dependant, meaning that the quality of sound depends on "your" soundcard. On the other hand, formats like .wav and .mp3 are waveform recordings, meaning that the quality is dependant on the encoding, which is why most games use these formats over MIDI.

Hope this helps clear it up a bit.

 

[Grandor]

Thanks for clearing that up. That was actually pretty helpful.

 

[Sandman53]

Most of the music I tend to use in my games are remix's of video game music, or random instrumental peices I found lying around on the web (and there are TONS of good unknown ones out there).

I think the beauty of music in a game is when you go into a town, or a field, or what have you and find the the music matches the scene. There is nothing better than having a tragic moment and then having the perfect sad music play along with it.

I tend to pick my music VERY carefully. Such as when im in a forest village i'll pick a tune that is kinda laid back, where as in a city i would pick something a little more upbeat and face paced. Like I said I can be very picky, which is a good thing.

 

[Me(tm)]

Hope this helps clear it up a bit.

Actually, RMXP uses a software layer to playback the midi's, so it will sound the same on all pc's. Normally I would have agreed with you, but that's the way it is.

 

[Mimi Chan]

now im wandering how can i encrypt the whole audio folder so no one would like stole my hard ripped musics

 

[CorporateGreed]

Search the main rm2k discussion board for the answer to that question.
there are several topics that discuss this.

There should be a way, but there hasn't been anyone who has put much
effort in creating it.