Live Forum Q&A - Audio!

[Periocus]

The process of creating audio is very collaborative. On a game like Planet Coaster we had to start pre-production at the same time as everyone else and as such get to work closely with all the other departments (which is an absolute joy!). We constantly see things coming together and most of the time it works too ; )

The sound of going through the day was done by me. I love ambient environments and soundscapes and even do that kind of stuff outside from work (recording and creating them). In fact, those crickets I recorded in the Netherlands at a really cool forest that is host to an abandoned rail road. It's completely overgrown and serves as a national park. It's one of my favourite places and recordings.

I also just really like creating an atmosphere and a lively, changing atmosphere in an environment it makes you really appreciate how your park slowly comes to life as you build. I am sure you noticed how there aren't any guest sounds until your first ride, and people are actually wandering into the park. From the beginning we wanted to make sure the audio represents what you have done and not just play pre-backed background sounds. Everything you hear exists for a reason.

For Alpha 2 you will notice much nicer wind high up and we have synced leaves of trees rustling with the wind increasing and decreasing much nicer. Even the crickets get a bit more quiet when the wind picks up. Non of that is essential for the game-play obviously, but we really want an empty park to feel like a place that is alive, well before you work your magic!

Thank you. Funny you mention the crickets. That was the moment i started to listen into the complete span of the sound.
I will listen to all the different sounds you mentioned for Alpha 2. Another thing to be excited about for the update.
I had so much fun discovering sounds in the last weeks. Next to observing guests.

 

[ManiaMuse]

It seems the loudspeaker question wasn't answered yet? (Or was it just me)

Ofcourse those go hand in hand with custom music but even if you don't support it, can we have loudspeakers to give all area's of our park a fitting sound?

And im not even talking about darkrides yet, or things like the Cheshire cat that move trough various scenes. I guess all the scenes need to have a certain theme to it. Will we have loudspeakers to make this happen?

They said they were considering doing speakers with ambient sounds to fit themes in a similar way to the particle effect boxes that they showed the other day.

 

[Zac Antonaci]

It seems the loudspeaker question wasn't answered yet? (Or was it just me)

Ofcourse those go hand in hand with custom music but even if you don't support it, can we have loudspeakers to give all area's of our park a fitting sound?

And im not even talking about darkrides yet, or things like the Cheshire cat that move trough various scenes. I guess all the scenes need to have a certain theme to it. Will we have loudspeakers to make this happen?

Hey Vampiro!!

I think Matt answered one on that subject here...

https://forums.planetcoaster.com/sh...p-A-Audio!/page7?p=55122&viewfull=1#post55122

Thanks,

Zac

 

[Matthew Florianz]

As the question for custom music and onboard coaster music (and I hope also we can put speakers around the park) has already been done, let me ask this.

I heard some time ago some of the audio team were let alone inside alton towers to record the sounds of coaster and rides. Is that true? If it was, what was the experience? How fo you retrouch real life audio so it then sounds good when mixed in the game for the games needs (I know that can be pretty hard, and thats why sometimes audio teams prefer to create their audios instead of recording the real things)?

Other than that, I have to say that the audio of the game is top notch and some of the best ive ever seen in any game, and im seriously not kidding or exaggerating. When you are in the agme it really seems you are surrounded in a real theme park. And thats not even counting details like putting scenery creating a feedback sound. Totally marvelous.
Also big thumbs up at the soundtrack right now, and I can't even begin to describe how MUCH I love how you made the loading screen music flow with the loading so the music finishes in different points depending of how many time it takes to load. And I LOVE the chorus part.

Thanks SPRidley, much appreciated!

We use a combination of real world recordings sprinkled with a lot of sound designer "guesswork". We don't always have to literal in what the real world sounds like. Sometimes our memories are so coloured that we have to actually do quite the opposite to make something feel believable.

For instance, when we finished our first coaster mock-up it was very clean sounding. Most people liked it, but said, it didn't sound real.

So I started listening to recordings of coasters and noticed that a lot of them have the sound of wind totally distorting the audio.



I took a guess and added a little bit of that in (layer 9) and all of a sudden people liked it a lot more!

The above image is step one, in how we created the coasters. I took a video of the same coaster Watson Wu recorded (the Thunderbird at Holiday World) and synced our high-def recordings to it. Then started trying to recreated that recording with individual layers. We needed these individual layers because every coaster you build is different and the sound has to be able to respond to that. So some layers are louder on corners, or when going fast or triggered at different times.

 

[Matthew Florianz]

Hi noise maker people,

I loved what you guys did with the drop tower ride with the music creating tension prior to the drop. That bass note right before the plunge really taps into that feeling of excitement/terror you'd expect to feel at that moment. Which leads me to a question.

Have you any plans to incorporate on-ride announcing? You know, simple repeatable things heard when zoomed in to the rides, stuff like "5,4,3,2,1" or "Here we go" or even a simple "please do not stand up" on lift hills?

I think this would be a simple touch that would add so much authenticity and atmosphere to the game.

I do believe it is these little touches that matter, and that audio is one of the biggest factors in propelling this game into the stratosphere!!

Anyway guys, loved what you've done so far, and have every faith you're going to pull off a masterclass in sound design.

Hi FuddyWoodie,

That's a really fun idea. I'll let James and Michael know (they work on Planco and the Flat Rides). No promises though : )

Thanks for the really kind words!

 

[Le-Ouf]

Hello everyone.

I have some questions about the paths.

1) Can we remove the paths border?
a) To have just the earth paths or paved paths.

[/url][/IMG]

b) Avoid the holes between shops or the waiting line.

[/url][/IMG]

2) Can we remove the metallic structure at the entrance to attractions or make it invisible?


Thank you

 

[Matthew Florianz]

What music do you all at Frontier like to listen to? And which genre/type of music do you like to make?

I like creating and listening to ambient music and quite frankly, being a sound designer it's probably the only thing I could listen to very quietly when doing my work. It's the only downside of this job! When I was a level designer many years ago, I used to listen to a lot of film music and industrial. Like music in all genre's though, I can enjoy Nick Cave as much as Cherubini.

 

[Vampiro]

Hey Vampiro!!

I think Matt answered one one that subject here...

https://forums.planetcoaster.com/sh...p-A-Audio!/page7?p=55122&viewfull=1#post55122

Thanks,

Zac

Whoops, seems like i missed that!! Would be awesome!!

I hope i don't seem ungreatfull here when i continue to ask about custom music...

We changed our audio tech and the new audio middleware we use (Wwise) does amazing things (you can hear that) however it cannot play user music out of the box. We need a custom solution for this because we don’t want for people to have to download Wwise, install it and follow a tutorial : ) Many people here can figure out how to do this (this is PC land after all!) but we don’t feel that solution helps our entire community. We want to do it right, which means we need our teams on engine, interface and game-logic to support a feature like that.

I 100% agree the solution should be within the game itself, and when it can't be done it shouldn't be supported by frontier.
But i just wonder what you were saying in the above. If it isn't supported by Frontier, will the die-hard people who REALLY want it be able to do it themself? even if that means people have to download Wwise, install it and follow a tutorial ?

Once again, i hope i don't sound ungreatfull, i love everything about the game so far. But having custom music is very important to me as i feel a good ride needs fitting music that will fit to that one particular ride.

Cool to see a Dutchmen at Frontier !! Its awesome to see how many Dutch fans there are. Yesterday an hour before the livestream started it was like a meeting of dutch people on the chat, there were at least 15 of us.

 

[Zac Antonaci]

Hello everyone.

I have some questions about the paths.

1) Can we remove the paths border?
a) To have just the earth paths or paved paths.
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2016/05/12/mini_160512090510194092.jpg

b) Avoid the holes between shops or the waiting line.
http://nsa38.casimages.com/img/2016/05/12/mini_160512090547491505.jpg

2) Can we remove the metallic structure at the entrance to attractions or make it invisible?
http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2016/05/12/mini_160512090637268655.jpg

Thank you

Hey Le-Ouf,

Interesting questions!

It's not really an audio question which is what this specific Q&A is for. HOWEVER, we do have a forum Q&A next week on design and production and this might be a good question for then!

Thanks,

Zac

 

[Matthew Florianz]

Awesome work on the audio. Audio was one thing I was worried about early on for this game because I don't think a lot of gamers or developers realize how important audio is for immersion and then it just becomes an afterthought. Thanks for not letting us down!


- I like the feedback of the wheel sounds for the lateral forces on the coaster but feel like they are mixed too loud. I've never been on a modern roller coaster that has that much "screeching" sound during those turning elements. (However I would buy it with older coaster types or older rides with poor maintenance.)

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions and for the great, hard work you've already put into the game!

I'd have to say that is my own indulgence one part and feedback another. I like how that sound adds to the mix and cuts through nicely by emphasizing turns. I know it's not 100% realistic but it is a great piece of feedback on how you created your turns. In the current Alpha 2 version it triggers slightly later so it communicates that with more gradient. It's great you are all so passionate for the realism, but in this case I think the communication of what you build wins out form me. Having said that, I will take it down a little bit in the mix : )

 

[Luppen]

Hello everyone.

I have some questions about the paths.

1) Can we remove the paths border?
a) To have just the earth paths or paved paths.
[url=http://www.casimages.com/i/160...om/img/2016/05/12/mini_160512090510194092.jpg[/url][/url]

b) Avoid the holes between shops or the waiting line.
[url=http://www.casimages.com/i/160...om/img/2016/05/12/mini_160512090547491505.jpg[/url][/url]

2) Can we remove the metallic structure at the entrance to attractions or make it invisible?
[url]http://nsa37.casimages.com/img/2016/05/12/mini_160512090637268655.jpg[/url]

Thank you

This Q&A is about sound.. so don't expect an answere to your questions.

 

[Jashby]

Hi guys! First of all a big thank you to the audio team for the work they all have done so far. The audio is one of the best things about Planet Coaster so far!!!

So my question for the team:
What ride/coaster would you like to add to the game because of its sound or music?

If it ever shows up in the game or not does not matter, I'm just curious how you guys look at rides from an audio engineer perspective.

Thanks in advance and keep up the good work!!!!

Thanks! It's really nice to hear what people thought of the audio!


This is definitely a “what I would like” rather than a promise of anything that would happen....

I'd really like to hear a ride where there's a“problem” as part of the ride. Like you're on a ride and half way through you hear an announcement about something going wrong, then the music drops out and another announcement telling you to wait, then there's silence, then some demonic voices comes in and there's a drop as the ride falls from beneath you with a great grinding and clash of metal and you can hear a load of screaming laughter all the way down.
That said, there's a good reason I'm not a sound/ride designer by any stretch of the imagination [haha], but that's a ride I'd like to ride in real life, so it's a ride I'd like to place in my park. It'd probably end up as some sort of darkride if I ever got round to making it.

 

[widlanquebec]

Thanks for taking to time to answer my question and a big thanks for your work. The game have a lot of personality and it's the first thing that it's obvious when we play the game.

I just want to add, the intro with Coaster King is so amazing... The laughing of this mascott is incredible. [up]

 

[Matthew Florianz]

I'll take one hint first! If not, then I'll take the answer after! [squeeeeee]

Also, can you describe how you place the mics on the coasters to record the sounds? Do you place mics all over the car, in the chasis, at the wheel base, etc?

Think about Christmas ; )

That's a geographical hint.

Watson used both contact and wind protected mic's and placed them in crevasses on the rides.

 

[Matthew Florianz]

Hello, and thanks for your good work.

A question for Matthew. When we are closer to release, will you do a Sarrantonio Survey Spin showcase video for Planet Coaster, moving around a good park in FPS mode? [big grin]

Hi Dante80!

Thanks for the always kind words about our work. If inspiration hits we'll make another one like this ; )

 

[Schabrackenaal]

What are you currently working at? [big grin]

 

[SymphonyX]

Think about Christmas ; )

That's a geographical hint.

Watson used both contact and wind protected mic's and placed them in crevasses on the rides.

Well, I sort of figured out from your Thunderbolt screenshot and comment that it's Holiday World in Santa Claus , Indiana.

So I assume that the sounds for the B&M coaster in Alpha 1 is from Thunderbolt? And if so, where did the sounds for the Arrow track come from, because there are no Arrow coasters at Holiday World?!?!?

 

[Jashby]

what has been the hardest sound to create so far in this game?

From a tech perspective, probably the crowd. You've got to make it sound great when there's a massive crowd miles away, but also when there's only two people close and they both really need the toilet and everything in between those extremes.

 

[coasterlover]

Can we please get "Seasonal ambient music" Halloween, Summer , Xmas etc

 

[Jashby]

Hi everybody, thank you for taking your time to answer our questions and for your effort into the game. Some of my questions may have been asked before or may vary a bit. My apologies in that case ;-)

1. What methods do you use to make sounds for the different styles of rides such as the pirate ship in example? Do you go to theme parks to record audio or do you mix it together yourself?
2. Will there be the possibility to add your own MP3 files into the game (I'm sure that has been asked before) AND would you have to chose a theming for your MP3s so that you have to make sure that your chosen MP3 file fits into the scenery/theming you place it in?
3. What audio you are currently working at?
4. Will there be special commercial sounds for the different brands in the game (such as Cosmic Cow/Chief Beef or a new brand) ;-)
5. Will there be some special sounds for the maskots you can chose yourself? (i.e. for the Pirate mascot, sounds may vary between a very friendly and welcoming pirate or a more aggressive one for scary rides).
6. Will there be sounds you can trigger via a rollercoaster, for example a mean scary laughter before a coaster car drops down after the lift or something like that. Or sounds that are triggered by peeps walking by?
7. Will there be festival sounds or marches for bands or a stage for a band?

[big grin][yesnod][hehe][rolleyes]

1. Generally there's a mix of using the real thing for reference, but creating the sounds to do that ourselves (as it's very difficult to isolate e.g. the motor noise in a busy park). Having the sound reference that Watson recorded was super helpful for comparing with the real thing.
   
   
2. Answered above by Matt.
   
3. I'm currently working on getting whoosh pasts on coasters working, so if you go really close to scenery or terrain you get a nice audio effects.
   
4. I think we've got a chief beef jingle in already, and I may or may not know what a theremin sounds like which could be related to cosmic cow. Maybe.
   
5. We have plans to alter them based on how happy they are, to feed back into the simulation. So if you don't train the mascot well they might be more aggressive or care less.
   
6. I think Matt answered this above
   
7. We've already got a pirate band, and there are some plans for other bands for release, but I can't give any more than that away sorry [mouth shut]