DSP Fantasy is the perfect tool to add sound effects to your heroic-fantasy game, your medieval adventure, and more. From creatures to dungeons and from weapons to magic spells, all the sound effects needed are just a couple of clicks away! In this 2-part post, we will see how easy it is to design sounds for a heroic-fantasy animation! You can see the result below.
Dungeon master
The sequence begins in a dungeon, with a big door that leads to narrow stairs. The Door patch of the Dungeon category is an obvious choice for this first sound. We set the maximum Duration, add a bit more Reverb, then switch the Squeak Material to Metal while increasing its Tone, to get nice creaking door.
Then, we will render the patch a second time with the Squeak Tone a bit lowered so that we can crossfade between the two sounds to create a bit more movement in the sound.
To add more friction, we create another layer using the Rolling-Sliding patch of the same category, which is mostly Stone and Wood materials set to a low Tone.
Finally, we add a bit more emphasis at the start and end of the movement, by adding the sound of a Chest patch with low Tone parameters, and a maximum amount of Reverb. This chest sound is then cut in two parts in an editor to get the starting and ending sounds.
For the ambience, we go to the Environment category. The sound of the torches on both sides of the door is generated with the Fire patch. As the fire is relatively steady, we put more emphasis on the rumble created by the Flame component rather than on the Sparks and Crackles. We also use the Cave patch to add a few isolated water drops to evocate the dampness of the dungeon.
As the character reaches the stairs, we progressively mix in a Wind patch to describe the change in ambience. We also add several Bat and Chains sounds (from the Creatures and Dungeon categories, respectively). To do that, a few random ranges are assigned to the parameters of these patches, then multiple sound variations are rendered, and the ones that fit the sequence the best are selected.
Finally, the character’s presence is reinforced by adding some Footsteps on Stone, and layering soft variations of the Cloth-Foley patch without any Gear ( both patches in the Dungeon category).
It’s a kind of magic
The stairs take us to an alchemist laboratory where a wizard is practicing his spells. The Magic category of DSP Fantasy is going to be very handy! The first spell is a very short energy blast for which the Shockwave patch is probably the most adapted. We emphasize the elevation of the first blast by layering a bright and short Aerial Summon patch.
Next comes an electric spell, for which the Lightning Spell seems perfect, especially when synchronizing the lightning strike with the blast at the end of the spell. To add a sense of motion, we also create a layer from the Enchanted Arrow patch, always useful to create magical whooshes.
The next enchantment is a bit similar although it starts with a blast and progressively fades out. The Telekinesis patch is selected for its nice starting sound, while we increase the modulation depth of the Levitation parameter. We also create a more powerful whoosh layer by using the Incantation patch, after muting its Flash section.
The last spell casts multiple fire blasts, which is begging for the Inferno and Fireball patches to be used! By lowering the Charge’s Duration and increasing its Modulation, the Inferno patch provides a great starter sound. Then, for each one of the blasts, we generate short Fireball sounds by assigning random ranges on the parameters. During the whole sequence, we also add a few Cloth-Foley sounds to simulate the wizard movements.
The ambience in this open room is created with the Wind patch, keeping only the Rumble layer. Some animation is created in the background by adding a few sounds generated by the Spider patch, with the level of its Growl section lowered and its Movements layers randomized.
This concludes the first part of our post on heroic-fantasy sound design with DSP Fantasy. In the second part, hell will break loose as we fight skeletons and a dragon arrives, so don’t miss it!
