Need sound/music artist for Flash games...general info!?

[Fozzybar]

Hi there people,

we are making Flash games from time to time and we are looking for someone who creates sounds and music...i dunno where to find really good ones in this sector...

We already looked up on google and found some professional sound studios, but we didn't met them yet to see what they really can do when it comes to games sound/music, as you know it's a special field for music and sound generating.

Many people can do a lounge style music for a website but for games you must have it in your veins...same goes for sound fx...

So that said, my goal with opening this thread is:

1. to get a hint where we could find people/artists doing sound stuff for game.

2. to find maybe you, because you can do this things.

3. to generally have a talk about this subject, because i have no clue how to find someone or what this will cost or what this field is about at all.

It would be especially cool if there are artists in germany which are actually in this business or have talent, so we could have a glance in their portfolio and maybe find the right person :)



Shoot away with whatever is related with this subject ;)

[Qitsune]

There is a bulletin board on the IGDA forums where a lot of indie developpers hang out. They have a subsection just for audio, maybe you could try posting there. You can also do a bit of search on the IGDA site, they have loads of whitepapers many which are useful to indie and startup developpers.

[Qitsune]

BTW, just in case you didn't know: IGDA= http://www.igda.org/= International Game Developers Association

[Fozzybar]

ok, thanx so far gitsune! :)

[Qitsune]

Fuzzy, I was in a bit of a hurry when I replied last night.

What you need to determine when looking for audio is the platform and then what will be the use of music in your game.

By platform I mean, if your audio is meant to be on a mobile device (say you were using Flash Lite) you would have limited space and would need specially optimized music files. If you need a special format (.mid .mod) always take a musician with intense knowledge with them, they are a form of art by themselves (the demo scene is a good place to look for these specialist musicians. Given that these guys farbrausch (http://www.pouet.net/groups.php?which=322) are german and the biggest demo parties are there I guess if you needed a demo musician you'd be ok.)

I looked in the formats Flash can import for regular use and it's pretty much anything from .au to .wav to mp3 so there is no special knowledge to have.

So the next question is the use you make of the music and sounds in the game. I'm taking for granted that you're not doing a music game (DDR, Karaoke Revolution, Frequency whatever) because those are on a completely different level of complexity on the audio side.

Is it just in background? Is it orchestrated to match FMV's and cutscenes? Is it triggered by actions the player makes? If you are only looking for mood music you don't need someone with experience in scoring, anyone who makes music you like (in the styles you want) can do it. Scoring (following and intensifying the action onscreen) is much more complicated, even more so when you want music you can change on the fly to match player actions because the implentation of sounds will be deeply entwined with the construction of the game engine.

For sounds (steps, guns, gratting, growling) there are very good sound librairies that most pros use. You'd be surprised how well an enthousiast amateur can use them too. There are purists who will tell you that these librairies are crap, but with little tweaking, they could very well hold all the sounds you need for a Flash game.

In my experience, it's better to find a musician who makes music of the kind you are looking for even with little professional experience than finding a top level pro who does something entirely different. I hope I make sense and I have not diverted too much from the topic. And erm... most of the music I listen to is from Germany so I tend to think there are musicians of talent there. Good luck in your search.

[Fozzybar]

thanx!

I also think the demo scene is a good starting point, because their music is strongly related to what i think of when talking about game music for flash...like in the 8bit area...it fits better than game music for big commercial games which mostly are done with orchestra, but that's too extreme...

[sciboy]

If it comes to it, i usually fart into a microphone and remix it in Audacity till i get what i want.
I do the voice acting that way too. :perv:

[llothcat]

When I need something..I usually do a google search for duty free sounds.


Learned this from an indy film maker/animator I met at SDCC. He also supplied a flyer on his resources, but I promply lost it due to my apartment emergencies. Couldn't find the guy this year, so maybe next? He held an "Animation on a shoe-string budget" seminar that year, if anyone attended but me on these forums...?