Xan Williams Sound Design
Here’s my end of year 2011-2012 show reel. The majority of
the sound in this video was designed, recorded, edited and triggered live in
the games themselves, by me. However, it’s often useful for viewers to know
exactly what parts of the soundtrack were made by me and who I made it with.
Below are extensive linear notes that clarify as best as I can remember proper
credits for each clip. You only need read them if you’re interested in this
in-depth analysis.
00:00:00 Xan Williams Inter-title Card
All synthesised sound and ambient recording by me. This applies to all other
inter-title cards so I will skip them, below.
00:02:42 Disney Universe Pirate Ship Boss
Ambiences by Sarah Scott. All other sound by myself. Music by Steve Duckworth
& Jim Croft. Music system automated triggering designed and implemented
using data-driven tools, by me.
00:20:32 Ableton Session File
All synthesised sounds generated by me. The audio you hear is rendered directly
from the session file depicted. The wooden sign collapse sounds are rendered
from a separate Vegas file. They have been added for completeness.
00:30:36 Vegas Session File
All sounds by me. The raw wavs used to compose these effects were also all
recorded by myself using a variety of balloons and toy whistles. The render you
hear is directly from the Vegas session depicted.
00:38:87 Sound Recording
All the clips in this section are raw recordings I’ve made or been party to
(with the exception of the Dead Space clip which is live, in-game, and
therefore processed). It’s my intention to quickly demonstrate a variety of
recording techniques. This is quite hard to demonstrate because fully rounded
sound effects usually come from processed recordings. These clips sound rough
and quite weedy because they are essentially ‘outtakes’ from recording
sessions.
00:39:37 Computer Smashing Recording Session
Mic setup and smashing by me. The desk (and camera phone) was operated by Sarah
Scott.
00:45:99 Yorkshire field
Recorded by me, out back at my Gran’s house in Burn Bridge, near(ish)
Harrogate. Stereo R0de mic, I think. Recorded on my personal Tascam HD-P2.
00:48:09 Swimming Pool
This was recorded by myself at Keyworth Leisure Centre, over in Nottingham. I
used to work here as a Lifeguard when I was 17-20. Again, probably the R0de and
the Tascam.
00:50:03 Disney Geordie Character Voice
I designed and produced ‘template’ recordings of the character voices in DU. We
then hired voice actors to copy and put their own spin on my renditions of
non-speech vocalisations such as Attack and Take-Hit. I went to London for the
recording sessions. They were arranged by Hugh Edwards who also sourced the
talent we auditioned and selected. Hugh was also the voice director for that
session. The actor is Charlie Sanderson who, in this clip, is remarking on the
pronunciation of “Phoo”.
00:53:64 Dead Space Facial Mocap
I probably wasn’t present for the recording of this line. That was done by a
recordist from SIDE. I wanted to include this clip because I helped develop the
audio strand of our facial mocap pipeline and appraised facilities in which to
record the dialog. I attended the first live capture session for DS and later,
administered to and processed the 10,000+ lines of localised dialog. I also
worked with Audio Programmer Mark Topley to develop a distributed batch
processing tool for our game-audio editor which allowed very fast iteration on
and tweaking of the dialog effects processing.
00:58:05 AK-105 Session
I recorded Gary Barker operating his collection of decommissioned firearms to
use as foley source for Quantum of Solace. These are two variations of the gun
being chambered. The left track is a near-perspective recording while the right
track is a far-perspective. Both were probably AKG shotgun mics.
00:59:09 Quick Clips of Slime & Gin Fish
These were recorded by myself and Sarah Scott. I’ve actually cut, overlapped
and mixed these recordings... just to make them sound more interesting. The
slime wobbles you hear first were recorded with contact microphones on the side
of the slime beakers. These were actually used to develop the sound for the
Sack Boss you can hear in the next section. The Gin Fish bubbles were done with
a shotgun mic very close to the fish’s mouth. Likewise, these recordings formed
part of the Grabber sound. I thought it would be interesting to include these
raw sounds for you to hear prior to how they were ultimately used in-game.
01:04:23 Sack Boss
The Sack Boss emerges over the top of an exterior trench on the Ishimura. As
its space, all you can hear is the vibrations of its oesophagi and sphincters
travelling through the metal hull and up through your boots. Very tricky to do
sound for. The action-scene sound was made and triggered by me. Automated
breathing and heartbeats were worked on by myself and Guy Cockcroft.
01:17:04 Grabber
I made all the individual sound effects for this slithery spine. I also did the
first-pass triggering. Later, when the anims got a second-pass, Steve Duckworth
went back and adjusted the triggering accordingly.
01:25:81 Brute and Roto
In both instances, all sound effects and VO were created (and performed) by me.
My scripted music system also handled the stinger triggering and BGM track
change. Stinger by Steve Duckworth. Music by Jim Croft. Brute ambience by Sarah
Scott. Roto ambience was either by Sarah or Jez Corbett, not sure.
01:37:59 Fodder
All enemy VO, SFX by me. I designed and implemented the Fodder random voice
selection system too. Monsters Inc. ambience by Sarah Scott.
01:55:88 Nightmare Shooting Sequence
All sound by me. I even did the surround ambience this time too. Music by Jim
Croft.
02:01:38 Dead Space: Extraction Binaural Steam
Foley by Duncan Bradshaw. I did the steam sounds by morphing steam samples with
human speech taunting the protagonist, Nathan. I then used a VST binaural
effect to process the samples to pan around the head, spookily.
02:10:00 DS ADS Chair
The same binaural effect is used here to seat the player in the
rollercoaster-like cockpit chair. All sound by myself.
02:13:26 Quantum of Solace Construction Site Opening Sequence
All sound by myself.
02:27:24 QoS Shotgun (Loud Stuff)
All sound by myself.
02:32:15 DS Arc Welder
I made the sound this new weapon for the Dead Space franchise from scratch,
myself. I triggered some of the sounds. The rest are played from code, as I
directed. The Flyer enemy sounds were made by Steve Duckworth. The ambience was
probably made by the original Dead Space team at Visceral Games. The amb was
either triggered by Duncan Bradshaw or Sarah Scott.
02:37:89 DU Time Bomb Explode
All sound by me.
02:39:98 Vancouver Bobsleigh
I made & triggered the flag whizz-by sounds you can hear on the right. Most
other sound was probably Jez Corbett.
02:41:66 QoS Sniper Scope
All sound by myself.
02:49:00 DU Taunt
SFX by me. Amb by Jez Corbett. VO designed and triggered by me. The voice actor
was Harriet Kershaw.
02:43:49 Goldeneye Reloaded Truck Explode.
I worked on Goldeneye 007 during pre-production where I somehow ended up making
explosion after explosion. I guess I was fresh of Dead Space and in “Big Sound”
mode. It was quite a lot of fun. A bunch of those explosion sounds remain in
both Wii and Next-Gen versions of the games, including this one. Anything else
you hear like the P99 and the ambience will be by Guy Cockcroft and Duncan Bradshaw.
02:45:19 DS Crash Scare
All sound and music triggering by me. The music stinger was probably Visceral
but could have been Steve Duckworth.
02:46:29 QoS Barge Propane Tank Explosion
All sound by me.
02:47:93 Vancouver Downhill Skiing
Flag pole sound by me. The rest by Jez Corbett.
02:47:43 QoS Shanti Town P99
All sound by me.
02:48:00 DU Scream Canister Gag
All sounds, especially the farting, recorded, edited and track-laid by me
(Cutscene clip, triggered in game).
02:52:17 Panda
From a short film by Rob Brown made for the Bournemouth Arts Institute (across
the road form the Uni). All sound by myself.
02:56:07 DS Grabber Grapple
Sound effects by me. Triggering by myself and Steve Duckworth.
02:57:54 End Inter-Title
All sound by me. The whispered voice is a recording I took of Guy Cockcroft.
Some of the sounds ape the front-end of Dead Space One. I re-made these sounds
from scratch and processed them binaurally to use for the “Dementia” sequences
in Dead Space: Extraction. Credit to the guys at Visceral games for the awesome
SFX design. The low brassy tone is all my own invention :)
End – Hope that wasn’t too boring!