Following last week’s release of Army of Two: The 40th Day, here is our interview with EA Montreal’s Alain Larose, Senior Audio Designer.

 

What was your role on Army of Two: The 40th Day (AO2 TFD)?

On AO2 TFD, I took on the role of senior sound designer and started a few months after production was under way, for a period of 10 months.

My role consisted of creating the disaster and destruction sequences, supervising audio for the in-game narrative scripted events, as well as producing audio for context sensitive interactive actions, HUD and front end menus. Lots of sounds, lots of mixes and of course, a bit of ‘running against the clock’. Destruction elements were definitely a ’blast’ to do.

There was also a fair amount of collaborative effort throughout the project, mostly with Francois Lafleur, senior sound designer on the ambience part of the game, Tobias Paice on the Front end and technical integration aspect on the interactive audio design part, and Lewis James, audio director.

 

How did you get started in the industry? Did you go to a game audio school or just started out as a musician?

I actually started out as a guitarist about 25 years ago. Music was my first ‘affair’ with audio. The ways we could easily shape the sound of electric guitars got me hooked. It was ‘lust’ at first sight.

My first introduction to audio engineering was through a Radio-broadcasting school though. After graduation, I started my own company and built a home recording studio, and has been my creative playground during my 20’s, both musically and technically. But when Digital technology started invading the market, I went on to follow another audio engineering program, in Toronto, to get better digital audio knowledge. Then I went on in sound post-production for the next 5 years for a studio in Ottawa (Sound Venture Productions), working mostly on cartoons and television series as a sound designer and mixer.

In 2002, I got an  amazing opportunity to do audio engineering for a video game company based  in Southern California (The Collective). The novelty of video games and a sense of adventure got me to take a shot at it and move to Newport Beach. I didn’t know much about video games at that time, but I was excited to be part of a young and dynamic industry in which I could make a difference. Very idealistic and maybe naïve, but definitely a life changing moment!  In 2004, I came back home and worked for Ubisoft for about 4 years and finally joined EA montreal on February 2009.

 

What other big projects have you worked on?

Some other big projects I worked on in video games  include Shaun White Snowboarding, Assassin’s Creed, Mark Ecko’s Getting up-Content under pressure and Wrath Unleashed.

 

Do you have any mentors or are you fan of other popular game audio designers in the industry?

I am a huge fan of the Skywalker Sound team, especially when they’re working on Pixar’s films (Ratatouille, Wall-E, Toy Story…)

It doesn’t matter if it’s the Foley, the sound styles, the VO work, the music spotting or the final mix, they excel in all areas. It’s actually very hard to do great animation sound since you never really have a scratch location sound track to start with. So  it takes more imagination, more precision, more tweaking, and a lot of talent to get to that level of perfection.

And of course, for mentoring, I have to say the audio fellows I work with everyday. The AO2 audio team include some of the most talented people I got to collaborate with. Whenever I need a solid critic or good advice, I know I have around me guys who can provide the best feedback.

 

How many people were working on audio on AO2 TFD?

We had a core team of 6-8 people during most of the production but the size of the team peaked at 14 during the Alpha/Beta phase. We had sound designers, voice designers, integrators, audio programmers and one audio tester. I have never worked with that many people on an audio team before and it was great! Can’t wait to start over again!

 

What is your favorite sound effect in AO2 TFD?

I am biased on this question actually. My favorite sounds on AO2 are the destruction sounds, of course. I like the guns, the bullets, the surrounding ambiences but the real payoff for me is to hear the tearing sound of a falling building or an airplane about to crash meters away from you. It keeps you on your toes and makes you mind your surroundings!

 

Were the foley sounds created in-house, were they contracted out or from a library?

Foley recording sessions were all outsourced.

We did a few Foley sessions, one in the US with Foley artist Col Anderson of CA Sound, for the in-game sounds and another one here in Montreal, at Cinegroupe with Foley artist Nicolas Gagnon and recordist Dan Bison, this time to cover all of the in-game scripted events.

EA audio designers world-wide  also got together in December 2008, to do what is known today as the Guinness world record of the ‘most microphones used’ for a location recording shoot. Over 80 microphones were used to record EA’s biggest outdoor gun shooting session! Yes EA’s got guns!

 

What computer tool do you use the most for your audio needs?

We used Audio Kinetic’s WWise audio rendering engine in conjunction with Unreal 3 for AO2 TFD. A great combination of tools and really looking forward to use again!

On the sound designing side, I used a Pro tools HD system on a Mac G5, again, another lethal combination.

 

What are a few of your favorite game audio web sites?

I recommend Designing Sound. The site is not necessarily aimed only at game audio designers but to all sound designers out there.

 

Any suggestions for people wanting to get into the game audio industry? schools, instruments to learn, how to send a demo reel?

Be passionate about audio. It’s more of a vocation than a job for anyone who succeeds in it so it should not be any different for anyone who wants in. It’s quite a tough environment and it requires both strong technical and creative skills so I’d say spend as much time as possible recording audio, designing sounds  and mastering the tools before getting in the game audio business. Make sure you create a ‘straight-to-the-point demo reel too! I also think school is a must but I would say you have to choose wisely nowadays. If I had to go back to school today, I would definitely look at a programming and/or game & level design certificate to complement my audio knowledge.

 

Thanks Alain for your time and rock on!

Do you have any questions for Alain? Have you ever worked with him? Let us know in the comments.

No related posts.

Tags: alain larose, army of two, AUDIO, ea montreal, the 40th day

 Printer Friendly Version