Game-dev studio solution

[joco]

We're upgrading from our "headphones+sound-blaster" studio.
Unfortunately convincing people that you need more than that, is
pretty hard in this business, so bare in mind that the budget is
limited.
We have some field recording gear and some sound libraries and we
outsource music and dialog recording.

What I want to know is, is there a console/sound-card/mixer or
anything similar out there that would have all the "latest" inputs
that we could plug in and test?

Something that you can plug in a ps3, xbox and PC and then just choose
which one to hear.
That has Dolby digital and DTS decoder.
That you can switch between 7.1, 5.1, stereo or mono playback.
That you can plug in a HDMI, spdif, optical, AUX, iphone, whatever,...

I'm thinking of something similar to a Yamaha receiver. But is there
any other more dev/test/debug/monitor friendly solution than hi-fi
stuff?
I'm thinking of some sort of a mixer that has all that stuff that you
can plug in and switch between. I just can't seem to find one.

We'll probably also be buying 7.1 monitor speakers. Do you think we
should buy a passive set and plug it on to a receiver? Or is there a
good receiver+speakers set-up that could also be used for monitoring?

How do the big game dev studios master/test all the audio settings on
all consoles and different decoding techniques? What are their set-
ups?

Any info or further reading very welcome!

Cheers!

[Scott Dorsey]

joco > wrote:
>
>Something that you can plug in a ps3, xbox and PC and then just choose
>which one to hear.
>That has Dolby digital and DTS decoder.
>That you can switch between 7.1, 5.1, stereo or mono playback.
>That you can plug in a HDMI, spdif, optical, AUX, iphone, whatever,...

You won't really see that kind of thing in studio applications, because
folks don't actually produce with AC3 or DTS encoding. They do all the
work with uncompressed streams and then they compress it down for release
only.

>I'm thinking of something similar to a Yamaha receiver. But is there
>any other more dev/test/debug/monitor friendly solution than hi-fi
>stuff?
>I'm thinking of some sort of a mixer that has all that stuff that you
>can plug in and switch between. I just can't seem to find one.

What about a Yamaha receiver and a patchbay?

I could swear I saw something in the Markertek catalogue that was basically
a consumer receiver in a rackmount case with proper balanced ins and outs.
For the life of me, though, I can't remember who made it. Maybe Ocean Matrix?

>We'll probably also be buying 7.1 monitor speakers. Do you think we
>should buy a passive set and plug it on to a receiver? Or is there a
>good receiver+speakers set-up that could also be used for monitoring?

Buy speakers that sound good in the room you're using. Don't worry about
whether they are powered or not, worry about how they sound.

>How do the big game dev studios master/test all the audio settings on
>all consoles and different decoding techniques? What are their set-
>ups?

I don't know, but I know a bunch of people at the last AES: Audio For Games
conference were talking about monitoring. I didn't go, I just saw references
in the journal to papers.

But I guess the big question here is what your signal sources are, and what
you're going to be listening to them for. I gather you have to be outputting
encoded audio?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[joco]

Thank you for your reply.

We work with uncompressed source wavs all the time off course.
But mixing/testing is done in the engine on consoles (ps3, xbox360,
wii, PC...), after they've been compressed (mp3 / xna). So all of the
sounds get mixed in real time and are encoded. And this is what I want
to monitor.
Let me know if you remember the manufacturer of the thing you're
talking about.

So the receiver + something like this:
http://www.thomann.de/de/blue_sky_pro_desk_51_mkii_system.htm
would probably be our solution?

Any passive (5.1 or 7.1) monitors deserve my attention? We'll probably
be buying a Yamaha receiver, which, I guess, has OK amps for what we
need.

Thank you again,
Cheers,
Rok

On Mar 1, 3:35*pm, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
> joco > wrote:
>
> >Something that you can plug in a ps3, xbox and PC and then just choose
> >which one to hear.
> >That has Dolby digital and DTS decoder.
> >That you can switch between 7.1, 5.1, stereo or mono playback.
> >That you can plug in a HDMI, spdif, optical, AUX, iphone, whatever,...
>
> You won't really see that kind of thing in studio applications, because
> folks don't actually produce with AC3 or DTS encoding. *They do all the
> work with uncompressed streams and then they compress it down for release
> only.
>
> >I'm thinking of something similar to a Yamaha receiver. But is there
> >any other more dev/test/debug/monitor friendly solution than hi-fi
> >stuff?
> >I'm thinking of some sort of a mixer that has all that stuff that you
> >can plug in and switch between. I just can't seem to find one.
>
> What about a Yamaha receiver and a patchbay?
>
> I could swear I saw something in the Markertek catalogue that was basically
> a consumer receiver in a rackmount case with proper balanced ins and outs..
> For the life of me, though, I can't remember who made it. *Maybe Ocean Matrix?
>
> >We'll probably also be buying 7.1 monitor speakers. Do you think we
> >should buy a passive set and plug it on to a receiver? Or is there a
> >good receiver+speakers set-up that could also be used for monitoring?
>
> Buy speakers that sound good in the room you're using. *Don't worry about
> whether they are powered or not, worry about how they sound.
>
> >How do the big game dev studios master/test all the audio settings on
> >all consoles and different decoding techniques? What are their set-
> >ups?
>
> I don't know, but I know a bunch of people at the last AES: Audio For Games
> conference were talking about monitoring. *I didn't go, I just saw references
> in the journal to papers.
>
> But I guess the big question here is what your signal sources are, and what
> you're going to be listening to them for. *I gather you have to be outputting
> encoded audio?
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Scott Dorsey]

joco > wrote:
>So the receiver + something like this:
>http://www.thomann.de/de/blue_sky_pro_desk_51_mkii_system.htm
>would probably be our solution?

Depends on the room, but the Blue Sky system isn't bad at all.

>Any passive (5.1 or 7.1) monitors deserve my attention? We'll probably
>be buying a Yamaha receiver, which, I guess, has OK amps for what we
>need.

There are lots of them out there, and just because the thing isn't sold
specifically as a 5.1 system doesn't mean it's not perfectly usable for
the job, like the Tannoy Reveals for instance. The Reveals are a little bass
light for my taste but they might be good for your application where just
about all the low end will be in the LFE track anyway. You might also like
the dual concentric Tannoys.

If you're in Germany I would strongly recommend checking out the
Musikelectronic Gethain monitors also.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."