The gameplay of elite dangerous may be lacking after a long time playing, but the sound is always always always the best and top of its class no matter how many times i hear it.
There are many games that have ok sound design, less that have good sound design, even less that have great, memorable sound design. But I don't know any games that have literally perfect sound design, where you are not only can't even think of any improvements, but you are constantly amazed and surprised by how outstanding each and all sounds are, by how perfect they fit. Except Elite: Dangerous. I played ED already 1850 hours and never once I get used to sound effects, each one of them still amazes me. Sound design in ED is a masterpiece itself. I can't thank the whole sound design team enough, you are the best.
Thank you RReds! Very kind words indeed. As the person uploading this material I only played a small part in the audio of Elite. Joe Hogan and Jim Croft are the visionaries behind it all - they laid out the path on which we all build the sound design for Elite Dangerous. Very much a big Team Effort.
One of the underrated moments in this game is the unique soundscape for every ship. Few things beat the exhilaration of taking your new ride out for a spin and hearing all the new engine sounds!
It is so good to read that - that’s part of the reason we do it too, so much fun to book audio in all the data that is generated from how you fly your ship! We use similar tech on coasters too.
Each ship and it's unique soundscape; You feel the ship through that sound in ways that honestly doesn't make sense to me. Alone in space thousands of light years away from anyone, and you feel the ship moving and breathing around you. Makes me wish I could wander through the ship. Edge closer to the massive engines on the Krait. Stand in the echoing cargo holds on my T-9. Combat crackles and pops around you. You can hear the Eagles engines scream as the pilot tries to find your back, my ship shuddering as I stress the hull banking hard and pulling back to get a bead on that pesky gnat slowly chewing at my shields. It's all amazing. But there is one soundscape that takes the cake. "Cracking cores in an ice field." As much as I hate hunting cores. That audio arc... In my Python, slowly encircling a core asteroid, engines thrumming. All the ice crunching and crackling around me. Hearing things freeze up on my ship. Finally setting the charges, and backing out just as it pops. :kisses:
A lot of games have good sound design, and then there's Elite Dangerous, which feels like a whole new level that's hard to describe unless someone hears it. Sublime, phenomenal, and other such words come to mind. Thank you and your colleagues for such an amazing experience that I keep coming back to.
Fantastic work, always. The one thing I would love in the Odyssey era is that after disembarking on foot we get to hear the hull of our ships plink and creak as they cool down for a good while, like the engine of a v8 that has been pushed to its limits for a long time and then sits on the driveway, exhausted.
I love that sound, that rhythmic ticking, this protective hull still catching up from the exhaustion. If it isn't already on a "nice to have" list, it should be.
Absolutely love this information, thank you! I studied Wwise in school and it's a complicated but extremely versatile DAW to use for audio mixing within video game soundscapes. Glad to see you and the rest of the Elite sound team put it to godly use. Keep up the phenominal work. o7
Although I don't play Elite as much as I probably should, their sound is nearly perfect for the settings they create. I would rate it near the top of all (space) games.
I have to ask, what was the inspiration for the Federal Assault Ship sounds? It reminds me of some kind of robot killer whale and kinda flies like it too. I've always liked it for that.
The lore of the game says that the ship's computer synthesizes all the sounds based on what its sensors see, essentially a navigational aid. This is a handy explanation, but there is real science discovering how to record audio from video. How this technology will evolve in the future is anyone's guess, but even today there is a way to do this th-cam.com/video/FKXOucXB4a8/w-d-xo.html
It's incredible isn't it and a little scary. About that synthesized "no sound in space" sound - we try and come up with reasons for why things are the way they are. It gives us a solid foundation upon which to do our sound work. We even invented a non official backstory for why the UI in the ship is a little glitchy and retro, even-though we have futuristic holo screens: The backstory we came up with and disclaimer, this isn't cannon, we wrote it to give audio context and it's not in any way "official Elite" . So for holo screens it would have been logical to go for glass-like, ethereal sounds. High pitched, synthy stuff like you hear on modern high-tech entertainment like the star trek shows. The sound for hollo in Elite is glitchy and distorted with radio and other analogue samples mixed in. Why? Well, we thought about ship captains and how they could relate to current day aviation/space technology. They don't like cutting edge tech, they want reliable electronics, something that's proven and energy efficient because in space, your life depends on it. So when holo screens were introduces (in our backstory as this isn't official) they were still experimental. Prone to failure, glitchy, very expensive. You can imagine only Saud Kruger ships having them at first well before the pilot's federation came in and standardized everything - can you imagine one of the ship makers dropping a standard jack for some proprietary output? The Pilot's Federation just had to step in! (in our backstory of course, this didn't really happen). Anyway, most captains didn't trust the screens, they wanted good old fashioned and self-repairable analogue tech. One day, when the makers of holo screens did another round of focus testing, they had a bug in the audio that made all the sounds glitchy. Ironically that reminded test subjects of "then-current"-tech and all the test scores went up. By making the holo screen "feel" mechanical, they looked and sounded more familiar to the test audience - and pilots where ready to take them up! So we kept referring to that background story - which, again, nothing above is cannon or official, just our own little justification - for when new UI audio had to be made. We used all sorts of old synths and even VHS machines to record, then crumble the tape and play back. Hope this is entertaining and thank again for all the kind words everyone!
That is so kind of you to say, thank you! Lots of people involved too. If you don’t mind me asking, is your favourite sounding ship and what makes it so?
@@matthewflorianz_gameaudio I'm far from having tried them all; currently I'm enjoying my tuned Imperial Courier. Just now I was (supposed to be) stationary in space and I could _hear_ that my lateral joystick didn't center properly and I was drifting a little. The bigger ships (Type-9, Anaconda is what I have so far) underwhelmed me a little, I imagined them sounding much deeper, more rumbly than the smaller ships. For ships to fly during long exploration trips, I could seriously imagine swapping or engineering thrusters for "the most pleasant" sound, as it is done in touring cars. Looking forward to the Mandalay :)
Interesting choice of using the Clipper as an example. It's a standout example. I've always found it's outsized loudness really highlights the extreme performance of a ship that large. You can tell it's working hard to move that quickly. What locations did you use to film this?
Thanks! It was one of the ships I worked on, so it was straightforward to get the source separated and that's why I choose it for my Sound in Space presentation - for which this video was originally made. It IS a great ship, though the best sounding for me is still the sidewinder that Joe Hogan original created. Location - I am sorry, it's been years, I couldn't tell you this. Thanks for the kind and nice comments!
@@matthewflorianz_gameaudio The Sidewinder sounds great inside and outside. Really masterful. But you should be proud of the Clipper, it really feels like a flying craft. Amazing work all around from the sound team.
The gameplay of elite dangerous may be lacking after a long time playing, but the sound is always always always the best and top of its class no matter how many times i hear it.
There are many games that have ok sound design, less that have good sound design, even less that have great, memorable sound design. But I don't know any games that have literally perfect sound design, where you are not only can't even think of any improvements, but you are constantly amazed and surprised by how outstanding each and all sounds are, by how perfect they fit. Except Elite: Dangerous. I played ED already 1850 hours and never once I get used to sound effects, each one of them still amazes me. Sound design in ED is a masterpiece itself. I can't thank the whole sound design team enough, you are the best.
Thank you RReds! Very kind words indeed. As the person uploading this material I only played a small part in the audio of Elite. Joe Hogan and Jim Croft are the visionaries behind it all - they laid out the path on which we all build the sound design for Elite Dangerous. Very much a big Team Effort.
If you like shooting games try Insurgency Sandstorm. It has best sound design out of all FPS games.
One of the underrated moments in this game is the unique soundscape for every ship. Few things beat the exhilaration of taking your new ride out for a spin and hearing all the new engine sounds!
It is so good to read that - that’s part of the reason we do it too, so much fun to book audio in all the data that is generated from how you fly your ship! We use similar tech on coasters too.
Each ship and it's unique soundscape; You feel the ship through that sound in ways that honestly doesn't make sense to me. Alone in space thousands of light years away from anyone, and you feel the ship moving and breathing around you. Makes me wish I could wander through the ship. Edge closer to the massive engines on the Krait. Stand in the echoing cargo holds on my T-9.
Combat crackles and pops around you. You can hear the Eagles engines scream as the pilot tries to find your back, my ship shuddering as I stress the hull banking hard and pulling back to get a bead on that pesky gnat slowly chewing at my shields. It's all amazing. But there is one soundscape that takes the cake.
"Cracking cores in an ice field." As much as I hate hunting cores. That audio arc... In my Python, slowly encircling a core asteroid, engines thrumming. All the ice crunching and crackling around me. Hearing things freeze up on my ship. Finally setting the charges, and backing out just as it pops. :kisses:
Best sound design ever! It just turns the game into a living, breathing world.
Elite has the best sounds of any game I've ever played. Right up there with motion pictures. Even the knocking on the bulkhead hatch....
A lot of games have good sound design, and then there's Elite Dangerous, which feels like a whole new level that's hard to describe unless someone hears it. Sublime, phenomenal, and other such words come to mind. Thank you and your colleagues for such an amazing experience that I keep coming back to.
Fantastic work, always. The one thing I would love in the Odyssey era is that after disembarking on foot we get to hear the hull of our ships plink and creak as they cool down for a good while, like the engine of a v8 that has been pushed to its limits for a long time and then sits on the driveway, exhausted.
I love that sound, that rhythmic ticking, this protective hull still catching up from the exhaustion. If it isn't already on a "nice to have" list, it should be.
Sound design in elite dangerous is on it's own plane. Absolutely awesome work!
Here from the Burr pit video, very interesting
me too
This video has impeccable editing. Great work!
It is wonderful but TH-cam compressed this audio horribly! The audio in the game is 1000 times better!
Amazing work! Can't wait what the future holds for Elite!!
The game that brought me back to gaming.
Absolutely love this information, thank you! I studied Wwise in school and it's a complicated but extremely versatile DAW to use for audio mixing within video game soundscapes. Glad to see you and the rest of the Elite sound team put it to godly use. Keep up the phenominal work. o7
The Elite wwise project is the most impressive audio construct I've ever seen. If we could visualize it, it might look like a borg cube!
You and your team should be proud. Elite:Dangerous is one of the best sounding games out there!
All team work indeed , thanks!
Although I don't play Elite as much as I probably should, their sound is nearly perfect for the settings they create. I would rate it near the top of all (space) games.
I have to ask, what was the inspiration for the Federal Assault Ship sounds? It reminds me of some kind of robot killer whale and kinda flies like it too. I've always liked it for that.
When that came out I was on another project, I'll ask around, see if I can get an answer to that. Do ping me again if I forget
👍
The lore of the game says that the ship's computer synthesizes all the sounds based on what its sensors see, essentially a navigational aid. This is a handy explanation, but there is real science discovering how to record audio from video. How this technology will evolve in the future is anyone's guess, but even today there is a way to do this th-cam.com/video/FKXOucXB4a8/w-d-xo.html
It's incredible isn't it and a little scary.
About that synthesized "no sound in space" sound - we try and come up with reasons for why things are the way they are. It gives us a solid foundation upon which to do our sound work. We even invented a non official backstory for why the UI in the ship is a little glitchy and retro, even-though we have futuristic holo screens:
The backstory we came up with and disclaimer, this isn't cannon, we wrote it to give audio context and it's not in any way "official Elite" . So for holo screens it would have been logical to go for glass-like, ethereal sounds. High pitched, synthy stuff like you hear on modern high-tech entertainment like the star trek shows. The sound for hollo in Elite is glitchy and distorted with radio and other analogue samples mixed in.
Why?
Well, we thought about ship captains and how they could relate to current day aviation/space technology. They don't like cutting edge tech, they want reliable electronics, something that's proven and energy efficient because in space, your life depends on it. So when holo screens were introduces (in our backstory as this isn't official) they were still experimental. Prone to failure, glitchy, very expensive. You can imagine only Saud Kruger ships having them at first well before the pilot's federation came in and standardized everything - can you imagine one of the ship makers dropping a standard jack for some proprietary output? The Pilot's Federation just had to step in! (in our backstory of course, this didn't really happen).
Anyway, most captains didn't trust the screens, they wanted good old fashioned and self-repairable analogue tech. One day, when the makers of holo screens did another round of focus testing, they had a bug in the audio that made all the sounds glitchy. Ironically that reminded test subjects of "then-current"-tech and all the test scores went up. By making the holo screen "feel" mechanical, they looked and sounded more familiar to the test audience - and pilots where ready to take them up!
So we kept referring to that background story - which, again, nothing above is cannon or official, just our own little justification - for when new UI audio had to be made. We used all sorts of old synths and even VHS machines to record, then crumble the tape and play back.
Hope this is entertaining and thank again for all the kind words everyone!
Every time I buy a new ship in ED, the thing I'm most excited about is to find out how it sounds.
That is so kind of you to say, thank you! Lots of people involved too. If you don’t mind me asking, is your favourite sounding ship and what makes it so?
@@matthewflorianz_gameaudio I'm far from having tried them all; currently I'm enjoying my tuned Imperial Courier. Just now I was (supposed to be) stationary in space and I could _hear_ that my lateral joystick didn't center properly and I was drifting a little. The bigger ships (Type-9, Anaconda is what I have so far) underwhelmed me a little, I imagined them sounding much deeper, more rumbly than the smaller ships. For ships to fly during long exploration trips, I could seriously imagine swapping or engineering thrusters for "the most pleasant" sound, as it is done in touring cars. Looking forward to the Mandalay :)
Interesting choice of using the Clipper as an example. It's a standout example. I've always found it's outsized loudness really highlights the extreme performance of a ship that large. You can tell it's working hard to move that quickly.
What locations did you use to film this?
Thanks! It was one of the ships I worked on, so it was straightforward to get the source separated and that's why I choose it for my Sound in Space presentation - for which this video was originally made. It IS a great ship, though the best sounding for me is still the sidewinder that Joe Hogan original created. Location - I am sorry, it's been years, I couldn't tell you this. Thanks for the kind and nice comments!
@@matthewflorianz_gameaudio The Sidewinder sounds great inside and outside. Really masterful. But you should be proud of the Clipper, it really feels like a flying craft. Amazing work all around from the sound team.
Apparently different grades of thrusters have different audio.