Requirements for a sound artist in Games

This is a really interesting question. All of this really depends on YOUR needs, which we cannot know with the details you've provided. So some guiding questions:

- What will be the sound artist's tasks for working on your game? Will they be implementing the audio itself or just creating the audio?

- What device(s) and platforms will your game be launched on? Any specific needs or requires those devices/platforms have for audio assets?

What audio engine do you have in mind for this game? Middleware option or proprietary? Device specific?

- What KIND of audio do you want for the game? Interactive? Linear? Surround/VR/AR type audio?

- Do you want a sound artist that will do everything (music, sound design, voice over direction/recording/editing, mixing, mastering and implementation)? That's a wide net. Sometimes you're better served getting two people who can divide these tasks up amongst their specialities.

No offense but it's a bit odd that you're coming to a forum asking what skills a sound artist should know for your own game. It's almost as if you're not sure what audio your game needs. Usually once a game engine is selected, many of the questions above are answered, at least to a degree. And if you're unsure, and that's okay, then you need someone to act as a consultant. For example, is your game in pre-production or production? Regarding your question about what software should they know - that's really up to you. Are they going to use source control at all? Or are they just going to throw sound assets over the fence for implementation? If they're just creating audio for you - it almost doesn't matter what software they know because so many audio programs can do many of the same things.

When I'm looking for someone to collaborate with I look for several factors:
- quality of their work: does it match the aesthetic I'm after. This is mostly subjective.
- ease of communication: does the freelancer get back to me in a reasonable amount of time. Do their emails make sense? Does it seem like we can get along? Especially during stressful production periods?
- ability to take and incorporate feedback well: you want someone who's open to revisions and open to making compromises so their audio ends up being the best for the project. Not someone who's going to say "nope, the audio is done - no changes." (I've heard some people say this before!!)
- can they do the tasks I need: this goes to an earlier point. A bonus is if they can do all of these tasks and also fulfill a few other extra tasks that I hadn't considered (i.e. maybe they can also program some, or do some light artwork, can write really good dialog, etc).
- their cost: obviously if I cannot afford to pay their rate, how can I hire them? You need to know your budget and know what a person's cost will be. Are they going to charge hourly or per sound asset that is delivered? What is the payment method? Milestones? Monthly? Etc. Lots of details to work out. Or are they salaried? Will you offer benefits? Etc.

And in the end - the only thing that really matters is that you like the audio this person creates and that it serves your game well. If you meet those two items, you've done a great job.

1. Name in the credits of released games, and references.

2. I never asked my audio engineers what software they knew. If they had previously done some released games, they clearly knew what they were doing.

3. Know how much you can afford. Don't forget that you get what you pay for; someone who's willing to work for pennies may give you just pennies' worth of end result.

4. Have a good work for hire agreement ready for the vendor to sign. Make sure it covers the originality of the work and you are indemnified; you don't want somebody using ripped-off assets that can get you sued later.

I,m going in the studio this year for recording sound effects for my game,

[offer of work deleted by moderator]

Ask for hardware only.

Else take the one with the biggest modular wall :

[removed by moderator]

Please note that i dont have such a wall.

Incredible Smoker - You've routinely been posting on people's threads in this forum and asking for exchange of work. This is to be done in the Careers section. You can post as a contractor under audio or you can post in the Hobby Projects section. I've already deleted one of your posts and then you posted again and another mod edited that one. This is your warning. Stop spamming the forum in this way. Feel free to actually respond to people's questions with thoughtful answers and take part in discussions. Advertise your services in the Careers section.

And responding with a eurorack hardly addresses the questions that the OP is asking. A eurorack is great for certain things but not everything and it isn't a complete, all-in-one audio solution. It's akin to me asking about what steps are needed for renovating my home and getting a response like "all you need is a hammer." For game audio there are lots of tiny details and factors that simply owning a huge eurorack doesn't even begin to address.

On 8/1/2018 at 7:48 AM, JoAndRoPo said:

Hi!

I need a sound artist for creating bg, sfx, etc for games in a small startup company.

1. What qualification or skills should I search for?
2. What software should he/she know?
3. Is there anything else he/she should know when creating BG music, sfx, etc?
4. Any tips before I start searching?

1 - Look for someone that has a track record of following through with things - people who flake out on your and can't deliver on their commitments are just as big of a problem in this line of work as any. Figure out how to assess their reliability before you pay them a dime is pretty crucial in my opinion.

2 - depends on your needs

3 - Choose your employee based on their base skill set, but also make them prove to you they have the drive and the means to learn these skills. And also ask them something like "Whats the difference between a Sennheiser MK series mic and a Neumann U87". Or "Tell me what a resonance filter does". Or ask them to explain the difference between a reference clock and a word clock in plain English. Forget about games...That's very basic 101 level audio stuff. If they can't tell you that off the top of their head, you probably don't need to be paying them money to do work for you.

Also, make them prove to you that their plugin licenses aren't stollen. That'll weed out 9 of 10 wannabe's.

4 - I think you need a way better idea of what you're after. If you're looking to start a game design company, it sounds like you have a good ways to go before you're ready to bring a sound designer onboard. If I were you I'd wait until you have at least one working playable game before you even begin talking to a sound designer.

On 8/1/2018 at 9:43 AM, the incredible smoker said:

Ask for hardware only.

Else take the one with the biggest modular wall :

That's gotta be the worst advice I've ever heard.

1 hour ago, jkuehlin said:

3 - Choose your employee based on their base skill set, but also make them prove to you they have the drive and the means to learn these skills. And also ask them something like "Whats the difference between a Sennheiser MK series mic and a Neumann U87". Or "Tell me what a resonance filter does". Or ask them to explain the difference between a reference clock and a word clock in plain English. Forget about games...That's very basic 101 level audio stuff. If they can't tell you that off the top of their head, you probably don't need to be paying them money to do work for you.

Interesting idea but in all of my years of working, I've never had a potential client or employer ask me this question. I've had audio directors ask me what I use and why. They want to know my logic in choosing my tools and how I apply them. Asking very specific questions about audio only works when the interviewer knows about audio themselves. Otherwise, they could quickly be taken by a BS response.

So in the case of the OP - I wouldn't do this. Instead I would ask a more questions about workflow, collaborating with team members, receiving feedback, examples of how they've resolved conflicts in the past. Etc. If the OP likes the audio they've heard from the interviewee then it's more a matter of do you like the person in front of you? Will they work nicely in a group setting? How do they handle working under pressure and tight deadlines. Stuff like that.

Having a good answer about different mics doesn't really answer any of that. Nor does it prove how useful and effective a team member they'll end up being. Just my opinion.

1 hour ago, jkuehlin said:

Also, make them prove to you that their plugin licenses aren't stollen. That'll weed out 9 of 10 wannabe's.

There's a much easier way to handle this, have a clause in the contract that indemnifies the company and puts any legal issues related to misuse of copyrighted audio material back on the audio artist. They could even have a clause saying "To the best of my knowledge, I'm only creating audio content with source materials and software I have a legal license to use." and so on. So if they ever did have an issue, a clear paper trail goes right back to the audio artist and leaves the company blameless.

Or if it's a in-house position, just provide the needed hardware and software and then you know you're golden.

4 minutes ago, nsmadsen said:

Interesting idea but in all of my years of working, I've never had a potential client or employer ask me this question. I've had audio directors ask me what I use and why. Asking very specific questions about audio only works when the interviewer knows about audio themselves. Otherwise, they could quickly be taken by a BS response.

Nate...even apart from JoAndRo's specific scenario, what do you feel is the best way for an employer to gauge the extent of a potentials audio engineers competency level? University of Michigan had people submit a written essay on how they mixed a track or series of tracks explaining what they used and why. The hiring agency at Disney drilled us with some music theory and audio production questions in the initial phone interview to vet out the people who were total hacks. In the instance that the hiring agent has no technical expertise in the audio field, should he have a 3rd party conduct the interview on his behalf? I guess my question is how a game dev is supposed to evaluate an audio engineers actual abilities before hiring them.

16 minutes ago, nsmadsen said:

There's a much easier way to handle this, have a clause in the contract that indemnifies the company and puts any legal issues related to misuse of copyrighted material back on the audio artist. They could even have a clause saying "To the best of my knowledge, I'm only creating audio content with source materials and software I have a legal license to use." and so on. So if they ever did have an issue, a clear paper trail goes right back to the audio artist and leaves the company blameless.

But is that sufficient? If the sub-contracted studio simply lies and signs the contract anyway, it seems a number of scenarios the contractor would want to avoid would only surface post-facto.

I was sending audio edits out to a guy with an outdated stolen copy of Pro Tools, and couldn't figure out why his files were named inconsistently. Then I realized he had a cracked copy of PTv9 which didn't have the batch export feature, so he was attempting to manual re-type each file name to cover it up. Even if he had signed that contract, he wouldn't have been able to sync to the avid cloud either...because you have to have a valid support contract to access it. So basically the bugs and issues in his stolen copy became a huge issue to our workflow even though legal issues did not. Same issue with a guy who lied about having valid Waves licenses. My plugins wouldn't load in his DAW, and the Mercury 10 bundle has a lot of plugs in it that the Mercury 7 bundle doesn't. I don't know man. It was just a lot of wasted time back-and-forth with these numbsculls. I'm glad to hear this hasn't been an issue for you

17 hours ago, jkuehlin said:

he had a cracked copy of PTv9 which didn't have the batch export feature, so he was attempting to manual re-type each file name to cover it up. Even if he had signed that contract, he wouldn't have been able to sync to the avid cloud either...because you have to have a valid support contract to access it. So basically the bugs and issues in his stolen copy became a huge issue to our workflow even though legal issues did not. Same issue with a guy who lied about having valid Waves licenses. My plugins wouldn't load in his DAW, and the Mercury 10 bundle has a lot of plugs in it that the Mercury 7 bundle doesn't. I don't know man. It was just a lot of wasted time back-and-forth with these numbsculls

Numbskulls who misrepresent in contractual dealings get weeded out. Either their shenanigans get them shunned from the industry, or they wise up and get legal.

17 hours ago, jkuehlin said:

what do you feel is the best way for an employer to gauge the extent of a potentials audio engineers competency level?

A producer likely isn't expert in all the fields of expertise he's hiring. Producers often have to rely on leads to make such judgments. If I'm in need of a programmer, I look at a candidate's track record, and I call his or her references. If there's to be a technical test of some sort, then I can neither come up with such a test nor judge the test results, so I either have my tech lead drive that, or ask a trusted colleague for some assistance with it. In the case of audio, it's often the case that there is no in-house audio expert to ask about mic differences or best tools, and the producer has to rely on credits and references. And calling producers on the candidate's previous projects.

By the way, this whole topic is more a Production/Management question than an audio question.

17 hours ago, jkuehlin said:

Nate...even apart from JoAndRo's specific scenario, what do you feel is the best way for an employer to gauge the extent of a potentials audio engineers competency level? In the instance that the hiring agent has no technical expertise in the audio field, should he have a 3rd party conduct the interview on his behalf? I guess my question is how a game dev is supposed to evaluate an audio engineers actual abilities before hiring them.

All I can speak to is my own experiences which include 4 in-house positions as well as 5 years of freelancing full time. (Technically, I've been freelancing for 13 years solid but only 5 years where it was my main, full time gig.) And in all of those experiences, I've had audio directors give me audio tests. Take a chunk of the game or video, score it/sound design it/mix it and submit it for review. Then usually the audio director would chat with me afterwards about my approaches and want to know my reasoning behind it all.

But let's back up a bit. For larger companies, I'd usually have 1-2 interviews with a more general, HR type person. Then after passing those, I'd get an interview with an audio person (if there was one). For smaller teams, this may not be the case. But even with smaller teams, usually a client wants to hear my audio, may have a very tiny sound test for me to do (but not always) and then wants to know my rate and my timeframe.

17 hours ago, jkuehlin said:

I was sending audio edits out to a guy with an outdated stolen copy of Pro Tools, and couldn't figure out why his files were named inconsistently. Then I realized he had a cracked copy of PTv9 which didn't have the batch export feature, so he was attempting to manual re-type each file name to cover it up. Even if he had signed that contract, he wouldn't have been able to sync to the avid cloud either...because you have to have a valid support contract to access it. So basically the bugs and issues in his stolen copy became a huge issue to our workflow even though legal issues did not. Same issue with a guy who lied about having valid Waves licenses. My plugins wouldn't load in his DAW, and the Mercury 10 bundle has a lot of plugs in it that the Mercury 7 bundle doesn't. I don't know man. It was just a lot of wasted time back-and-forth with these numbsculls. I'm glad to hear this hasn't been an issue for you

Wow, that does really suck! But this is a special case. Most of the time, unless you're working with a team of audio dudes n gals, you're going to be creating and sending the audio files to the developer directly. So none of these issues you've pointed out would happen in MOST cases. (There are always exceptions of course) Trading audio session files rarely happens when I'm freelancing. Heck, it rarely happens in my current in-house job and we're an audio team of four people! Usually if I need something from someone else they make that track by referencing a mix of my stuff. Even when I'm subcontracting out recording work for pieces I'm doing for a client - my subcontractors are working off a mix I've provided, not sharing my actual session.

So, what you've cited above doesn't really apply to most of the game dev I've been a part of in the last 13 years. Sometimes in rare cases it does. Like when I did some dialog editing for a film trailer and we were all using Pro Tools. But in most of my work, it's simply not been an issue. Which is why I go back to most devs want to know:

- how good is your audio?
- how much will it cost?
- how long will it take for you to make it all?

10 hours ago, nsmadsen said:

So, what you've cited above doesn't really apply to most of the game dev I've been a part of in the last 13 years.

That makes sense - I've been in a really different seat in the process so far. I've been working with game audio casting agencies, voiceover artists, and editors working my up to the implementation and design gig. I have ended up trading a lot of sessions because I've been fortunate enough to have been called for remote recordings - and when they come to my facility, many VO artists are able to edit the material themselves, but the production company pays to have a decent room with a good mic locker (and a reliable mix rig) to shoot it in. I usually dropbox them the session or throw it on their hard drive, they take it back, and also bill the developer for the time it took them to edit their own deliverables. I have NO idea if this is normal as my first notable game contracts have just come in over the last several months (after a good year or so of pounding the pavement for SOMETHING to put in a portfolio). The only other game I was ever involved in was working with a collaborative situation with a composer in California who was an excellent musician and understood basic game audio implementation but had zero tools or knowledge on how to mix it. I assumed that sharing sessions was normal...he had to send me the Cubase session in order for me to dump his VI's and overhaul them with my better ones.

I guess I was surprised that the turnover and deliverable workflow isn't like film at all. I obviously have nowhere near your level of expertise with this stuff and I am sincerely grateful you're taking the time to elaborate on your experiences here! Much appreciated

...For the two 'special cases' I mentioned above, one was film, and the other was broadcast. I probably should have stated that.

Hi Everyone!!! Sorry for replying so late...

First of all, thanks a million for replying to my question. Only after going through your replies I realized that I should have elaborated/added more info to the question I posted. But I don't think that's important now since the info I received from all of you was more than enough to understand what I should look for in a sound artist or at least the level the sound artist should be.

This is the first time my company is hiring a sound artist and the games we are creating is small, like cards (solitaire type) and casino games. So I really don't think that I should be hiring a professional sound artist who's asking for a huge pay. And my company at the moment can't afford to pay a huge amount for the type of games we are currently developing. I should have mentioned all this in the question I posted. My Bad!

But instead, we are hiring a fresher who has some idea (fingers crossed) about game music and has worked on audio editing/DAW software like audacity, Logic Pro, etc. and maybe have some skills in any musical instruments. Someone who can come up with BG, SFX & VO that matches with the theme of the game. So basically, we want the sound artist to either create a whole BG Music, SFX & VO from scratch or take and manipulate from other sources (of course, we will keep in mind the licensing part and also copying the exact music).

After the interview, we will be giving the candidate a test. We will give the candidate a game that we created which doesn't contain any BG Music, SFX, etc. And with the help of audio editing/DAW software that he/she is familiar with, will have to come up with a BG music, SFX, etc., The objective of the test is to see if the candidate can match the BG music, SFX, and VO with the theme of the game.

DOES THIS MAKES SENSE? //scratching head// Do you think this is enough for creating BG Music, SFX & VO for small games or did I miss something?

Remember, we are hiring a fresher who has just come straight out of college.

Once again, thank you all for replying to my question. I did learn a lot from your replies.

Edit: I forgot to mention, regarding VO, I know the sound artist won't be able to come up with the VO we are expecting. So is there any agencies that can make the VO according to our specifications? Like an old man's voice, child's voice, etc? I'm searching online but just want to be sure if anyone here has any experience in sending VO and how should I send them the list? In Excel? What should I mention in the list? BTW, I'm situated in India.

On 8/1/2018 at 6:48 PM, JoAndRoPo said:

Hi!

I need a sound artist for creating bg, sfx, etc for games in a small startup company.

1. What qualification or skills should I search for?
2. What software should he/she know?
3. Is there anything else he/she should know when creating BG music, sfx, etc?
4. Any tips before I start searching?

Well I think this is actually pretty hard to describe, but I'll try my best.

1. If you are looking for 'all-in-one' kind of guy, look for a person who knows the whole pipeline. Generally speaking audio production is a combination of different discipline. You need a music composer and performer for BGM, you need an audio synthesis and a foley artist for SFX. You need an audio engineer to make sure all sounds go through loud and clear (this is the most overlooked area IMO).

Luckily many audio guys/gals nowaday know pretty much all area, but might not master in all of them.

2. At least a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Which DAW is up to your preferrence. In fact, it should be *their* preferrence :). In DAW, you can do pretty much everything, regarding audio, and the rest may be filled in by using plugins (which, by the way, can be more expensive). I primarily use Studio One 2.0 and Cakewalk Sonar (which is distinued), with NI Komplete is on the plan.

The audio personal here might want to use standalone tool as well, including hardware and stuffs. One of my sound designer friend use a hardware which is quite popular in film (which unfortunately I can't recall the name at the moment).

Also, if your budget and space allows, consider setting up a proper audio studio. It does not have to be very large, but should be treated well and equip with adequate equipment. One of my soud designer (no the guy above, as that one has his own studio), always complains that he has to use storage room for his foley recording, and that translate to the game.

Oh and, knowing audio middleware like WWISE and FMOD is a big plus, given that your studio uses one.

3. BGM and SFX is kind of different beasts, and it needs different skills to tame. I think for BGM, you need at least someone who can compose. For SFX, you'd need a foley artist and a synthesis (what should this one called ?).

Many people can do all of them, but some'd want to stay focus on one area. In fact, you might even see some high profile composer that only do scores. You then need another ochestrator to translate it to BGM, if not hiring a Ochestra session to record a music for you (this is actually cheaper than many people think AFAIK).

4. My recomendation is, don't hire one in house unless your production is large enough to fully occupy one. I've seen a studio who hire a composer, and left him starve for work. For a small game you might want only a few tracks with says 10-20 sfx, that's probably a month worth of works for a composer, while the game itself might take longer than that. This should be left as an outsourcing work.

Also, if you decided to hire one, don't look at the resume (alone), look at the portfolio. If you have a candidate, ask him to do a simple set of BGM and SFX (it takes quite a lot of affort to do actually, so you might want to pay the candidate).

PS. I'm not a sound desinger nor music composer myself, but I happened to work closely with one long time ago. I also have an interest group here in Thailand that we discuss about game audio a lot (we even have an AAA composer visitting every now and then, most of the members works for indie games). You might find one in your area, so try go to one of the group's meetup.

On 8/8/2018 at 1:27 AM, JoAndRoPo said:

Edit: I forgot to mention, regarding VO, I know the sound artist won't be able to come up with the VO we are expecting. So is there any agencies that can make the VO according to our specifications? Like an old man's voice, child's voice, etc? I'm searching online but just want to be sure if anyone here has any experience in sending VO and how should I send them the list? In Excel? What should I mention in the list? BTW, I'm situated in India.

There are many sites that allow you to audition and hire VO actors directly. They'll record your lines and deliver the audio. https://voice123.com/ is one such site. Check them out.

On 8/8/2018 at 2:27 AM, JoAndRoPo said:

DOES THIS MAKES SENSE? //scratching head// Do you think this is enough for creating BG Music, SFX & VO for small games or did I miss something?

That sounds quite reasonable and adequate given the scope!

On 8/8/2018 at 2:27 AM, JoAndRoPo said:

I forgot to mention, regarding VO, I know the sound artist won't be able to come up with the VO we are expecting. So is there any agencies that can make the VO according to our specifications?

I wouldn't rule out the possibility of the sound artist being able to assist you with the VO process. I would at least check with them before assuming they can't. If they're in areas that have VO industry and local acting talent, some sound studios have general purpose voiceover booths and that could offer a one-stop-shop solution for the entire project.