[2020] The Sound of Dauntless | Developer AMA

Granny Strega's frog you see jumping around on her hat? That's my voice. I played around with some real frog samples but nothing was feeling good, so I grabbed my mic and gave my most honest impression of a frog. With some minor pitch-tuning and processing I ended up with something I liked!

This is for music - but I have sang through a didgeridoo on one of the behemoth tracks

Answer for question 1: I love Ableton (a DAW) for audio/music creating. My favorite things that I use to design audio is to use my mouth :D

I think the new Ramsgate material is some of my favorite now. Granny Strega, The Bazaar, and the overall Ramsgate "general" music are probably my top three

A lot of those vocalizations and whispers on the Umbral tracks are my own voice! Usually I layer the sampled voices with my own. It makes for a unique sound I think

For each behemoth, I try to spend a lot of time with each one. Looking at the art, playing the game, etc. I pay attention to how they move and attack. I need to try to get into the behemoth's head to figure out what style of music to write. One of my favorites to write for are the Umbral ones. They get to break the rules musically and use instruments and even synths that I would never touch for all the other behemoths. Those guys definitely get the horror treatment

That was actually off this specific team, but they say it's recording a voice and running it through a bunch of software. Wish I had more info on this specific laugh for you since it's so great!

This one was made long ago, and the person who made it is not available to answer! Wish I had more info D:

Great question!

Behemoth work is some of the most daunting (no pun intended, ha) work in Dauntless as behemoths are not only the main focus of the game but also brimming with personality.

The first thing I think of when beginning to prototype the sound, or more specifically, the vocalizations of a particular behemoth, is to look at the overall visual design of the behemoth and determine what qualities would best suit it sonically.

With certain behemoths this process can be quick; take Torgadoro, for example. There's no doubt he's a giant ape, so naturally we went with a more humanistic approach with lots of pitched-down human vocals and gritty roaring elements sprinkled in there.

Then you have Behemoths like Thrax, where it's not obvious off the get go what exactly he would sound like. It takes a lot of prototyping and experimentation to land on something that just feels right. Lots of testing and bouncing off coworkers to see if what you're conceptualizing is helping to bring the Behemoth to life.

To answer your second question, most definitely yes! We have libraries of sounds here that were recorded to be used to help us when designing Behemoth vocalizations. Things like animals squeals, corrigated cardboard, creaky dressers, the list goes on really.

Hi~ Great question! I think a lot of people might wonder the same thing. Making monster sounds are kinda complex. we usulally record our own voices and pitch up/down, or record professional voice actors and layer the human voices with some animal vocals, like tiger, sea lion, dogs or pig. And we will use various pitch, modulation plugins to process the assets and make it sound close what we imagined in our mind. The whole progress requires a lot of experiement and iterrations to reach to the final sound.

Boreus - I'm actually trying to think of a cool name for his music now.....BECAUSE - we're working on a Vol 2 soundtrack currently!!

And yes, I spend a ton of time with each behemoth before I ever write a single note. It's important to get a feel and the pacing of how each one moves and looks

1) I use Reaper as my main DAW for sound design! I always carry a portable recorder on me for whenever I come across a sound in real life that inspires me or could help with my design work. There are no shortage of amazing sounds out there (I've been using my apartment's parking garage lately to record some awesome reverberated noises) to use to add an original edge to your design. Sound libraries can only get you so far.

2) The team gets together very early on in a Behemoth's development to land on a specific design approach. Once that is locked down, we audio peeps start honing in on a sound aesthetic that would fit that Behemoth. We have ample time to iterate and explore ideas. It often takes more than one prototype before we land on something that works! :)

Funniest source is actually just coming from our studio. There's new emote coming out soon in next release that is all about laugh~! I got 6 awesome talents from out studio and recorded their fantastic laughs. Still tuned and you will hear their laugh in the real game~

Thanks! Those Huntpass tunes are always so fun to write. Each one gets to explore a different style, usually using our Dauntless theme. Aetherpunk was especially fun since I never really get to use synths and drums like those. It's something I'd love to explore again in the future

From our Audio Director, Dorian:

"The roars are mostly made up of our own vocal performances. We have a special high-frequency mic that allows us to pitch our recordings down a lot, without distorting/artifacting. We then morph with other SFX and apply a lot of processing! "

It's in Drask's music for sure

Thank you! It's definitely some of my favorite music in the game now

Thanks for the feedback! It was a project to make the new tech to have this functionality. The NPC themes were all recorded with a live orchestra!

No one taking part today was on that sound effect! Wish I had more info for you :)

How come subiwatson is so dashingly handsome? It's hardly fair for the rest of the world, knowing we can only hope to one day become as stylishly suave as he.

Please. It'll go right to his head.

Hi DrNonsense,

1. There are so many! I love to record anything sounded interesting to me. I love to collect weird instruments, like Aztec whistles that I got in Mexico, or toys, glimes, even my shower bombs for those bubble sounds.

2. I love any enviroment looks like unique and different. Something that I can make more imaginal sound effects that can be expended based on the scene. However, Every evironment has its unique way. For audio design, my taken on is that sounds can play out way more rather than visual, we can recreate the scene and make is even more lively and emotional.

That's all live violin! I wrote the piece specifically for my good friend. She's an amazing violinist and her playing adds a nice sense of urgency to the race I think. Glad you liked it!

1. If you remember we had an easter event going on earlier this year where you could collect eggs and heard bunnies into a pen. I had a TON of fun with this. The sound of picking up the eggs was made using my finger and popping it out of my mouth. (Like so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=10&v=IgzyaEz4mC4&feature=emb_title ) The bunny vocalizations were made using a combination of my voice and a rubber ducky I had lying around!
2. I got to design some Umbral environment sounds for the Umbral Escalation; more specifically, that last portal you take before reaching Randall as well as the environment inside that arena. The Umbral world is a fun one to explore with sound, it gives us a lot of freedom to explore weird design ideas!

I always like the peaceful music in Dauntless too, and I look forward to doing more in the future!

Sorry, this question is very, very broad! Our team uses a ton of software, foley work, instruments, orchestras, and choirs.

1: One of the first things I recorded were some impacts for the Dummy in the training island. I had a bunch of spare lumber in the back yard and some huge rounds from a tree we just fell, so I stacked it all up and used a Sledgehammer to hit the pile of debris. This is the sound you hear when you hit the dummy.

2: I did a bunch of design work for the new Ramsgate, there are some cool little areas like what I call the 'Zen' area behind the Bazaar, hang out there and feel the peaceful vibes :)

Shrowd is a very interesting blend of human vocals, crows, and some very mind-bending audio processing!

You'll just have to wait and see!

OH U

(￣▽+￣*)

I think Malkarion and Torgadoro are some of the most recent ones that are my favorites (in terms of combat music). We also recently went back and recorded those pieces with a live orchestra and choir. I've just made some new musical "suites" with those themes. I'm excited to share them soon!

I recently worked on the sword rework sound which is something I really love and proud of. All the combos are new and unique. It gives me a great opportunity to recreate some of the sword elemental sounds.

Good question! We are always striving to tie the Behemoth/creature design to audio as tightly as possible. I think you'll be happy with the audio integration with our next Capstone :) The concept of Audio serving the gameplay and providing 'tells' has always been a goal for us. If you are listening to the SFX to inform your moves, we've done our job.

Our old Audio Director did a lot of metal recording before he left. Had a lot of weird metal scraps laying around the studio for a while.

Alright! We're wrapping this one up.

Thanks for all the amazing questions and we hope we gave you some insight into the whacky world of audio.