I’m creating a dynamic wind logic, where at the lowest level it is null and muffled, like a very soft noise, and at the highest level it is strong, loud, and oscillating.
So far I’m satisfied with all the logic I’ve built.
The problem now is that I need to randomize the wind frequency so that it behaves randomly just like in real life:
sometimes it stays very strong for a few seconds,
then it calms down a bit,
then it gets strong again,
stays in the middle range,
goes up, goes down – everything in a random way.
I tried every possible way to randomize frequency and duty (which seem to be the parameters responsible for what I need), but I didn’t get the expected result.
I’m satisfied with the depth, because I need it to increase as the wind gets stronger and stay at 0 to have a very soft idle sound.
How can I do this?
Please note:
I’m a beginner with the tool and don’t speak English, which makes it a bit hard to understand many terms here.
I would also be happy with suggestions on how to improve the project structure (for example, having added Tremolo as a post-effect after testing it as a pre-effect to see if there would be any change).
I’ve made several “dynamic wind” system for our biomes, and I ended up dropping any potential “tricks” to simulate it through things like tremolos.
What I’m doing is having several type of samples (made in your favourite Daw) and randomizing/blending them depending on the situation in the event.
For the randomization aspect, what I’m doing is using LFOs, and tying them to the pan direction and extent, volume or pitch. These LFOs are in some situations tied to local or global parameters… for instance, the rate… to create some variation based on gameplay cues.
You end up with wind gusts swirling around the player, going louder/quieter, based either on random automation (LFOs) or controlled automation (Local or Global Parameters). With actual samples sounding great out of the box.
This is a personal approach, but I prefer having control over my source samples than trying to randomize/simulate wind with gazillion of components which might not sound that great if you don’t sink a massive amount of time into it.
Hi @_MaX, how are you? Sorry for the delay in replying!
But I followed your advice: I imported more wind sounds into the project and then customized it as needed. Including wind sounds for the trees, which I’ll place in each tree in the game, varying the audio or effect according to their size.
Thanks for the suggestion!
As soon as I implement it in the game, I’ll send you a video here so you can see how it turned out and give more constructive criticism if you want.
@_MaX’s advice - using random LFOs and parameters to modulate/automate the volume, pitch, and panning of your audio - is what I would recommend as well. If you want to go a step further, you can automate the LFO’s depth or frequency using a parameter as well.
There are a couple of specific tricks that I can suggest for wind sounds:
Use a Multiband EQ effect to create a small peak at a specific frequency (to your taste), and use an LFO or parameter to change the frequency of the peak to simulate the whistle of the wind changing
If you want some of the audio to stay in the same position in space when the listener rotates, you can automate the panning of wind audio tracks using the “Built-in: Event Orientation” parameter type using a triangle-wave curve:
Like this, you can have specific wind sources keep their position relative to the listener, without needing a spatializer effect or any code to se the position of the wind event.
