Chris has answered the top voted questions YOU'VE submitted! Read the following interview to find out about his experiences as a Maxis audio recording engineer.


1. What is your interpretation of "You really quound up an inserv" and also Bubba lubba squib ? - jrtroopa64, Thoth

We are often asked what specific words or phrases mean in certain Maxis games. To answer this question I need to step back and share a little about how some of these languages have evolved. As Sound Designers we aren’t actually using the language to convey a specific meaning in a literal sense. What we are trying to convey is the emotion behind the words. Then we try to deliver that emotion in a way that isn’t from any current language. For example, if your Spore creature was attacked and responded with words, the exact words are not very important. What is important is that the words convey a sense of urgency and suffering causing you, the player, to recognize what happened to your character and feel a connection to it.

So, my interpretation of any specific combination of letters, syllables or sounds in these “made-up” languages is that they don’t mean anything when typed out on a piece of paper. But when you hear them spoken by your creature in a game situation you immediately understand on an emotional level that something is happening to your creature, and you are compelled to react. Basically, I want the creature’s language to slip into your ears without the filters of a pre-existing language being applied. Then you, the player, react in a more emotional way than you would if you heard a phrase in a language you speak in the “real” world.


2. What's your opinion on adding a male/female voice toggle to the creature editors? – LucarioGuy

This question is interesting because it’s a bit more complicated behind the scenes than what it seems. The languages created in Spore were for a game design that didn’t have any gender. While it became apparent after the main game shipped that users were creating distinctly male and female creatures, it wasn’t really until GA shipped that the lack of female voices became more obvious. This is due to the fact that GA is so story-driven and players now create characters with the intent that they play distinct male or female roles.

The issue is that GA creatures are voiced in one of two ways - “Beasts” or “Sentients”. “Beasts” use the ten mouths and languages from the creature stage of Spore, and “Sentients” use the three languages of the tribal stage that are Bird, Insect and Mammal.

I believe the core issue here is that a female Mammal voice doesn’t exist in Spore, since the Bird and Insect languages don’t convey a very distinct masculine or feminine quality, and the Mammal voice is distinctly tribal caveman sounding. Our suggestion is to try using a bird or insect mouth type for characters that are Female.


3. Are you going to make so that we can choose the creatures voice with a voice editor? - DrcharlesMD

For the current expansion pack, we will not be adding that. However in future games we will keep these suggestions in mind!


4. Why were some archetypes (like Knights) not given their own voice sets? Was it because they were too similar to some other ones, or a different reason? - kaploy9

If I remember correctly, all of the archetypes in Space were given their own language with the exception of Knights and this was due to the game design. Since the way to become a Knight is through evolution, you communicate in your native language and therefore a separate language wasn’t allotted.


5. When you were recording the alien languages, did you have any set words or dialogue in your head that they meant? And how did you go about writing a script for the gibberish? – Shadowhedgehog

The alien archetype languages are a combination of prepared and improvised phrases. I created a list of certain sounds that I believed would distinctly portray the overall vibe of each archetype. But, I’m also a believer in getting the best source for each sound design task and in this case we auditioned and selected some of the most talented voice actors in the San Francisco Bay Area. I like to give voice actors a lot of room to develop a character and personalize it. If they feel more involved with their creation they will bring something extra to it. So while I might have an idea in mind of how the characters sound, I prefer to give the voice actors room to experiment with the hopes that we can create something far better than one of us could individually.

In summary, I have a pre-set combination of syllables and sounds that I start looking for but that list is always being reviewed, updated and sometimes completely scrapped in the midst of a session or take. After the session is recorded I review each take and select the best combinations of sounds to portray the emotion I’m targeting, and sometimes further editing is done to combine the sounds and words in ways that work even better than their original session takes.


6. Given the option, would you answer all of these questions with sound affects? - 27howitzer

You may want to check here for the answer.


7. In Galactic Adventures, if we can't put copyrighted music in our adventure, could you give us something like the anthem editor and let us put our anthems into the adventure? - Zequim

I’ve always thought that a large part of what makes Spore unique and fun is the depth to which users can create their in-game experience. That is was what drew me to Spore in the first place. An anthem editor is a great idea but I truly don’t know if it will be supported for adventures.


8. Can any normal person somehow download such a program to create their own noises, sfx, etc. - xijko

In a word YES. It’s not the tools that make a sound designer, it’s the creativity. Today for $60 or even less, a person at home can buy a program with countless audio tracks, eq(s), effects, total mix automation and recall. You work a bit, save, and reopen the project minutes or months later and pick up right where you left off. THIS is the golden age of recording! We have more options, both affordable and outrageously expensive than at any other time in history. The old saying is more true now than ever, “it’s not the hammer, it’s the carpenter”.

So, download some demos, experiment, read audio and gear forums, watch training tutorials, read manuals, make a bunch of bad sounds, learn why they didn’t work and make some new ones, repeat, ask questions, and constantly listen to everything around you, focusing on one sound at a time and also how everything blends together.


9. How did you decide what sounds to use for the different mouths? - Eochaid1701

Well the entire sound team had a hand in this part of the process so a huge amount of credit must also be extended to Audio Director Kent Jolly, and sound designers Mike Cormier and former sound team member Andrew Lackey.

Now I’m guessing you are asking primarily about the ten mouth types for creature game. These languages were created by first looking at the artwork and prototypes, and then creating a list of real world animals that would serve as the sources for the sound set.

An important point of note regarding the creature mouths is that no one mouth type is specifically reliant on just one real world animal for its sound set. This was to prevent any one mouth part from being thought of as just one real world animal, and therefore only used for creatures that looked exactly like that animal. For example, the jaw herbivore language is comprised of a variety of herbivores such as donkeys, horses, cows, etc. This way, using the jaw herbivore mouth suggests a certain class of animals but doesn’t sound out of place if it is used on something completely different because it isn’t just the “cow mouth”.

While the creature mouths are voiced almost exclusively with real world animals the tribe languages are voice acted. The alien archetypes start with human voice source material but with an extreme (I’ll say it again, extreme) amount of processing, and the epics are a combination of human voice, sfx, and real animals, again with a lot of processing.

As for the Grox, well, Kent and I really worked through my countless revisions to craft possibly the hardest language of all. The Grox, as you know, is equally cute, aggressive, ferocious and quirky, as well as being a combination of organic and mechanical components! Trying to convey emotions such as fear, anger, and happiness with the Grox was probably the hardest sound design challenge I’ve faced… and I’m very happy with the final outcome. Quite frankly, I think Grox Vox Rox.


10. What kind of set-up do you like to use in recording? Is your set-up in the gaming industry much like one they would use in the music industry or are there differences? - Irrelevant, Scradge, Canyonkid212

Sound design tools vary a bit from music production tools but in the end, the most common tools are screaming fast Mac computers and a bunch of industry standard software. I’ll talk about software in the next question and stay focused on hardware here.

For location field recording my favorite tools include Sound Devices 700 series field recorders with Sennheiser or Schoeps microphones or the Sony PCM –D1 and D50 all in one units.

For in-studio hardware it all starts with monitors as every decision you make is affected by what you are actually hearing and everything you hear in playback passes through a set of monitors or headphones. So monitors and headphones are the most important piece of equipment in a studio after your own brain and ears. I have brands and models of monitors I like and they are pretty much industry standard, PMC or Genelec monitors and Sennheiser open and Beyer sealed headphones. For surround sound I like using SPL monitor controllers and NHT home theatre or Blue Sky monitors as a reference.

Now, none of these companies endorse or pay me to use any of this equipment, it’s just my ear seems to get the best results using the products listed above.

In the end, sound design and music production share some similar tools but vary more in their use. At the start, sound design and music production usually (but not always) aim for the most accurate recording and playback possible. It is the manipulation of the recordings that tend to require sound designers and music mixers to gravitate toward different tools, but there is a lot of overlap here as well since sound design can be very musical and music production is being greatly affected by gamers and their sonic expectations.


11. What software do you use for your sound and music creation? What type of packager did you used for the music and sounds? - Mystfan, Scradge

I typically perform my audio and sound design work on a Mac and I regularly use the following software: Cubase/Nuendo, Logic Pro, ProTools HD, Bias Peak, and Reason. For plug-ins I often use standard Waves Diamond bundle but some of my absolute favorites are the plug ins by Sony Oxford (Sonnox), GRM Tools, Serato Pitch-n-Time, AudioEase Altiverb and Speakerphone plug ins. For music creation I love the Native Instruments Komplete collection as well as the instruments included with Logic Pro. And while not as glamorous, BarbaBatch and Snapper by Audio Ease are indispensable parts of my workflow for converting and auditioning sounds quickly.

I occasionally use a PC for audio tasks and when I do, I run Cubase/Nuendo, Wavelab and SoundForge.


12. Which mouth sound was the most difficult to make? I was at the Zoo yesterday and I realized that you made really realistic voices. - Sarche

Without question the hardest sound design challenge I’ve faced was the Grox. I mean c’mon, the Grox is a combination of a bunch of apparent opposites that combine into a new entity. I hope I get asked to do something that impossible again!

Now, the epics in GA required a huge amount of work as well. Epics are monstrosities that really only served one purpose in the original game - to eat you like a T-Rex. Then GA came along and you were supposed to be able to talk to T-Rex, and T-Rex was supposed to express a range of human emotions. So for GA I had to pretty much start from scratch with a new technique, and create epics that could show this entire range of emotion where as before they were just hungry… and mad about it.


13. Have you had any hilarious screw-ups trying to make a sound for Spore, or any game for that matter? – Dejoace

Well I’ve got to say that engineering and directing VO sessions for Maxis games is pretty close to getting paid to go to a comedy club. Seriously, being trapped in a small room with insanely talented voice actors who are improving on the fly in made-up languages is almost too much fun to call it work.

Now in regards to these screw-ups… Let’s just say improv actors are bound to combine some sounds into words that might not even be allowed in M rated games. Of course it is accidental but the laws of probability make it occasionally happen. So, no matter how many times I’ve reviewed a session and my edits, I always take a final listen through all the sound files to confirm nothing vulgar has slipped by. I’ve only had to grab a few files at that late point in the process so to this day I don’t think I’ve let one slip by. Not bad considering the thousands upon thousands upon thousand of lines of dialogue I’ve been involved with. So, no screw-ups released in-game (that I’m aware of) thankfully!


14. In the Adventure editor, is there a way to make noises follow vehicles, like put it on top of it? - Thebrichasouras

There is currently no way to attach an audio object to a moving game object. This would be a great feature, and we may consider it in the future!

Interview Details:

This is your chance to interview an audio engineer from Maxis!

Chris Seifert has been a member of the Spore Sound Design Team for the past two years. Prior to that, he's been an audio recording engineer for Maxis projects dating back to the Sims original expansion packs. His primary focus is on VO and Creature sounds, but he also helps with music and SFX. Some of his favorite contributions to Spore include the Alien languages in the space stage and Epic creature voices.

On Galactic Adventures, Chris worked on all of the creature voices, including the Epics, which had to have an entire language created which conveyed a wide range of emotions from happy to sad to angry.

About the Interview

Ask Chris about his job, about what it takes to be an audio engineer in the gaming industry, or about specific technical questions you have about sound art just by posting your questions here on the thread.

Any question you asked will be considered, but finalist questions will be chosen based on relevance to his contributions at Maxis.

Submit your questions by 8/18/09 and we'll choose the finalist questions for you to vote on. The top voted questions will be answered by Chris.

Previous interviews:
Ask Maxis with Chris Hecker
Ask Maxis with Kate Compton and John Cimino

Does any of the spore or sim laguages mean anything.

How do you make the sounds.

So I guess this means no Mac patch today .
Oh well, my question is: When does Maxis plan on announcing the next expansion pack.

MC, do you think you could clear out some other stickies now? 0.o

Yes, I can't play without that Mac patch. Spore is crashing constantly.
I'm getting a little tired of it.

My question is: When will you release the 5.1 patch for Mac?

where do you get most of the noises. Are they from actual animals or are they made from some special voice effects?

How did you come up with the noises for the different mouths on the creatures. did you u just wake up one day and be like "oh i want it to be like this!" or what happened?

My question: Did you come up with the sound effects and songs used in GA?

I recall seeing someplace that some audio engineers take noises from real life and change them and mix them with other things. Is that what you did in Spore and what real world sounds did you use?

Will the next expansion pack add more sounds?

Here is my questionoes Maxis have any plans to make a sequel to Spore?

Here is my question:Does Maxis have any plans to make a sequel to Spore?

Sory for double posting.My bad

Chris...

...What education path did you take to become a sound designer?

...What was your favorite sound or sounds you have made with Maxis?

Can you give a hint to what the next expansion pack will feature(Creature,Tribe,Ect.)

What do you do on a day to day basis?