RPG-SoundMixer

[Sowelu]

EDIT: As the reply below points out, this is RPG-SoundMixer, which is great.

Some years back, I had this awesome soundboard program that let you set up your keyboard so that each letter corresponded to a sound to play, or to some scripted thing with multiple sounds, delays that could be randomized, and stuff. It didn't fit all campaigns, but it worked great when it did...and being able to press 'a' for 'close air support', filling the air with occasional swooshes followed by bangs, was cool. So was being able to interrupt your players' deliberations with an unearthly scream just by pressing a button. You don't have to say anything and suddenly they're running for their life.

...I can't find it for the life of me, and I don't even fully know what the tool would be called anyway. Searching for 'soundboards', regardless of what else I put in, just brings up a bunch of flash apps full of Simpsons quotes, or discussion about parts of a band's setup. Probably the only way I can find it is if someone here used it too.

Anyone?

[Swordgleam]

Read this post just as we were discussing sound effects in the #RPMN chat, and apparently it's this: http://www.rpgsoundmixer.com/

Looks awesome.

[Sowelu]

RPG-SoundMixer looks like exactly the program I'd had before. What great timing! Thank you!

[Dust]

I used to employ this thing all the time; alas, my laptop battery doesn't have the oomph to last our four-hour games anymore.

[Sowelu]

I ended up using it in my game, and I've got some experiences to share on using sounds -in general- in games.

In the past, I've tried using tabletop game soundtracks: Here's this bad guy's theme, here's a theme I'll use for hacking, here's a theme for this kind of corruption, here's one for a kind of spiritual safe place. It worked pretty poorly. None of the players actually complained, but I got some eyerolling out of them, and after the campaign, they said they weren't really getting anything out of it.

So...I'd say that music sounds too forced, *especially* when it's intermittent. If something happens and they get three minutes of music while you're talking, and then the music ends (or worse, loops), it's distracting and seems all out of place.

Similarly, using sound effects for a lot of things seems really forced, too. Hitting a key to make slashing and gurgling sounds for every hit in combat is a total non-starter. Death screams, too, and...everything of that nature. Personally I didn't like much of the example material in RPG-SoundMixer because it seemed very contrived in this way.


What worked really well in my campaign was weather sound effects. The party was hiding out in a farmhouse under occasional attack under cover of darkness, in the middle of a storm. I used RPG-SoundMixer to move between three levels of rain (plus an indoor-rain effect), though you could really use any program that loops for this. One really big help was that it helped them believe things a little better! It's one thing to say "It's raining so hard you can't really see anything past twenty yards in the daytime", but when they hear how hard it's coming down, they go "oh crap" and believe you (and stop grumbling about ranged weapon penalties too).

Something I've heard from other GMs that also worked incredibly well for me, was to use sounds to get the players' attentions. I didn't replace narration with it, but used them both together to help give a better description of what's going on. "You hear an unearthly howl in the distance" -> press 'O' -> big scary howl in the distance through the rain -> they understand why they are making fear checks. Keeps players in the moment. Also, very effective when monsters snuck onto the roof; "You hear something above you on the roof" -> press 'K' -> a continued stream of wood-chopping noises -> players trip over each other to run outside with crossbows. Lightning and gusts of wind whenever I felt like it was also good for my ego.

Another classic example I heard from someone's Star Wars campaign a long time ago, don't remember where I saw it, was a successful use of sound entirely in place of narration: The players are climbing through a ventilation shaft, open a grate and peek out -> GM says nothing but the Imperial March begins to play -> players frantically replace the gate and scurry backwards. But this has to be done very very carefully so they know exactly wtf just happened (wouldn't have worked in my examples).


One HUGE reward from using the constant rain effects in my game, that I totally didn't expect. I have a hugely unruly group. It's like herding cats, which is actually fine most nights, but it's still important to get them back into the game after breaking for dinner. I'd turned the sounds off while we ate, and as soon as I turned the rain back on, they all immediately snapped back to attention, way faster than I'd ever seen happen before. When you have an excuse to have a believable constant background sound effect, it roots people securely in the game in a way that I find VERY pleasing. It gives you a good signal for "break time" versus "game on".


Anyway... The demo of RPG-SoundMixer lets you do anything you want from the full version, except save and load. If you have something huge and complicated you want to set up, that's a major bother. BUT...if you just want to give it a spin for something like a few rain effects and a spooky howl or two, you can set that up in three minutes before game in the demo version while your players get their papers together. Me, I bought it.