Quality production and what it takes

[uglymod]

Hello everyone my name is Mike. I will now be actively participating in this community since feedback is extremely important during the creation process of anything.

My main area of knowledge is sound and music production. However, I am taking the lead as director and sound production for our first large project

Sound production and quality is essential for an immersing game or movie. Most importantly the utilization of studio quality voice recording software is KEY to great sounding voices.

Our project is large and I am the only sound designer and producer. I will post any complications I may run in to so that YOU may learn from my mistakes. First I would like to discuss some software that may aid you in your attempts of getting the sound you want.

First, ensure you have a decent sound card. One that can handle High latency. Your CPU is just as important since many of these programs have multiple process's happening at one time. Personally I use High fidelity sound cards.

The programs you use are extremely important.
Voice acting: For voice acting I use Sony soundforge. This program produces the cleanest crisp sounding voice YOU want. The downfall, it is extremely pricey.
An alternative could be Audacity which is a freeware

Music and sound: This is the most expensive part of the production process for us. The programs we decided to utilize is professional quality and come with a professional price tag.

Cubase (with vst plugins): We utilize this to make our atmosphere sounds, Click sounds and other sound effects.
Reason & Ableton: We use this in combination. These are the programs the best producers in the world use.
A usb Midi keyboard is suggested but not required. It just makes things go a little quicker.

This comes with a hefty price tag of nearly $3k However, there are some free to use programs that will produce a decent sound but not professional quality. I suggest measuring what kind of quality production you want with what is practical for you


Composition: Kicks, bass, mids, highs, synths and sometimes voice is normally what is takes to create a track. It is similar to drawing using photoshop because there are layers that you stack onto one another to produce results.

Feel free to ask me any questions. I will continue to add things to this thread along with others as time goes on.