Weapon Sound Design: Flak Cannon

[MaxCarnage]

UPDATE: Rev09

Hey guys, took a stab at the secondary fire and reload. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Rev08

Not a huge difference in Primary since the last revision, but focused more on the levels of the primary fire and it's flak. Also revised the secondary fire along with the Flak ball impact sounds.

[HenrikRyosa]

Enforcer: Middle set sounded best by far. Could be close, and was the least annoying when heard in rapid fire. Last set sounded like biorifle to me.

The flak isn't aggressive and fleshy enough. Primary was too wimpy. Secondary, some aspects of it like the reload would get too repetitive.

[Avalanche._]

First three enforcer sounds are great, especially the middle one! (number 3)

If you can tweak the first one to sound better while re-firing it quickly, I might even prefer that one, it sounds beefier


The flak pickup sounds weird, the rest of the sounds go into the right direction but like Henrik mentioned, they should be more chunky and explosive.

Also, it would be much fun to hear the mechanical parts moving a bit more clearly in both firing modes, like in UT99 for instance:

(sorry, could not find a better video lmao)

[Fartuess]

For enforcer something combining 2 and 3 or 3 and 4 i feel. But i don't have sound designer experience so i say how it feels for me.

[MaxCarnage]

Enforcer: Middle set sounded best by far. Could be close, and was the least annoying when heard in rapid fire. Last set sounded like biorifle to me.

Cool! Thanks for the feedback. Can I ask which versions numbers those are referring to? Biorifle eh? Hmm, I will take another listen.

The flak isn't aggressive and fleshy enough. Primary was too wimpy. Secondary, some aspects of it like the reload would get too repetitive.

I agree. I will add a bit more punch and more girth to it. As for as the reload being repetitive, perhaps a bit less busy in the next version. I will give it a go!

[MaxCarnage]

First three enforcer sounds are great, especially the middle one! (number 3)

If you can tweak the first one to sound better while re-firing it quickly, I might even prefer that one, it sounds beefier


The flak pickup sounds weird, the rest of the sounds go into the right direction but like Henrik mentioned, they should be more chunky and explosive.

Also, it would be much fun to hear the mechanical parts moving a bit more clearly in both firing modes, like in UT99 for instance:

(sorry, could not find a better video lmao)

Ah! Thanks for the video. I think I understand what you mean. I personally liked the steam sound, but perhaps a bit more hydraulic.
I will take a look at the re-firing as well. Thanks for the feedback!
As far as the Flack pickup sound, I may not have been specific enough, I meant it as a ammo pickup rather than the weapon switch, but I will work on that as well!

[MaxCarnage]

For enforcer something combining 2 and 3 or 3 and 4 i feel. But i don't have sound designer experience so i say how it feels for me.

Nevertheless I appreciate your input! Thank you!

[HenrikRyosa]

Cool! Thanks for the feedback. Can I ask which versions numbers those are referring to? Biorifle eh? Hmm, I will take another listen.

Best: v03.
Sounded like Bio: v06.

[Sly.]

Good work there!

As for the Enforcer: I liked 1 and 3 the most, though 3 is definitely the best of your collection albeit lacking something. I would suggest to mix the click sound of 1 into it. That might sound best. Depending on how the sound effects will be handled within the game/engine, if reverb will be done through volume and world settings or not, I would suggest to try one version with more reverb as well, just in case as I think that this might add more depth to the sound as well.

Your Flak Cannon sounds highly remind me of Unreal 1. The original Flak Cannon sounded very similar, of course with less bass as it was 1998. Still, it got something nostalgic about it, but the issue I've also had with the Unreal 1 Flak was that it was quite raw sounding. I have to admit, it suited the U1 Flak, but as the series progressed with the UT spinoffs and the new effects and designs of the Flak Cannon, those sounds would have felt off and empty.
I would also suggest to try to include the steam and hydraulic sounds as some kind of additional layer on the firing sounds. Even the U1 Flak had them in its sounds, even if it was weak and more of a bzzz sound compared to later.

Henrik, don't you mean 5?
That one reminded me a bit of a mix of the Bio Rifle blob explosion and fire sounds.

[HenrikRyosa]

I dunno, it said 6 on the playlist. The last set.

Edit: Yep I definitely meant 6.

[Sly.]

Oh, you're right! My bad, then it was also 6 for me.

(Seems like 4 is missing there. What if it was that sound? )

[HenrikRyosa]

Yeah I noticed that also. "You know... that missing one..."

[MaxCarnage]

Dang guys, good call. 4 is missing. Perhaps that IS the sound. Haha, thanks for the feedback I will take a look at it and try again this weekend (now.)
As far as adding reverb and such. I did keep it dry initially so I can add reverb and reupload. Also when I when I revise the gun sounds I simulate the pitch variation on the rapid fire as the audio middleware would automatically do.

Thanks so much guys!

[MaxCarnage]

I made some changes. I am excited to see what the animation on the new Enforcer will look like!

[Avalanche._]

I love the new flak sounds, great job :P

I'm not sure about the new enforcer sounds, perhaps you need to let the reverb do its thing instead of making the sound fade out, so put the sounds in and then just put a reverb over the master if you get what I mean. Could you also post a dry version?