Struggle so much with sound effects

[Lagos]

I spend hours trying to figure out what SFX aren't ear-grating in battles. There's so many of them but hearing the same punching, slashing and gun noises over and over is pretty irritating or maybe that's just me?

Music is very easy though, easy to find stuff that fits the mood, but those dang sound effects drive me crazy.

[JohnDoeNews]

First of all, there are plenty extra audio files in your DLC folder. If you didn't import them yet, you might want to do that first.

Second, you can change the pitch, making your cound effects go faster and higher, or slower and lower. If you make like 3 slashes in a row, you can make the first and second a higher pitch, and the third a lower pitch, this will sound like you make a combo, and the third one strikes harder than the other two.

[Lagos]

Originally posted by BigFatX:

First of all, there are plenty extra audio files in your DLC folder. If you didn't import them yet, you might want to do that first.

Second, you can change the pitch, making your cound effects go faster and higher, or slower and lower. If you make like 3 slashes in a row, you can make the first and second a higher pitch, and the third a lower pitch, this will sound like you make a combo, and the third one strikes harder than the other two.

Nah I did that, changing pitches too. Think I'm just not very good at this. Maybe I'll go back to 8-bit sounds but I didn't wanna do that, and I know I'm just ranting right now

[◢ k r i s ◤]

To be honest, the included sound effects aren't super great either. They are distinctively representative, but they aren't very satisfying to listen to nor are they very immersive. The Blows lack impact or sustain - without an anticipation sfx preceeding it (a woosh sfx, for example) they will just sound silly and cartoony. Most of the other sfx sound like they went through a low-pass filter without any resonance adjustment, so not only do they sound muted on tinny speakers of mobile devices but they also sound worse than some freebie sounds you can find on the Internet.

I think the thought process was RMMV games would push BGM to the focal point of the soundscape and SE would either blend or drown between the sounds of BGM and BGS. If you know that sound effects are key to player responsiveness, you know that isn't really acceptable. Sound fingerprints are distinctive and it pays to have a satisfying soundscape for your game.

If your game will be deployed for platforms where you can encrypt content (basically anything but web-export in RMMV) you should be able to use royalty-free sound effects that might come at a premium but have a much more valuable immersive resonance.

If you have a decent microphone (some smartphones are decent - iPhones especially), you can even make some sound effects yourself. Marshall McGee has a fantastic Youtube channel that walks users through some easy to follow sound design processing. For example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9MtlYf-OdU

However you might also look elsewhere for sound effects to use in your game (I personally recommend https://www.asoundeffect.com/shop/)

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If you were just looking to add some randomized variation (like threshold pitch-adjustments or replacing sword-swooshes with longer sustain at random) during every animation playback, there might be a plugin that enables that - I'm not sure if there is already though.

[Lagos]

Originally posted by ◢ k r i s ◤:

To be honest, the included sound effects aren't super great either. They are distinctively representative, but they aren't very satisfying to listen to nor are they very immersive. The Blows lack impact or sustain - without an anticipation sfx preceeding it (a woosh sfx, for example) they will just sound silly and cartoony. Most of the other sfx sound like they went through a low-pass filter without any resonance adjustment, so not only do they sound muted on tinny speakers of mobile devices but they also sound worse than some freebie sounds you can find on the Internet.

Sound fingerprints are distinctive and it pays to have a satisfying soundscape for your game.

If your game will be deployed for platforms where you can encrypt content (basically anything but web-export in RMMV) you should be able to use royalty-free sound effects that might come at a premium but have a much more valuable immersive resonance.

If you have a decent microphone (some smartphones are decent - iPhones especially), you can even make some sound effects yourself. Marshall McGee has a fantastic Youtube channel that walks users through some easy to follow sound design processing. For example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9MtlYf-OdU

However you might also look elsewhere for sound effects to use in your game (I personally recommend https://www.asoundeffect.com/shop/)

-----
If you were just looking to add some randomized variation (like pitch-adjustments or replacing sword-swooshes with longer sustain at random) there might be a plugin that enables that - I'm not sure if there is already though.

I guess I feel better now that you confirm the sounds aren't very nice, so I don't feel so crazy. Really should look for sound effects elsewhere.

Need those immersive flesh-hitting slashes. Also some grunts shrieks that don't hurt the ears. Seen before how sound effects are made and it looks fun sometimes but not sure if I could get into it.

[◢ k r i s ◤]

Depending on the style you are going for, immersion actually can be achieved using unrealistic sounds too. Same guy from above made a video about that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJnIijUnX8

It's not just that the Blow or Attack sfx sound cartoony so much as they just aren't taking full advantage of the frequency spectrum and in application the particular sfx included sound kind of silly and disassociated. If making your own SFX with a mic is too much work, you could still try editing and layering the provided SFX in Audacity to get something that sounds better, maybe. Basically the same thing as recoloring or editing the tile-sheets, only doing so with the sounds instead.

But if you've got a bit of cash to spend, you might want to check out the Game Character Voice series by Epic Stock Media[epicstockmedia.com]. The Orc and Dwarf bundles might have some stuff that works for your "grunt shrieks." As for flesh-slashes, most gore sound packs I've heard include metal impacts and swooshes to go with their gore designs - maybe those are what you are looking for? I don't have any in particular to recommend for that, but if you can't find something online for free then it might be worth looking at premium gore sound pack previews to listen for what you want.

[Lagos]

Originally posted by ◢ k r i s ◤:

Depending on the style you are going for, immersion actually can be achieved using unrealistic sounds too. Same guy from above made a video about that here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJnIijUnX8

It's not just that the Blow or Attack sfx sound cartoony so much as they just aren't taking full advantage of the frequency spectrum and in application the particular sfx included sound kind of silly and disassociated. If making your own SFX with a mic is too much work, you could still try editing and layering the provided SFX in Audacity to get something that sounds better, maybe. Basically the same thing as recoloring or editing the tile-sheets, only doing so with the sounds instead.

But if you've got a bit of cash to spend, you might want to check out the Game Character Voice series by Epic Stock Media[epicstockmedia.com]. The Orc and Dwarf bundles might have some stuff that works for your "grunt shrieks." As for flesh-slashes, most gore sound packs I've heard include metal impacts and swooshes to go with their gore designs - maybe those are what you are looking for? I don't have any in particular to recommend for that, but if you can't find something online for free then it might be worth looking at premium gore sound pack previews to listen for what you want.

I really appreciate your help. I'll watch these videos too. Hopefully this new project will be enjoyed.