A Guide To Field Recording For Games is the running title at the moment and that basically explains it. I did research on what resources are available to someone wanting to start doing field recordings for video games and there is not a whole lot out there. The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers and Field Recording: From Research To Wrap by Paul Virostek are two well-known and comprehensive resources for learning about field recordings. However they focus mainly on creating sound effects for use in general media, what I am trying to write is specific to recording for use in video games.
Ideally I would like for someone who has experience in field recording for general media such as TV and Film to be able to use this guide and learn the differences they might need to make to their workflows when aiming for video game use. Also, beginners should be able to find it useful to as I aim to comprehensively point out all the things someone should know about for recording for a video game.
Of course, I cannot give all this information in a guide without completing some research of my own. I currently have a few projects in line that I believe can help me find out what works and what to avoid. One project is recording a motorbike for a game design student who needs engine loops for their game. Another is a recording of my car to create a sound library that is tailored towards use in a video game. I have more ideas but unfortunately, at the time of writing this, the UK is in a state of lockdown due to the pandemic. This is definitely something that will hold me back from completing this research. Hopefully, once things have calmed down I can get out there and complete the research. On the plus side, I have extra time to plan them!
Another way to research this subject without physically completing it would be speaking to professionals in the field. Luckily for me, I have already started this earlier in the academic year and have managed to get responses from some very well known field recordists. I have collated some questions to give me guidance and useful info to quote from Pole Position Production, Watson Wu, Ben Minto and John Broomall. These are some highly regarded professionals who have all worked within the video game industry and know the role field recordings hold within their production. Hopefully, with the permission of those mentioned, I will post their responses to some of my questions here on this blog and use some of them within my guide, so watch this space.
I have more people to get into contact with to answer some of my questions. Hopefully this and my own first hand research should give the reader of the guide enough confidence in my ability to guide them on this subject. So watch out for some of those responses I have from professionals in the field and my own research that will be posted on this blog. Once my projects are complete I will have a page added to this website showing the projects I have completed so you can have a look at how they turned out.
Let me know if you have any ideas of who I can contact that will know about this subject or if you want to get involved in some way, just send me an email or comment on this post.
Nick
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