Another Dreams update is here! If we listened closely, we could hear shouts of joy from players all over the world… Oh no, wait. That’s the game sound playing in our headset. It makes sense, as this latest Dreams update – V2.42, available to download from today, April 7 – delivers a huge collection of screams, growls, and grunts. and monster growls are professionally created and recorded for you to use in your creations.
Taken on PS4 Pro.
“Why the monster sound effect?”, you might also ask. To release our latest game, Ancient Danger: The Tale of the Bat, we worked with the talented team at The Monster Factory who voiced all of the creatures, orcs, and dragons in the game. We are so pleased with the results that we want to make this amazing sound available to the Community to use and remix into anything they can imagine.
The secret behind the sound effects
What makes our monster howls of such high quality? Well, first of all, the longstanding collaboration between The Monster Factory and Media Molecule teams.
“Tom [Colvin] and Lisa [Devon] Sébastian Croteau, co-founder of The Monster Factory, says. Croteau heard their audio references, and then began the casting process in Montreal. The team stayed true to the line of dialogue they were given, but also put their own spin on the monster’s characters.
“It just came naturally,” says Croteau. “We can get a lot out of the way the monsters look, their body types and facial features. Those visual elements really helped shape our sound creation and design. ”
But there’s something else that gives Croteau’s voice work an edge: his experience as the lead singer of the death metal band, Necrotic Mutation.
“Being a throat singer and a metal vocalist is definitely helpful,” says Croteau. “Metal singers have the unique ability to produce organic, distorted, but not otherworldly sounds without the need to digitally tune their voices. In addition, our training allows us to perform these exciting sounds in multi-hour recording sessions without damaging our voices.
Sébastian Croteau from The Monster Factory, as Dragon Guard
“Many people would think these types of vocals are just screams, but they are more than that,” continued Croteau. “There is a precise technique behind them and believe it or not, the technique used in throat singing is very similar to the technique in metal vocals.”
Roxana BL from The Monster Factory, as Hypatia the Dragon
It’s been amazing to work with these talented performers – and the feeling is seemingly mutual.
“Working with Tom and Lisa and the rest of the team at Media Molecule is something we will remember for a long time,” says Croteau. “We are often hired to voice nightmare zombies, demonic creatures or terrible monsters. Working on Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale allowed us to voice scary, yet fun characters, rather than the kind of hellish sound that our customers often ask for from us.
“We’re really pleased with the end result and we all really enjoyed playing the game.”
Aww – thanks, Sebastien!
But wait a minute!
This audio update includes some nifty new features for creators looking to optimize their sound. Test mode now features Audio Analysis that allows you to examine the memory usage and cost of audio elements in a composition.
Taken on PS4 Pro.
We’ve also added a new acoustic thermometer to measure Audio Availability – basically, whether the sounds you put in your composition are playing correctly, how much memory they’re using, etc. You can find more detailed information about these tools in this patch notes post more dreams.me.
Taken on PS4 Pro.
Again, all this audio goodness is available to download right now: launch Dreams after installing the update and you can see the new audio tools in Edit Mode – and listen to, use, and remix The Monster Factory’s amazing monster performances for your own creation. Have fun!
