Spatial audio is one of the most expressive and useful features on New Art City. It is possible to upload MP3, AIFF, and WAV files to New Art City. These objects are represented in the space as a speaker sprite. They can also be played when users approach other objects using the Behaviors tab.
Audio Objects
- Maximum Audible Distance:
- The audible radius slider determines how far away a sound will audible from the emitter.
- Looping Options:
- Loop Forever – when triggered as a player approaches, the sound will play continuously in a loop. If the user moves away from the audible radius and returns, the audio will continue from where it left off.
- One Shot on Approach - when triggered as a player approaches, the sound will play once and then stop. It will then start from the beginning if a user retriggers it.
- Audio Spatialization:
- Ambient: equal volume in both L/R channels. Stereo audio will remain stereo and the volume of each track will increase depending on user proximity to the source.
- Positional: the volume in the L/R channels will vary depending on the direction the user is facing and their distance from the sound.
Audio Behaviors
- Attach sounds to any other object on New Art City using the Behaviors tab.
- Enable the “Sound effect on approach” option, set the trigger distance, and select a sound file. The sound file must already be uploaded. If you don’t want it to play in the gallery unless it’s triggered, set the original audio object you uploaded to “hidden.”
Audio Strategies
- Ambient sound:
- Bring a sense of place to your world by adding field recordings (birds, rain, city sounds) and scattering them around the space
- Record them yourself, or download them from freesound.org
- Expanded multitrack:
- Export the individual audio tracks from a multi-track composition and upload them around your space– walking through the space will allow users to cross-fade between the different components
- NPC interaction:
- Play a voice over using the “sound effect on approach” feature when a user approaches a sign, or a character
- Chop it up:
- Take longer audio pieces and cut them into shorter segments, so each user’s journey through the space will expose a different combination of sounds