menu
 

Watson Wu takes us on board ATLAS by Studio Wildcard

Sound Design

watsonwuatlas

This is a behind the scenes video of ATLAS, a pirate MMO game by Studio Wildcard (Grapeshot Games). I was hired to source out, rent, and record sounds of a replica 1812 privateer sailing ship for the game.

We could not have asked for a more perfect day. Because the rented ship (named Lynx) had to travel by diesel power to our desired location for sailing, we made best use of our time by rigging multiple microphones, cables, and windshield kits to specific areas. By the time we got to a quiet location to record sailing ship sounds, we were ready with 7 on-board channels, and a separate recorder for ambisonic captures. Moreover, one of the ship mates climbed to the top area to hang two more mics to record the perspectives of what it sounds like from above. Later we used shotgun mics to point and capture specific items such as water hitting the bows, wood creaks, sails, etc. On the way out we experienced light winds and then heavier winds on the way back. Yes, that was A Perfect Day!

Atlas Game - Watson Wu2

Onboard Settings:

Recorder: Sound Devices MixPre-10T inside a K-Tek Stingray Small audio bag
ch1 Center of Ship (Audio-Technica BP4025 Left)
ch2 Center of Ship (Audio-Technica BP4025 Right)
ch3 Bow (DPA Core 4061)
ch4 Stern (Countryman B3)
ch5 Starboard (Countryman B3)
ch6 Forward Mast (Rode NT6)
ch7 Main Mast (Wireless RodeLink)

gear
Ambisonic Settings:

Recorder: Zoom F8n inside a Sachtler 607 audio bag
ch1-4 Soundfield ST450 mkii ambisonic microphone
Rycote WS3 windshield kit
Manfrotto 5001b light stand
Specific isolation recordings:
Recorder: Sound Devices 722 in a Sound Devices audio bag
Schoeps CMIT inside a Rycote windshield kit
K-Tek Boom pole
Sennheiser MKH-418s inside a Rycote windshield kit

gearwatsonsu

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Studio Wildcard, Audio Director Stephen Baker, Lynx ship crew, Mr. Donald Peacock, Captain Alex Peacock, Thief of Soul Imaging (photos & videos), and Marcy Shortuse.

Watson Wu

Sound Designer, Field Recordist & Composer

Watson Wu Studios

Watson Wu

Sound Designer, Field Recordist & Composer

Watson Wu Studios

Watson Wu is an award winning American sound designer, field recordist and composer. Well known in the industry for his extreme sounds, his credits include Baby Driver, Project Cars 2, Assassin’s Creed, Transformers, The Need for Speed franchise and dozens of others.

Instagram

 @watsonwu

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

More articles

Life is Strange - Dynamic Music Positioning

Music and sound are some of the most important elements when it comes to DONTNOD video games.

1.11.2016 - By Sébastien Gaillard & Yannick Tassin

Wwise CPU Optimizations : General Guidelines

Empowering audio creators also means transferring some game resource responsibilities into their...

23.5.2017 - By Adrien Lavoie

Building a Career in Sound Today: Film, Games and Shades of Gray

On one side there’s sound for films- linear, on the other there’s sound for video games-...

9.7.2019 - By David Grinbaum

Generating Rain With Pure Synthesis

A few years ago, I wondered whether it was possible to synthesize whatever I wanted. I started by...

30.7.2020 - By Aleksandr Khilko

SpectralMultiEffect by zerocrossing

SpectralMultiEffect is a plug-in for Wwise. It was created with the intent of enhancing...

4.6.2021 - By Javier Arciniegas

Accelerate Your Strata Workflows | Part 1 - “Open In Strata”

Update as of January 27, 2023: As of Version 1.1, the Strata_Open associated Strata project from...

2.12.2022 - By Andrew Costa

More articles

Life is Strange - Dynamic Music Positioning

Music and sound are some of the most important elements when it comes to DONTNOD video games.

Wwise CPU Optimizations : General Guidelines

Empowering audio creators also means transferring some game resource responsibilities into their...

Building a Career in Sound Today: Film, Games and Shades of Gray

On one side there’s sound for films- linear, on the other there’s sound for video games-...