D&D Sound Effects?

[Mark CMG]

I tried playing audio files for sound effects and found them turning my game into a morning zoo, with me always (or often) trying to find the right sound effect to punctuate everything. I didn't mind using looped tracks for dripping water or wind, at low volume, in the background. But the intrusive effects like battle clashes were more distracting than they were worth, IMO. Of course, I'm no foley artist (though I do have theatre and radio experience) so maybe I just wasn't playing the effects in quite the right manner.

 

[fba827]

a great idea, just one word of caution - organization and access to the sound files.

Anecdote: back in the 90s(?) D&D had these adventures that came with audio CDs and you'd cue up certain CD tracks based on where the PCs were... so you'd get your creaky doors, your dripping water, your shrill kobold screaming, the heavy footsteps, a couple of the NPC speechs, etc.

However, in actual practice, because it took a second or two to get to the right CD track only to play a couple secons of sound, it became more trouble than it was worth and at some points proved a distraction (for the DM) rather than mood-setting aide.

Having said that, it IS a good aide for setting the mood. Just make sure you have it all easily organized and quickly accessible.

 

[TORBUK]

Am I too late???

I wish I saw this post YEARS AGO...but, I do have a pretty decent reply for you to possibly use. I obtained a few CD's from TOXIC BAG PRODUCTIONS. They have specially made CD's to use for any campaign. I have the "Fantasy Special Effects" and the "Fantasy Monsters" CD's. I believe they still sell them. If you still DM and you are still looking for a quality supplement for your game...check them out! I hope this helps. Good Luck!

 

[Oryan77]

Are there any players that can handle more than one playlist (if you wanted to play two playlists at the same time, not just having two playlists loaded at once)?

I also can't seem to find a player that can do that and also has separate volume controls. Usually one volume controller will adjust all of the computers volume.

My reasons for wanting these options is so I can play 1 playlist containing background music, another playlist playing background sound effects (like birds chirping) at the same time as the background music. And then being able to lower the volume on one or the other playlists without changing the volume on the other playlist.

I've even tried using audio mixer programs and they don't seem to do this.

 

[RHGreen]

I've taken sound effects from EverQuest, Doom, F.E.A.R., WoW, and Neverwinter Nights (as well as few oddball ones here and there) and used them for my games. I use a program called Audacity when I want to mix a loop (prepared before the game, naturally).

I was going to say the same - I think TOEE has a good lot too.

I found some games pack their sounds in a .PK4 file (I think? It's been a while) which you can unpack using winrar.

 

[ACreepierFolklaw]

of course, freesound.org

 

[ToxicBag_Joe]

I wish I saw this post YEARS AGO...but, I do have a pretty decent reply for you to possibly use. I obtained a few CD's from TOXIC BAG PRODUCTIONS. They have specially made CD's to use for any campaign. I have the "Fantasy Special Effects" and the "Fantasy Monsters" CD's. I believe they still sell them. If you still DM and you are still looking for a quality supplement for your game...check them out! I hope this helps. Good Luck!

Hello, this is Joe from Toxic Bag Productions. We do still sell sound effects (thanks for the plug, Torbuk!), on our site and on DriveThruRPG.

You can also find sound effects at sites like Audiosparx.com and Sounddogs.com; they're generally sold a la carte for a few bucks apiece.

To Oryan77's question: you might look at a program called RPG Soundmixer (mentioned earlier in the thread) for changing levels of multiple playlists. I'm not sure it has that functionality, but it might; I haven't used it myself. We have an ipad app that currently only supports one playlist at a time, though we're working on it. Your best bet (if you're on a mac) is to try to find a program called QLab, which was actually developed for theater sound design. It supports nested playlists and independent volume control for individual sounds. I believe version 1 was freeware, so there may be installers for that floating around. I like Hjorimir's idea of running several instances of VLC Media Player; I bet you could do independent volumes that way.

Has anyone tried softrope?

I know it's not cool to gatecrash a messageboard with a sales pitch, and I hope no one is offended that I've chimed in. My apologies to anyone who is. I am very interested in how people are using sound in their games, what roadblocks they're running into, and how they're getting around them. Peace.

Joe

 

[Jeffrey]

I haven't used the program in a game yet (I will be this weekend) but I think it will go over fantastic.

Please come back and let us know how it went.