I was out to lunch with a couple of car game audio directors & one of them said something that resonated with me. “Most audio directors build technical systems that will make good talks at GDC.” I laughed nervously as I thought of my application for the 2011 audio track.

It’s so true to some extent. Going from the technical limitations of the last generation of game platforms to the current one, it’s allowed us more memory, more CPU, but most importantly, the ability to introduce more complicated audio systems that we can make anachronisms for. D.A.M.N. (Dynamic Audio Mixing Navigation)…don’t steal that, I might use it.

Marty once gave the example of doing audio for a pen dropping onto a counter. He asked if it would be easier to detect the distance between the pen & the counter, calculate velocity, material type & then divide the relative impact volume by 2 for each subsequent hit after the initial one….or just record a #%*$ing pen dropping onto a counter.

The first example would make for a great technical talk. You get all the programmers nodding & scratching their chins, & designers thinking of how they could build a similar system, but the second example would most likely be more effective & definitely less time consuming.

The same could be said for the creative aspect of game audio design. It’s so much sexier to talk about some daring field recording or the orchestral arrangement for the Prague Philharmonic. Why do you think half of our professional profile pics are either in front of some fancy mixing console or of us holding a shotgun mic at the zoo? Because it makes for better stories.

Part of me really likes those out of the box experiences like hanging onto a jutting rock overlooking the PCH to get that amazing surf sound or having the zoo keeper smack the rhino to get him to growl at my DAT recorder, but the other part of me resents the fact that the Foley artist gets 5 minutes on the behind the scenes while I got 1, or the cold hard fact that the surf sound is unintelligible white noise & the rhino roar has too much ambiance to use.

Programmers & producers don’t have to do a dog & pony show of flashing lights & exotic locales, but I guess their professions are a little less creatively schizophrenic. If you look at game audio curriculum or any “making of” footage, there’s usually some audio guy wearing a hoodie in a dimly lit room, nodding his head to some beat that was either produced off-site or last minute using PC shareware with headphones & is only being played back in this sexy recording studio to make for a good sound bite (pun intended).

I hope as we grow up as a discipline we can slowly separate our image from that of the wanna-be music producer & expose the public to the more realistic (yet less glamorous) image of the more procedural & game-state driven aspects of our profession. More AK events & less shotgun mic headshots (pun once again intended).