World of Warcraft has some amazing sound design. Whether it’s the composition of tracks like the Mists of Pandaria Tavern song or the creation of Oondasta’s roar, the sound team never disappoints. Recently, sound supervisor Mike Johnson and sound producer Jay Maguire sat down and dished out some information on their techniques.
What Goes Into Sound Composition?
For the Zandalari Battlesaur, three sounds were layered on top of each other. In the video featured at the top of this page, you can see it pulled apart layer by layer.
The first sound that goes into it is two takes stacked on each other from the non-voice over actor for the Sha and Hozen Jon Olson. Next up is the ferocious roar of a bear. Lastly, the fear inspiring growl of a tiger was layered on. This creates possibly the most pants-filling-with-pooping-est sound known to man.
The Interview
The sound team that Johnson and Maguire help lead works on ambient sounds, the post-processing of vocals, as well as the sound effects of spells, objects, and creatures.
This team is composed of five full time designers. They are Mike Johnson, Jon Graves, Chris Kowalski, Eric LeBlanc, and Peter Steinbach.
The team does not usually do much field work in recording live sounds. However, sometimes they do get out and get some sounds from live animals, like they did with Mists of Pandaria. For beings like the Sha and Mogu, they think of interesting ways to layer sounds.
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria featured a lot of foley work (reproduction of everyday sound effects in a studio.) The monk’s whooshes and other sound effects were done in this manner. A lot of sound effects for the monk, creature exertions, farming, and more were made with random vegetables being smashed, torn apart, or abused in other ways.
Mike Johnson says that the most satisfying part of the WoW sound process is seeing a new expansion without any of the finished sounds in it then filling it in and making that world come to life.
Published: Mar 29, 2013 12:15 pm