Reedsburg, WI (December 9, 2011)—Valve Software lead sound designer Dave Feise turned to Sound Devices’ 788T digital audio recorder to capture the dynamic sound effects for the Portal 2 video game.
Effects for the game were compiled at multiple locations for more than a year, and included such sights and sounds as water balloons in the Valve parking garage, birds at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, and wave sounds and whale songs in Hawaii. In order to record the audio effects for the game, the Valve audio team utilized three main setups with the 788T, including an Aquarian Audio hydrophone, a Schoeps M-S setup with the Schoeps CMIT 5U as the mid mic and CMC68 as the figure eight, and a Core Sound TetraMic.
The M-S setup and the TetraMic were in Rycote windscreens and though usually mounted on a boom pole, were used instead as handhelds and also on a regular mic stand. Feise ran all the mics into the mic inputs on the 788T, usually recording at 24/96. The 788T provided multiple monitoring modes and the ability to link the gains of several channels together.
Feise remarked, “We went with the 788T because we liked having eight on board pre-amps, even though we usually only use a max of four or six. We felt like the 788T was a good long-term investment and not a recorder that we would outgrow in a year or two. Games are trending towards higher fidelity audio and things like 7.1 surround sound, and the 788T can handle that and more.”
The Valve audio team is currently using the 788T for sound effects gathering for the upcoming action fantasy strategy video game, Dota 2.
Sound Devices, LLC
www.sounddevices.com
