Hello fellow simmers, I figured it was way past time for me to add my two cents into the FS info pool. First a quick bit about how I got started in the audio side of flightsimming. I remember my very first encounter with FS, I think it was Version 4.0 or something like that. I was at my brother's house and he was messing around with his first P.C. and he was showing me a few games he had on his drive. I think the machine was a 386 with 12 mb of RAM. Yikes! Just as we were about to cut the P.C. off he said oh, check out this flying simulator. I took the stick and got the Cessna 150 off the runway just fine. The first thing I noticed was the lack of decent sound for the Cessna's engine; it sounded like cards in a bicycle spoke. I did not realize it then, but I would inherit that same P.C. years later after I got out of the U.S.M.C. to use for college studies.

After I had completed my military service it was time for me to attend college. My brother sent me the old 386 still loaded with the same hard drive I'd seen years before. I'm sure it was Windows 3.0, DOS based now that I think about it. Geeez, I'm carbon dating myself here! Anyhow I began to play with the various programs and experiment with the code a bit here and there. It was a little different from the cable TV equipment I had been trained on for so many years. It took me a while to update myself with the current technology, but I got there okay. I think that must have been 1993 if I remember right.

One afternoon I just happen to pull up that old flying simulator game and quickly became mesmerized by what I was seeing. I thought to myself, this thing is going to be around for a while--little did I know. It was about this time Flight Simulator 5.1 hit the shelf. I went out and got the new version ASAP. Again I was struck with the idea of how much better the sounds could be if only I had a sound editor and a "little time" to work with it.

It was soon after I purchased 5.1 I plugged into the internet. I quickly discovered there was a growing community of P.C. addicts like myself that were immersed in the "Flying Game". I happened upon one of Mike Hambly's sound sets a few days later. I can't even remember what the file was, but the sound improvement was great. Having started playing guitar and singing at age 15 my ears were tuned to correct pitch and volume. I did an internet search and found a freebie sound editor soon after. That was 10 years ago. I'm still grinding out sound sets after all this time. Nuff about me!

Creating Sound Sets

One of the questions I get asked the most is, is it possible to get the wind sound against the landing gear once it has been lowered? Yes, but you have to program a gauge to call up the sound file. Why? Due to the "looping" effect in the FS sound engine. It's the same as double clicking a normal .wav file in Windows with any sound manager. Something has to start and stop the sound file. Why can't you do it in the sound cfg? There are no timer switches or commands in the cfg to control the operation of the .wav files. I'm sure it could be done by Microsoft if they took an interest in making the improvement. Maybe they will.

Lets take a quick look at an example of the sound cfg itself:

[WIND_SOUND]
filename=wind3      <---Calls up the specified .wav file to be played.
minimum_volume=6000 <---Lowest volume while on the ground and in flight.
maximum_volume=8500 <---Loudest you want FS to play the .wav file.
minimum_rate=0.60   <---Speed and intensity of .wav file low end.
maximum_rate=0.90   <---Speed and intensity of .wav file high end.
minimum_speed=40.0  <---FS will activate specified .wav file at this mininum kts.
maximum_speed=120.0 <---FS will stop building intensity of wav file at this maximum kts.

You can play with the above parameters quite a bit to suit your sound system and personal liking. It's important to remember that all humans have different audio interpretations depending on factors like hearing loss, sound system, P.C. speed, and imagination.

Lets look at another part of the sound cfg:

[SOUND_ENGINE]
number_of_engines=1                     <---Self explanatory
eng1_combustion=COMBUSTION.1.00         <---Refers to the (bass) end of the .wav file.
eng1_starter=starter                    <---Turning the key in the ignition initial start sequence.
eng1_combustion_start=combstart         <---Kicks on the bass end of the sound environment.
eng1_shutdown=shutdown                  <---Self explanatory
eng1_prop=PROP.1.00                     <---Refers to the (whispy prop sounds)
eng1_non_combustion=NON_COMBUSTION.1.00 <---Refers to the prop turning sounds if ignition is cut during flight. (Kalunk) (Kalunk)

FS has the ability to play at least two-three sounds at the same time. Depending on how you program the volume of the first and secondary .wav files the FS sound engine will gradually begin to override the weaker specified volume in the sound cfg.

Yet another part of the sound cfg:

[COMBUSTION.1.00]
filename=ce1a                                <---Specifies which .wav file you want to play.
flags=0                                      <---Tells the sound engine what type of operation to perform in a given view.
viewpoint=1                                  <---Inside view 2=outside view.
rparams=0.000000,1.000000,0.264000,1.110000  <---Tells the sound engine what idle rpm you want the .wav file to be played at.
vparams=0.000000,53.600000,0.174000          <---Tells the sound engine how loud or soft to play the wav file; this has limitations.
link=COMBUSTION.1.01                         <---Links you to the next part of the sound cfg.

It's important to know that 95% of rpm and sound volume are controlled by the actual sound editing that is done by the developer. Small changes can be affected by playing with the above parameters, but not a lot. The audio developer must work within the basic written code.

Why do certain sound sets sound different in other aircraft of the same category? I've studied this as much as I can and have found it has a lot to do with how the .air file is written. Why does the Beechcraft Baron 58 have such a big hollow sound? If you'll look at the sound cfg you'll see that each .wav file for the engine is called up twice. I've found that even the add-on twins seem to have the same anomaly associated with them. Big mystery? No, I think Microsoft just wrote it into the original code for the sim program.

What about loss of ATC and other sounds with certain sound sets? Now this is a bit of a mystery for the most part. I think I may have a partial explanation though. Only a handful of folks complained to me about this. I noticed it was mainly happening on a four engine jet configuration. One, it may be that the individual end user has an older sound card that is not capable of full duplex. Duplex means two. If his or her system is already playing engine whine, combustion, and wind sound it may be the sound card has just run out of resources. Most that complained stated they still got the text version of the ATC. The other possibility is the DirectX issue may cause some machines to perform sub-standard operations depending on the application that is being run. Nothing really wrong with the machine, it may just need an update of software. Lastly, Microsoft has never produced a four engine aircraft for the sim; it may be that we are stepping on the program's toes trying a four engine cfg.

How do you get real life aircraft sounds to sound right in the sim? This is the biggest and most often asked question I receive from fellow simmers. Think of a cartoon, now think of the background music in the cartoon. Part of what makes you laugh are the sound effects. Zing, pang, pow, zoooom, etc...accompanied by some goofy sounding orchestra that's gone crazy. When Bugs Bunny grabs Elmer Fud and starts waltzing around to regular correctly played orchestra music it's twice as funny. Why? Because your ears tell you it does not fit.

It's much the same with producing real sounding audio for FS. This is where the rubber meets the tarmac. Although FS is not a cartoon, it's an animation. Therefore the sounds are going to be a little more animated than in real life. Most times this means eliminating certain undesirable qualities in the sound bite. Background noise is the most difficult characteristic to deal with. Here and there a simmer will send me a good sounding engine noise for a prop or jet, but most of the time I can't use it due to some unwanted background noise. Who wants to listen to a bird chirping or conversation looped over and over mixed in with an engine sound? Not me. Whats the solution?

IMAGINATION. I can usually get my hands on 4-5 seconds of clean sound and I can build the sound set from there. If I've never heard the aircraft before, I can go out to the airport and listen to similar aircraft and get a close idea and ear memory of what the aircraft sounds like. Sometimes I will record the sounds and study them over and over, then compare them with what I produce with my sound editing equipment. Yes, sometimes you can get clean high quality digital sound bites to work with, but that's the exception, not the rule. Even then you can't just name the sound files, cram them into a sound folder and get the result you want. Due to the nature of the FS sound engine much editing has be be done to get the sounds to behave in the sim like you want them to. Bass, treble, and mid-range all have to be quartered and arranged so they will play equally with good quality to boot. For example the DreamFleet Cessna 310L sounds were around 8-10 re-mastering sessions total for me. Time consuming? You bet. Trial and error until it gets dark outside.

How do I record sounds from a prop aircraft? Let's say you have a digital Sony audio recorder or a nice video recorder. The first thing to do is leave your friends in the hangar, otherwise they'll talk while you record and foul the session. Stand 20-25 feet at a right angle to the front of the aircraft, not behind the wing. Prop wash will ruin what you are trying to capture. Have the pilot start the aircraft. Stop, listen to your recording, how does it sound? Clean, garbled, too much bass, tinny? Adjust your audio settings and distance from the aircraft. Try again. Once you've established an optimal setting for your equipment have the pilot up the rpm for 8-10 second intervals until he reaches full throttle. Record the shutdown and there you have it. Note, try to be (very) still with your recording equipment, keep your hands still and don't rub them around on the recorder or camera. The mic will pick up every tiny sound of the structure of the device. Inside the aircraft, same type methods, trial and error mostly. Jet aircraft sounds are a little more difficult to record, again trial and error.

Well I hope I've answered some of your long standing questions and cleared up a few of those sound mysteries. I can't say enough thanks to the sim community for all the kind and encouraging e-mails over the years. Thanks from Ole Stretch**** "that other sound guy."

Aaron R. Swindle
Skysong Soundworks
ARSpilot@netscape.net