In addition, he announced two forthcoming releases from Sony that would help move the industry in that direction. Sulpha, an analyzer and debugger for audio, will be available at the end of the year and the Awesome Editor, a scripting tool, will be released afterwards.
These new tools address issues specific to game audio. For instance, the Awesome Editor, targeted to designers and anyone in the audio tool area, is cross-platform, uses standard and open formats, and isn’t tied to an audio engine.
“Celebrate our uniqueness rather than stifle it,“ said Page.
Page pointed out that game audio is often compared to audio in film and TV and while the quality is certainly on par, the issues sound designers and composers face are not the same as in film and TV. They don’t have to worry about how much RAM is being used or about porting from system to system.
“Why put us in a box with film and TV? We shouldn’t be like anything. We should be like games.”
However, Page stressed that designers and composers needed to learn more about current tools. “There’s so much untapped potential in what’s available now.”
Page also thought game audio was in danger of becoming stagnant. He worried that game audio creation had more of a “shopping list” mentality. “We don’t think, is it the best method? Or do we need it at all.”
To illustrate this, Page showed two clips of Star Wars. One was the original and the other with footsteps. The one with footsteps sounded ridiculous. Yet, any sound designer doing a WWII FPS will automatically write down footsteps along with gunshots and ricochet as needed sounds. The soundtrack to the WWII FPS would also be orchestral and Page asked if this amounted to wasted efforts and budgets since the soundtrack would sound the same as other games in the genre. How can the listener notice any improvements then? What is there that is new?
“We’ve had decades of being told what to do,” Page admitted. It may be difficult to thrown away that conditioning. Ultimately, he said, “Next-gen is a state of mind.” With technological barriers erased, sound designers and composers can think about innovating the craft and really bringing game audio to the next level.