Hello, I am interested in developing sound files for aircraft and I have no experience with any development tools. What would be a good program to use to educate one's self in this field?  Thanks for reading,  Skip

Hello, I am interested in developing sound files for aircraft and I have no experience with any development tools. What would be a good program to use to educate one's self in this field?  Thanks for reading,  Skip

 

Hey!

 I personally use Adobe Soundbooth and the free program Audacity. You can get that here: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ I work between the two of them

 If you're interested in making actual sound packs and not just sound files Microsoft have a great tutorial on the sound.cfg file system here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc526952.aspx

 If you really want to jump into the deep end, I have a tutorial here on Avsim about how to make sound cones in FSX (if you do indeed use FSX, that is). http://forum.avsim.net/tutorials/article/85-tutorial-sound-cones-in-fsx/

 Hope this is helpful

Jesse, Thank you so much for the info you provided. After reading the MS article on sound, I still have questions. I would like to know more abt the sound config files such as when you have a bunch of sound files how do you arrange them to fit the "picture" that you want them to go with? I see that the viewpoint 1 or 2 describes outside and inside views, but how  is the so-called  "script" written to put the right sounds with the right scene?  Maybe you have a link to that info, I hope?  Thanks agn,  Skip

If you really want to hear and edit the sound envelopes, I have never found a better program than FS Sound Studio, which will allow you to see, hear, and edit a graphical representation of the cfg file.

 

Hope this helps,

tgibson, Thanks for replying. I have gone out and have now bought FSSS. But I am finding that FSX runs poorly with this program because of it's age. What are your feelings abt this software in the FSX world? Thanks, Skip

tgibson, Thanks for replying. I have gone out and have now bought FSSS. But I am finding that FSX runs poorly with this program because of it's age. What are your feelings abt this software in the FSX world? Thanks, Skip

If you want to do sounds for the sound.cfg file there's nothing else. You need to see the envelope graphics otherwise it's impossible to get the sounds to interact correctly.

You will also have to tweak your original sound file to fit as the sound.cfg file only uses a three second sample for the engines. Another point to remember that every engine sound in the sound.cfg file is tied to your throttle position.

Thanks Vololiberista, Any general rules of thumb when adding sound cones to a config, besides adding cones just  to outside sounds and 0 is forward and 180 is to the rear? Distance and volume? Thanks  Skip

Well, you need to definately get into the cockpit to get a feel of how different sounds interact from that position. The one problem though is as I said all engine sounds are linked to the throttle. That makes it difficult to model the LP compressor because because on the ground and on take-off pretty much all you can hear is the LP compressor sound (from the cockpit). Whereas at high altitude there is almost no engine sound from that same point.

On the VC10 I am fortunate in that the RR Conway engines have a famous 'howl'. Being high pitched the ear is deceived as the pitch increases into believing that the sound gets louder. That allows me to reduce the volume so that at high altitude it is imperceptible. Yet at lower levels, ground and take-off the brain only hears the acceleration and artificially increases the volume.

Just a couple more questions. When I edited a sound config, the finished product now has different rpm speeds between views. Such as, if I adjust the throttle to idle on the fly by view and the sound track follows the throttle to a idle sound, I switch to the spot view immediately and the engines are not idling but are in a higher rpm mode. I then have to readjust the throttle for the new view, advance the throttle and return to idle to match the rpms from the previous view. Hope that makes sense. What might I be doing wrong with this edited version?

   Also, I know sound cone headings are 0 for front and 180 for rear, what might a setting of 110 accomplish? I see that used? Thanks, Skip

I do the former using trial and error in FSSS.    For the latter I assume it would be because the engines are not at 0 or 180 degrees from the pilot on a multi engine aircraft, but are to the left rear and right rear (i.e. 110 degrees).

Thanks tgibson, But 110 degrees and it is a outside view?  Is there a way to sample the sound by view, such as f11 and toggle the "a" key, in FSSS? I still am getting different engine rpm differences between "views"  Skip

Audacity is freeware

 

Adobe Audition is a good payware program.

 

 

And a great music player is foobar2000.

I found the volume problem between views. I had imported other sounds for the J-79s and those were the culprit. Thanks everyone.  Skip