RPG Audio Mixer

[spilth]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of creating an audio application for use in role playing games. I have a pretty good idea of how I'd like it work, but definitely would love to hear ideas that others have.

This is also my first foray into real application program, so I've been blogging the experience in the hopes that other can learn from it. You can check it out at: http://www.rpgaudiomixer.com/

I'm also hoping to turn the site into a repository of information for using audio in games: suggested soundtracks, information on getting music out of computer games you bought, and even articles on using music in games. I'd love to hear some thoughts on that as well.

 

[mac1504]

There's another program out there called RPGSoundmixer that does essentially the same thing you are working towards. But for the fact that the site's boards are mostly in german (the programmer/owner of the program is German) I love the program. It makes managing and using sound effects in my games easy. There are a few things I would change, but on the whole it is a great utility. I would suggest checking it out.

 

[spilth]

I've tried that program it's part of the reason I decided to write my own. I find it pretty difficult to use and not very user friendly, GUI-wise.

I'm curious, what aspects of their program would you change?

 

[mac1504]

I particularly don't like the way the hotkeys are set up. I'm no master of the program (I've only been causually using it for 6 months), but it seems that if you have a series of hotkeys set for sound effects and music, and you end up hitting one of these keys while in another program - it keys up the sound effect or music from RPGSoundmixer. It would be nice if the hotkeys did not take effect unless I had the focus on the program.

Other than that, it does take a while to get use to the interface, but I've got a pretty good understanding of it now. I would be interested in seeing your project, and I've also been delving into opening up computer game files to search for sound effects and music as well.

 

[spilth]

That's odd that it captures keyboard commands while it's not the focused app. That seems like something you'd specifically have to code your program to do.

My app is still in the early stages but you can see a screenshot of my current test version here:

http://www.rpgaudiomixer.com/images/rpgam0010.gif

I'm planning to add shortcut keys to the scenes and sound effects as well (with a column displaying the shortcut).

I've got a test version you could download if you're interested, but it's still very early in development.

 

[mac1504]

I've got a test version you could download if you're interested, but it's still very early in development.

I'm interested

 

[spilth]

Can you email me at brian@rpgaudiomixer.com? I'd like to email you the link and some information privately.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

If I were to do something like this, I would set it up more like one of those Flash .wav programs that play back clips of Samuel L. Jackson or Homer Simpsn when you hit a button.

Essentially, there are only two things you need a program like this to do. Play an audio "bed" of music or atmospheric sounds (forest sounds, creepy house sounds), and play individual Sound FX when you click on a button.

If it takes more than one click to do either of these at the table, the program is of no use to me. Simplicity is paramount.

You can have a load section where you can designate which effects or songs (meaning specific files) are to be assigned to which buttons, with an option to have them be "one-time" FX or to repeat (useful for the audio "bed"). This shouldn't be any more difficult to use than assigning sounds in Windows to system events.

 

[spilth]

I'm actually dividing it up into three pieces:
- Playlists - lists of songs that go together (Traveling Music, Combat Music, etc.)
- Environments - Your atmospheric bed of sounds (Windy Mountainside, Waterfall Temple, Thick Forest, etc.)
- Effects - lists of sound effects that go together (Spell Effects, Spaceship Combat, etc.)

In the current implementation the playlists and effects are triggered by double-clicking (single-clicking allows you to select a sound and alter it before playing it), but this is all UI-related and generally easy to change.

The Environments will break down into looping sounds, random sounds and manually triggered sounds.

 

[Wonko the Sane]

Being able to pan sounds around manually would also be cool for surround sound systems.