Posts Tagged ‘audio’

Comparing compression methods of the XBOX 360 and PS3

There is no doubt that next-gen gaming has demanded more complex sounds than ever before in games.  The amount of sound necessary for a high fidelity game is many times larger than that of a film due to longer game lengths, variety of sounds per event, and needing sound to cover all possible gameplay situations.

It is for these reasons that file compression is a necessary evil of game audio.  This isn’t the signal reduction type of compression, but rather data compression to save space.  Without it there is no way to fit all the necessary physical media onto the shipped game.  On PS3 and X360 you can use PCM, XMA or Vorbis formats.

There are pros and cons to each of the formats.  PCM is uncompressed, but takes up a lot more space.  Vorbis sounds great and loops easily, but can take more processing power than XMA.  XMA is free on the X360 because of a hardware decoder, but can be hard to loop properly and I think it sounds the worst.  I decided to take some time to compare and contrast the compression qualities of Vorbis and XMA.

Below you will find charts analyzing the two methods and a summary comparing them.  This post gets pretty techy.  If you are in a hurry you can just look at the charts and read the summary below

I hope this will help you figure out what compression methods you will use on your games in the future.  I’d love to hear any advice you have on conversion methods in the comments.

VORBIS CONVERSION QUALITY

I did two vorbis quality tests. I took an explosion with glass and a vehicle engine loop.  I then converted them to Vorbis qualities 2,4,7, and 10 using normal and high quality conversion.  The difference in file size between quality 2 and 10 ranged up to 300 kb.  However, the sonic difference is pretty subtle on most assets.  This is of course unless it has LOTS of high end.

CHARTS

Note the spectrum analysis below.  The real difference is found with a 20db reduction around 11 and overall reduced quality.

Original Asset

Vorbis Quality 2 – Low shelf drop below 20 and wide dip at 11k at about 20 db down compared to original asset.

Vorbis Quality 10 – only a 10 db reduction at 11k.

Comparing Original in blue with Vorbis Quality 2 in Orange.  Note the reduction in highs and 20 db dip around 11k.

CONCLUSION:

The difference between Vorbis 4 and 10 is negligible.  Vorbis 4 seems to be the best sound to size compromise.   Loud heavily compressed sounds are less affected by these qualities.  If an asset REALLY needs frequencies above 10 k and is iconic to the game then it could either be changed to a higher quality or PCM and streaming.  Any setting under Vorbis 2 introduce noticeable artifacts.  Rarely should sounds need to be higher than 4 high.

XMA CONVERSION QUALITY

Next, I used WMA to see how XMA sounds when using it’s VBR compression settings.  WMA seems to use the same compression algorithms as XMA so this should be pretty accurate.

My previous Vorbis comparisons used values = 0,2,4,7,10

I intended to use XMA values of= 20, 35, 50, 75, 100.  I ended up using 25-50, 75, and 100 WMA because this is as close as I could get using VBR WMA methods.

Results:

XMA Vehicle Comparison

#1 = original

#2 = 75 WMA VBR

XMA 75 drops at 18,000 Hz. about 28dB.

#3 = 50 WMA VBR

#4 = 25 WMA VBR
Note the steep falloff of 40dB at about 11,000 Hz. for XMA 50 and 25.

XMA Explosion with glass Comparison

#1 = original

#2 = 75 WMA VBR

#3 = 50 WMA VBR

It drops a whopping 50dB at 15,000 Hz.

#4 = 25 WMA VBR

Note the VERY STEEP falloff at about 11,300 Hz.  It’s 60 dB down at this frequency.

CONCLUSION:

The difference between XMA qualities is much more obvious than that of Vorbis compression.  XMA 50 and below introduce steep rolloffs starting around 15 kHz.  Aliasing was also more noticeable in these tests than the Vorbis tests.

Overall Conclusion

Vorbis sounds FAR superior to XMA in my opinion.  Just by looking at the charts above you can see that XMA has much more frequency altering and falloff.  The listening results sound better than the visual results, but anything needing clarity such as glass or with anything higher than 12,000 Hz.  should use Vorbis if possible or XMA 60+ to maintain sonic integrity.  I believe it is best to use Vorbis as often as possible until CPU usage becomes an issue.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope this was enlightening to those of you wanting to know more about game audio and compression methods.  If you have any comments I would love to hear them.

Note: I apologize for the lack of audio samples. Unfortunately I can’t post the files I used in this test.

If you are reading this then you are likely aware of how difficult it can be to get your start as a professional audio engineer. Whether you want to work in recording studios or the games industry, breaking in takes more than just talent and dreams. In this post I’ll give you a lot of tips on how to get your big break and stay employed once you do.

Making a plan

The first and most important step is to make a plan. Without a plan you will waste valuable time doing things that won’t get you where you want to be. Start by making a five, two, and one year plan. Go ahead and start it now! I’ll wait. Once you know the big picture of what you want to achieve, the short term planning becomes much easier. Then you will have a better idea of what you’ll have to do to achieve your dreams.  Here’s an example of what you might put into your plan.

• Recording Engineer plan example.
• 5 year
  • 1. Become a Staff Recording Engineer at a well known studio.
• 2 year
  • 1. Intern or assist at a reputable local studio.
• 1 year
  • 1. Record a few bands.
  • 2. Improve knowledge on mixing, microphones and other gear.
  • 3. Take some classes on DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) and audio engineering skills.
  • 4. Make a resume.
• Sound Designer in the games industry plan example.
• 5 year
  • 1. Become a lead sound designer at a reputable game studio.
• 2 year
  • 1. Get credit on a well known game mod or small developer project.
  • 2. Continue to update your resume and develop contacts.
• 1 year
  • 1. Get experience making sounds for games using game specific tools.
  • 2. Begin networking and start visiting game developer conferences.
  • 3. Make a resume and demo reel

Solving The “Experience” Paradox.

Now that you have a plan you just need to get the ball rolling There is a problem though: In order to get a job in the industry you need experience, but to get experience you need a job. This makes it seem like there is a huge wall between you and your goals. Don’t worry, there are ways around this.

One solution is to buy some audio gear and teach yourself how to do things. Quality DAWs are cheaper every day. Many professional game tools, such as Wwise, are available for a free trial. There are numerous sources of tutorials online that cover all of these subjects. I believe that the best learning tool is experience. By doing things on your own you can learn how things work in a pressure free environment. Here are some recommendations of common tools and skills you should have.

Audio Engineer Tools: ProTools (Cubase, Sonar, and Logic are also great, but less common in pro studios), digital plug-ins, outboard gear (compressors, EQ, preamps, signal path, consoles), microphones, Mac Computers (much more common than PCs).

Audio Engineer Skills: Mixing in the box and on consoles,  how to properly use microphones, basic music theory knowledge, recording and dealing with bands, cable wrapping (over/under FTW), and coffee making (Yes, I’m serious).

Game Industry Sound Designer Tools: Wwise (or another game sound engine such as FMOD), Unreal Ed (or another similar game engine like Crysis), Sound Forge or Peak (I’m a bigger fan of sound forge), SoundMiner or another sound library management tool, Perforce source control, Native Instruments Komplete, Waves plug-ins and other creative tools, multitrack editing software like ProTools, Cubase, Sonar or Logic, MAC and PC computers.

Game industry sound designer skills: How to integrate sounds into a game, how to use game building tools like Unreal Ed (3dBuzz.com has some great free tutorials on this), quickly editing and batch processing lots of files at a time, memory management/limitations of current platforms,  capturing gameplay (Fraps or other capture devices), how to set up a ProTools session with video capture of game-play and bounce out sounds to put into your game.

Resume

While you are getting your start you need to develop your resume.  Formatting is very important to a good resume.  Find some resumes online and get a feel for what they should look like.  If you have access to professionals who look at resumes then ask them for help as you set yours up.  It will take years to get meaningful experience.  Until then, fill the resume with every little audio related thing you have done.  This includes albums you have worked on, assisting on things, personal projects, goals, skills, and tools you are familiar with.  Update your resume each time you progress through your goals.

Leave out anything that is totally unrelated, like restaurants, unless you had a management position and you have nothing else to put.  As you progress your resume will start to fill itself out.  Better resumes will open up more options to you in your career.  Eventually you will look at your resume and wonder why it was so hard to get it started.  Keep your eye on the prize and you will get there.

Demo Reel

Your demo reel is vital to get your big break.  A demo reel is just a collection of works by a person.  Though the term originally comes from having your work on reel to reel tape, the colloquialism is still used today.  It will show employers your skills.  In this digital age it is important to have both your demo reel and resume online.  Recruiters meet hundreds of audio people at every convention so it is important to have an easy to find and well organized demo reel.

Now that you have some skills you can put together your best work into a demo.  Remember that your demo reel needs to demonstrate the one skill that the job requires.  If you want to be a sound designer, then it’s best to have video that only has an SFX stem.  No one likes to hear music on a foley demo.  Similarly, no one wants to hear explosion SFX over a music demo.  Keep it short and sweet.

I have learned that three video demos are enough.  However, if you only have one video that is professional don’t put two other videos on your reel just as filler.  Everything on your demo needs to be of the highest quality you can produce.  Try finding a movie clip online, stripping out all the sound, and redoing it in your programs.  Start with video that is between 30 seconds and one minute.  Don’t pick a five minute video unless you have time to really do all five minutes at the best of your abilities.  Your demo reel needs to be easy to navigate and mastered well.  If it isn’t organized it makes you seem unprofessional.

Be sure to mention what work you actually did on each part of your demo reel.  Well organized reels also show that you can pay attention to detail so make the demo a seamless experience.  Keep your demo online in a common format like Quicktime H264.  Display the link to your website on your resume.  Having a few DVD copies of your demo reel is also useful, but many people I know prefer to find your work on the internet for convenience.

In the games industry, if you get a break you may get asked to make a specific demo for a studio.  They will send you a video and you will have a chance to prove your talents.  MAKE SURE YOU TAKE ALL THE TIME THEY GIVE YOU AND DO IT RIGHT!  By this I mean you should borrow or rent the best audio gear you can find to work on it.  Mix it in a well tuned room and on headphones.  Get feedback from other audio people before you send it off.

This could be your big chance and it’s worth putting other things aside to get it done.  You will only get one shot at these “auditions” so you need to make sure you do your best work.  These studios won’t cut you a break just because you only own cheap gear or a lack of free time.  Do whatever it takes to make this sound AMAZING.  Also, finishing it quickly doesn’t earn you any extra points.  Be sure to use all the time they give you to polish your work.

Immerse yourself in your trade

Subscribe to online audio forums, websites and trade magazines.  Make friends in the audio profession who are starting out just like you.  Buy gear to use at home for practice.  Act like the person you want to become.  Here are a few of my favorite online sources.

• http://www.tapeop.com/subscription/
  • The most accurate and unbiased magazine about audio gear IMHO.  It’s free so go subscribe now!
• http://www.gamasutra.com/
  • Great place for jobs, tutorials, and anything else game related.  This is a great place to find mods and other projects you can work on to build your skills.
• http://www.gearslutz.com/board/
  • Forum all about professional audio gear.
• http://sxsw.com/music/daily_chord/
  • Subscribe to their informative emails about what is happening in the music industry.
• http://www.edge-online.com/
  • Another good source for information about games.  They have daily emails.
• http://www.audiogang.org/
  • A great source for beginning audio engineers.  It’s focus is on audio for games and the potential for networking here is great.  A few of it’s members gave me some much appreciated advice on how to get my start.

Attitude is Everything

Positive attitudes can be more important than talent.  I believe this now more than ever.  If you are a positive person who gets the job done you will be more likely to get a good job and recommendations.  Think about it.  Would you rather hire a super talented jerk who is difficult to work with, or a person of average talent that is uplifting and fun to be around.  I know that I’d prefer to work with people that make every day a fun experience.  Attitudes and work ethics can be infectious whether they are negative or positive.

You should know that word travels very quickly in these tight knit industries.  By being a positive and passionate person your attitude will help you get started in the industry.  It will also improve your reputation and help you get work in the future.  So when you are starting in the industry give a lot of thought to how you want to be thought of throughout your career. Who wants to be a mean anti-social jerk anyway?  What better time to change your attitude than now while you get your start.  Besides, developing a positive successful attitude will do wonders for your personal life as well.  :)

Where to start – Persistence is paramount

If you already have a basic knowledge of these tools then it’s time to get more professional experience. I recommend internships for people wanting to work in studios. If you want to work in games you should work on mods or other projects for free. Almost all recording studios are in need of interns or people to help out. You may need to contact them multiple times to prove you are interested. The best studios get hundreds of applications a month to be interns. You have to stand out from the crowd by proving your determination to succeed, doing good work, remembering that you are a subordinate and showing professionalism.

College experience helps you get in the door, but isn’t necessary. It is more important to know the profession and have a positive attitude. You can find game audio positions on Gamasutra.com. This site has lots of projects looking for sound designers for small projects. Mod communities exist for many games, and they are a great way to learn how things work.

Keep in mind that You WILL have to do some free grunt work for a while until you build up a resume!  The tasks you do at this stage of things will be the work other people don’t want to do.  Accepting this becomes easier if you keep your eye on the prize.  Sweeping floors, cleaning up after sessions, and making coffee become daily tasks.  By demonstrating your thirst for knowledge and success you will show prospective employers how valuable you are.   You will also learn a lot of very important things along the way.  I was an unpaid intern about 8 months at a few places early on in my career.   I learned how to work with clients, how to act as an intern, how to run professional studio sessions, and other things that have formed how I work today.  Remember, EVERYBODY had to start somewhere!

College for the entertainment industry – Necessary or a waste of time?

College is expensive, a lot of work, and a lot of time.  So, is it a necessary step in achieving success in as an audio person.  Now that I’ve been in the industry for a while I can safely say that success isn’t dependent on college experience.   However, college can be a very good at opening doors to your future.  I attended two colleges for music related careers and came out with two degrees.

After all that effort I only received brief recognition of my college experienced.  No one has ever checked into my grades or coursework.  What I gained from my college education mostly came from connections, a sponsored internship, and obviously the classwork that improved my skills.  Many internships require college so if you skip education then you are at a disadvantage over those that haven’t.

College also puts you in touch with like minded people who can teach you more than any class.  Developing these contacts can get you work and expand your skill sets much more than college classes will.  Most of the audio professionals I know have gone to college for their trade.  Many of them didn’t graduate.  I recommend at least starting college to build contacts and get an internship.  It will make things much easier on you in the long run.  Having a degree does look better on a resume than not having one.  However, having a ton of professional experience seems far more important than college in the audio industry.

Networking and Interviews

Conferences, College, Classes, Facebook, LinkedIn, Online Audio Forums and musician friends are all good to use for networking.  Keep a list of every contact you have in Outlook, Gmail, or other organized manner.  Make sure you back-up this list.  It may very well hold the name of the one person willing to give you your big break.

Conferences are the best places to develop professional contacts in the games industry.  Some good conferences to attend are GDC and the Austin Game Developers Conference.  First, warm up by talking to some people about audio.  I also recommend a practice interview with a friend.  This way you will be socially loose and ready to go.  Now that you have your resume, demo reel, and a knowledge of the industry you can really make things happen.

Go to each recruiters booth and ask if they have position open for a sound designer.  If they do then keep asking questions and be confident.  Express your interest and passion for game audio.  Give them your resume and a DVD of your demo reel.  Having any sort of game experience on your resume immediately puts you ahead of every other audio person who isn’t prepared.

If they don’t have any positions you should find out if they ever hire external contractors or only use internal sound designers.  Either way, be sure to get their contact info, write notes on their details, and follow up about a week later.  If they have a position and are considering you for a position make sure you are persistent.  Show them that you really want the work and are interested in the position.  Don’t be too pushy, but be sure to keep up on all leads for a position.

At first you won’t get any offers, but as your resume improves and you get more confident the offers will come much easier.  If you keep working hard and building everything I’ve described you’ll have a huge list of professional contacts all willing to help you get work.  At this point it becomes more about managing your professional contacts than going to recruiting booths.

Now that you are out there developing professional contacts with the necessary experience you will eventually get interviewed.  Interviews really come down to answering one question:  Are you the best overall person for this position on this team at this time.  You need to communicate that you are this person early in the interview for them to know it. To be this person you need the proper work history, attitude, and skills to do the job.

Don’t be afraid of talking yourself up.  I’ve botched interviews in the past because I was afraid to brag about my own talents.  Don’t come off cocky, just be confident of your abilities and assure them that you can handle the position.

Do your research on the company you are interviewing for.  By doing your homework you will appear more interested in the position and come off looking like a better prospective hire.  Have a list of questions for them based on your research.  Showing up prepared with a pencil, paper and pre-written questions makes you look very prepared and organized.  You can ask them questions about their games, life/work balance, tools and workflows.

You should also ask for more specifics about the position and what it is like to work for the company.  Remember to be personable, honest, and confident.  Definitely set up some practice interviews with friends before you go to the real interview.  Think up what they may ask you and have some responses ready.  If you do all this you will greatly improve your chances of getting the position when you get your big chance!

Conclusion

You may be wondering why I’m giving all of this advice for free.  Well, I want to help people get their start just like some audio professionals helped me when I was starting out.  Now that you are armed with more knowledge on how to get your start, you are well on your way to becoming an audio professional.  It starts as an uphill battle, but you can learn to enjoy the challenge.  Keep focused on your long term goals and you will achieve them in no time.

Please post a comment if this helps you at all.  I’d love to hear about your successes, trials, failures, and any other feedback you have on this post.  Thanks for coming by.  I hope this helps give you the confidence to achieve your dreams.  If it does, feel free to pay me back by buying me a nice Belgium beer at a game or audio conference.  More importantly, pass your knowledge on to those around you to help build a better audio community.  Who knows, one of you may end up being my boss someday!

-Aaron Brown