Loop A Lot Timeline Help

Timeline:
The timeline is the area where you construct your track. In loops a lot constructing a track simply means you are lining up a set of musical loops from different instruments. To start constructing your track, simply follow the instructions set out below.

The Timeline Window:
The timeline consists of 8 separate horizontal tracks, one for each instrument. Each of these tracks can hold 39 different musical loops in any order.



The timeline section is the table in the centre of the program, for the time being only the top 4 tracks are in use.

Adding Loops in Sequence:
Each column is numbered at the top of the window, to allow you to match up sounds. the sections can all be individually selected, to allow you to add a loop.



To add a loop to a certain track and column, all you have to do is select the space on the track that you want to add an instrument to. Click on the drop down box to the left of the timeline window, underneath the track sample select section. This drop down is a list of all the samples that are available for the specific track.



Selecting a track from this box, also acts as a preview function. The volume of this preview is next to the sample select. This allows you to listen to several different loops and decide which one you would like to use.

Playing a Track:
To play the track you can select the play button in the bottom left hand corner in the ‘MASTER CONTROLS’ section. This will play from the first column and will play every track. You can also use the SPACE BAR to start and stop the track from the beginning.
To play the track from a select point, choose the column number at the top, this will highlight all the corresponding tracks in the correct place. If you press the ‘S’ key, the timeline will play from here.

Mixing:
The mixer is situated in the bottom right hand corner of the program, this allows you to choose the individual volumes of each of your instruments, allowing you to control how the instrument stands out in the overall song.

Multi Touch Music Controller Using Max Msp

Made By Randy Jones

From : http://vimeo.com/2433260

Source : http://www.Cycling74.com - Interesting work - Multitouch Prototype 2


Multitouch Prototype 2 from Randy Jones on Vimeo.

Ben Burtt - Sound Design For Wall-E

Good look at the sound design used within the film, split over 4 videos. how can you justify not watching it?!

http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/9762/tcid/1

Korg DS-10 (As In NINTENDO DS!)

A Korg software synth package for use with the nintendo DS, for on the fly music production? Read the article, it is pretty interesting to say the least.





http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081109-the-nintendo-ds-is-your-instrument-the-korg-ds-10.html

another video i just found that shows it off a bit better.



Another even more mad video

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

Innovation In Game Sound - AudioSurf

Audiosurf - Innovation in Game Sound

Better late than never, to find a game that really is worth a look at. i was informed of this game about this time last year in an Interactive Audio lecture at uni. But it took me until this morning (9am 4th Nov 2008) to download a demo and then actually buy it! (Only £6 from steam)as the demo simply wasnt enough!



What is it?

The game is a cross between guitar hero and wipeout and it centers around the use of the players own music, which instantly makes it appeal to almost everyone. The player selects their chosen track from the HDD or a CD and the games engine analyses the track with respect to Tempo, intersity, amplitude, Pitch and main Hit-Points. The information is then compiled into a visual form creating the 'Track' that the player will now compete on.

The first thing that is obvious is the way that the colored blocks that the player has to crash into to collect; match with most of the main hitpoints of the chosen song. there is also a direct correlation between the speed of the craft and the current tempo of the track, this is represented by the slope of the track. As the tempo increases the track becomes a steep downhill where you can barely react fast enough to crash into the blocks. Wheras the tempo slows the track becomes an uphill which slows your craft's progress to almost stopped.

Sound Effects

The sound effects do make for some interesting listening, each hit point that the user gets plays one of a selection of sound effects, sometimes these match perfectly with the points of the music which is quite satisfying to hear. As the player makes a hit the pitch of the block also seems to vaguely match the pitch of the note in the song making the sound very interactive. For example during a section of Tamacum by Rodrigo y Gabriella a drum beat is produced by striking the body of the acoustic guitar; as the player contacts the colored blocks the sound effects almost perfectly match the sound of the song.

Innovation???

This most recent release of the game (15 Feb 2008) has an improved audio engine which improves the analysing of the track and improves the sound effects also. in terms of moving the audio game industry forward; rather than bringing music to a video game such as 'Guitar Hero or Rock Band', audiosurf brings a very effective game to your music! this makes a refreshing change from games such as 'Guitar Hero' where a team of people have to physically break the music down and then release the new tracks as an update. the audio proessor in Audiosurf analyses the track and creates all the relevant hit points within about 10-15 seconds and then stores each reference as a .ASH file. these are then called upon when the player loads the same track to reduce the loading time.

Conclusion

In terms of playability and keeping th eplayer interested, Audiosurf is fantastic. however when the level of dificulty increases the colored blocks come about so quickly and frequently that the sound effects can reduce the music's listenability considerably. it is of course possible to turn the sound effects off, but then you are merely playing a puzzle game with your music in the background.

WELL WORTH THE 6 QUID!

Sound Propagation in Games

Far Cry 2 - Fire

Sound propagation is a term used to describe how sound reacts to a given space. We know that sound travels through the air as a linear wave, the wave forces the air molecules to vibrate allowing the sound to travel. Sound propagation is not simply the reduction in volume as a listener moves away from a sound, it relates to the way the sound reflects and diffracts off certain surfaces. In terms of games, replicating the propagation of sound accurately is important, as it adds to the overall impression of 'realism' that the game creates.

The volume of a sound will obviously reduce as the listener moves further from it, and vice versa. The volume of the sound source will not react in a linear fashion, for a given radius the volume of the sound will react in a logarithmmic fashion. For instance as you can see in the rough graph i have made below, as the player/Listener moves slightly from the source there will be a very slight reduction in the volume of the sound, as the player reaches a certain point the sound will tail off very quickly. This happens as the energy of the sound wave dissipates and in simple terms cannot force the vibration of the air molecules any more.



The Game:



In the video you can plainly see how the players distance from the fire affects the sound, this is done by setting the radius of the sound and applying the diffusion properties to the sound cue. within the Unreal 3 Editor there are 5 possible settings for the propagation of the sound, in the second video i have shown the difference between the linear distance model and also the logarithmic. As i mentioned earlier the propagation of sound is not just the varying volume with distance from the source, but also hos the sound reaches the player, through reflections and reverborations. I found that this was quite hard to demonstrate in a video but during gameplay the effect is very good.


The propagation of sound can help you to pinpoint the location of an attacker in an area where there is no direct line of sight (Or sound) ie. when the path between you is blocked by a building or trees.

References:
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/Sound/sprop.html#c1
http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/Music/tech_background/TE-01/teces_01.html
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:91Wfsp1WWs4J:ftp://128.112.136.56/pub/people/funk/talks/gdc03/archive/cdrom.ppt+sound+propagation+on+games&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=uk (Downloaded as Powerpoint file)