Audio Middleware & How To Use It
Overview
Audio middleware is a tool that sound designers can use to implement audio into a game. It enables us to create complex audio systems without having to write code from scratch, and allows us to analyse the sounds in the game, monitor their behaviour, and see how much memory the audio is using. This helps us optimise the game and find potential bugs. Additionally, we can use it to mix the soundscape in real time while we are playing the game, or create adaptive scores that react to the in-game events.
Understanding the basics of middleware is very useful when applying for jobs, and being able to implement your own sounds and music allows you to have more control over how they will sound in-game. It can also be incredibly fun to create and experiment with your own prototype audio systems!
I recommend reading this short yet fantastic overview by Yannis Brown, that gives you some more info on what middleware can offer as well as a comparison of the best ones: https://www.yannisbrown.com/about-audio-middleware/
This great list from Javier Zumer also highlights some more ways middleware is useful to us in game audio: http://javierzumer.com/blog/2018/7/15/dear-devs-7-reasons-why-your-game-may-need-audio-middleware
What Middleware Should You Learn?
The two most popular middlewares that are used in the game industry currently are Wwise and FMOD. Wwise generally gets used more in AAA games, as it’s slightly more powerful than Fmod, which shines bright in the indie scene, as it’s easier to learn and use than Wwise but still provides incredible benefits for the audio team.
I would recommend learning Wwise if you’re trying to go down the AAA route while learning Fmod will most likely benefit you more when working with indie developers. Similar to DAWs and game engines, once you learn the basics of one piece of middleware, you’ll find it much easier to pick up and learn any others. If you’re still unsure then I recommend simply choosing Wwise as it’s slightly more popular.
How Do You Learn Middleware?
There are two parts to learning anything: theory and practical application. ‘Learning by doing’ is one of my favourite ways to intuitively understand something, so I recommend approaching middleware in the following way:
Choose the middleware you want to learn and focus on it.
Learn the very basic theory by reading the ‘fundamentals’ sections, and have an instance of the middleware open as you go, so you can see where everything is located and what each parameter and control is for.
Apply your knowledge! This can either be done through the available tutorial projects, by building your own prototype in a game engine and hooking up the middleware to it, or by downloading a free demo scene from a game engine’s asset store and creating a soundscape for it. The main thing to find out is if you are the type of person that benefits from following along tutorials or if simply experimenting is the best way for you.
Start small! This is the most important step as going too fast will make you frustrated and demotivated. Remember that it’s a lot to learn and take in, and even the most seasoned pros learn new things every day, so don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by it - you’re not required to know every single detail but rather have a general understanding to help you learn more specific features with ease if and when you need them.
Wwise Resources
Audiokinetic offers a series of free guided tutorials with practice projects, which are great for learning. You can also pay to receive an official certification, but it isn’t essential to do so: https://www.audiokinetic.com/education/learn-wwise/
Audiokinetic also have a great “Wwise Fundamentals” guide that is well worth reading if you’re looking to learn Wwise: https://www.audiokinetic.com/download/documents/Wwise_Fundamentals.pdf
FMOD Resources
Similar to Wwise, FMOD also has some excellent guided tutorials with demo projects where you can learn by doing. I recommend starting with the beginner project and then moving on from there: https://www.fmod.com/learn
FMOD also has a highly-detailed online reference manual, complete with illustrations and hyperlinks between sections: https://www.fmod.com/resources/documentation-studio?version=2.02&page=fmod-studio-concepts.html
This is a great cheat sheet by Javier Zúmer, which summarises the different built-in parameters you can utilise: http://javierzumer.com/blog/2022/1/28/fmod-built-in-parameters
Other Resources
Here are some amazing tutorials from Alessandro Famà ****for Wwise and FMOD in Unity and Unreal Engine. I highly recommend checking them out as they are easy to follow along and get you started: https://alessandrofama.com/tutorials/
Here is another great video where John Pata shows his workflow for implementing the sound effects for a portal in both FMOD and Unity: https://youtu.be/5jYSmq9Xqb0
