Ahra Pahts looking for a sound designer.

[Paradox]

All of Uru's sounds are .ogg compressed .wav files.

Ideally:
44.1 KHz
WAVE Format
I'm really not sure about the bitrate... if you can make it sound good in 16-bit, I know for sure that it will work... 24-bit should also work just as well though. I'll look into this when I get a chance.

For now, a stereo pair would be fine just to get an idea of how it would sound; when we're ready to put it in the Age we could always export/render/save as each channel.

[ghostwriter]

Thanks for the technical specs, Paradox!

After reading the exchanges about how present (intrusive) the ambiences should be, I decided to approach the ambiences differently. There are many talented musicians on the forum, which is a very good thing. However, music is not the same as ambience. Ambience inhabits a space and provides a feeling of uniformity - it's only noticed when it's absent. Music is a language that speaks to the emotions. Any series of 3 or more notes or rhythmic beats is interpreted by our brains as "music" - we see it as a pattern and our attention is drawn to it.

For the Hub, I created the most minimal ambience I could, while avoiding monotony. This means layered drones that slowly undulate (Philip-Glass style) punctuated by faraway metallic or crystal sounds. If you can't remember anything specific about it, that's a good thing! I haven't added wind because that strikes me as a good way to distinguish the area surrounding the Hub from the Hub itself (perhaps with more frequent punctuating sounds as well). I'm leaning towards occasional gusts, with a steady wind outside... Any thoughts on that?

I'm very open to people adding melodies or rhythms to this "skeleton". It can only get richer. I don't know if the software allows randomized triggers, but that would be a nice touch for layering melodic and rhythmic fragments overtop and avoiding the loop effect. Of course, this ambience can easily be made busier by adding more (short) sounds, less bass-heavy by emphasizing middle- or high-register drones, the undulations can be more rapid, etc.

Please let me know what you think.

http://bf1.ecgn.net/chacal/myst/HubMaster.ogg

[BAD]

Hmmmm......

First impression is the drones are very nice, a bit creepy tho.

I don't like the bell noises. They seem like a bikes bell...

The crystal noises and the the other little touches are nice. I would say that they could be toned down even further. Subtler.

I am quite a bit tired ATM so that might have a bearing on my impression tho....

[bluewyvern]

I like the feeling of that. The only thing that really stuck out was those metallic/crystal sounds, which made me wonder what made them. Maybe there are really three things we're discussing here -- sound effects, which is just plain what it would sound like if you were there (wind, machinery, bird/animal sounds, water flowing or dripping, the air itself and the way it resonates and reverberates in space), music, and then this third thing, "ambience", which is basically music without melody. I guess I would expect the ambience to be more atmospheric (surrounding sounds, drones in the air) than ambient-style music coming from instruments. If we were really standing there in the Hub, are these the sounds we would expect to hear, or is that just a soundtrack that we recognize as being added on for mood? Is something zinging around in the air occasionally going twang, or is this "music"?

What I'm most interested in hearing is a sample of what those actual environmental sounds would be like, since I have no idea how it would be pulled off. I haven't explored it personally yet, but from what I've seen I gather Ahra Pahts is empty and frozen, with no people, activity, wildlife, or machines. Just wind and, in an enclosed space, just air. It sounds awfully challenging to create a soundscape for such a silent place, but I'm really curious about what goes into that.

My take is that these environmental sounds are going to be absolutely key in creating the feeling of a realistic space. Music is beautiful, too, but I think should be used sparingly for maximum effect...sounds are what is really going to take you there.

[Jojon]

Just how ambitious is Aloys anyway? Wind noise dynamics would be affected by surrounding structures, so will there be emitters for each alley section, with sound sources depending on its geographic orientation, etc?

[Paradox]

That's a good possibility...

We could have multiple emission points for the sounds, and have 5 or so different "styles". Each style could have a different pitch, volume, channel strength, etc.

Then we could just link each emission point to one of the styles.

[Chacal]

I like the feeling of that. The only thing that really stuck out was those metallic/crystal sounds, which made me wonder what made them.

I like those sounds. Seems to me, in a space that big, even devoid of life, there would be noises like that. Something moving in the wind, banging against a wall, noises from thermal expansion/contraction, etc. It gives character to the room. Like the background noises in Aegura.

[Aloys]

Thank you all for your great response! I didn't expected to see so much is so few time. I should have answered earlier but I had to leave unexpecteadly for the week end.. Now here is a lengthy, but hopefully usefull reply:

The wonderful, the amazing, the talented (now I'm going to get in trouble for increasing his ego) TW has composed an atmospheric test that I think is absolutely amazing for Ahra Pahts.

http://mwitkowski.net/stuff/ahrapahts_ambient_demo.mp3

I like this very much! It has an nice smooth flavour while not being boring or sad, It reminds me a lot of Teledahn's 'SporeMe' music (which is one of my favorite music in Uru). I'm not sure which specific part of the Age TW had in mind when doing this though, (if any). I find it a little too 'intimate' and smooth for the streets. It makes me think more of a very still place, maybe a closed space. And while the city is still and empty right now it is supposed to be full of activity in a (hopefully) not-too distant future. But I have to say this piece fits quite well the current mood of the streets. I'm not too sure what to do of it..
Paradox: since you're in contact with him, could you ask TW whether he'd be willing to come say hi? It'd be easier to discuss.

Chacal sent me this thread as I work in sound for films, and I too would be willing to take a shot at creating ambiences. (...) For the Hub, I created the most minimal ambience I could, while avoiding monotony. This means layered drones that slowly undulate (Philip-Glass style) punctuated by faraway metallic or crystal sounds.

Hi GhostWriter, and welcome! Your help is very appreciated. I really like your piece, it makes for a relaxed, serene atmosphere, that's pretty much the kind of atmosphere I'm looking for. But as I mentionned the Hub building is a very open building, in the sense that a lot of air can enter it. And I'm not sure how well that kind of low warm atmosphere can hold up if some wind is added on top of it.. Although if it does work it coud make for an nice combination.
(Somehow, when I listen to it I think it could fit very well the nexus cavern; but I might be wrong.)
However, I find the volume is very low; I'm not sure whether it comes from my setup but I have to really push the volume on my speakers to properly hear it.

Weren't you looking for ambient sound effects, like air and noises, rather than an amelodic musical score?

Absolutely, and for two reasons:
1) The Age should be released at the end of this month, so I thought it would be too short to make some decent music (even texture sounds) in that timeframe. Obviously I have been proven wrong.
2) As far as the core of the city is concerned that Age will be so varied because of the different shells, I think it may not be possible to find something that will fit all of the Age.. That's why I was aiming at something neutral, like a simple wind atmosphere. We have to keep in mind that this Age will evolve a lot as new shells are opened (at least I hope), new buildings, new areas.. So the atmosphere of the city will be quite different from place to place. (like any real city)
That said, several areas will have a fixed (or at least a dominant) atmosphere: the hub, the lake around the hub, the nexus. But also (and most of all) the 3 largest courtyards. Unfortunately those courtyards aren't created yet, so it's hard to start working on any sound for those. (These courtyards are the center of each district, and will respectively feature: mineral, vegetal, and aquatic, wide-open environments)

I think the most important sound atmosphere will be that of the streets, because it's where people will probably spend the most time.. That sound atmosphere should be essentially a warm wind (again, something like clftVolcanoWind_Loop.ogg), but ideally, any sound texture beside this should be inviting, almost upbeat (almost), and with a slight touch of wonder and amazement.. When someone enter the Age he should be amazed by the scale of the city and all the possibilities awaiting to blossom; and not be crushed by it or by its emptyness..

Wind noise dynamics would be affected by surrounding structures, so will there be emitters for each alley section, with sound sources depending on its geographic orientation, etc?

For the next version things will be limited both by the time I can spend on this and my technical abilities regarding sound integration (which isn't easy right now). In the future (after the holidays and the new year) I will try to be more ambitious, but right now it'll be pretty basic; one fixed ambient sound for each section (city/hub/hub lake/Prin Pahts nexus).

[Topher]

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.

I did everything as instructed, but right at the very end of the ULM installation I got this warning message: "Warning! Could not create C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - Ages Beyond Myst\Python\UruLibraryManager.pak! Be sure to have an original TPOTS or CC python.pak." I thought you could use ULM with a simple ABM install ... is that not correct?

Update: I went ahead and started up ABM. Everything was fine, still playable. Quit URU, extracted Ahra Pahts files to the URU directory, loaded up ABM, got this message:
"The following pages have newer version numbers than this client and cannot be loaded. They will be ignored but their files will NOT be deleted:

Pahts->District->BuiltIn
Pahts->District->city
Pahts->District->CrtLrgBlue
...etc. etc. etc."

I'm assuming that list was just all of the Pahts files. Game was still playable, but no book on the lower shelf.

[D'Lanor]

I did everything as instructed, but right at the very end of the ULM installation I got this warning message: "Warning! Could not create C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - Ages Beyond Myst\Python\UruLibraryManager.pak! Be sure to have an original TPOTS or CC python.pak." I thought you could use ULM with a simple ABM install ... is that not correct?

Update: I went ahead and started up ABM. Everything was fine, still playable. Quit URU, extracted Ahra Pahts files to the URU directory, loaded up ABM, got this message:
"The following pages have newer version numbers than this client and cannot be loaded. They will be ignored but their files will NOT be deleted:

Pahts->District->BuiltIn
Pahts->District->city
Pahts->District->CrtLrgBlue
...etc. etc. etc."

I'm assuming that list was just all of the Pahts files. Game was still playable, but no book on the lower shelf.

It should be possible but it seems Trylon does not want to maintain 2 different versions.

The main problem however as you have noticed is that all writers are creating ages for TPOTS/CC and these will just not load in ABM. Changing the version number of an age however is simple with the existing tools. If I am not mistaken I have used Plasmashop for that in the past.

Once the version number has been downgraded each user made age should be perfectly playable in ABM. But then the problem of getting there still remains. Perhaps the old UAM is less picky.