How are the sound effects on nuclear throne made?

[Yowaiko]

I remember watching a stream where they showed us how they made their music, but don't recall watching anything regarding sound effects. They certainly aren't just playing with the innards of a stapler next to a microphone, are they?

[ModdedPan]

I want to know what filters they used to get Robot's, Rebel's, and especially Horror's sound effects.

[Kissa3]

Hello there Cal and Da police!

I used to stream sound design streams but now that I moved fully into my studio space streaming has become almost impossible with this setup, as soon as I get a new laptop I might start streaming with that again :)

Actually your example about stapler next to a microphone ain't that far off to be honest, I do most of the sounds by recording various objects and voices to create the sounds. For example the palace guardians who teleport are basically made out of a drum cymbal being vibrated by a hair trimmer moved around the top and then having a really fast delay modulation effect to make it weird and ethereal. The core for Plasma weapons is a kitchen sink gurgling and then having crazy synthesized sweeps on top etc. The character 'Plant' is a mixture of both my inhaling vocals and bicycle gears rattling and played back with a software called SAMPLR to mimic what i'm doing with the inhales! A stapler was used for the basic starting pistol if I remember correct but I could be wrong, it's been a few years since that sound was originally made for the original jam version >:)

Robot uses a LO-FI plugin and EQ that came with Pro Tools.
Rebel uses reverse reverbs to make her voice ethereal-ish, D-Verb that came with Pro Tools.
Horror uses the same super fast modulation delay as the palace guardians, I think the plugin is called "short delay" that comes with Pro Tools, adjusting the mix/mod speed/depth and delay speeds to find that crazy warbly tone :)


Hope this clears some of your thoughts over the games soundscape, try to listen to all the crazy sounds and figure out the layers ;)

Cheers,
-Joonas Turner (the sound designer of Nuclear Throne)

[Golden Boi]

Originally posted by Kissa3:

Hello there Cal and Da police!

I used to stream sound design streams but now that I moved fully into my studio space streaming has become almost impossible with this setup, as soon as I get a new laptop I might start streaming with that again :)

Actually your example about stapler next to a microphone ain't that far off to be honest, I do most of the sounds by recording various objects and voices to create the sounds. For example the palace guardians who teleport are basically made out of a drum cymbal being vibrated by a hair trimmer moved around the top and then having a really fast delay modulation effect to make it weird and ethereal. The core for Plasma weapons is a kitchen sink gurgling and then having crazy synthesized sweeps on top etc. The character 'Plant' is a mixture of both my inhaling vocals and bicycle gears rattling and played back with a software called SAMPLR to mimic what i'm doing with the inhales! A stapler was used for the basic starting pistol if I remember correct but I could be wrong, it's been a few years since that sound was originally made for the original jam version >:)

Robot uses a LO-FI plugin and EQ that came with Pro Tools.
Rebel uses reverse reverbs to make her voice ethereal-ish, D-Verb that came with Pro Tools.
Horror uses the same super fast modulation delay as the palace guardians, I think the plugin is called "short delay" that comes with Pro Tools, adjusting the mix/mod speed/depth and delay speeds to find that crazy warbly tone :)


Hope this clears some of your thoughts over the games soundscape, try to listen to all the crazy sounds and figure out the layers ;)

Cheers,
-Joonas Turner (the sound designer of Nuclear Throne)

Rogue voice please I beg you

[Kissa3]

Regarding Rogue:

Don't ya worry :) ! We're finalizing character dialogues so as soon as that is done I'll record Rogues voice actor and get that character the voice she deserves! This will be somewhere after July though with summer holidays nearing in and whatnot...

[Golden Boi]

Originally posted by Kissa3:

Regarding Rogue:

Don't ya worry :) ! We're finalizing character dialogues so as soon as that is done I'll record Rogues voice actor and get that character the voice she deserves! This will be somewhere after July though with summer holidays nearing in and whatnot...

Oh lord at least I know it's coming, thank you so much!

[derzruud]

Ha! AudioGuru revealed himself! :) Thanks for explanations above. Do I remember correctly, that you mentioned old sewing machines for making weapons sounds? Great tip too! :)

[splendid ledraps]

Nice read!

[Yowaiko]

Well I'll be. Looks like I've got a newfound respect for staplers.

[❍peth]

awesome post!

[Kissa3]

Thank you for the nice words to you all, glad to hear that you are interested in the sounds of Nuclear Throne :) and hopefully video games in general too!

Thanks for the AudioGuru title :D much appreciated!!

Essentially if something is missing a sound in the game, expect it to have a sound in the future before release :) I hate leaving something half-done so I strive to make the games detailed rather than scribbled! (This is ofcourse depending on the overall design)

I can't remember did I use a sewing machine for Nuclear Throne, might have with the original design for the machine gun but I have a feeling I didn't do that, I definitely do remember giving that advice on a stream though :) Sewing machines are damn awesome tools to get cool sounds off. Think of machinery with cogwheels and other turning parts, pitch shifting the CHUGGACHUGGACHUGGA sound down makes really cool cogwheel sounds (I did this with a game called Badland) or indeed machine gun shooting sounds, also try tilting the machine or if it's for just sound use and not actual sewing use try putting various materials under the needle (PRO TIP: REMEMBER SAFETY!) to get cool tones out of it!

Talking about funny machines and whatnot, the smartgun uses sounds out of a paper printer to give that weird sci-fi esque high pitch sound to it :D and the Sniper Robots aiming sound is built around a camera flash loading (dhuiiIIIIIIII)...

I could talk about this stuff for hours with no end but i'll spare you this time >:) heheh...
Maybe we'll stream the mixing of the game and during that time have sound and music stories live :) let's see then!

Have fun playing the game with sounds on and don't forget to enable the music too!

[❍peth]

I KNEW it was based on a camera flash, I KNEW IT, I am utterly validated now.

[Kissa3]

>:) heheh, try to figure out the rest too!

[derzruud]

YAAA, this thread is pure gold! :)

[derzruud]

Originally posted by Kissa3:

>:) heheh, try to figure out the rest too!

I was wondering about origin of that fast "tappa-tappa-tappa" sound when you get Extra Feet mutation - rapidly flapping plastic card between fingers? Could be?

[Yowaiko]

Originally posted by derzruud:

Originally posted by Kissa3:

>:) heheh, try to figure out the rest too!

I was wondering about origin of that fast "tappa-tappa-tappa" sound when you get Extra Feet mutation - rapidly flapping plastic card between fingers? Could be?

My money's on dogs trying to run on hard wood floors.