How do you master audio for games ? Can you master audio for games ? Is it even a thing ? It turns out the answer is Yes, but it’s complicated. In this episode we talk to Jay Fernandes about audio in games, including:
- Why audio is critical to the gaming experience
- How “mastering” works in games
- Challenges and solutions in gaming audio
- How to measure the loudness of a game, what to aim for, and why it matters
- Some of the best games for audio
- Why Jon hates "3D sound"
Links
Turn Down For What?? Why Loudness Matters In Video Games
The Mastering Show #6 – Loudness: What, Why and How
Beards, Cats and Indie Game Audio Podcast
- Jon recommends episode 28 on burnout
Twenty Thousand Hertz Podcast - From Analogue to Digital
Selected games
Pong (OK, so it has three sounds…!)
Thank you for the Podcast guys. I have been playing computer/video games since waaay back and found that music can either be down right irritating or add fantastic atmosphere. My wife hates certain game music, Sonic the Hedgehog being just one of them.
You may be interested in a little theory of mine. In my day, when vinyl was king, music was the soundtrack of our lives. There were only 3 channels on TV and no computer games, so radio was a big part of our lives, plus live music if you were really lucky (always pleased to expand on this if requested ) and buskers on the streets.
People no longer refer to music in the same way now, in fact it's almost become a throwaway commodity. One study even suggested that children of the modern age have a musical attention span of 20 seconds. This was validated by a friend of mine, a music teacher, who has recognised that people's listening skills are diminishing.
Music moves very fast, in and out etc in games. So, could it be that video games are actually training people to accept poorer quality music i.e. MP3, and skipping through music?
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