Hi Everyone,

Like most here, I'm a newbie but have been dabbling with game development for a few years. I am currently working full-time overseas and learning the craft in my spare time. It's been a long but highly rewarding adventure. Much of my time has been spent working through tutorials. In all of them, as well as my own attempts at development, I used the audio files supplied by the tutorial author, or obtained from one of the numerous sites online. I am working solo, and will be for a while, so I don't want to get too wrapped up with any one skill set. Regarding audio, the files I've found and used are good for what I was doing at the time. However I would now like to try my hand at customizing the audio more. My game engine of choice is Unity and it has an audio mixer built in that I have experimented with following their tutorials. I have obtained a great book called Game Audio Development with Unity 5.x that I am working through. Half way through the book it introduces using FMOD to supplement the Unity Audio Mixer. Later in the book, the author introduces Reaper (a very popular DAW) as an external program to compose and mix music to be integrated with Unity. I did some research on DAWs and quickly became overwhelmed. Much of what I found was geared toward professional sound engineers and sound designers. I am in no way trying or even thinking about getting to that level. All I want to be able to do is take a music file, and tweak it some to get the sound I want for my game. I've played with Audacity as well, but it didn't seem to fit the bill. So that is why I am looking at a better quality DAW. Since being solo, I am also under a budget contraint. So of all the DAW software out there, I am considering Reaper or Presonus Studio One due to their pricing. My question is, is investing the time to learn about using a DAW to tweak a sound file worth it? Are there any solo developers currently using a DAW as part of their overall workflow? If so, which one? I've also come across Fabric which is a Unity plug-in that enhances the built-in audio mixer. Would that be a better alternative?

I know this is long, and maybe I haven't communicated well in trying to be brief. But any advice from the gurus/vets would be greatly appreciated. I've leaned so much and had a lot of fun in the process. BTW, I am also a senior citizen (I cut my programming teeth back using punch cards and Structured Basic when it first came out). If anyone needs more clarification of what I am trying to accomplish please let me know.  Thanks in advance for any assistance/advice.

The main thing I'd like to know is, what you mean precisely when you say you want to "tweak" audio. This is an important thing to know because some effects can be achieved entirely in Unity and FMOD without altering the source material at all. Other changes require edits to the source material, and they can usually be done in any DAW (although how easy it will be will vary). And the most extreme changes will require you to record or generate new source material, which goes beyond what a DAW alone can do.

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the range of facilities offered by a DAW but it is no different to how hobbyists might only learn the basics of Adobe Photoshop while professionals use the same tool for much more complex work. You can learn the subset of actions and commands to achieve your specific goals without having to learn the whole software. Whether it's worthwhile or not depends a lot on what your goals are.

For example, applying an effect to a file in Presonus Studio One or Reaper is mostly a case of:

1. drag the file into a track.
2. click the FX button (Reaper) or open the Console for that track and click the dropdown box in the Inserts box (Studio One).
3. Add the effect you want to apply.
4. Press Play to audition the effect and make sure it does what you want. If not, tweak the effect settings, replace it, add more, etc.
5. Export the file, via Render (Reaper) or Export Mixdown (Studio One)
6. Use the new file instead of the old one

It's a bit fiddly the first time you do it, but becomes second nature quite quickly.

Hi Kylotan,

Thank you very much for your response. You hit the nail with what I was trying to describe by "tweaking". As mentioned I have a collection of audio files that I would like to reuse in my own games (with attribution of course as they are CCL). The book I'm working through has a couple chapters on adaptive music using Unity's audio mixer and scripting to change the ambient music and sounds to fit various zones as you move through them. That's what sparked my curiosity. Admitedly I'm still at the crawling stage in learning game audio, but I wanted some validation that my goal was achieveable. My desire is to be able to edit a source file slightly to achieve a sound that fits the mood of my game or the location of the player character. Your response has done that and helped point me in the right direction, thank you.

BTW, I also came across another audio tool called Fabric that is a Unity package. From what I have read about it, it enhances the Unity audio mixer so it has additional capabilities. I haven't tried it yet as I am still working through the book, but I will once I finish. Have you had any experience with Fabric or know of others who have?

Thanks again for all your advice and assistance.

I have no experience of Fabric but I have heard of it and believe it is a decent tool. However, it was originally created 6 or 7 years ago when the Unity built-in audio capabilities were very poor. These days, the built-in capabilities are a lot better and you probably do not need to look at 3rd party packages to do what you want.

Hey Kylotan,

Thanks again for your advice. One less thing I need to learn as I move forward.