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Sound-Off With Corn! - 5/2/00

(by Sixxo)

Enter Neil "Corn" Huntley, sound guru at Cornered Rat Software. A veteran from the WarBirds community, he brings his knowledge and experience to World War Two Online - a sample of which we've already seen (and if you haven't, check out Corn's two MP3s right here). After hearing his excellent samples, I just had to ask him a few questions, and, thankfully, after hours of poking Corn with a stick, he agreed.

Sixxo: First off, Corn, great work on the recently-released MP3s.

Corn: Thanks!  I really enjoy working with sounds.   All of us up here put so much care, and if I may say, passion into our work, that it really shows in the finished product.  :P

Sixxo: I think it's safe to say that whoever heard them has been wowed by your talent. For those that don't know, you created your own set of sounds for iEN's WarBirds way back when, which were quite excellent as well. How does World War Two Online's sound system differ from WarBirds (and other games), and are you granted more freedom working with it?

Corn: Well, let's see if I can explain this correctly/well.  The Warbirds sound system was the first one I ever started playing with.  Back in it's earlier days it was much more simplified than it had grown to, by the time we left last year. Though it still remained fairly simple.  It had limitations that were not easily fixable due to the fact that when it was first written, it was only written with a very basic sound setup, i.e. engine, guns, explosions, landing gear.  Later down the road, more stuff (more sounds, like wind, screech sound for landing, stress sounds etc) was added to the Warbirds sound system to make it much more 'intense' from a players point of view, but still had the barriers that made adding 'cool sound effects' an extremely difficult proccess.

With World War II Online, I have been given alot of freedom with the sound system... I get to design it :P So basically, I get to take all the knowledge I learned about the Warbirds sound system, things I liked, disliked, and BADLY wanted,  and apply them to the sound design for World War II Online. The other cool thing we are planning, is making it so that any system in the game can be easily modifiable/replaceable/added to-able <G>.  This includes the sound system.

Sixxo: Many fans analyzed these sounds and posted their results on the forums - a good deal of them heard artillery shells going off as well as many automatic, late-war weapons. Why did you choose to use late-war weapons in this sound demonstration?

Corn: Hehehe, I noticed the 'debates' going on about the sounds...got quite a chuckle from it really. :)  The reason I chose to use later era weapons is just because I think they sound 'cooler', hehehe.  Who wants to hear the sound of a semi-auto going bang... bang... bang, when instead they could hear the Rata-tat-tat of a Browning .30 cal and the Buuuuuuurrrrrrppp of the Mg42, hehe.  No, I don't really think I had any 'reason' per say for using late era sounds for the .MP3's, other than maybe like I stated above... maybe <G>.

Sixxo: Just out of curiosity, exactly what weapon/vehicle sounds did you use in your compiled MP3s?

Corn: Well, let me just say, that as a sound artist (if I can call myself one... yes, I can, hehe) I must improvise and be creative when doing sounds.  Most specifically when they are sounds for something that not only is hard to ever find and see with your own eyes, let alone recording the sound of it.  So sometimes I may have to cheat a sound, i.e. like in Warbirds my 75mm gun sound in the B25H.  The sound of the gun going off is actually a mix of several sounds, and the breach action is actually the iron door on my dad's coal furnace being manipulated. :P

Just to give you an idea of the sounds I used in the 'dead panzer' MP3:  There is a Browning .30 cal (it's the distant machine gun), an MG42 (it's the machine gun that sounds close and is firing before the tank rolls up, the coax gun on the tank is firing (it's the really heavy sounding machine gun you hear as the tank is almost 'on top of you'), the tank fires it's main gun and shortly after you hear it's shell hit in the distance, the plane you hear diving in to kill the tank is a MkXIV Spitfire.

The 'observer' MP3 is more a late war compilation of sounds from the battle field.   Hard to be too specific about all the sounds used in that one since it's so busy.   There is the sound of artillery shells flying overhead before hitting in the distance (and the scream of the shell flying overhead is actually a recording of the real thing, so any of you who think it sounds too 'Hollywoodish' can rest knowing that Corvet (from our forums), who was a spotter for artillery, heard the sound and said it sounded exactly as it should).  There are also grenades exploding, lotta machine gun fire....I really should have put some semi-auto rifles in there, but that's really the only thing missing from that one.  Planes buzzing around dropping bombs, lotta stuff in that one.

Sixxo: The MP3s are pretty high-quality; is this the same level of sound we'll hear in-game, or will it be even better?

Corn: Glad you asked.   Actually the .MP3's are lower quality than what will be in the game, as .MP3's are compressed files, so you loose a lot of the sound in the compression.

Sixxo: What speaker/sound card set would you recommend for the best result in World War Two Online?

Corn: Well, hardware specifications for World War II Online have not been developed yet. So any recomendation I could give, can be wrong or not the best.  Right now I am using a Soundblaster Live! sound card.  I will be evaluating many more sound cards as the development stages progress, but right now I really can't recommend what card would be 'best'.

Speaker wise... well you have definately come to the right place, hehehe.  The current speakers I am using are far and away better than any other speakers I have EVER heard on a computer system.

ProMedia v.2-400
www.klipsch.com

Specifications:

Total system frequency response: 29-20,000 Hz Maximum acoustic output: 110dB SPL at listening position Amplifier headroom: 4 x 60 watts, Satellites 1 x 160 watts, Subwoofer Satellite impedance: 4 ohms minimum

I HIGHLY recommend getting them if you really want the most out of sounds... they really rock!

Sixxo: I've always wondered, how do you formulate your sounds? Do you sample them from the real thing, or do you artificially create them using other sounds?

Corn: It really depends on what the sound is I am trying to create.  The ones that prove most difficult and definatly require the use of the Dark Side of the Force, is engines.   They are very hard to come by.....not only accurate recording, but usable.   Unfortunately there are not even close to enough of the WWII tanks, trucks, planes, ships, subs, etc still in service and running condition to be able to go get the recordings myself.  That said, for the engines that I d on't or cannot get recordings of, I get their technical data from MO and start tracking down engine recordings I have or can get that closely match the performance charts and stats of the engine I am trying to reproduce.

Sixxo: Will World War Two Online feature support for the major 3D audio sets, such as Creative's EAX (Environmental Audio Extensions) and Aureal's A3D and A3D 2.0?

Corn: We are planning on having surround sound and 3D positionable sound support, but the target audio set we are aiming at has yet to be determined.

Sixxo: What are you doing to make sure that every World War Two Online player feels immersed in the game and is never forced to endure silence?

Corn: I am going to send a friend named Guido over to everyone's house whenever they complain about the sounds and 'encourage' them into a 'better' frame of mind <G>.  Actually, my intention in World War II Online, actually I guess you could say my goal, is to recreate the sounds of World War II to the best of my abilities... so only time will tell. :)

There will be ambience sounds also, birds chirping, insects buzzing around, wind blowing, that kind of stuff.  We are planning on making the sounds very immersive.

Sixxo: Finally, anything you'd like to add or comment on?

Corn: Burp... woops, 'scuse me... ummm.... hmmmm.... what's the question again?

'Cept I think you guys are doing an outstanding job over at the HQ, keep it up!(is in hopes weasel increases his rating <G>)  :)

Thanks to Neil "Corn" Huntley for taking time out of his day of making explosions sound as real as possible (if you don't believe me, check out to his MP3s) to answer these questions, as well as the rest of Cornered Rat Software/Playnet for making us frantically search for the news on World War Two Online that we crave.