Comments on: Call of Duty: Roads To Victory Sound Designers and Composer Interviewed http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/ The latest gear, software, and techniques for electronic music production and performance Sun, 07 Sep 2008 09:25:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Junior http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-506776 Junior Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:04:22 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-506776 Interesting, that is all i can really say at the moment. Interesting, that is all i can really say at the moment.

]]> By: pixelalo.com http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-276565 pixelalo.com Fri, 28 Sep 2007 23:15:39 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-276565 <strong>Entrevista con el equipo de efectos sonoros de Call of Duty...</strong> La banda sonora y los efectos sonoros son aspectos importantes en el diseño de un buen juego. Los compositores e ingenieros de sonido de la serie Call of Duty nos ofrecen una perspectiva diferente del juego en esta entrevista de Create Digital Music.... Entrevista con el equipo de efectos sonoros de Call of Duty…

La banda sonora y los efectos sonoros son aspectos importantes en el diseño de un buen juego. Los compositores e ingenieros de sonido de la serie Call of Duty nos ofrecen una perspectiva diferente del juego en esta entrevista de Create Digital Music….

]]> By: Drew Cady http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-169754 Drew Cady Thu, 03 May 2007 20:57:09 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-169754 WarpedEye,I am glad you found it interesting. It was very fun to dream up and tune the preset engine. Maybe Brent will interview me again and we can go into more depth on specific subjects. I wrote extensive notes on the engine just to keep all the functions and game levels straight. 32 channels was the peak. WarpedEye,I am glad you found it interesting. It was very fun to dream up and tune the preset engine. Maybe Brent will interview me again and we can go into more depth on specific subjects.
I wrote extensive notes on the engine just to keep all the functions and game levels straight.

32 channels was the peak.

]]> By: Nico http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-160738 Nico Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:41:01 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-160738 WarpedEye: yes if you are using Sony's mid-level audio API for the PSP, 32 voices is the maximum you can get. It's a bit like with some hardware synthesizers, where you have x notes of polyphony, but adding effects etc... will decrease the number of voices. Well, in that case, operations such as decoding ATRAC3 streams or generating new samples because you are pitching up are eating CPU cycles and decreasing the number of voices. I agree with W. Brent Latta that if you write your own engine you can bypass these limitations, but in that case, you have to write everything yourself, including the mixing, polyphase filtering etc... and you simply supply the final audio buffer. This is not possible for a lot of game studios as you have to have an audio programmer well versed in DSP, which is unfortunately still rare. But even if you do so, there is very little chance you will beat Sony to their own game and have a more optimized engine than they have for the same set of features, so all the extra cycles you are allocating to your new engine to get more voices, won't be available for something else in the game. WarpedEye: yes if you are using Sony’s mid-level audio API for the PSP, 32 voices is the maximum you can get. It’s a bit like with some hardware synthesizers, where you have x notes of polyphony, but adding effects etc… will decrease the number of voices. Well, in that case, operations such as decoding ATRAC3 streams or generating new samples because you are pitching up are eating CPU cycles and decreasing the number of voices.

I agree with W. Brent Latta that if you write your own engine you can bypass these limitations, but in that case, you have to write everything yourself, including the mixing, polyphase filtering etc… and you simply supply the final audio buffer. This is not possible for a lot of game studios as you have to have an audio programmer well versed in DSP, which is unfortunately still rare.

But even if you do so, there is very little chance you will beat Sony to their own game and have a more optimized engine than they have for the same set of features, so all the extra cycles you are allocating to your new engine to get more voices, won’t be available for something else in the game.

]]> By: W. Brent Latta http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159657 W. Brent Latta Sun, 15 Apr 2007 15:36:35 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159657 I'm sure that it varies depending on what the priorities are in the game engine. The one used on this title was a proprietary engine, and we do get 32 channels. But Nico is right about pitch shift (which is done in engine) - pitching 'up' causes a notable CPU hit on the PSP, so we generally only pitch 'down'. I’m sure that it varies depending on what the priorities are in the game engine. The one used on this title was a proprietary engine, and we do get 32 channels. But Nico is right about pitch shift (which is done in engine) - pitching ‘up’ causes a notable CPU hit on the PSP, so we generally only pitch ‘down’.

]]> By: WarpedEye http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159500 WarpedEye Sun, 15 Apr 2007 09:22:39 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159500 Nico, interesting. So 32 is more like a hypothetical maximum, provided you only use low sampling rates, no effects and the like? Nico, interesting. So 32 is more like a hypothetical maximum, provided you only use low sampling rates, no effects and the like?

]]> By: Nico http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159264 Nico Sat, 14 Apr 2007 23:24:22 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159264 In the comment above, I was talking about a * PSP * game obviously. In the comment above, I was talking about a * PSP * game obviously.

]]> By: Nico http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159263 Nico Sat, 14 Apr 2007 23:21:55 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159263 Actually, in a game, you almost never get the 32 channels of audio mentioned in the article. Using Atrac3 or Atrac3+ streams will make you loose some channels. Moroever, shifting the pitch up on some sound effects will also decrease the number of voices available... There is a "nice" table in the Sony docs that describes some scenarii where you could even end up with 16 voices... Actually, in a game, you almost never get the 32 channels of audio mentioned in the article. Using Atrac3 or Atrac3+ streams will make you loose some channels. Moroever, shifting the pitch up on some sound effects will also decrease the number of voices available… There is a “nice” table in the Sony docs that describes some scenarii where you could even end up with 16 voices…

]]> By: WarpedEye http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159239 WarpedEye Sat, 14 Apr 2007 22:56:49 +0000 http://createdigitalmusic.com/2007/04/13/call-of-duty-roads-to-victory-sound-designers-and-composer-interviewed/#comment-159239 Very interesting interview! I've never really thought about the actual limitations of doing audio for a handheld. I found Drew Cady's preset engine to be a very interesting solution. Is the the pitch shifting done in software or in the soundchip of the PSP? Very interesting interview! I’ve never really thought about the actual limitations of doing audio for a handheld.
I found Drew Cady’s preset engine to be a very interesting solution. Is the the pitch shifting done in software or in the soundchip of the PSP?

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