Finding Frequencies

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One of the things Wake Tech students learn is how to make games look good. 3D models, textures, VFX, UI elements... it all gets touched on at some point or another. But how does a game sound good?

We decided early on that we wanted to have character VO and sound effects that really sell the idea of being trapped alone in a bunker with only an omniprescent voice over the intercom and roombas for company. While a human voice doesn't need much development, our other "character" was a bit trickier. How should our little service bots express their personality through roomba-appropriate sounds?

This week, I decided to start exploring the answer. Please keep in mind that none of this information or these sound effects are final. This is simply an account of the journey I undertook to try to figure out a single sound.

The Idea

I started out to make a single sound effect: the alert noise a roomba would make when something happened in the environment. Since the team wanted the bunker to have a 70s/80s style feel to the technology, I started looking for programs that would could create and modify 8-bit or 16-bit sound effects. I found two that seemed promising, as they were both free and widely available: Bfxr and ChipTone. I decided to start with Bfxr first (ChipTone seemed more complicated at first glance, and I am but a novice creator).

How very vintage!

Immediately I had a problem: I had no idea what any of these words meant beyond their academic definition. The only choice, it seemed, was to jump in head first and start pulling sliders and seeing what happened.

It took about 20 minutes, but I finally managed to wrangle the options in a way that delivered a series of beeps. Progress!

The waveform for one of the beeps in question. This is what (limited) success looks like!

However, these beeps were shrill. If my car alarm was turned into a Nightcore remix, it would probably sound a lot like this. I realized quickly that the pitch jumps were set too high. Having a high repeat speed allowed for varied beeps in quick succession; however, I needed to carefully adjust the pitch jump onsets to make sure they didn't deafen every cat and dog unfortunate enough to be in the area. They also didn't communicate anything in particular aside from an intense desire to destroy the source of the sound as quickly as possible.

It was two hours into my exploration that I accidentally made a discovery.

Trust me, this waveform is MUCH more exciting than the last one.

By using a saw wave and combining a lower frequency setting and a mid-length frequency slide with a consistent, middle-of-the-road pitch offset, I was able to get a near-perfect "system shutdown" noise. Listening to it gave me an instant nostalgia rush. If you've never used an old CRT TV or electronic device that involved a large bulb, it's difficult to explain the way the system hums. It's hard to hear, but the following video may help:

And then, there's the almost-stereotypical high tech "system shutdown" noise you've heard in a thousand science fiction movies and games, like below:

The loud rumble of a hundred different systems shutting down, with that old-fashioned CRT hiss- I hadn't been looking for it, but I'd found a whole new angle for exploration all the same.

One of the best things about game development is how it causes you to challenge yourself and go outside your comfort zone. It's always fun to try something new. I hope to continue to learn new things on this project.

Thanks for reading!

Corey