Ahra Pahts looking for a sound designer.

[Aloys]

Sound in Ages is slowly becoming a reality, and I have personaly just added custom ambient sounds in an Age. The Age of Ahra Pahts will see an new version at the end of the month, it will be version 1 (the most complete version to date) and I really want to include sounds in that new version. The only problem is that I don't know a thing about sound design.

So the Ahra Pahts team is looking for help with sound. We'd need someone who could create ambient sounds for this city. I am not much of a sound designer so I don't have precise ideas about what would fits the Age, I only know what it needs. For a start we would essentially need 4 different atmospheres. (one single looping sound for each)

1) The core of the city. This is an empty city so there aren't too many sounds. A regular wind atmosphere would probably work, nothing too fancy.
2) The Prin Pahts Nexus cavern. This is a cavern, and would need a.. cavern atmosphere. (did I mention I'm not much of a sound designer? )
3) The Hub. It is the central building of the city, like a Town hall. It essentially made of stone and wood and has very large opening, so you can hear the outside wind quite clearly.
4) The area around the Hub. The hub is in the middle of a large frozen lake surrounded by high walls.

This would be needed for some time around christmas. I know this doesn't leave much time; but until just yesterday I wasn't sure it would be possible to add sounds in the Age; and the next big version of the Age is scheduled for christmas.. But again, I don't need anything too detailed or original. I just need some decent sounds that are not copyrighted. More original sounds can come later when we will have more time. But if any one feels creative and can come up with something more unique before christmas that would be great too!

(If you have no idea what Age Ahra Pahts is, take a look at the dedicated forum. I'm affraid I don't have a central depository of screenshots to show, you will have to explore the threads.. -- I should really do a screenshot gallery. )

If you think you could help flesh out this great Age please tell me.

[Kiril]

I think we'll need a bit more to go on if you want anything that will actually fit the age properly. For example, caverns come in all shapes and sizes. How big is this cavern? Is like the one in Teledahn, open at each end, or is only open on one end?
Is more like a cave or a cavern with formations and all that? Wind would sound different depending on type of cave, size, and so forth. Is there water in it? Would there be dripping sound? Would there be the erstwhile bat or some other age specific critter making some god-awful screech or something?

Describe the city. Tall buildings, short buildings? crowded, spread out? Is it underground or top-side? By empty, I presume you mean no people, but what about other things: bugs, animals, leaky pipes, etc. Are there any machines in the city that squeak and creak?

Is the wind a gentle summer breeze or gusty winter in your face wind?

Also, do you want any ambient music as well to add mood? Do you have any thoughts as to length of sound segment loops? that is how long should the loop be before looping? 5 secs? I minute? 2.3 minutes? etc etc.

I don't think you'll want just any old sounds. Some specificity would help.

[Paradox]

I've been thinking about this as well, for an ambient sound, a light soft breeze noise would be nice, particularly with a slight melody that can't entirely be made out.

I've spoken to a sound guy about something like that, but the hardest part was finding a good ambient wind noise to start from (which we still haven't succeeded in doing).

[Aloys]

For now I only want to check whether there are people interested, but since you are (legitimately) asking for details here goes:

The City
It is made of both wide open spaces (large courtyards) and regular streets. Right now the Age is as empty as it could be. No life of any form, no people, no animals, not even plants (so far). There are plenty of canals and a couple lakes but right now all the water is frozen in ice (that will change as soon as we are able to create animated water, but for now we are stuck with ice.) The light in the Age is gentle, nearing twilight, you can see a couple stars behind the clouds, but the Age should feel warm (despite all the ice..). One sound atmosphere that feels warm and that I really love is that of Relto. The deep slowly undulating sound in the background works really well and give a lot of depth to that otherwise small Age. The wind shouldn't be too soft while still being warm, like a good summer wind. (a bit like clftVolcanoWind_Loop.ogg )
The difficulty will be to do a sound atmostphere that will feel quite empty while still feeling warm and not too sad or dead. It should be quite long (two minutes at least) because it will be the only sound you'll hear while exploring this large city so it will loop often. Above all that sound should convey the large scale of the Age.
Here are a couple screenshots to give you an idea:
Screenshot #1 - Screenshot #2 - Screenshot #3

Ideally because we have wide open spaces and more closed ones, we would need at least two different sound atmospheres, but I fear that the deadline will be too short. (Same thing for a music.)

The Hub
This is a very large and very high building mostly made of stone, but with very large openings so you can hear what's outside and because it's high (it's the actually the highest building of the city) a lot of air comes in). I'm not sure about the lenght, at least one minute though.
Screenshot


The area surrounding the hub
The Hub sits in the middle of a large lake (although it is too frozen for now); and the lake itself is surrounded by high stone walls.. So it should be a windy area, and not too warm. The sound shouldn't be too long, there is not a whole lot to do in the area, so I guess won't stay too long. Something between 30s and one minute.

The nexus carvern
It is a large fullly closed two stories high cavern, that you can only enter and exit using books. It is actually full of books on pedestals. Although it is a cavern it is very well maintained and has been set up to host frequent human activity. The floor is a very large map of the city, painted directly on the smooth stone, doted with books pedestals. There are is no activity of any kind (no machines, animals, or water) The only sources of light and heat are a couple of very large colored glowing crystals on the walls.
This a very solid and well maintained cavern, it's not falling appart like the D'ni Cavern, so we should probably avoid crumbling rocks sounds; or only use them very lightly.
Although it is a cavern, and because of the crystals, it should feel warm, and peacefull. The atmosphere from the hoods private rooms (the 'floating egg' rooms) comes to mind here.. The sound should be around a minute.
Screenshot #1 Screenshot #2

Tell me if those infos are enough or accurate.

[Chacal]

The city is supposed to fill up with inhabitants and become alive.
I think the ambient sound should include, in a muted, distant way, sounds of a real city mixed with the wind.

[Kiril]

This give a whole lot more to go on than the original post. The screen shots do help a lot. I can get a better feel for the place. I'm willing to take a shot at some of this, but it'll take a couple of weeks (since I do have a day job and it requires some travel...like the rest of this week). The hardest part will be the wind (or breeze), I think. Ambient background sound will be easier. I have plenty of gear to create sound with, so that's not the issue. It's finding the right blend.

The Hub has a quasi-oriential look to it. Some sort of lightly plucked eastern instrument sound strumming in the background might add a nice ambience to that. Nothing distinctly melodic...but a sort of half-conscious background, in the distance sort of thing might do.

The cavern look interesting too. I think something adding a touch of mystery to the place would be in order. Not sure what that would be yet. I'll experiment around while studying the screen shot.

The more screen shots you have, the better. Inspires the creativity!

I'll aim for some 2-3 minute loops. Perhaps some of our other musician types on this forum can pitch in, too.

[Aloys]

Thank you for your interest in the project Kiril..
The best to get an idea of the Age is to install it.. you can download it here

[quote=Chacal]The city is supposed to fill up with inhabitants and become alive.
I think the ambient sound should include, in a muted, distant way, sounds of a real city mixed with the wind.[/quote]
Yes at some point it would be great to do that, but right now I think that's a little early, the city is (almost) totally empty. I'm kind of hesitant to add activity through sound, that'd feels a little artificial.. Or that would feel like a haunted town; no one in sight but plenty of mysterious noises in the wind

[Kiril]

Thank you for your interest in the project Kiril..
The best to get an idea of the Age is to install it.. you can download it here

[quote=Chacal]The city is supposed to fill up with inhabitants and become alive.
I think the ambient sound should include, in a muted, distant way, sounds of a real city mixed with the wind.

Yes at some point it would be great to do that, but right now I think that's a little early, the city is (almost) totally empty. I'm kind of hesitant to add activity through sound, that'd feels a little artificial.. Or that would feel like a haunted town; no one in sight but plenty of mysterious noises in the wind [/quote]

Thanks for link. How do I actually use the age? Does it load through URU or what?

I agree with haunted village feel...you don't want that.
Do you see this age as having any mystery to it, or is it to be totally warm and inviting?

[Jennifer_P]

Do you see this age as having any mystery to it, or is it to be totally warm and inviting?

That's a complex question... Ahra Pahts is a community-designed Age which can be used for just about anything, so one person's little area might be oozing with mystery and dark intrigue, while another person's area might be a beautiful parkland, or another's area might be their home or office. It's a big city, with diverse parts.

[Aloys]

So far we are aiming at putting some sound in the common areas, which should be warm an inviting.. Then people may add sound to their own areas as they wish but that'll come later.

Thanks for link. How do I actually use the age? Does it load through URU or what?

There is a readme.txt file included in the zip file with all needed instructions.