Video Game Audio Assets in Reformer Pro – with Sound Designer Greg Lester

Game Audio Sonic Building Blocks

“If I only have one or two samples that are of good quality, that’s okay – I can perform these in Reformer Pro and generate so many more sounds from them. I cannot overstate how insanely cool this is for the video game audio workflow.” – Greg Lester

Reformer Pro is a powerful sound design plugin for video game audio. It is capable of creating new assets, layers and entire sound effects. Sound Cuts’ Greg Lester (The Quarry) walks us through his process for creating whoosh sound effects, impacts, creature voices and much more using Reformer Pro in his video game audio workflow.

Designing Video Game Impact Sound Effects with Reformer Pro

Here we have a bunch of transients which we can use to create impact sounds from the sci-fi libraries I have put together.

Whoosh Sound Effects for Games with Reformer Pro

“Now we will make some interesting sci-fi whooshes. I just experiment and go nuts on the X-Y pad and see what comes out.

Once I have a bunch of sounds, i’ll take them and bring them into more plugin chains. I’ll  mess around and try to create a bunch of interesting source material”.

Designing creature vocalisations for Game Audio with Reformer Pro

Here I have some creature growls which I have pre-loaded into Reformer. so let’s make some live monster noises.

It sounds very weird! but when we play it back we will find some interesting monster sounds. I’ll lower the play back speed and adjust the response time.

I mean, how cool is that!? you can literally just perform super-crazy creature vocals!

Adding sound effects layers to creature vocalisations

Now with my growls, I can change the speed and response and adjust the dry/wet amount in Reformer Pro so we can just reinforce these growls with some awesome sci-fi sounds. I am going to record this because i’d like to use it later in my library.

It just sounds so cool already. I can just take this recording into a new track, explore the take and see what we have. It just sounds nuts!

You can take these short snippets and build a library out of them, or you can use them in your games or videos or re-designs. Or, you can put them back into Reformer Pro for even further interesting results!

Greg’s Game Audio Workflow

I combine these sounds with my own library, process them, and then put them back into Reformer Pro to perform them for my project. This workflow is great because I can then build on my designs.

If I want to create more pain sounds, grunts or whimpers, I can do that. Or if I need harsher or aggressive attacks, I can do that too.

Then I just record the output and build libraries from it or, I’d process them even further to make even more game sound effects.

So if I’m working on a game and a new update is released, and suddenly I need more variations on the sounds for an aggressive growl or an emote, I can easily just perform it. It gives me a super reactive creature to work with.

Finally, If I only have one or two samples that are of good quality, that’s okay – I can perform these in Reformer Pro and generate so many more sounds from them. I cannot overstate how insanely cool this is for the game audio workflow!

Thanks for watching!

Keep up with the world of video game audio and sound design over at Air Wiggles, and follow Greg on Instagram and Twitter. Also check out the projects that Greg and his team over at Sound Cuts have worked on.

Get Reformer Pro, Weaponiser, Igniter, Dehumaniser 2  and Simple Monsters for less than $35/month with Krotos Kore