Sound Design and the Environment and Subtractive Synthesis

After playing through Osmos multiple times and observing the visual imagery and style of the game, I was inspired to theme my soundscapes on electricity, Space, and a sci-fi aesthetic. I listened to a few works for inspiration most notably Hanz Zimmers's work on the space film Interstellar and the soundtracks of popular sci-fi films such as Blade Runner and Aliens. I liked the idea of amplifying the sense of danger and space in the game by using minimalism and dissonance in some of the compositions.

I used Apple Logic Pro's Subtractive synthesizer, ES1, to generate all of the one-shot sounds in the game.

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Firstly I converted all of the .ogg files from the sound resources folder of Osmos to .wav files and imported them into Logic Pro so that I could reference them within my logic project and check the exact lengths of each of the sounds visually. This was important as the audio files would not work in the game if they were longer than the original audio clips.

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I used the subtractive synthesizer ES1 to create my sounds. For the 'lifeTerminated'  sounds I wanted to create explosive sounds reminiscent of electric sparks. To achieve this I used the white noise waveform in the Sub oscillator, I slid the mix slider to the bottom so I could remove the waveform of the primary oscillator and just work with the white noise. As I wanted a percussive sound I set a short attack in the ADSR envelope, I set a medium decay with no sustain and a medium release. To provide extra movement in the sound I added an Echo effect to replicate the sound echoing off the walls in the game and also added reverb to provide a sense of space.

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For the 'wall bounce' sound, I wanted to create a boomier percussive sound, this time with some tone to it as, though the ball was resonating as it collided with the wall. With this in mind, I lowered the pitch by 1 octave by switching the 16' transpose button. I also played the notes C2 and C1 together so the sound would sit at the lower end of the frequency spectrum. I used a square wave in the primary oscillator to introduce more harmonics to the sound and set the sub-oscillator to white noise to add some grit to the sound. I positioned the mix slider to allow mostly the primary oscillator through as I wanted a more tonal quality to the sound as opposed to the white noise generated by the sub. Within the ADSR envelope, I set a quick attack so that the sound would start immediately as the object hit the wall alongside a medium delay with no sustain and short release so that the initial sound would end abruptly. I then again added echo to act as though the sound was echoing in the room and reverb to add space.

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The 'consumeshort'  file is a sound playing in the tutorial part of the game in which the player must stay in an allocated circle for a set amount of time to complete the section. To mimic the lapsing of time during the action I used the 'ADSR via velocity slider' and positioned it to the + end of its spectrum, I then slid the attack of the ADSR envelope to maximum and enabled the 'Resonance modulation' button. This made the attack part of the envelope increase the resonance of the primary oscillator in alignment with the attack time, slowly increasing the pitch of the resonance. I underpinned the sound of the primary oscillator with a square wave in the sub-oscillator providing a deep 'staticky' electric sound when played on the lower part of the keyboard. I also added a reverb to give the sound a sense of space.

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The 'consumedpart'  file represented the player being absorbed and losing health. I originally wanted to create a sense of danger with this sound by creating a siren/alarm type sound. I did this by using a Low-frequency oscillator to modulate the pitch of my sound wave using a sawtooth wave set to a slow 8th-note oscillation, and I played in the middle of the keyboard. However, it sounded out of place in the game, I then experimented by increasing the frequency of the LFO which generated a more gritty pulsating sound, I then also lowered the pitch by playing it a couple of octaves lower on the keyboard. I also added some richness to the sound by adding a reverb with a short delay.

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The 'consumepart' file played as the player absorbed the other entities in the game. I started with the previous sound as I wanted to have a similar vibe, as they represented the same idea of absorption. I then experimented with the pitch modulation by increasing the range of the 'ADSR via velocity' slider.  This increase in pitch over time corresponded with the character increasing in size as it absorbed the other players. I also changed the sub-oscillator waveform from a short square wave to a wider one making it vibrate at a lower frequency and giving the sound a more pronounced repetition. I then reduced the pitch by an octave by clicking the 16' transposition button and slightly increased the rate of the LFO.

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I wanted to create minimalist backing tracks to emphasize the themes of isolation in some of the levels. I also wanted to create a sense of danger which I implied by exploring dissonant chord changes and intervals within the music. I listened to the soundtrack of 'Interstellar' scored by Hanz Zimmer for inspiration.

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Gas-Discovery: I kept the opening track very minimal. Creating a synth patch in ES1 to play a short repeating descending piano phrase.

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Loscil-Sickbay: 

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HighSkies-ShapeOfThingsToCome:

JulienNeto-Farewell:

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I finally created extended versions of my replacement 'Gas Discovery' and 'JulienNeto-Farewell' background tracks. I extended the pieces and created a Bass drum, Bass synth, and snare which can all be found in the subtractive synthesis folder at the top of this page.

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Bass Drum

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Bass Synth 

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Snare Drum

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