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[DireLogomachist]

So I'm working on creating a simple text blip (or whatever you'd call it) for text in my game.

This effect is very common in RPGs.
You can hear them in Final Fantasy Tactics. Check at 2 min 30 seconds or so.




And of course Undertale at 4 min 26 seconds and everywhere else:




It can be used as voices for characters or as a simple effect for all text.

So question for SFX artists, when creating an effect like this - that's incredibly short and repeated rapidly - how would you start? Would you start with an existing sound effect and edit/change it to match? Or would you generate it first as some kind of tone and then change it?

Honestly not sure where to start with this.

[DireLogomachist]

Bump!

Any SFX or audio artists out there?

[DrDerekDoctors]

Personally I'd just generate something and then fudge with it in an editor until it's short and clicky for this style, but beyond that I think there's numerous options with this depending on how you present your text. With the letter at a time thing, I love Animal Crossing (

- 15s in) where it does the sound of each letter as it's said and it almost sounds like they're talking (here's an online javascript version of it http://acedio.github.io/animalese.js/), but if you want more character, the way Henry Hatsworth did it is wonderful, too (although this is a word at a time -

at 1m40s).

[DireLogomachist]

It's very impressive how much personality they can pack into a series of randomized sound bites.

I'm aiming right now for something that's not so much replicating talking and instead more of the typewriter style of FF Tactics. I'm playing with a few things but still don't have it quite right yet.

[Kenny Young]

The FF Tactics example above is just the same short sound being triggered a lot, possibly analogous to each character, possibly at a predetermined rate that starts and stops with the text scroll.

It doesn't sound overtly synthesised, so it could have been created either way, but other than being short and mid-heavy its defining characteristic is its 'roundness' - it's not a 'click' (which would be unpleasant to hear repeatedly), it's got a bit more shape to its attack which softens it a little. You can create that kind of thing with a little bit of a fade in on any short sound, but if you started with something that's in the right ballpark (I dunno, tapping your knuckle on wood?) and then shape it a bit from there then you'll be headed in the right direction.

There's a really handy free VST plugin called Transpire which makes tweaking the transients of a sound a breeze - it's essentially a super-intuitive compressor. I use it to tame 'clicky' stuff all the time - could be useful with this kind of task:

http://sonic.supermaailma.net/plugins

If you set up loop markers in your DAW around your short sound (possibly slightly longer than it) and listen to it on repeat and then play around with the attack in Transpire, or possibly just tweak the fade in directly on the sound clip for something more extreme, then you'll get a sense of whether it's working or not

[DireLogomachist]

Thanks for the tip! I'll play with the fade a bit, see if that gets me closer to where I want.