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Bits & Pieces Liquid Violet talks audio for games L ONDON — Liquid Violet opened its doors last April within the walls of Goldcrest, London. The decision was borne out of the relationship Liquid Violet's director, Adam Chapman, had built with the post house over the past seven years. Liquid Violet specializes in audio services for videogames, and while most of what they are working on currently is under non-dis- closure, there is one game, Dark Souls, Chap- man can discuss. In honor of our audio for games feature on Adam Chapman at work. page 30, we thought it was a good time to reach out to Liquid Violet's (www.liquidviolet. co.uk) Chapman to chat about this aspect of the industry. POST: What spurred the decision to start Liquid Violet? ADAM CHAPMAN: "We focus purely on voice production for videogames, and Goldcrest's location and history with ADR made them a fantastic partner to launch our business from. Soho is still one of the best places in the world to find talent, whether that's actors, directors, writers or experi- enced engineers. Add to that the relaxed and creative atmosphere the team there creates and it's a no-brainer." POST: What are some games that you have worked on recently? CHAPMAN: "One of our first projects was released last October called Dark Souls, developed by From Software in Japan and published by Namco Bandai. Liquid Violet pro- vided pre and post, casting, voice direction and recording services via Goldcrest Post. We worked directly with Frognation, who man- aged the game's translation/transition from Japanese to English, working with the team in Japan and seamlessly connecting them with us. The game's director, Miyazaki-san, was fully involved in the entire process; we searched London for a cast that fitted his requirements. "The result was a great mix of up-and- coming actors and those with a lifetime's experience. The goal was to create a dark, desolate and melancholic tone by pulling the performances right back to something con- versational and understated, allowing for some truly creative line deliveries and flashes of dry humor." POST: How is audio for games different than working on audio for films or broadcast or even spots? 6 Post • March 2012 CHAPMAN: "The biggest difference is down to the nonlinear nature of games. This affects everything from an actor's perfor- mance to the balance of a mix. It's interactive, so much of the time it's down to the player to control their destiny and the flow of time, which can be 30 hours as opposed to 90 minutes. Situations are constantly evolving depending on the decisions you make. "From an acting perspective this is a chal- lenge, you're tasked with delivering discon- nected and isolated lines from a spreadsheet rather than reading a beautifully chronologi- cal story with a very fixed beginning, middle and end. As an industry, I don't think we're quite there yet, but we have realized that preparation is worth its weight in gold. Actors need time to fully understand the POST: Can you talk about the gear you use for your work as well as your workflow? CHAPMAN: "For our pre and post ser- vices, our core tools are Adobe Audition, FileMaker and Pro Tools. We have a pretty extensive range of plug-ins. Most are focused on dynamics and EQ. On the cre- ative side we use various Waves plug-ins from the transform bundle, a few bits from Audio Ease and some very cool stuff from Sound Toys. One of my personal favorites is Sound Blender. "All of our production is connected through a bespoke FileMaker database with a lot of bells and whistles. Managing con- stantly changing scripts and assets is some- thing that is unavoidable, and when you're dealing with 20,000 lines of dialogue or game's world and characters so they have the best chance of connecting with the story and character they need to perform." POST: So the voice director plays a big role? CHAPMAN: "It's crucial. They need to be able to make sense of multiple situations in very short periods of time, giving the actor somewhere to ground their performance. In my opinion. The best directors are those who know what they want and can package it in the fewest words possible. The interac- tion of dialogue in games in confusing enough; we don't need to add to this by explaining the character's life history, more, it's paramount to keep your produc- tion organized. "On the recording side it's pretty straight- just what is necessary to get the best perfor- mance. Games can learn a lot from film but not by simply mirroring them. We need to adapt things and understanding how it will work (and if it will work) for games." www.postmagazine.com forward. The most simple signal path possible: microphone — compressor — limiter — Pro Tools. I've always been a Focusrite fan and we generally use an ISA 430. One place where gear has evolved over the last decade is choice of microphone. When I first started it was all about large diaphragm condensers (Neumann U87s), everyone used them, which gave a very distinctive sound. There's something a little lacking as far as realism is concerned, or maybe perceived realism as most of us have heard the world through U87s for a while now. There's been a move toward the use of shotguns for recording voice in games, which is definitely something taken from the film industry. Most popular is the Sennheiser 416, my weapon of choice is the Schoeps CMIT 5." By Randi Altman