Shmup sound effects - advice needed

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tomandresen
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Joined: Wed Jul 11, 2018 12:37 pm

Shmup sound effects - advice needed

Post by tomandresen »

Hello developers,

I'm dabbling a bit with creating a vertically scrolling shmup as a hobby project. I'm getting by in the coding and pixel art departments, but sound effects are causing me a bit of trouble, so I would be grateful for any advice on how to create:

* Good explosion sound effects, especially the kind of high-pitched explosions you'd hear in, say, a Psykio shooter
* A good main weapon firing effect

So far, I've gotten by with a combination of bxfr and cc0 sounds processed in Audacity, but the ones above really elude me. I've tried searching for info on the subject on the net without much luck.
I'd like to learn how to create these sounds myself, but if anyone can recommend a good source of stock sounds for this, I'd also be interested.

Thanks in advance,
Tom
pieslice
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Re: Shmup sound effects - advice needed

Post by pieslice »

Scour things like freesound and pick up good sources; then adjust them to your liking.
You can also layer several sounds together with a DAW to create unique sounds. A reasonable free-to-try solution is Reaper, but if tracker software is your ante you can use a tracker to layer to sounds as well.

Also for arcadey effects you can use a VST instrument and tweak the sound outcome. A good free solution is Synth1 by Daichi.

For a high pitched explosion sound effect a ricochet sound is usually layered to a sound to give it more distinct impact
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M.Knight
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Re: Shmup sound effects - advice needed

Post by M.Knight »

Speaking of DAWs, LMMS also includes a bfxr/sfxr port in it so you can keep using it but with the possibility of adding effects and tweaking the sounds with modifiers and stuff.

One thing you should remember when designing the main weapon SFX is that it is the one sound you'll hear over and over again throughout the entire game. So it has to be there for the direct feedback of shooting but it mustn't be too loud nor too grating.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
Remote Weapon GunFencer - My shmup project
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TripleTremelo
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Re: Shmup sound effects - advice needed

Post by TripleTremelo »

In addition to downloading free sounds for a source, you can record your own stuff. I bough a Blue Yeti mic for just this. I'd say at least half of the sounds in my game ended being homemade recordings. Sometimes I even used my mouth to make sounds, like go "PEW" and then add effects and layering til it sounds good.
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M.Knight
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Re: Shmup sound effects - advice needed

Post by M.Knight »

^ Yeah, that's good advice! The mouth is more flexible than you would think, and it can sometimes be easier to get a specific sound effect this way rather than recreating it from scratch.
RegalSin wrote: I think I have downloaded so much I am bored with downloading. No really I bored with downloading stuff I might consider moving to Canada or the pacific.
Remote Weapon GunFencer - My shmup project
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