Working in my Toolkit (and Expanding it)

Liam Madiam , 10/9/2026

Introduction

Hi I’m a second year Game Design/Development student and I’ve been working on the sound for Smoke and Mirrors for 2 semesters now. Last year I was just composing but now I’ve also started working on sound effects for the game. It’s been quite a journey doing this and I’ve had a lot of creative freedom to really set the stage for the game. I had a little experience making small pieces of music for fun on the side every so often. I guess I just wanted to share a bit about my thought process on how I chose what tools I used, thanks for tuning in.

Choosing the right tool

Starting out I had used a couple of different software that I had experimented with before: Bandlab, FamiStudio, and Musescore. Out of those 3 I chose to use Musescore, despite it being my least used, I had infact only recently picked it up because I had started a capella, and that was the software we used for our arrangements. So why would I do that? Unlike the more DAW-like software the previous two, MuseScore is a music notation software, meaning you write in a music staff instead of the common piano roll many DAWs use.

Music notation software has higher simplicity at the trade off of the more dynamic mixing control you have over the sound, with only things like written accidentals, dynamics, and any other traditional music markings. More detailed editing would have to be done after the fact using a DAW to edit already exported audio tracks. Another reason comes to the theming and environment of our game, which takes place in a shadow puppet theater. Having origins from all over the world you’d tie back musical themes to something of a more classical type of music using traditional instruments. Not to say that DAW’s don’t have those kinds of instrumentation options but their other options, synths, 808’s, and other more digital effects aren’t really that needed for my purposes.

While yes, you can use a DAW to arrange classically, it just came down to comfort. Once I actually started digging into the music I found it much easier for my eyes to track everything at once, much more quickly compare different instruments, make changes faster compared to the other software I had used before.

Sticking with the Simple

As mentioned earlier I started doing sound effects for the project which is something I have no experience with. So I’m back at another square one but I know how this goes at this point. What kind of tools do we need? Any sort of audio editing software. A quick search and actually wait a minute, I have used one before! Audacity, another fairly simply free audio editing software. We “used it” for a very very small amount of time in one of my classes before, I clearly didn’t remember. DAW’s were also on the table because of the aforementioned ability to precisely control the sound and have access to digital sound libraries. But once again, not really what I was looking for because the sound profile of the game is pretty based in realistic sounds or anything more fantastical could be covered by musical flourishes by the band.

Once again simple turns out to be my easiest solution. So far all the sound effects I’ve gotten for the game have been foley. So far it’s been really simple (we’ll have to see how long that lasts :P) as I’ve just gone around my room and just making noises. Sometimes I feel like a caveman discovering technology for the first time, as the room is quiet, the lights flickering on and off, over and over. I sit there on my knees next to a lamp as I flip it off and on for a good minute straight. Sometimes I let human variance control the noise or purposefully try to do something different. It’s quite fascinating how much variance of noise a single action can make.

I take all the sounds I could think of and upload them from my phone to my computer, drop them into Audacity and I listen to them eliminating options I don’t like. With the ones I choose I’ll use it straight up, or put it together with other parts, and make slight adjustments.

Conclusion

If there’s anything I want you to take away from this, when you’re trying to choose the right tool for the job, use whatever you want. There’s always gonna be an alternative, a different tool, another software, don’t sweat on it. If you’re up for learning something new, dive right in! if you’re a master of the most niche open source program or heck even made your own, don’t let convention bog you down. As long as you trek that path and make it to the end, each and every twisting trail would’ve led you there anyway right?