Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Sound Design for Virtual Spaces
The strange thing is that you take the emotional treatment that sound is giving, and you allow that
to actually change how you see the image: You see a different image when it has been emotionally
conditioned by the sound.
—Walter Murch [1]
11.1 DISCOVERING SOUND IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT
Let's prepare for this chapter by doing the following experiment: Get a piece of paper and a pencil and sit
down in a comfortable spot; ind someplace where you will not be bothered for a minute or two. In this
experiment, you will close your eyes and focus on listening to the sounds of the environment around you.
Start with the tiny sounds your clothes make as you shift to get comfortable and then open up the radius of
aural awareness to take in the room sound. As you become aware of these sounds, note them as a list on the
paper. Your list may look like this:
Close-by sounds I hear:
Creak of chair legs and back
Hum of computer fan
Clicking of hard drive disk
Hiss of oscillating fan in room
After 30 seconds of “close listening” and note-taking, close your eyes again and tune in to the largest
possible range in your aural perception. Focus on listening to what is going on outside your immediate
environment; try to listen to the world around you. Many of these sounds will be low frequency and capable
of traveling over long distances. Now, your list might include these items:
Distant sounds I hear:
Hoot of the ferry horn as it departs the dock
Drone of an overhead passing jet
Whoosh of car tires on the street
General rumble of city trafic in the distance
You may be surprised that your list is long and full of complex sounds. When you focus on listening to
your environment instead of just hearing it, you discover a whole symphonic tapestry of sound that your brain
has tuned out so it may focus attention on input from your visual ield. Even though you may not be actively
listening, all that sound is reaching your brain quickly. In fact, your response to a new sound is 10 times
faster than your response to a change in your visual ield; you just do not pay attention to it unless your brain
recognizes it as something unusual or as a threat [2].
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