Hi guys,

apologies if this sounds like the most stupid question yet asked on the board. 

I'm a developer who needs to make some sounds for a game (think lasers, pops, clicks etc.). I've got the majority of them already from freesound.org (any other recommendations for suitable sites) but I need to make some adjustments to them (they're .wav files) - think volume levels / clipping some of them. 

I don't need to do anything more advanced than that (maybe import a .mp3 file and export as a .wav file). 

Suggestions? I'm PC based FWIW

Thanks

Steve

What's your budget? I'm a newbie music composer (more of a hobbyist), but I've been using Audacity for some minor tweaks and whatnot. Might be worth checking out since it's free. There is an extension you need to download so you can import/export from/to mp3 if you need to, but it does what it needs to!

@BitsNPiecesMusic thanks. I'll check it out. 

You could use FMOD Studio, drop the sounds into simple events and tweak the instrument volumes to suit. Integrating FMOD into your game is pretty simple and if/when your audio requirements become more ambitious you'll have a good basis for expansion.

WWise is another good option, I'm not familiar with it but I'm sure it would be easy to do a similar thing there.

(Full disclosure: I work at Firelight, the makers of FMOD.)

Yeah, if all you need to do is trim and adjust levels, Audacity would be my vote as well. If you ever want to get more in-depth and have more features, you can try other DAWs that have more bundled 3rd party plugins or you can get some 3rd party VST plugins that will work with Audacity. Good luck!

Thanks @nsmadsen, I've downloaded Audacity and it does precisely what I needed.

Thanks @DerekB, that does look very powerful, but it's overkill for what I need right now.

For beginners audacity is the way to go and it's free.

You could actually try and make your own music with Fruity loops. That's the program that most electronic music producers start from. There are a lot of tutorials as well.

Thanks @waipowrectdeapr1976. I used Audacity to modify (and record one) the sounds that I need.

The main takeaways that I have from this project:

1. The hard part of game programming isn't the programming
2. Don't leave the graphics / audio until after the coding is complete - things can and should be done in parallel
3. Get 3rd parties to do the sound and graphics rather than using programmer art 

So I guess the project hasn't been a complete disaster ?

This might be a bit late, but I'd say there are a few important details to mention here for anyone looking here forthcoming. 
Wwise and FMOD is not just an environment where you should just drop any audio file into. You need to ensure you've got a good source and use the correct format to get good audio and optimized performance. In other words, you should always make sure to edit / modify / clean up your audio files before importing them into a sound engine (unless your modifications is supposed to be applied in real-time). 

To modify audio files, you can use: 

• Audacity (Free)
  One of the most basic editors, even though it has a lot of features. 
• Pro Tools / Reaper / Nuendo (Not Free)
  More advanced, but I'd say it offers better workflow, features and audio processing. There's also a free version of Pro Tools called Pro Tools First, that will be great for getting used to a more advanced DAW. 
  There's also Logic, but that's only for mac.

If you're completely new to editing audio, here's also a few tips:

• If you are using the sound for timed events, like e.g. footsteps or impacts, make sure to trim away the entry of the sound so it isn't delayed. 
• Don't use MP3, convert it all into WAV or a format that uses less processing to decode. 
• Normalize (gain) the audio file before import. To something like max -2dB. You'd want to avoid gaining too much in the sound engine.