Designing Sound - Procedural Audio for Games and Film.

This title is now published by The MIT Press

Sample Chapters

Phone Tones

Mobile Phone

A simple class of sounds are those which are specified, perhaps by a written document or established standard. Designing according to formal instructions is a useful skill for designers working on sounds for user interfaces, mobile devices, public spaces, broadcast and communication technology. In this exercise we create DTMF telephone dialling tones.

Listen to some examples (mp3)

Read introductory practical chapter (pdf)

Fire

Fire

Sometimes a sound can best be understood by its physical process. Fire is a complex phenomenon with lots of dynamics that cause hisses, crackles and roaring sounds. Here we deconstruct the process and build fire that we can control. It's very useful and powerful to be able to this. Instead of recording lots of fire sounds and layering them you can build fire objects for your game or animation that behave precisely as you want, from a smoldering match, to a lighted torch, to a huge burning forest.

Listen to some examples (mp3)

Read introductory practical chapter (pdf)

Water

Water

The control that procedural design gives is incredible, enabling you to sculpt the nuances of sonic behaviour. Imagine a model for water that lets you change its depth and speed of flow, turning a trickling tap into a vast river. Often we build complex sounds from smaller components. Here is an example of a bubble factory that is used to build up more complex fluid effects.

Listen to some examples (mp3)

Read introductory practical chapter (pdf)