I'm working on a Graal Online server which is modern, it has great pixel art, scripting, and animations, but what it lacks is original sound effects. I am interested in learning how to create my own SFX, do you work off of already created sound effects and modify with certain programs? Or do you record things yourself? What is the best way, I find it hard to find actual information on creating my own sound effects...

You can create sound affects with different kind of methods. I'll mention some:

- Software synthesizers like SynthEdit (freeware), Reason (popular and $), Reaktor (complex and $$$$$), or hardware synthesizers which you connect to your computer and record them with a sound card.
- Recording sounds with a microphone and editing them in your computer.
- You can use MIDI i.c.w. a good sound card to create some effects (you record the MIDI instruments and use them to create fx in a wave editor program). Most sound cards come with adequate MIDI instrument quality. It's up to your own creative skills to make them into cool fx.

Note that there is a separate thread regarding all kinds of music dedicated applications.

Which software would you recommend?

It depends how much effort you want to put in creating the sounds. And, of course, the money you have.

Take a look at SynthEdit (www.synthedit.com). It's a very good tool for creating original sound fx from scratch. If you find it too complex, use the MIDI from your sound card to create sounds, and alter them to your liking in a wave editor tool like Goldwave, or Adobe Audition.

The professional tools like Reaktor work the same, only they require in-depth study to master (months/years). I'd not advice to buy such deep programs if one has no expierience.

Thanks a lot marmin :] Looking to spend at most a couple of weeks / months to learn how to create some SFX.

One of the best tools you can have is your ears. Seriously. Try to imagine what sounds similar to what you're after. Typical ones are: crunching up paper for a fire; squeezing a bag of cornflour (can't remember American name for it) for stepping on snow. The squeak whenever a lift door opened in Star Trek was of someone's trainer in a basketball court. You get the idea.

This way, you can find a sound similar to what you want and edit from there.

I would also recommend getting a sample library. These can cost stupid amounts of money - or real cheap. For instance, Sound Dogs (www.sounddogs.com) offer "Dog Packs" which are cheap collections of sfx. You can even get a pack of 500 sfx for $10. Yes, ten dollars. The only thing to check is the licences, as some cheaper libraries (though not sound dogs) won't allow you to make anything commercial with their "royalty free" sfx.

Good luck with it all! :)

As mentioned above, software (or hardware if you have the money) synthesizers are very useful when creating sound effects. Using these, in combination with a modern sampler or editing suite such as Audition, you can create a wide variety of sounds. When designing sound for a particular 'source' that requires something a bit more specific (i.e. fire, slithering, footsteps, etc..) it's often a good idea to record these sounds (or something that sounds similar.)

In the recent film Spiderman 2, the silky sound of the mechanical tenticals clicking on Dr. Octopus was created by recording a heavy bike chain being pulled across a metal bar. You can easily change the pitch or speed of sampled sounds to create an entirely 'new' sound.