Where is all the sound fx guys in here? Seems like a ton of composers and music companies sell'n their wares but not alot in the way of sfx or SD....where are ya?

Myself, I need to bone up on my sound production skills, I spend a lot of time working with the music angle myself, but fully intend to round out both areas of expertise.

I think that sound design isn't quite as gratifying as music composition, and according to the folks at the Game Audio Network Guild, sound designs are outnumbered by composers about 30:1. However, I've been getting into sound design lately, and I've found that it's not all that bad, as I can use a lot of the skills I've picked up writing and producing electronic music. Admittedly, I haven't focused on that area as much as I *should*, mainly because my library of 'base' effects is fairly small, I don't have a fully-featured wave editor like Soundforge, and I have no portable recorder. But I think within the next year I should be more up to date :)

Interesting view zircon...thanx for the post. I would think it's the opposie...I'd sooner be out recording audio than behind a keyboard. Actually what's most gratifying is that you're doing what you love..wether SD or composing. You should get out there and explore your world with a microphone sometime. You'd be suprised how good it sounds.

I wish I could! But at the moment, I'm more or less broke. I just signed on with the Sonic Reality group buy, which is 6 sample CDs of content, and I also picked up NI's Komplete Care 2005 to cover updates to my favorite plugins. However, I'm already looking into portable recording gear for the future, and I don't think it will be long before I get out my credit card again :)

As long as we're on the topic, what sort of gear do you recommend for field recording? I was thinking about simply getting a laptop and a Shure SM-57, but I've heard that some sort of recorder rather than a laptop can be preferable (or a combination of both).

"I think that sound design isn't quite as gratifying as music composition,"

Sounds like you are a Composer at heart...that dosent make the profession or those who are purveyors of it any less gratified with the process. (your opinion)

"sound designs are outnumbered by composers about 30:1"

Regardless of the perceived 30:1 ratio (SD/Composers)...you'll find that a % of that # are actually Composers masquarading(sp?) as Sound Designers.

(see http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=300024 )

I'm with sonic on the thrill of sound effects creation and field recording, hell... all aspects of sound effect implementation. How sweet is it to get all the sfx up and humming for a game, turn off the music and listen to the randomness of your sfx and the improvised symphony of squaking spontaneous sounds designed. At the end of the day, that makes my day. (it helps if it works WITH the music too!)

SoundFX Reprazent!
LostChocolateLab

Thanx for chiming in Lost. I'd say from the threads here at Game Dev the ratio should be the other way around. Since my time here I've see nothing but music oriented posts...and ya...I think some of them may need to redefine the definition of SD.

Sad really...Was hoping to meet up with more people doing sfx, foley and all that...

Sonic
www.sonicvalley.com/games

This is just wild conjecture, feel free to slap me down with real facts, but I speculate as such: Sound designers may have a more streamlined, goal-oriented view of their craft, and as such might be utilizing industry resources and networking better than many straight composers and thus tend to not broadcast their services in forums too much (competing noise, essentially).

Someone who focuses on sound design does so for a purpose, to provide sound needs to a project. Game composers should do the same, but you do see a lot of people who are looking for a way to "get their music into games" vs truly crafting music for games, which may bely a different set of mentalities and marketing procedures for the amateur composer. How many times do you see "I make music, techno really, hard bass. Email me." To extrapolate that concept to a sound design position, would almost be like saying "I like to record pots and pans hitting things, so if you need pots and pans hitting things, I got what you need." I can certainly see why someone who wants their pots and pans to pay off for them would broadcast that and have a high volume presence on the forums, but if that person had a solid grasp on the functions and capabilities of his position, he might opt for a more direct or less noisy method of direct marketing and exclusive presence on more focused boards, much like you will see with many successful game composers, I might add.

Anyone feel that this point is valid?

Quote:

Original post by krikkit This is just wild conjecture, feel free to slap me down with real facts, but I speculate as such: Sound designers may have a more streamlined, goal-oriented view of their craft, and as such might be utilizing industry resources and networking better than many straight composers and thus tend to not broadcast their services in forums too much (competing noise, essentially). Someone who focuses on sound design does so for a purpose, to provide sound needs to a project. Game composers should do the same, but you do see a lot of people who are looking for a way to "get their music into games" vs truly crafting music for games, which may bely a different set of mentalities and marketing procedures for the amateur composer. How many times do you see "I make music, techno really, hard bass. Email me." To extrapolate that concept to a sound design position, would almost be like saying "I like to record pots and pans hitting things, so if you need pots and pans hitting things, I got what you need." I can certainly see why someone who wants their pots and pans to pay off for them would broadcast that and have a high volume presence on the forums, but if that person had a solid grasp on the functions and capabilities of his position, he might opt for a more direct or less noisy method of direct marketing and exclusive presence on more focused boards, much like you will see with many successful game composers, I might add. Anyone feel that this point is valid?

krikkit, i agree 100%. it seems most of the replies to posts looking for audio in the "help wanted" forum get a long list of replies that say, "check out my music at url x". i think it's important to know what i'm up against in the field, so i often check out these links and listen to what people have posted, and it seems that many people are good - sometimes exceptional - at one genre of music but don't have any depth to their skillset. myself, i'm a game composer at this point; while i do still write music that isn't designed for games, my focus is entirely on game music, not on getting my existing music into a game. i want to write something that perfectly captures the mood of the game i'm working on, not substitute something i've already written that ends up being "good enough".

it's also worth mentioning that most of the posts in the help wanted forum that are looking to fill multiple spots on a dev team have open spots for sound designers and not composers... this leads me to believe that the 30:1 ratio outlined above might actually hold some water, even if it's not exactly that extreme of a difference. for myself, my training has included many things which leave me feeling like i could handle most sound design tasks that i encountered, but i'm much more comfortable writing music than designing sfx. i think it's important to be able to do both adequately in order to be successful in this field. just my 2¢...

Oops! I think I should clarify that when I said "I think that sound design isn't quite as gratifying as music composition", I meant to say that I thought that was the general view.. not necessarily my own. Guess I spaced out there for a second. I certainly enjoy tinkering with sound, and I probably spend FAR more time doing than actually writing music :)