游戏邦注：本文作者为Amrita Valecha，文章主要讲述游戏音效设计师Philippe Vachey对于游戏音效设计和配乐的相关见解。

提到超级热门游戏《Mario》的时候，你首先想到的是什么？肯定是Mario使用道具时产生的引人入胜的音乐和独一无二的音效。这就是配乐和音效的魔力所在。

本文主要谈论DSK Supinfogame研究领头人Philippe Vachey（游戏邦注：他是作曲家和音效设计师）在“游戏音效设计和配乐”大会阐述的相关看法。

Philippe Vachey from gameplaylist.fr

Philippe表示，我们很难明确定义游戏音乐风格，因为它们实在是变幻莫测。我们要如何描绘没有歌词的游戏音效呢？

他通过展示一款十分古老的游戏《Space Invader》开始自己的演讲，这款游戏的音效是通过机器产生的，因此整个游戏只有3个旋律，音效变化是通过节奏高低起伏来体现。

Phillip表示，创作流行音乐不那么困难。但游戏不是电影，游戏音乐和玩家存在很多互动，它需要同玩家情感达成共鸣。

游戏风格迥异

类型——游戏类型日益增多，所以针对各类型游戏的音效和音乐种类也不断增加。对多数游戏而言，音乐需符合游戏意图传递的功能。不同游戏对音乐具有不同功能要求。

平台——Phillip表示游戏若投放不同平台，即便类型相同，也应搭配不同音乐（游戏邦注：PC游戏音乐就和掌机游戏音乐截然不同）。

本土化——针对不同市场，游戏音乐和音效也应做出相应调整。

谈到游戏音效技术层面，他阐述了“人类听觉、听觉范围以及我们理解音效的方式”。他谈及不同音效技术参数以及我们用于交流音效世界（情感、营销工程和知觉……）的“词汇”。

所以要如何再创游戏音效呢？主要是通过抽样、声音发生器或者流媒体。为了获得不同抽样选择，我们需把频率、分辨率、时长和渠道融为一体。

他接着分享自己为《A little big Adventure》（游戏邦注：这是款2D&3D探险动作游戏）配乐的经历。“我在视频推出前创作了音乐，他们决定将视频动画搭配进音乐。这就带来个问题：何时才是引入游戏音乐作曲家的适当时间？如果制作初始就聘用音效设计师，结束时间就是个问题。有时我们会发现音效漏洞。这事就必须进行沟通，避免程序员和音效工程师之间出现问题，问题需在开发阶段就得到解决。”

他谈到如何解决某些游戏音效基本问题。混音就是其中之一。作曲家应学会使用静音和音效间歇。避免音效采用相似频率，同时保持清晰度，避免出现重复。我们无法记录过多音效，因为游戏存储空间和预算有限。但玩家又会厌倦重复听到相同音效，所以我们如果我们没有储备足够音效就可以通过调节音高和频率实现变化。我们也可以使用即时DSP（游戏邦注：即数字信号处理器）调节音效。他表示，“我们需要创造娱乐体验，也就是说我们需要通过音乐和音效设计创造情感体验。”

Philippe总结表示，“最后就是应用和版权问题。在游戏引擎中应用音效是进行音效设计最重要的环节。我们在工作室记录的音效会和我们在游戏中实际听到的音效有所不同。因此我们可以通过最原始的调音步骤进行协调。这个环节对获得优质混合效果及为玩家创造愉快体验来说必不可少。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Sound Design and Music for Game: Good games need good sound!

by Amrita Valecha

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when someone mentions the super popular game Mario? Bet it’s the catchy music track and unique sounds that where generated when Mario interacted with the props in the game. That’s power of sound and music.

Elaborating on the same was Philippe Vachey a Composer and Sound Designer and the head of studies at DSK Supinfogame in the session ‘Sound Design and Music for Game’

Philippe says it is hard to say anything definite about the game music style, because it is so varied. How do you describe the sound in gaming when it does not have any vocabulary?

He started his presentation by showing a very old game “Space Invader” where the sound is generated by a machine and there are only three notes in the entire game and the sound changes only by pitching up the tempo.

Creating music for the entertainment business might not be difficult. But a game is not a film. It has a lot of interactivity with the player and needs to connect with the emotions of the player says Phillip.

Every game is different

Genre- As the genres of gaming are increasing so are the types sound and music for each of the genres. For most games, the music must fit the function of what the game is trying to convey. Different games have different functions for their music.

Platform- Giving example of a game he shared that the game might be the same but should have different music if they are on different platforms. A PC game music will differ from a console game music.

Localization- Depending upon the market you are targeting the music and sound will also undergo change.

Talking about the technical part of the sound in gaming he explained “Human ears, the hearing range, the way we are understanding sounds. He spoke on the different technical sound parameters and the “vocabulary” we can use to communicate about the world of sounds (emotion, sound engineering, perception, ..;)

So how does one actually reproduce sound in a game? The answer is through mainly sampling, noise generator or streaming. To get different sampling options one needs a combination of Frequency, Resolution, Time and Channel.

Moving on, he shared that he had created music for A little big Adventure, which was an 2D & 3D adventure action game. “I created the music before the video was created and they decided to make the animation of the video on the music. This brought a question that when is the right time to bring a music composer for the game? Hire a sound designer at the beginning of the production, last minute is a problem. Sometimes we can find good bugs with sound. A good communication is a must, to avoid problem between the programmers and the sound engineers, which needs to be solved in the development stage.”

He explained on how to solve some of the fundamental problems of sound in a game. Mixing is one of them. The composer should learn to use silence and have audio breaths. Avoid sound in similar frequency and preserve intelligibility. Avoid repetition. One cannot record many sounds as there is a limitation of memory space (and budget) when it comes to gaming. But the user gets bored by listening to the same sound again and again, so one can play with pitches and frequencies if not record multiple sounds. One can also use real time DSP to adjust sound. “We need to create an experience called entertainment, which means we need to create an emotion through our music and sound design.” He shared.

“Last but not the least there are Implementations and Copyright issues. Implementation of sound in the game engine is one of the most important thing while creating a sound design. The sound that one can record in a studio will be different than what they would actually hear in the game. This tuning step is primordial, that’s the way you can balance everything. This phase is mandatory to obtain a good mix and create a good experience for the player..” Concluded Philippe.（Source：gamingxpress）