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February 2013 l 19


technologyfeature


modify the generated audio; like an interactive synthesizer. Interactive and dynamic audio processing is just one of the many forward-thinking topics of discussion at AES’s Audio for Gaming conference. Other possibilities facing the gaming world are 3D audio and the emerging Web Audio API. Michael Kelly, vice chair technical council at AES, has been spearheading the organisation’s involvement in audio for video games since the first technical papers came out in 2006. He recalls the changes in issues and challenges since the first Audio for Games conference in 2009: “When we set up the first one it was all about horse power and DSP. You had these consoles with big, heavy chips in them that could do a lot. Things like convolution reverb were what people were talking about. “We’ve moved on from that


in two ways technically: now it’s about people knowing how to use the technology we have in a game-related way, rather than bringing ‘studio’ DSP into a game, and understanding the application of the technology rather than the ability to do it.


“The second one is the way people play games,” continues Kelly. “We’re seeing huge advances in just what we can do even in a web browser. That


underlines the message that horsepower isn’t the issue it used to be. It’s also about understanding the different ways audio needs to be done for the different ways people play a game. We’re trying to focus a lot on that at the conference.” These are challenges keynote


speaker Rimbaud has already faced in past projects. He recalls one project in particular, which involved designing the sound for the Philips Wake-Up Light


LOUDNESS IN GAMES


“One of the things that we’ve been working on over the last year or two is trying to bring some sort of loudness standard into our own internal development,” says SCEE’s Garry Taylor (pictured). “Obviously loudness is a big issue in general but it’s been a real pain in our asses for years and years, so we’ve decided to get our own house in order.” The Sony Worldwide Studios


Audio Standards Working Group (ASWG) consists of audio professionals representing Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) development studios from Japan, America and Europe, spearheaded by Taylor. In November 2012, the ASWG released Recommendation


ASWG-R001 which suggests ‘that the average loudness Level of audio content within a title developed for home- based SCE platforms should be normalised to a Target Level of -23LUFS, with a tolerance of ±2LU, and that this tolerance is acceptable considering the non-linear nature of interactive


entertainment audio content,’ bringing the gaming industry in line with international broadcast loudness recommendations. While the document specifies SCE platforms (PlayStation and its spin-offs) the recommendations have been received very positively by the game audio development community as a whole: “I’ve been speaking to various platform holders, publishers and developers for a while about loudness,” says Taylor. “At the Game Developer’s Conference this year I’m on a panel with Microsoft, Activision and Electronic Arts, and generally we’re all agreed that we’re going in the right direction. I’m also on the Interactive Entertainment


Sound Developers Group committee (IESD, part of the Game Audio Network Guild), and we’re working to formulate a version of this for the wider industry as well.” To tackle loudness, SCE


employs a variety of monitors; NuGen Audio’s VisLM meter is favoured by Sony’s studios in Japan, while the majority of QA testers – who are not audio engineers – are using TC Electronic’s TouchMonitor TM9 (developed in partnership with RTW). “They’re very easy to use, and don’t require having to run Pro Tools or Nuendo so we thought it would be a lot easier for them,” says Taylor, who himself uses Flux’s Pure Analyser application and Waves WLM plug-in.


(released in 2009): “I very much had to look at the technical details of how the physical sound actually works as opposed to just writing a tune,” says Rimbaud. “I thought that kind of experience would lend itself quite well to games. [The keynote invitation] was really an invitation to present some ideas and shake people up a bit. The only stipulation I had was to not mention Steely Dan!” We’ve barely scratched the


surface when it comes to the challenges that this market represents, though Taylor neatly summarises the general feeling of where it’s heading: “We have to think on our feet and we have to find new ways to solve problems because, in the world of console game development at least, the goalposts change every 5-10 years with the advent of new platforms. The tools are always getting better but they’re also becoming more complex


because designers always want to try new things. That has a knock- on effect on team sizes and development costs. It’s an exciting time for all game audio people at the moment, it’s a very exciting industry.”n www.aes.org www.audiogaming.net www.avid.com www.nugenaudio.com www.tcelectronic.com www.steinberg.net www.waves.com


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