W
hen you pilot a yacht inJust
Cause 3, you don’t think about the
sound of the engine – at least
consciously. Your brain
acknowledges that, yes, this sounds
like you’re behind the wheel of a yacht, and the illusion
is created. But recording the sound of that boat’s
rumbling engines, and the roar of the ocean as it moves
through it, involved a real 60-foot yacht, a man named
Watson Wu, multiple microphones and a lot of puke.“For the onboard yacht sounds, multiple microphones
were rigged at the front, the side, in the engine room and
at the helm and rear,” says Wu, a sound designer and field
recordist who works in TV, film and videogames. “We had
to leave the engine room door open to capture the audio,
so I got seasick from the diesel fumes and from the
swaying of the three-story boat. I’ve been on plenty of
boats and never got sick, but every time I hit the record
button I silently ran to the starboard side and vomited.”
Wu was at sea for three hours, most of which was
spent being sick. But when he returned to the studio and
played the recordings back, none of his retching was
audible. “I guess I can’t help but capture great sounds, no
matter the situation,” he says. “And if needed, I can puke
silently!” This enthusiasm is normal for Wu, and it’s clearfrom his work, his website and his entertaining Twitter
feed that he loves what he does. Even if, most of the time,
players won’t appreciate how much work goes into what
he does on more than a subconscious level.
“I’m used to working in the background,” he says.
“Everything you play requires sound that someone has to
record, edit, design and implement into the game. A
gunshot sound that lasts only for a mere second may seem
simple enough, but the process can take a day to correctly
record, and a further day to edit and implement. As a
sound designer my job is not just creating audio candy for
your ears to enjoy, but emotions too.”SOUND OUT
After leaving university, where he studied music, Wu read
a magazine article that led him to a book by Aaron Marks
called The Complete Guide to Game Audio. “I read it
twice and followed his advice,” says Wu. “I attended the
Game Developers Conference in San Francisco multiple
times, met developers and landed contract jobs.” Some of
these contracts included Will Wright’s infamousSpore,
Operation FlashpointsequelDragon Rising, and tactical
shooterRed Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad.
Wu also provides audio for other media, from films
such as Baby Driver and Transformers, to commercials for
Lexus and the US Army. But of all the work he does, heHow to make a gun in
an FPS sound real.Making
noises
Field recording is
an important
part of creating
convincing
sounds in games.
Examples can be
anything from
theambienceof
abuildingtoa
dog barking. To
enhance realism,
multiple
microphones are
used to capture
the sound from
different angles.
These are then
implemented
dynamically
in-game by a
team of sound
designers.THE SOUND OF GAMES
Sound designerWATSON WUon recording sound effects
Photo credit: Aaron MarksPCG INVESTIGGAT ES