I''m with a small startup company, and we need to start recording sounds. What''s the best way to do this? I read in another post that we should use Sound Forge to composite and master our sounds? It''s just that, well, we''re programmers, modellers and designers, not sound engineers, and we''d like at least some sounds to be starting with. Any help is much appreciated...
Coding Stuff ->  [ iNsAn1tY Games | DarkVertex | How To Do CSG | Direct3D Vs. OpenGL | Google ]
Fun Stuff    ->  [ Evil T-Shirts | Stick-Based Comedy | You''re Already Here | The Best Film Reviews ]

If there''s no sound guy in your company, the best way is to get free sounds from the net
http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html

You need:

Sample editor. Sound Forge is good but the editing power might not be necessary.

Synthesizer. Whether software or hardware (like a music keyboard) these are very useful to essential depending on the sounds you want. Space games simply require them. More realisting things might benefit from the live option.
Softsynth processing of recorded sound REALLY makes all the difference. I developed my own software, you can get an old version on my website, it's called Noise Station. See here


Mic. A budget dynamic mic is a good start. A more expensive condenser is better but costs much more. A porttable DAT or Minidisc recorder will allow you to record things like car engines without bringing the car to your PC. A laptop might be okay, if a little less portable.

There are lots of free sounds around but 99% are low sample rates. Most of the good ones are not free. Indeed, I create and sell sfx so you might find my link below useful.

Mark
Sound Effects For Game Developers
http://www.indiesfx.co.uk

[edited by - Mark Sheeky on July 30, 2003 4:15:03 PM]