[REL] BillCar's Active Sonar Ping Mod Mk.II

[BillCar]

Originally Posted by verte

The squeak is close, but the impact sounds different from the one from hnsa.

Try version IIB, I just uploaded it and it mimics the sound on the recording very closely (they have an almost identical sonic profile in the sound editing program I use).

Also remember to use the sounds in game and not just test them as wav files on their own, as they are calibrated to be heard with background noise as well (the sound will be more subtle in the game than if you just listen to the sound file with no background noise).

[brett25]

its really coming along billcar, this last version sounds very cool. the big question: what did it really sound like? heres some stuff i found you might like:

http://soundbible.com/1184-Sonar-Ping.html

http://www.freesound.org/tagsViewSingle.php?id=2792


http://www.soundsnap.com/tags/sonar

[BillCar]

Hi Brett,

You can actually hear a recording of the ping hitting a submarine as recorded from the inside! The recording appears to have been made in the 40s or early 50s (it was declassified by the USN in the early 60s and released by a sonar development company, apparently). I found it yesterday, and that is what I based the new sounds on.

You can listen to it here: http://www.hnsa.org/sound/soundinthesea/track32.mp3

I think I got it pretty dead-on with Mk IIB, but I may need to make it a bit louder. My plan is to keep the impact sound at the same volume (or maybe *slightly* louder), and then make the squeak sound of the ping a fair bit louder.

This way, when you are hearing the ping without the enemy getting a return, you will hear the squeak and not really hear the impact very much. Then, when the enemy is getting a return (and your SO says "Enemy is pinging us, sir!"), the game turns the volume up on the ping sound, and that should make the impact audible. I'll probably release Mk IIC tomorrow.

I've got it so that it works pretty well on my own sound set-up (I play with headphones on mostly), but it will produce different results on everyone's rig. This is a limitation of the game - ideally, I would be able to have two sound files (ping with no return, and ping with return) and the game would alternate between them based on whether or not you were in the sonar cone. Haven't yet discovered if this is even possible, but I suspect it is not. What I have done with these files is the best possible compromise I can think of, so far.

Thanks for the links you provided, by the way! Neat stuff. I was actually going through the freesound website's pings yesterday, but they were all modern ping sounds.

[verte]

It seems that the squeak is shorter in hnsa and the hit has an echo

[JCWolf]

Guys,

Let me Tell you something, and please don't take me wroung...it is just
Explaining something to you that you are forgeting...


You have to be able to see the difference between A modern sonar
sound and a 40's sonar sound!

So far what I see here posted by you, is sound of Modern Sonars
and not the sound back on the 40's Submarines and Warships...



You have info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echosounder


I think you are going in the wrong direction and mixing Modern with
old sounds!

[Quinsen]

I'm currently reading 'Das Boot' by L.-G. Buchheim and he describes the sound of an ASDIC bouncing on a uboat like throwing a hand of pebbles against the hull. I think the sound BillCar has generated is very close to this description.

[BillCar]

Originally Posted by JCWolf

Guys,
You have to be able to see the difference between A modern sonar
sound and a 40's sonar sound!

So far what I see here posted by you, is sound of Modern Sonars
and not the sound back on the 40's Submarines and Warships...

The recording I posted is presumably from the 40s or early 50s, and it is this recording that I have based my new sound on (which I will continue to update)! So far, it is the only recording I (or, apparently, anyone else) has been able to find depicting the sound of a submarine being hit by a ping from 60-ish years ago, and I do have to say that that recording does sound an awful lot like some of the descriptions (click/squeak + pebble sound hitting the hull).

@ verte:

The squeak is shorter in the HNSA recording, and the impact sound remains slightly different. The reason for this, however, is that the recording is of very poor quality. Listening to it myself and looking at its audio profile, it would appear that the sound lacks much of its mid-high range, and almost all of its low end.

This means that high-pitched sounds will be unnaturally truncated, and extreme low-pitches will be gone completely. Making this problem worse is the fact that the microphone itself appears to have been used at a very low volume and is of very poor quality. The voice you hear in the recording is a good example of this (the voice in the middle; the voice at the beginning is an audio introduction recorded years after the original recording was made, and on very different equipment, obviously). What I have tried to do is guess at how it should sound based on what we can hear in the recording, as well as some of my own tests replicating the sound naturally.

That said, I can still shorten it and change it as you might like, if you let me know precisely how you would like it done. I will say that I am not certain that that would be more realistic, for the reasons I mentioned - the recording is of too poor quality to sound exactly as it would in reality, and this definitely causes the "squeak" to be shortened in the high range. Despite these problems with the recording, I will continue to use it as a basis for the sounds I make, since it is the only recording I know of that has the actual sound of a sub from 50 or 60+ years ago being hit by a sonar ping.

But, I do not mind changing this for you, if you like (it should not take me too much time). I might not get it done today necessarily, but it can be done if you want. I just wanted to explain the reason that I have extended the sound over how it is heard on the recording. I plan on continuing to update and alter the sound as new information comes to light, or as I notice small things about it that do not seem right, but that may lead me in another direction than what you suggest. I can make a custom version for you, though, if you need it!

@ Quinsen: Thanks! Glad you like it. It's still being refined, but I believe we've got a decent release here to tide us over here in the meanwhile.

[brett25]

hi billcar, one suggestion would be to add an echo/reverb to the plunk sound perhaps. Or in some way indicate that its an extremely large metal drum thats being impacted. you know that sound thats in some of the "creak.wavs" its a metalic reverberation, makes you feel like your in something large

[BillCar]

Hi Brett,

So you mean somewhere between the Mk II and Mk IIB mods, right? That's not a bad suggestion.

I'll put it on the list!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by BillCar

b) have one sound for when the enemy is pinging without getting a solid return on you, and another for when you are actually being hit by the ping

This? Would be awesome.

[BillCar]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

This? Would be awesome.

I would absolutely love for this to be possible, but so far, it does not seem to be.

Hopefully someone who knows better than I can come along and prove me wrong, because that would really be fantastic and would work WONDERS to up the realism.

[verte]

Thank you for earlier explanation Don't waste your time to make a special version for me - I don't have time to play sh3 anyway because of work I'm just interested in all mods that makes the game more realistic, so I read this forum in free time.

[BillCar]

Originally Posted by verte

Thank you for earlier explanation Don't waste your time to make a special version for me - I don't have time to play sh3 anyway because of work I'm just interested in all mods that makes the game more realistic, so I read this forum in free time.

No problem! And if you change your mind, let me know - it's really no trouble.

I, too, am really into the realism side of SH3. Since I work from home (and am also working on a thesis) I have a lot of time to have SH3 open while working, so I guess I'm lucky that way! Put that together with my obsession with sound and recording, and I'm surprised it actually took me this long to start making the mod!

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by BillCar

I would absolutely love for this to be possible, but so far, it does not seem to be.

Hopefully someone who knows better than I can come along and prove me wrong, because that would really be fantastic and would work WONDERS to up the realism.

Yeah, I agree. It would be cool if a ping actually finding the boat you're in sounded more ominous than the standard, "oh yeah they're pinging the area" sound.

[brett25]

the standard, "oh yeah they're pinging the area" sound.

Since I work from home (and am also working on a thesis) I have a lot of time to have SH3 open while working

now you can set the camera up in the new captains lounge while on patrol and work on your thesis!


one way to do it could be to somehow connect the ping sound up to the stealth meter. so when its green you have one pinging sound, when its turns red the contact pinging sound....hmmm