Assembly Mode

The main point of a speaker is exactly what you'd expect - use it to decide exactly where in your scene a sound comes from. Say you want birdsong coming from a tree...

Plonk a speaker in the tree and give it a name. In the tweak menu for your birdsong sound, enter the speaker name in the target speaker text field (panning page).

Voilà - the sound of birdsong now comes from the tree. The player will hear it when they're close enough to the tree. It'll sound correct relative to their position in the scene.

You can tinker with the effect to your heart's content - the speaker has a bunch of tweaks, including the ability to define how the sound is projected through a surround sound setup.

Another use for a speaker is organization. Put a bunch of sounds on a microchip, add a speaker, and all the sounds on the 'chip will be controlled by the speaker.

Let's have a very quick demo. Stamp a speaker and a sound effect that you like. The quickest way to find one is to go to sound mode and use search there.

Give the speaker a name, and put that name in the speaker name field in the sound effect. Set the slice playback mode to loop, so we get a chance to hear the effect.

Now on the speaker, nudge reverb up to 50%. Start time and you'll hear your sound effect, with added reverb.

Audio sounds different depending on the space it's played in. That's because of reverb, which is the sound being reflected back to your ears from surrounding objects.

It differs from delay in that if you're in an enclosed space, the sound bounces around more surfaces and comes back much quicker, so the distinct echo effect isn't detectable.

The reflection is still enough to alter the sound though, so adding reverb can improve the feel of your audio quite significantly, giving it the right sense of space.

There are lots of lovely tweaks to play with of course. Not least reverb presets, a bunch of ready-made ambiences to choose from if you want to keep it simple.

The reverb preset here defaults to a large marble mausoleum, but you can change the reverb preset at any time in the tweak menu. Have a listen to them and experiment.

To add reverb to a sound, select the appropriate reverb button in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. Note that if you use more than one reverb, the settings will blend.

Finally, note that you're not obliged to use this reverb for music, but the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Let's try it out. Stamp in a music clip you like. It's easiest to hear the reverb effects with a music clip. Set it to loop if it's not already. Start time and listen.

Now stamp in a reverb, any one you like. On the sound fx page of your music clip, select whichever reverb channel you chose, A, B, C or D.

You should notice the change in the sound of the music clip right away. Let's play with it some more. On the reverb tweak menu, use the reverb preset slider.

Try out the different presets and hear just how different the sound can be depending on the space it's in.

Audio sounds different depending on the space it's played in. That's because of reverb, which is the sound being reflected back to your ears from surrounding objects.

It differs from delay in that if you're in an enclosed space, the sound bounces around more surfaces and comes back much quicker, so the distinct echo effect isn't detectable.

The reflection is still enough to alter the sound though, so adding reverb can improve the feel of your audio quite significantly, giving it the right sense of space.

There are lots of lovely tweaks to play with of course. Not least reverb presets, a bunch of ready-made ambiences to choose from if you want to keep it simple.

This one defaults to a medium marble hall, but you can change the reverb preset at any time in the tweak menu. Have a listen to them and experiment.

To add reverb to a sound, select the appropriate reverb button in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. If you use more than one reverb, the settings will blend.

Finally, note that you're not obliged to use this reverb for music, but the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Let's try it out. Stamp in a music clip you like. It's easiest to hear the reverb effects with a music clip. Set it to loop if it's not already. Start time and listen.

Now stamp in a reverb, any one you like. On the sound fx page of your music clip, select whichever reverb channel you chose, A, B, C or D.

You should notice the change in the sound of the music clip right away. Let's play with it some more. On the reverb tweak menu, use the reverb preset slider.

Try out the different presets and hear just how different the sound can be depending on the space it's in.

Audio sounds different depending on the space it's played in. That's because of reverb, which is the sound being reflected back to your ears from surrounding objects.

It differs from delay in that if you're in an enclosed space, the sound bounces around more surfaces and comes back much quicker, so the distinct echo effect isn't detectable.

The reflection is still enough to alter the sound though, so adding reverb can improve the feel of your audio quite significantly, giving it the right sense of space.

There are lots of lovely tweaks to play with of course. Not least reverb presets, a bunch of ready-made ambiences to choose from if you want to keep it simple.

This one defaults to a small underground tomb, but you can change the reverb preset at any time in the tweak menu. Have a listen and experiment.

To add reverb to a sound, select the appropriate reverb button in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. If you use more than one reverb, the settings will blend.

Finally, note that you're not obliged to use this reverb for game stuff, but the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Let's try it out. Stamp in a music clip you like. It's easiest to hear the reverb effects with a music clip. Set it to loop if it's not already. Start time and listen.

Now stamp in a reverb, any one you like. On the sound fx page of your music clip, select whichever reverb channel you chose, A, B, C or D.

You should notice the change in the sound of the music clip right away. Let's play with it some more. On the reverb tweak menu, use the reverb preset slider.

Try out the different presets and hear just how different the sound can be depending on the space it's in.

Audio sounds different depending on the space it's played in. That's because of reverb, which is the sound being reflected back to your ears from surrounding objects.

It differs from delay in that if you're in an enclosed space, the sound bounces around more surfaces and comes back much quicker, so the distinct echo effect isn't detectable.

The reflection is still enough to alter the sound though, so adding reverb can improve the feel of your audio quite significantly, giving it the right sense of space.

There are lots of lovely tweaks to play with of course. Not least reverb presets, a bunch of ready-made ambiences to choose from if you want to keep it simple.

This one defaults to an outdoor space with sharp single echo, but you can change the reverb preset at any time in the tweak menu. Have a listen to them and experiment.

To add reverb to a sound, select the appropriate reverb button in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. If you use more than one reverb, the settings will blend.

Finally, note that you're not obliged to use this reverb for game stuff, but the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Let's try it out. Stamp in a music clip you like. It's easiest to hear the reverb effects with a music clip. Set it to loop if it's not already. Start time and listen.

Now stamp in a reverb, any one you like. On the sound fx page of your music clip, select whichever reverb channel you chose, A, B, C or D.

You should notice the change in the sound of the music clip right away. Let's play with it some more. On the reverb tweak menu, use the reverb preset slider.

Try out the different presets and hear just how different the sound can be depending on the space it's in.

Delay is really just a fancy word for echo. Whereas with reverb your ears aren't detecting the individual sound reflections, with delay they are distinct.

The original sound is followed by a delayed repeat, or multiple repeats, usually getting gradually quieter. Just like when you yell "echo" in a suitable valley.

You can alter the time between repeats and how they get quieter (which is called delay feedback in audio land) and add distortion and all that juicy stuff in the tweak menu.

This delay is set up to be long, but you can play with the tweaks and make it sound however you want it to. Have a listen and experiment.

To add delay to a sound, select one of the send to delay... buttons in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. If you use more than one, the settings will blend.

Try it out. Stamp a delay gadget, any one you like. Find a music clip you like and stamp that in too. On the sound fx page, select the correct send to delay... button.

Start time, and also on the sound fx page, have a play with the delay slider. As you turn it up you'll notice more and more echoes.

On the delay gadget, on the delay properties page, try twiddling with the two graphic tweaks you see there. One is for feedback and timing of the delay.

The other is for rate and depth of chorus. Try them out. You'll enjoy it.

Delay is really just a fancy word for echo. Whereas with reverb your ears aren't detecting the individual sound reflections, with delay they are distinct.

The original sound is followed by a delayed repeat, or multiple repeats, usually getting gradually quieter. Just like when you yell "echo" in a suitable valley.

You can alter the time between repeats and how they get quieter (which is called delay feedback in audio land) and add distortion and all that juicy stuff in the tweak menu.

This delay is set to ping-pong, which is where the delay goes from the left to the right speaker and back again, but you can use the tweaks to set it up however you like.

To add delay to a sound, select one of the send to delay... buttons in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. If you use more than one, the settings will blend.

Try it out. Stamp a delay gadget, any one you like. Find a music clip you like and stamp that in too. On the sound fx page, select the correct send to delay... button.

Start time, and also on the sound fx page, have a play with the delay slider. As you turn it up you'll notice more and more echoes.

On the delay gadget, on the delay properties page, try twiddling with the two graphic tweaks you see there. One is for feedback and timing of the delay.

The other is for rate and depth of chorus. Try them out. You'll enjoy it.

Delay is really just a fancy word for echo. Whereas with reverb your ears aren't detecting the individual sound reflections, with delay they are distinct.

The original sound is followed by a delayed repeat, or multiple repeats, usually getting gradually quieter. Just like when you yell "echo" in a suitable valley.

You can alter the time between repeats and how they get quieter (which is called delay feedback in audio land) and add distortion and all that juicy stuff in the tweak menu.

This delay is set to dub echo, a long, distinct echoing effect instantly recognisable from dub music, but you can use the tweaks to set it up however you like.

To add delay to a sound, select one of the send to delay... buttons in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. If you use more than one, the settings will blend.

Try it out. Stamp a delay gadget, any one you like. Find a music clip you like and stamp that in too. On the sound fx page, select the correct send to delay... button.

Start time, and also on the sound fx page, have a play with the delay slider. As you turn it up you'll notice more and more echoes.

On the delay gadget, on the delay properties page, try twiddling with the two graphic tweaks you see there. One is for feedback and timing of the delay.

The other is for rate and depth of chorus. Try them out. You'll enjoy it.

Delay is really just a fancy word for echo. Whereas with reverb your ears aren't detecting the individual sound reflections, with delay they are distinct.

The original sound is followed by a delayed repeat, or multiple repeats, usually getting gradually quieter. Just like when you yell "echo" in a suitable valley.

You can alter the time between repeats and how they get quieter (which is called delay feedback in audio land) and add distortion and all that juicy stuff in the tweak menu.

This delay is set to short echo, but you can use the tweaks to set it up however you like, so listen and experiment.

To add delay to a sound, select one of the send to delay... buttons in the tweak menu of the sound. This will work whether you put the gadget in your scene or not.

But if you want to change any of the settings, you'll need to plonk one down and tweak it. If you use more than one, the settings will blend.

Try it out. Stamp a delay gadget, any one you like. Find a music clip you like and stamp that in too. On the sound fx page, select the correct send to delay... button.

Start time, and also on the sound fx page, have a play with the delay slider. As you turn it up you'll notice more and more echoes.

On the delay gadget, on the delay properties page, try twiddling with the two graphic tweaks you see there. One is for feedback and timing of the delay.

The other is for rate and depth of chorus. Try them out. You'll enjoy it.

Controls the volumes of all the channels in your scene. Let's try it out. Stamp down a master mixer, and find yourself a music track you like.

Now get a sound effect, preferably one from the ambiences collection, again so that we know what we're using. Start time and have a listen.

You'll hear the music and the effect, but the latter is probably being drowned out a bit. Tweak the master mixer and use the music channel slider to bring the music down a bit.

Use the background channel volume slider to bring the background up a bit. This is a simple and powerful way to control the mix of audio in your creations.

As long as you assign things to the correct channels (on the last page of their tweak menus), you can control their volume separately right here.

Each sound can be sent to a channel using the sound channel buttons on the options page of their tweak menu. Channels are very handy things indeed.

They let you categorize sounds, so that you can tweak them as one without having to do it to each individual sound, and process those categories differently.

Say your character goes into a cave, and you want their footsteps to sound appropriately cave-like. But you don't want the same treatment on your music.

So you'd send the music to the music channel and the footsteps to the character channel, and tweak the character channel accordingly.

Once you get into the habit of using different channels, this one is just a handy extra one where you'll put things that don't fit neatly into the other channels.

Note that you aren't obliged to use the channels for the things their names suggest. But the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Try it out now. Stamp any channel gadget and a sound of any kind. Assign the sound to the same channel as you've stamped in, and set it to loop if it isn't already.

Start time, tweak the channel, and mess about with the tweaks. Now consider that you can do this with a whole bunch of sounds at the same time.

Each sound can be sent to a channel using the sound channel buttons on the options page of their tweak menu. Channels are very handy things indeed.

They let you categorize sounds, so that you can tweak them as one without having to do it to each individual sound, and process those categories differently.

Say your character goes into a cave, and you want their footsteps to sound appropriately cave-like. But you don't want the same treatment on your music.

So you'd send the music to the music channel and the footsteps to the character channel, and tweak the character channel accordingly.

Note that you aren't obliged to use the channels for the things their names suggest. But the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Try it out now. Stamp any channel gadget and a sound of any kind. Assign the sound to the same channel as you've stamped in, and set it to loop if it isn't already.

Start time, tweak the channel, and mess about with the tweaks. Now consider that you can do this with a whole bunch of sounds at the same time.

Each sound can be sent to a channel using the sound channel buttons on the options page of their tweak menu. Channels are very handy things indeed.

They let you categorize sounds, so that you can tweak them as one without having to do it to each individual sound, and process those categories differently.

Say your character goes into a cave, and you want their footsteps to sound appropriately cave-like. But you don't want the same treatment on your music.

So you'd send the music to the music channel and the footsteps to the character channel, and tweak the character channel accordingly.

Note that you aren't obliged to use the channels for the things their names suggest. But the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Try it out now. Stamp any channel gadget and a sound of any kind. Assign the sound to the same channel as you've stamped in, and set it to loop if it isn't already.

Start time, tweak the channel, and mess about with the tweaks. Now consider that you can do this with a whole bunch of sounds at the same time.

Each sound can be sent to a channel using the sound channel buttons on the options page of their tweak menu. Channels are very handy things indeed.

They let you categorize sounds, so that you can tweak them as one without having to do it to each individual sound, and process those categories differently.

Say your character goes into a cave, and you want their footsteps to sound appropriately cave-like. But you don't want the same treatment on your music.

So you'd send the music to the music channel and the footsteps to the character channel, and tweak the character channel accordingly.

Note that you aren't obliged to use the channels for the things their names suggest. But the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Try it out now. Stamp any channel gadget and a sound of any kind. Assign the sound to the same channel as you've stamped in, and set it to loop if it isn't already.

Start time, tweak the channel, and mess about with the tweaks. Now consider that you can do this with a whole bunch of sounds at the same time.

Each sound can be sent to a channel using the sound channel buttons on the options page of their tweak menu. Channels are very handy things indeed.

They let you categorize sounds, so that you can tweak them as one without having to do it to each individual sound, and process those categories differently.

Say your character goes into a cave, and you want their footsteps to sound appropriately cave-like. But you don't want the same treatment on your music.

So you'd send the music to the music channel and the footsteps to the character channel, and tweak the character channel accordingly.

Note that you aren't obliged to use the channels for the things their names suggest. But the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Try it out now. Stamp any channel gadget and a sound of any kind. Assign the sound to the same channel as you've stamped in, and set it to loop if it isn't already.

Start time, tweak the channel, and mess about with the tweaks. Now consider that you can do this with a whole bunch of sounds at the same time.

Each sound can be sent to a channel using the sound channel buttons on the options page of their tweak menu. Channels are very handy things indeed.

They let you categorize sounds, so that you can tweak them as one without having to do it to each individual sound, and process those categories differently.

Say your character goes into a cave, and you want their footsteps to sound appropriately cave-like. But you don't want the same treatment on your music.

So you'd send the music to the music channel and the footsteps to the character channel, and tweak the character channel accordingly.

Note that you aren't obliged to use the channels for the things their names suggest. But the more folks that do, the easier it will be to collaborate and share.

Try it out now. Stamp any channel gadget and a sound of any kind. Assign the sound to the same channel as you've stamped in, and set it to loop if it isn't already.

Start time, tweak the channel, and mess about with the tweaks. Now consider that you can do this with a whole bunch of sounds at the same time.