Sonic Design: Final Project

  Week 12 - Week 15

17June2025 - 27June2025

QIULIHUA/0365036

Sonic Design / Bachelor of Design (Honours)in Creative Media

 Final Project——Sonic Design

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Final Project: Game Audio

Students will be able to choose a game video. They will then need to create sounds to bring the scene to life. Students must plan and organize studio recordings for the foley and vocals for the recordings. They can also use a portable recorder if required.

Our instructor taught us some techniques for manipulating the sounds for the recordings.

Technique: Effects/Time and Pitch/Pitch Bender

Create a curve to manipulate the sounds.

We can use this source to create background music, but not for sound effects. But the instructor then mentioned that we don't need to create background music, just create ambience sounds.

Game Videos

The instructor provided us with 5 game videos, and the game I chose was Hollow Knight. I prefer the horror atmosphere shown in the game that matches the mystery.

Fig 1.0 Hollow Knight Gameplay (Silent)

Audio List

I identified all the audio that should appear within 1 minute. I categorized the sound effects used in different environments so that I could edit the sound effects later using Adobe Audition

Fig 1.1 Audio List

Audio Storyboard

From the audio list, I determined the presence of specific sounds and effects based on the timeline.

Fig 1.2 Audio storyboard

Recording

I made an appointment to record in the school's recording studio, but since it was inconvenient to bring the knife sound effects in the game into school, I chose to record some of the sound effects in a more closed environment at home.

Fig1.3  Recorded sound effects

Back home, I used a knife sharpener and a kitchen knife to create sound effects, and also recorded the sound of the air conditioner running.I finally finished the sound I used

Fig1.4 All Audio

I imported the Hollow Knight Gameplay (Silent) and the audio used into Adobe Audition and modified each audio

Fig 1.5  process

Audio Journal：

1.I extracted the audio of the first entrance from the percussion audio, added ambient reverberation, and used a parametric equalizer to adjust the sound effect.

Fig1.6 Start sound effect

Fig1.7 Parametric Equalizer

Fig 1.8 reverb

2.The walk and jump audio, I put them on the same track

Fig 1.9 walk and jump audio

Fig 1.9 reverb

Fig 2.0 EQ

3.Regarding the electric current in the game, I used the sound made by plastic bags to adjust it.

Fig2.1 Electric group sound

I used pitch shifting and chorus/flanging to make the sound less shrill and add more bass

Fig 2.2 Pitch Shift

Fig2.3 Harmony/Flanger

4. For the sound effect of collecting coins, I used the sound effect produced by the collision of two cups, and then used EQ, pitch shifter, and reverb to modify the sound. I wanted the sound to be crisp and in a larger cave.

Fig 2.4 Gold coin sound

Fig 2.5 EQ

I used a pitch shifter to make the "ding" sound in the sound effect more crisp.

Fig 2.6 Pitch Shifter

Then I added reverb, so that the sound sounded like it was coming from a large space, which was more in line with the cave in the game.

Fig 2.7 reverb

5.the Hitting the Stone, I mainly used EQ and reverb, and I used the sound of a wooden stick breaking to create this sound effect.I want to reflect the sound of breaking rocks and gold coins appearing one after another

Fig2.8 Hitting the Stone

I used EQ to make the sound less abrupt and More like the sound of alloy coins falling to the ground one after another

Fig 2.9 EQ

Then I used reverb to make the sound more in line with the sound of countless gold coins being knocked down.

Fig 3.0 reverb

Final Audio：

Finally, I cut together the final audio and the Hollow Knight Gameplay (Silent)

Fig 2.4 process

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REFLECTION

In this practice, I have a better understanding of how to use Adobe Audition. In this exercise, the most tiring part is "matching the rhythm of the sound effects with the picture". For example, the "landing sound" when the knight jumps must be recorded at the frame where his feet touch the ground - 0.1 second earlier will make it look like "floating and landing", and 0.1 second later will make it look "dragging and heavy". But what is even more difficult is "predicting the player's sensory expectations": when the monster in the picture opens its mouth, 0.2 seconds before the "roar" appears, the player will subconsciously feel that "this roar is powerful"; then, in order to highlight that when the knight walks into the closed cave, let the "reverberation of the footsteps slowly increase", which is more natural than "suddenly echoing as soon as entering the cave", because this conforms to the physical logic of "sound gradually reflecting and superimposing in space". ​