Look for clues to make bgm

[syoka wong]

Hi, I am new to Cakewalk.
I want to make the timbre which is common in games like:
the lead in 0:21-0:25 of

 

and 8:31-8:35 of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk3qjsEUWds&t=279s

I have downloaded Vital and BBC Orchestra plugin but still have no clues how to make such sounds.

Does anybody could teach me how to produce similar sounds, or is any plugin can produce similar sounds? Thank you.

Edited October 14 by syoka wong

[mettelus]

Most synths have two very important controls readily available, "Cutoff" and "Resonance." These are essentially EQs that allow only certain frequencies to pass (Cutoff), and then enhance a select band (Resonance)... and you can do that with pretty much any EQ (even if the virtual synth doesn't have those controls). For your first example, that can be done with a small "horns ensemble" and tweaking the output filters. There is a lot that goes into tailoring a sound, so this is more to get you on a path for learning (sorry that there isn't a "slam dunk" answer for you). Attached is a video that focuses more on Cutoff and Resonance and how they work. For you, it would help learn with a "synth" instrument and play with Resonance and Cutoff on a "horns" patch to understand how they work. There are a lot of FREE virtual synths out there to play with. The reason I say that is that BBC Orchestra is limited in its controls and to get the "synth" sounds from it would require more FX added to the output.

Lastly, don't get discouraged with this (very important)... focus on playing and learning. Once you begin to understand controls/FX and what they do, it gets easier each time you set something up.

[syoka wong]

Thank you. I will try start with horn type synth and study the video you recommended.

Edited October 15 by syoka wong

[Amberwolf]

Sound creation is entertaining and fun, and there are a bajillion ways to do it, so if you find that one way doesn't suit you or you don't have the things to do it (and can't find an affordable or free one) in one way, you can try out other ways that accomplish the same end, once you discover the essentials of how to do a particular thing.   (that part may take some research, but there are a lot of resources, starting with the internet, and then there are physical books about sound design as well, that can be found at libraries in some cases). 

Some things are "obvious" once you start playing wiht the controls of synths and fx, and some you kinda have to learn what is actually happening with a specific sound to know how to recreate it...but it is possible to rediscover it without researching others' info if you spend enough time poking around at things (and you could discover a new process that's all your own for your own "sound" while you're at it). 

I started long ago (80s) with microphones and thrift-store-find reel-to-reel and cassette tape machines, then really cheap casio and yamaha "toy" keyboards, and because I was just doing what I could think of rather than researching anything, reinvented a bunch of processes that had already been known for decades :flushed face: .  I started learning electronics and physically altering those cheap machines to do things they werent' intended for, and it was fun, but time-consuming (and sometimes disheartening when I would unfixably break something accidentally, and have to find a new (used) item to replace it.

 

This century, when it started to get really cheap and easy to do stuff in the computer instead, I had even more fun because I could create sounds as presets, save those, experiment more, make chains of fx to do things that just one couldn't, and best of all everything can be saved separately and almost evertything has "undo" so if you make a mistake and didn't save as a new file  yet you can go back to what you had before.

 

These days it's even easier, since there are so many freebie synths and fx and sound manipulation programs, there's almost certainly already one around that already has a preset to do a specific thing you want to do....

 

I don't design all the sounds I use these days, because so many synths / etc come with good usable presets, but I hardly ever leave one exactly as-is, and "twiddle knobs" to see what i'll get sometimes when it isn't quite what I wanted (if I don't already know how that synth "works inside" to make the sound I want directly). 

For examples you can listen to stuff on http://amberwolf.bandcamp.com where most of the synth sounds I use are from or made on Z3TA2+ with assorted fx chains (mostly stuff that came with SONAR at one time or another), often automated to evolve the sounds over the time of the piece.

[mettelus]

4 hours ago, mettelus said:

There are a lot of FREE virtual synths out there to play with.

I wanted to revisit this comment for you. There are VST synths specifically designed for game audio, meaning that the presets in the synth are going to be "pretty close" to something you are looking for in many cases. These will minimize control/filter manipulation and you can focus on Cutoff and Resonance and learn other tweaks as you go. Quick caution here... synth presets often use the entire frequency range (so they sound great solo), but they will not fit well in a mix. For this reason, hi-pass and lo-pass filters are often used (HPF/LPF) to isolate the content you want to keep from a synth, yet allow it to "fit" with other instruments. HPFs and LPFs is another thing to research and learn as you go... they apply to ANY instrument and are core functions of most EQs.

I did a quick search for "free gaming-specific synths," and the below video might help you focus more quickly. Check that out and grab a few of those synths to play with and focus on as you learn. The controls are very common to all synths, but these synths tend to have presets already geared toward gaming audio, so you should be able to get "usable sounds" fairly quickly. Also note... if you make a sound you love, be sure to save that as a new preset, so you can easily find/use it again in the future.