Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 1

[samueljustice00]

Hey guys,

My name's Sam Justice, I'm the sound designer for Pigs (you can find me lurking in the dark corners of the internet over at http://www.samueljustice.net). I've been a massive gamer ever since I was a small child and am very much in the mindset of developers talking to the community.

Now I can only discuss details about what has been announced so far, but I thought I'd give you guys a look into some decisions I've made for Pigs about the sound and how you can "prepare" for this.

Pigs has been mixed to a very specific volume level, which allows us to have a wide dynamic range in the soundscape (dynamic range means the difference between quiet and loud parts of a film/game/song/anything to do with audio). To do this I have adopted a mixing standard found in hollywood that is now being adopted a lot in the industry. Titles like Battlefield 3 and Skyrim have been mixed the same way.

I'll start off by explaining it in laymans then for you audiophiles I'll let you know how you can calibrate your speakers to the listening reference level.

Remember when you play DVDs/Blu Rays like Star Wars and similar movies you have to crank your volume/amplifier all the way up just to hear the dialogue? This isn't an error with your player or the disc, this is a well considered, thought out approach. The reason movie studios do this is to make the gunfights and dramatic sequences stand out above everything else, and this is due to the fact that you've had to crank up the volume, the gunfights sound loud because they are loud!

Television and the music industry have very different standards, which is why you tend to find yourself having to turn down the TV a lot when advertisements are on - this is because advertisement producers crank up the sound as loud as they possibily can so that it overpowers everything - this is called having a small or compressed dynamic range.

So when you first boot up the game, don't worry if it sounds very quiet. You will have to crank up that system to get the best out of it. This means that when the scares happen, your underwear will be soiled because they will be loud!

Now for you audiophiles you can calibrate your speakers quite easily to the standard I use. All you need is an iOS device and an app called SoundMeter (or another SPL Meter reader) and a copy of freeware Audacity.

Go to - http://abluesky.com/support/blue-sky-cal...est-files/ and download the calibration files.

Now you can follow the blue sky instructions but Pigs is mixed to 80db = 0dbspl unlike Blue Sky which will have you calibrate to 85db. So I'll explain..

• Once you have the calibration files open audacity
  
• Make sure your speakers are turned all the way down!!
  
• Drop the 500-2.5khz file into Audacity and pan it hard left (there's a L and R slider, slide it all the way to the left.)
  
• Then you'll see a + and - above the L and the R symbol, make sure it's set to -3.
  
• Now load up your SPL app and make sure it's set the response Slow and C Weighted.
  
• Hold the iOS device in your hand where you would normally sit to listen/play games and make sure the microphone (bottom of iPhone) is pointed towards your speakers/TV or Monitor (if your speakers are next to the TV/Monitor then point them at the TV/Monitor).
  
• Now adjust the volume on your speakers louder and louder with the 500-2.5khz file playing until the SPL meter reads 80db SPL.
  

If you have seperate volume controls for each speaker, then you can pan the file to the Right (all the way to R on the slider) and repeat for that speaker (turning down your left speaker but making a note of the point on the dial where you turned it to).

Since I work in a lot of different mixing environments over time, I have etched in pencil on the volume dials small dots where the calibration is correct so I can quickly switch to it in the future.

I sure hope you guys enjoy the game!

How can I best enjoy the sound of AMFP?
I'll start by getting the negatives out the way, the games sound will struggle on laptop speakers, as they can just about get to the right volume level for the internet let alone game titles.

The best way to enjoy AMFP's audio is on a home theatre system or a PC equivalent (something like this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduc...-CL&tool=3 (please note this isn't tested on AMFP, I'm just using it as an example)). A subwoofer and a good set of speakers will allow you to experience the game in all of it's fear inducing quality.

This is a video of Gollum from Lord of the Rings, it's taken directly from the DVD itself. The levels of this are similar to Pigs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLvIFRNbqOs