Please read and seek to understand the material below. Questions and programming exercises in light yellow will be discussed in class. Please write down enough so that you will be able to participate in the discussion. If you do not understand an exercise, feel free to skip it.

Sound + Music

Sound and music complete a video game. They set the atmosphere, both cue and reflect action, notify the player, and explain the world.

This week you will learn about making sounds and music through excellent interactive tutorials by the music software company Ableton.

For what it's worth, Ableton's music production software is fine, but it isn't my favorite, and -- though I own a license -- it isn't what I use in my games or albums. If you are thinking about buying a DAW, you should try a few -- maybe even some free ones -- and see what sits well with you.

Learn About Sound

Complete this interactive tutorial about synthesizers: learning synthesizers.

In classic game systems, almost all sounds were synthesized, in real-time, by special-purpose chips that combined and filtered simple waves. These days, most sounds are shipped as pre-recorded audio.

What are some advantages of loading sounds from stored files rather than synthesizing them from (e.g.) waves and filters in a video game?

What are some advantages of using synthesized sound (rather than sound loaded from a file) in a video game?

Learn About Music

Complete this interactive tutorial about music: learning music.

A music loop playing in the background of a video game can establish a certain tone and emotion to the game. Sometimes, the game might need to shift that tone rapidly.

How could the game accomplish this? (I.e., from the player's perspective, what might happen with the music?)

How could a runtime for music assets support this?