From Beep to Boom: Advances in Game Audio

The South of England Group of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) met at Solent last night for a talk from guru Simon Goodwin titled “From Beep to Boom: Advances in Game Audio”.

Staff and students from the Media Technology programme met other members of the AES in the Palmerston Lecture Theatre to unpack the complexities of sound for computer games and learn how modern approaches are achieved. Simon introduced the principles of psychoacoustic and signal-processing principles with examples and anecdotes from his 40 year career to highlight their application. The growth of object based audio approaches has brought many knew possibilities and it was interesting to hear how these were being utilised.

Ironically much of the technology is based on concepts of Ambisonics from the 1970s but those present learned how combining this with virtual reality and contemporary games such as Grand Theft Audio, has reinvigorated interest and led to renewed innovation. Many thanks to Simon for coming to talk to the society and we wish him success with his recent book of a similar title “Beep to Boom”.