Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/799350
www.postmagazine.com 32 POST XXX 20XX AUDIO FOR GAMES tle can easily reach the 130 dB SPL range (sounds at 150 dB SPL can rupture eardrums). The mic pre-amp is equally important to consider. Wiswell concludes, "Your mics might be able to handle the high SPL, but your mic pre-amp may not. So, dB pads are very important with loud cars to make sure that you can attenuate the signal into your mic pre-amps. The meter shows you have 6 dB of headroom, but you're getting a square wave into the recorder. That's because it's just clipping in the pre-amp. The most we've ever applied is a 30 dB pad between the mic and the recorder just to make sure that we didn't clip. And I'm still not totally con- vinced that we didn't clip." PLANET COASTER Field recordist Watson Wu (www.watsonwu.com), in Boca Grande, FL, has been capturing vehicle sounds for film, TV and game projects since 2005. His vehi- cle recording experience ranges from racing games like the Need for Speed franchise, to games where vehicles are only a part of overall gameplay, like in the zombie survival game H1Z1 (2015). Wu has even recorded roller coasters. His first experience was for Planet Coaster developed and released by Frontier Developments in 2016. Recording a roller coaster is like recording a car — the mics need to capture the sound it makes while traveling, and be placed in locations that aren't hammered by direct wind. The unique challenges are that a roller coaster can spin upside down, and the cab is completely open, making the mics more susceptible to wind and even water in the case of a log flume ride. Not all roller coasters are meant to be a smooth ride. Equipment gets jostled around — like on wooden coasters designed to lift riders out of their seats, so securing the mics is essential. If any piece of gear flies off the ride, it could not only be dangerous, but deadly. Wu adds, "You have to be far more careful. In a car you are protected. You have a seatbelt and it's easy to hold onto your recorder. For the roller coasters, I brought some zip-ties and a pair of snippers. I chose my Porta-Brace bag, which has very strong Velcro. I could throw my bag around and the recorder would never fall out no matter how fast it swung." One ride Wu recorded went 60 mph, and spun in all different directions. Wu says he was dreading that ride, and "was very glad to have gaffers tape, zip-ties and the Porta-Brace bag which has different areas where I could zip-tie it securely onto the ride's harness." To prepare for Planet Coaster, Wu did extensive research by watching YouTube videos of numerous rides, trying to determine the best mic placements to capture the essential sounds a roller coaster makes. "Each ride has so many sounds coming out of it. You might have up to 15 unique layers or more for each ride. You have the brakes, the carts, the metal grinding on metal, the wind, the ride at different speeds with different loads, the sound of the rides going up, or spinning around or curving around," explains Wu. In Planet Coaster, players create their own rides, so there were numerous variables that the sound had to cover. "There was a crazy amount of informa- tion needed for this game," says Wu. "The designers are roller coaster fanatics, so they know what a ride was going to sound like based on how it was built. The Frontier Developments team was astonished by the amount of recordings I got. There was a lot for them to edit and design to make the game." One particular favorite was a wooden roller coaster that Wu captured. For the hard-to-mic areas, Wu chose wireless lavalier mics, part of the RodeLink Filmmaker kit by Rode Microphones. Wu went wireless because running mic cables on a roller coaster isn't practical. "A roller coaster is flexing the entire time. Every cart is separate; they aren't really connected from the front car to the back car," he explains. He outfitted each lav mic with a Rycote windjam- mer to filter out any direct wind, and to protect the mic capsule. Wu says, "Rycotes are very well made. When you put gaff tape over other wind protec- tors, the fur may come off with the tape. But with Rycote, the gaff tape doesn't pull out the fur. I've taped my Rycotes over a hundred times and they're still in great shape." Wu used gaffers tape to secure a wireless lav mic in the foot space of the first car, away from direct wind. Then he zip-tied its transmitter to the harness. He taped another wireless lav to the backside of the second to last car, to record the chain that links the cars together. He taped a third lav mic to the backside of the last car to capture potential grind- ing of metal on metal and wood. Wu also had one in the last car where he was riding, positioned near his feet, away from direct wind. He says, "I recorded all these different perspectives and flavors so the sound team could add them together to get what they wanted in the game. They really liked that it was such a violent sound of rushing around, with all the different metal and wood elements. And they liked the intensity of the sounds." Wu recorded to a Sound Devices 744T digital recorder, using the Mix Pre-D compact field mixer for channels 3 and 4. He opted for the 744T since the 788T-SSD was too large to take on the rides. He says, "That is the tank of all field recorders. Ever. Period. I've been through many different vehicles with that. I've been to many gun ranges. It can take a pounding in all kinds of weather — it could be freezing, super hot, whatever." Since Wu wanted to record only the sounds of the roller coaster — and not the riders screaming their heads off, he was able to ride the coasters alone. Fortunately Wu is a roller coaster enthusiast, and didn't ruin any takes by letting out a scream himself. "I'm one of those people who keeps very quiet when scared," admits Wu. "I was dreading the spinning ride that went 60 mph, but I manned up and did it. I didn't scream at all. My role was to capture strictly sound effects of the rides, not screaming." Planet Coaster