ABSTRACT
Becoming a great game audio designer is not only about getting hands-on experience but also about understanding the foundations of audio theory. This knowledge can help in countless ways both in recording and in postproduction. For example, the way sound bounces off the surfaces of a room can help to determine which type of reverb to use in a level: is the player walking on the bridge of a space station, or deep in a mysterious cavern? Or, in a fast-paced medieval battle: which frequencies are going to be favored or lost during gameplay? Why are the sword clangs sounding hollow, or distorted? The basic acoustics section of this chapter can help with these problems, as we discuss amplitude, frequencies, waveforms, equal-loudness contours, and sound propagation such as reflections and phase shifting, among other important topics.
