The Sound Architect speaks with the excellent Sound Designer, Chris Sweetman. Chris has extensive experience in the game audio world as an Audio Director and has lent his expertise to great games such as Black, Brink and Epic Games’ forthcoming Fortnite.
Chris started in sound post production at the Digital Sound House a facility that catered for film and television post production in 1988. Over a 8 year period he contributed sound work to films including Goldeneye, The Saint, Four Weddings and Richard Stanley’s cult classic Dust Devil.
Flash forward he joined the games industry in 1995 and began to forge a career working for the likes of Gremlin, Acclaim, Argonaut and more recently Criterion & Splash Damage.
He currently works at the new Microsoft Central Audio Facility based in the UK, as well as continuing his work with Fortnite and SKS Game’s The Forest.
How did your journey into audio begin?
I’ve always been involved in sound in one way or another, my father is a 40 year veteran of the film industry and some of my earliest memories are of being dragged into dubbing theatres and editing rooms in the summer holidays while he worked.
I began doing some field recording with him as a kid (using old Nagra’s !) but it wasn’t until I saw a film called Blow Out with John Travolta that I realised that sound was what I wanted to do.
He plays a sound guy who happens to capture an assassination whilst out recording sounds and I figured that’s a pretty cool job
I began working with my father in film post after leaving school and kinda jumped from film to games back in 1995 and have been loving it ever since : )
Is there a sound/piece of audio you have created that will always stick with you?
A big one for me was creating a shotgun sound that I’d been trying to get right for something like 10 years.
It just had a perfect rounded whummpff to it and in the end it was just one element that made all the difference.
I remember some field recording experiences that will always stick with me things like being in “The Pit” at the stock exchanges and visiting the Maranello Ferrari factory recording cars.
What do you think is the best example of great audio in a game, new or old?
That’s a tricky one as I play a lot of games and have lots of favourites!
I love the work that DICE have done with the Battlefield franchise, they are constantly pushing the envelope something I admire and the game soundtrack as its own unique sonic.
Recently I played through The Last of Us which has one the best soundtracks of the last 10 years IMHO.
Thought the voice production in the Walking Dead series by Telltale ranks up there as the best performances ever heard in games full stop.
I love iconic “Sound Brands” so I’d also have to throw in collecting Sonic’s rings and near enough everything in the Mario games!
What has been your proudest project so far?
I’d say the project I enjoyed working on the most has to be Black whilst at Criterion, the audio team was killer and I had one of the best experiences of my career.
What has been your most challenging project so far?
Easy one…
Brink
Near enough the entirety of the project was done with 2 people, me and an Audio programmer by the name of Simon Price.
I still have no idea how we shipped it to be honest! But I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved.
I think there’s over 10,000 sounds in the game and I created every single one, it was an insane experience and if I’m honest not one I would go through again. : )
What would be your dream project to work on?
I’m actually working on a title called Fortnite with Epic Games which is near enough that, it’s the closest I’ll get to doing sound design for a Pixar movie!
Do you have a main DAW and/or plug-ins you use?
I use PRO Tools 9 with Iris and a Novation controller for Sound Design.
Plugins wise Waves Bundles (L3, MondoMod, LoAir, IR etc), GRM, Speakerphone, Valhalla, Audio Motors, Endless Series, Sound Toys.
What would be your advice for aspiring sound designers who want to make it in the games industry?
Try getting involved in mods or indie games in your spare time, look on Steam for games that are in the process of going through the Greenlight process and offer to do the sound design for a credit.
I approached the guys doing a game called “The Forest” purely because I liked the look of the game and figured it would be great fun to make sounds for.
I spend my weekends and evenings working on that just for a credit J
Network by going to conferences like Develop in the UK, you don’t have to pay for a pass just hang around the bars next to the conference and start meeting people. : )
Don’t be afraid to connect with other game audio guys on Linkedin we don’t bite!
Learn WWise and other middleware, start playing with Unreal Engine!
What are the major Do’s and Don’ts for applications in your opinion?
Do
Play the games of the company you’re interviewing with, you should have encyclopaedic knowledge of what they have done and what they are doing.
Show passion for your job, it’s obvious when someone loves what they do.
Tailor your showreel to the project or company you are hoping to work for.
I used to do little stories using just sound fx and it’s got me most of the jobs I’ve ever had.
I always tend to vocalise sounds in interviews and love it when people I’m interviewing do the same.
: )
Have a showreel that highlights interactive aspects of your portfolio, a prototype in Max Msp or Wwise speaks volumes.
I had one cheeky bugger redo the sound on the Brink trailer and send it along, he knows who he is
: ) and guess what…he got the job!
Don’t
Send a showreel full of music when applying for a sound design job or have your showreel consist entirely of linear clips.
Don’t just use only library sounds, we know most libraries off by heart and I’d rather hear some bespoke work that shows potential than a spot effect from the 6000 series.
How do I stand out from the crowd?
Do some cool prototypes in Max MSP or Wwise
Think about how systems in your favourite game could have been improved and play around with ideas, your application for a job does not have to be limited to just sounds.
Field recording, Blogs, websites etc
These all help and show it’s more than just a job to you.
What lies in the future for game audio in your opinion?
I definitely don’t think it’s playing more sounds or having more memory!
I’d like to see experimentation with frequency domain mixing, better reverbs, collaboration with other disciplines and more attention given to how sounds are affected by their environment.
I still feel that Foley is still the undiscovered country in videogames, it’s your connection to the virtual world and should be given the attention it deserves and I’d like to see games pushing the boundaries of what can be done interactively.
I’m also hoping to see some leaps made with voice communication and recognition on Kinect titles.
And I’m super excited about the possibilities for Occulus Rift and how this will affect sound design for games.
Perhaps we’ll see titles with little or no music and the onus will be on the sound design.
It’s a very exciting period for not only audio but the Interactive entertainment as a whole and I can’t wait to see what happens : )
We hope you enjoyed the interview as much as we did! Keep an ear out for more of Chris’s work in the future!
Interview by Sam Hughes
Uploaded 06/02/14