Scary sounds in DM!

[Simon]

I did something similar in one of the dungeons I started making, years back - I'd made little two or three-square sections of corridor in the middle of nowhere, inaccessible but close to areas where a player's party would be walking. I'd put a Thief or two in them so they'd run up and down, making footstep noises (this was in RTC, where the mobs all have footstep noises) in the hopes that I could freak out some players that way . Of course, I didn't really get very far with the dungeon (or with any of the others I started making) but I thought it was a fun little idea anyway .

Almost as scary as the disk loading while you're going down a corridor

[Chaos-Shaman]

hahahaha, right Simon. maybe there is gor coin down there

[Seriously Unserious]

Hey Simon, I just got an idea. If you're looking for gor coins, how about playing a game of Chaos Strikes Back. That dungeon's loaded with gor coins. In fact that's the only kind of coins in there.

[Gambit37]

Admin Note: I have moved the posts discussing DMs monetary value here: What is DM Worth?

Hi everyone, I'd be very grateful if you would kindly start another thread if you want to discuss something off-topic. Discussing the value of DM is an interesting topic, but it has nothing to do with this Scary Sounds topic.

Topics are usually created to discuss one idea / issue / problem / question etc. If you'd like a general chat with other forum members, there is the Chat feature at the top right of the forum, or you can use the Inn of Lost Souls thread to chat there. If you want to talk about something totally unrelated to the topic of a thread, please start a new thread.

Keeping threads on-topic makes the forum better for everyone. Thank you.

[Seriously Unserious]

Thanks for keeping the forum neat and organized, Gambit. I agree, it is better to keep posts on topic and we should do a better job of not wandering off topic, which just takes one off-hand remark sometime to throw a thread for a loop.

So putting this topic back on track, another DM sound effect that I found rather intimidating is the sloshing sound of the swamp slimes/slime devils/water elementals. In addition to that sound just being kind of creepy, it also represents some rather nasty monsters, in the 1st 2 cases, monsters with some rather nasty poison blobs, and in the latter case, a monster that can go right through closed doors, and needs vorpal blades or des ew spells, which I typically don't keep handy unless I know ahead of time that I'll need them instead of the usual swords, axes and fireballs.

[Ameena]

Hehe, in the Atari version, creatures don't have footstep sounds, and Water Elementals and other "wet" creatures have no attack sounds either. So we just had to keep our eyes out for these silent attackers.

[Chaos-Shaman]

i'd love to have a way to use midi , create my own. anyway or how to do that with softwares, i have a ton of classical midi, i don't want that, i want to make my own and if possible, turn it into that itty bitty file.

sorry Gambit. we understand. i do have one thing to comment on it, is that if thee are too many threads, it becomes a bit difficult to scroll through them all, secondly, the power of the search above will find most things anyway, you know, just punch in a phrase and it finds it anyway. i am going to use my coin in the juke box and listen to its value anyhow, thanks for cleaning it up. do expect conversations to wander a bit, i am a bit loose ended and do from time to time stray.

[Ameena]

There are plenty of pieces of music/sound-creating software out there. There's one called Audacity which I think can be used for that - I own it but I've only ever really used it as a form of music converter (to change files into .mp3 format). It's free anyway so no harm in checking it out. There was another (free) one I used to have called Goldwave but deleted it at some point and found Audacity when I was looking for it again (and then ended up downloading and using Audacity instead) . Dunno if you can save as midi format but...I don't see why not. It's probably something you'd have to have a mess around with.

[beowuuf]

I too would go with Audacity

[Seriously Unserious]

I doubt you will find anything that will convert other sound files to midi, but you should be able to find ones that can create original sounds in midi. Most of those are usually focused around reproducing the sound of a specific musical instrument at a time though, so they may not be what you're looking for. Besides, formats like wav, mp3, mp4, etc are automatically in a compressed format so some degree or other, and are more advanced to produce better quality sounds. I'd say midi is well on it's way to being obsolete so I'd not worry too much about the sounds being in midi format.

[Chaos-Shaman]

There are plenty of pieces of music/sound-creating software out there. There's one called Audacity which I think can be used for that - I own it but I've only ever really used it as a form of music converter (to change files into .mp3 format). It's free anyway so no harm in checking it out. There was another (free) one I used to have called Goldwave but deleted it at some point and found Audacity when I was looking for it again (and then ended up downloading and using Audacity instead) . Dunno if you can save as midi format but...I don't see why not. It's probably something you'd have to have a mess around with.

yeah, i think i tried that already. i want a professional software to play with, remember, i am playing with it. i have done some messing with waves and other small programs, my sound card came with some. i could cut and paste, repeat waves etc, but it had no way of converting it to midi. ogg is still too big. nobody has stepped up with a good program yet.

[Chaos-Shaman]

I doubt you will find anything that will convert other sound files to midi, but you should be able to find ones that can create original sounds in midi. Most of those are usually focused around reproducing the sound of a specific musical instrument at a time though, so they may not be what you're looking for. Besides, formats like wav, mp3, mp4, etc are automatically in a compressed format so some degree or other, and are more advanced to produce better quality sounds. I'd say midi is well on it's way to being obsolete so I'd not worry too much about the sounds being in midi format.

true, but none of them are as small as those midi. since DM is an old game, the tin midi sound should match up nicely. i did a search for midi music some years ago, there's a lot out there, but midi sound effect, not so much.

[Gambit37]

Midi is just instructions sent to a synthesizer to tell it what sound to play and how to play it.The actual sounds you hear are based on the music samples stored on the device.

So what you hear on your computer may sound totally different to what I hear.

If you want to ensure everyone hears the same thing, use a format like ogg or mp3. You could also try tracker formats like XM or MOD which should be supported in RTC.

[Chaos-Shaman]

i tried ogg, it brings it down to about 1/4 to a 1/5 in size. well as long as everyone doesn't mind an extra 10 meg on the .RTC file, it doesn't bother me, although i have heard some complain about having only so much they can dload a month.

[ebeneezergude]

Tracker formats!!! Nostalgia! Octamed!!! Some real good control over Amiga sound. I loved it. Octamed I think is still going, now on pc. Amiga was great for music.

[Chaos-Shaman]

sure was, i grabbed a couple cds worth of games, and i think listening to it is what i like most. all those old games reminds me of the days before the net.

[Seriously Unserious]

Tracker formats!!! Nostalgia! Octamed!!! Some real good control over Amiga sound. I loved it. Octamed I think is still going, now on pc. Amiga was great for music.

Ahh, yes, the wonderful sounds of the Amiga. Almost stereo sound from just the standard, built-in speakers. While PC's meanwhile, did just those annoying beeps without an expensive extra sound system, and that's if the software you were using supported anything other then the internal speakers.

That post just brought back memories of the sounds of some of my favorite games. The roar of a mummy in Dungeon Master, the siren of a goal being scored in superstar ice hockey, the intro music of Civilization as you start a new game, and the siren of cops chasing me through California in Test Drive 2. Ahh the memories.

[Chaos-Shaman]

we loved test drive two, the dual. had the coppers n radar, kids loved it, yeah, the old days. that would make you up there in age SU

[Seriously Unserious]

yup

I also enjoyed SuperStar Ice Hockey, that's my all-time favorite sports game. I was still playing that right up to the late 90's or early 2000's, until my Amiga finally broke down.

One of my favorite memories is also creeping around the DM and CSB dungeons, hearing the sounds of some monster moving about, and feeling the tension build as I start hearing more of them moving about, and I have no idea where the monster(s) are. Especially when it was that distinctive clack-clack of a dragon roaming around, and expecting to hear a roar and a boom at any moment. Nerve wracking good times.

[Ameena]

Lol...usually the first warning you'd get of a Dragon being about in the Atari version was the brown stain in your underwear caused by a sudden impact with a Fireball you never saw coming .

[Seriously Unserious]

hmm, well that kind of spoils the fun, when you don't year it walking around, that usually creates a steady stream of brown and yellow stains in your underwear as every time the clawsteps get louder, you think it surely must be right behind you or hiding around that next corner about to blast you into fiery oblivion.

[Seriously Unserious]

hmm, well that kind of spoils the fun, when you don't year it walking around, that usually creates a steady stream of brown and yellow stains in your underwear as every time the clawsteps get louder, you think it surely must be right behind you or hiding around that next corner about to blast you into fiery oblivion.

That is unless you were smart and at the first sign of dragonsteps, cast several mon level fireshields, then the dragon will merely blast you into fiery agony.

[Ameena]

Never used Fireshield. I suppose the scariness of footstepps (or lack of them) may depend on your thinking - after all, if you can hear footsteps, you know something's out there, and if you know the game well enough, you know it's a Dragon. If you can't hear anything then you're creeping around, peering into the darkness ahead and trying to work out whether there's anything out there, relying on sight alone for such information...at least until the Dragon breathes a Fireball at you from close range and tyou're able to hear it .

[ebeneezergude]

Not so much a scary sound, but more a sound of anticipation, I used to love a random "click" sound, especially if it happened without any obvious button or lever press.

You'd pause afterwards, listening intently, awaiting a fireball, or a monster, or maybe just some new change of dungeon state to throw you off track. It was the sound of intricate unseen mechanisms of a fiendish dungeon, of traps and surprises. Sometimes what you don't hear is more that what you do...

[Chaos-Shaman]

i agree with that gude. the thought of not knowing is scary

[Seriously Unserious]

So is knowing there's something there but not knowing where exactly it is.

The hearing something big and bad, knowing it's a dragon, and that it's somewhere nearby but not knowing where it is, kept me peering around every corner, into the darkness ahead, and turning around to peer into the darkness behind not knowing if it's actually sneaking up behind me, about to come roaring around a corner spitting fireballs at me or what.

I agree though that not hearing anything and knowing that all monsters move silently would be very nerve wracking too. Still, this topic is about scary sounds, not scary not sounds.

[Ameena]

It's scary when there's only silence and you go around a corner and a Dragon roars in your face .

[Chaos-Shaman]

silence is deadly

[Seriously Unserious]

It's scary when there's only silence and you go around a corner and a Dragon roars in your face .

it's even scarier when you hear nothing and go around a corner and a dragon spits a fireball in your face, especially if you don't have any fireshields active.