Exploring Sound Tools

To be able to create and modify your own sounds, you need some type of software sound editing utility. Sound editing utilities usually provide a means of sampling sounds from a microphone, CD-ROM, or line input. From there, each utility varies as to what degree of editing it provides. Some sound editing utilities include very advanced signal processing features, in addition to the relatively standard amplification and echoing features. Other sound utilities, such as Sound Recorder that you learned about earlier in the hour , are fairly bare bones tools for working with wave sounds.

The most important component of a good sound editor in regard to Windows games is the capability to save sounds in the wave audio format. It doesn't matter how cool the sounds are if you can't play them in your games. Fortunately, the wave audio standard is quite popular, and is supported in most sound tools. Another key feature is the capability to zoom in and clip sounds down to exactly the portions you want to use. Because the length of sounds is of the utmost importance in games , you should always clip sounds down to the absolute minimum length possible.

The next two sections focus on a couple of popular sound editors that you can use to edit sounds for games. They both support the wave sound format and provide a high degree of sound effects processing. You might also be able to find shareware sound utilities out there that are cheaper, possibly even free, but they likely won't compare in terms of features with commercial sound editors.

Sound Forge

Sound Forge, by Sonic Foundry, is in many ways the Adobe Photoshop of sound editing. What this means is that Sound Forge represents the high-end professional approach to sound editing, and is likely the most powerful option out there if you want to become a master of sounds. Of course, with power comes both price and complexity, which are two things that might be more than you're ready for at the moment. Even so, you might still consider downloading the free Sound Forge demo from the Sonic Foundry Web site at http://www.sonicfoundry.com/.

Cool Edit

Cool Edit, by Syntrillium Software, is a more affordable sound editor for Windows that is loaded with features. Its creators have suggested thinking of it as a paint program for audio. Just as a paint program enables you to create images with colors, brush strokes, and a variety of special effects, Cool Edit enables you to "paint" with sound: tones, pieces of songs with voices and other noises, sine and sawtooth waves, noise, or just pure silence. Cool Edit provides a wide variety of special effects for manipulating sounds, such as reverberation , noise reduction, echo and delay, flanging, filtering, and many others. Several different versions of Cool Edit are available to fit just about any budget. You can get additional information about Cool Edit from the Syntrillium Software Web site, which is located at http://www.syntrillium.com/.