Hello Stalkers!
Last month you had the opportunity to read a series of entries devoted to the music in the game - how they were created and what the composers were guided by. However, keep in mind that Chernobylite’s soundtrack is not only about atmospheric music, but also about the sounds of the real world that surrounds us.
During our last trip to Chernobyl, we had the opportunity not only to collect videos and photos from the inside of the unfinished cooling tower and its immediate vicinity, but also to record sounds in these places. Someone might ask "but why do you need to record the sound of a blowing wind". Well, believe us, there is a method in this madness, as our sound engineer Adam Dyrszka will prove to you today.
Do you remember this photo? It’s our team setting up all the equipment to record sounds from inside the cooling tower.
We asked Adam about the details of the entire operation. It turns out that to record such sounds you need to do much more than just place microphones in several places.
“First, we generate a special audio signal at the frequency range which is audible for humans for 5, 10 and 60 seconds. Subsequently we place a loudspeaker and microphones at a certain distance from one another in the center of the facility (or in a different one that is characterized by interesting acoustics). Then we play this generated signal through the loudspeaker while recording it at the same time with microphones. The source signal and the recording are passed through a program which generates a sound file with a mapped "image" of the acoustics of the recorded space. Then we throw this file in the appropriate plug in Wwise (Convolution Reverb), which can convert such a file into a reverb simulation. From now on, all sounds that come through this plug will have the same reverb. ”
As an example here’s a recording from a gameplay piece, where you can hear how the gunfire sounds inside the tower. The impression is actually surprisingly similar to what we experienced while standing in the center of the cooling tower.
The same method allowed to reproduce the sounds... from inside the container.
Again, one might think this is unnecessary work. However, if you take a walk inside this "room" in the real world, you can hear that there is also a characteristic, slightly metallic reverb coming from there. Therefore, the recording of these sounds was also a necessity. The final effect? Listen for yourself.
For Adam, however, the most amazing thing was to record the reverberation from the pond by the cooling towers. “A view of this panorama of two gigantic concrete objects around industrial infrastructure in the light of the slowly setting sun. All this combined with the reverbs created there. It was clearly audible when the reflection from a specific tower came back to us. Plus knowing we're still basically in radiation. Very low, but there were nevertheless outbreaks of higher radiation in that location."
Of course, while working there we were sometimes surprised. And not necessarily by technical issues. During the recording from inside the tower and its surroundings, tourists suddenly approached us. They were terrified by these sounds, they said that they could be heard from a kilometer away. Well, they had some extra thrill while being there! For free! :D
Another time, when we were recording from inside Duga's buildings, a plaster from the roof fell on our heads. This is called dedication to work despite the circumstances! Now each time you will walk around the interiors of Chernobylite, keep in mind the dev team risking having concrete fragments falling over them when collecting data from these places :P
But we will talk about how to record sounds from inside empty buildings (which is an even more difficult task) in the next report. Stay tuned!
That's it for today!
Take care, Stalkers!
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