manual - AudioGaming

V1.1 Pro
User guide
BEFORE WE GET STARTED
Thank you for buying or trying AudioSteps. Your support is greatly appreciated and be sure
that any means we have goes directly into R&D and product enhancement. If you encounter
any problem or simply if you want to give us a feedback, feel free to send us a mail at
[email protected], we will be happy to read from you and/or help you if needed.
Information in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of AudioGaming. The software described in this manual is furnished
under a license agreement. The software may be used only in accordance of the terms of this
license agreement. It is against the law to copy this software on any medium except as
speciﬁcally allowed in the license agreement. No part of this manual may be copied,
photocopied, reproduced, translated, distributed or converted to any electronic or machinereadable form in whole or in part without prior written approval of AudioGaming.
Copyright © 2014 AudioGaming
Program Copyright © 2014 AudioGaming. All rights reserved.
AudioSteps is a trademark of AudioGaming.
Windows is either trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Mac OS X, Audio Units and App
Store are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.. VST is trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. RTAS,
AAX and Pro Tools are registered trademarks of Avid Technology Inc.. All other product and company names are
either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owner. Unauthorized copying, renting or lending
of the software is strictly prohibited.
Visit AudioGaming online at http://www.audiogaming.net
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTON
4
Thousands Of Footsteps At Your Fingertips
4
System requirements
4
INSTALLATION
5
Windows
5
Mac OSX
6
Activation
7
QUICK START QUIDE
10
AUDIOSTEPS SYNTHESIZER
12
AudioSteps General Architecture
12
Soundbank Selection
12
Normal Steps Behaviour
13
Advanced Steps Control
13
Virtual Keyboard / Recording Setup
14
Pitch / Master / Preset Manager
15
Option Menu
16
OPEN SOUND CONTROL
17
TouchOSC Setup Guide
17
Lemur Setup Guide
18
How to know my computer’s IP address
19
AudioSteps OSC Setup Guide
20
EXAMPLES
21
INTRODUCTION
AudioSteps is a footstep sound synthesizer based on high quality footstep recordings and
intuitive controls. AudioSteps sound banks include 23 combinations of footwear (tennis
shoes, high-heels, business shoes, etc.) and ground surfaces (gravel, concrete, water, wood,
etc.). Each combination contains a great variety of variations to generate footsteps of
different walking/running speeds and styles. AudioSteps provides several sound design
controls and MIDI/automation integration, allowing efficient generation and creative sound
design of realistic footstep sequences.
Thousands of footsteps at your fingertips
AudioSteps allows various synthesis controls of thousands of well-recorded/edited footstep
sounds. It is designed to save your foley time and facilitate post-production and game sound
creation. For a challenging recording source like footsteps, it not only requires techniques to
record but also knowledge to edit. It often happens that the sound recorded while shooting
a video is not satisfying and one needs to edit the sound scene from another clean recording.
For games and video materials like animation, there is no sound at all and one has to create
the sound scene from ground up.
Our goal is to provide a tool that makes it easy to re-create various footstep sequences.
Armed with MIDI control and automation, AudioSteps will become an essential tool,
allowing you to save hours of editing. The process of creating new footstep sounds will even
be more fun!
System requirements
AudioSteps is compatible with the following standard
INSTALLATION
Windows
Double-click on audiosteps_pro_full_v1.1.0_setup.exe (or the one for the trial version) to
launch installation wizard. Click on “Next” to go to the next screen. You have to read and
agree to the End User License Agreement before proceeding. On the following screen you’ll
be able to choose the components you want to install:
-
-
Common files regroups all documentation related to this product
Databanks – embedded banks of sounds, they are provided as examples/demos of
what you can do with the plugin. Please do not hesitate to try your own recordings!
VSTi 32-bit will install the 32-bit VST instrument
VSTi 64-bit will install the 64-bit VST instrument
RTAS (32-bit only) will install the plugin for Pro Tools (9 or 10)
AAX 32-bit: the 32-bit version of the AAX plugin for Pro Tools 10.3.5. If you own an
older version of Pro Tools 10, you can either install the RTAS instead (the plugins are
very similar), or update your Pro Tools to the latest version.
AAX 64-bit: the 64-bit version of the AAX plugin for Pro Tools 11 exclusively. This
won’t work on older versions of Pro Tools. If you previously installed the 32-bit
version and switched later to Pro Tools 11, don’t forget to uninstall/remove the old
32-bit AAX (you can do the same for all your other 32-bit plugins as only 64-bit AAX
plugins will work on Pro Tools 11)
The following screens of the installer will allow you to choose custom locations for common
files, VSTi 32 / 64-bit, RTAS and AAX.
Default installation paths
Common files and databanks: “C:\Program Files (x86)\AudioGaming”
32-bit VSTi plug-in: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Vstplugins”
64-bit VSTi plug-in: “C:\Program Files\Vstplugins”
RTAS plug-in: “C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Digidesign\DAE\Plug-Ins”
32 / 64-bit AAX plug-in: “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Avid\Audio\Plug-Ins”
You may have to install Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables. If you don’t have them already
installed on your computer, select “Yes” when the installer asks you if you want to install the
package. Otherwise, you can click on “No”. The installation is then complete.
Mac OS X
Double-click on audiosteps_pro_full_v1.1.0.pkg (or the one for the trial version) to launch
installation wizard. Please read and accept the End User License agreement in order to
proceed. By default, the installer is set on “automatic” mode and you won’t have anything to
do, but you can also choose a “custom” installation mode and you’ll be able to select which
component you want to install and where to install it. The different choices are:
-
Common files – regroups all documentation related to this product
Databanks – embedded banks of sounds, they are provided as examples/demos of
what you can do with the plug-in. Please do not hesitate to try your own recordings!
VSTi 32 / 64-bit will install the VST instrument
AudioUnit 32 / 64-bit will install the Audio Unit instrument (for Logic and other
compatible hosts)
RTAS (32-bit only) will install the plugin for Pro Tools (9 or 10)
AAX 32 / 64-bit will install the AAX plugin for Pro Tools 10 (32-bit) and 11 (64-bit).
Default installation paths
Common files and databanks: “/Applications/AudioGaming”
32 / 64-bit VSTi plug-in: “/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST”
32 / 64-bit AUi plug-in: “/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components”
RTAS plug-in: “/Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins”
32 / 64-bit AAX plug-in: “/Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio/Plug-Ins”
Note: With the exception of RTAS, the VSTi, AUi and AAX plugins are universal binaries. This
means your host will automatically load the right version, depending on its architecture. For
example, if you launch Pro Tools 10, it will load the 32-bit AAX and if you launch Pro Tools 11,
it will see the 64-bit AAX.
Activation
When launching AudioWind for the first time in your favorite host, you have to enter an
activation key. You should have received it via email when purchasing the product. The mail
containing activation key is a different email from the one giving direct download links. The
email title should be Your AudioGaming product keys.
When launching the plugin, a popup wizard will guide you through the activation process.
The first step will be for you to read and accept the End-User License, as well as providing
your license key. You can postpone the activation at any time but if one of the three steps is
not fulfilled correctly, you will need to go back to the Options Menu later, or you may not be
able to hear sound at all.
The second step asks you for the path where your Databanks are stored. It depends on how
the installation of the plugin went: if you decided to do a “standard” installation, the plugin
should be able to find the Databanks itself, but if you chose a custom location, an external
drive for instance, you may need to tell the plugin where to look. Once a valid path is found,
the wizard will greet you to the final step.
The final step will ask you for additional keys for the Databanks that were found in the
selected path. A “Databank” is in fact an additional product that needs to be activated as
much as the main plugin. With a full version of a purchased AudioSteps, the base Databanks
are included but needs another key, also provided in the email you received when buying the
product. For the free version, the limited Databanks are already pre-activated and the
activation wizard should have succeeded after step two.
Each product key has a limited number of activations, 3 by default. That means you will be
able to register the product on three different computers. Once you register for the first time
on a computer, your associated hardware ID will remain on our servers. That means that if
one day you decide to re-install your operating system, you’ll still have to enter your
activation key for your products but it won’t increment the number of activations.
If you encounter any problem with the activation process, please don’t hesitate to send us an
email at [email protected].
Please note that unlike the trial versions of our other products (AudioWind, AudioRain,
AudioMotors), there is no time limitation for the free version of AudioSteps. However, the
full version contains a huge amount of audio content (databanks) that is not included in the
free version! Although there are no apparent feature limitations between the Full and Free
versions, they remain two completely different “products”, so if you make the switch
between trial to full version, just download the new package, install the product, enter your
new activation key and you’ll be ready to go!
QUICK STRAT GUIDE
A
B
I
F
E
C
D
G
H
Loading a footstep sound bank
Click on A to load a sound bank of a surface-footwear combination. The list of combinations
will appear right after the first click. Then, you can preview each sound bank by a single click
and load the one you want by double clicks.
Automatically trigger footstep samples
Enable “Auto Trigger” B to generate the “normal” footstep sounds automatically. The
walking speed can be controlled through the “Tempo” knob based on the BPM unit. Since
natural walking does not maintain at a constant speed, you may randomize the triggering
rate by the “Randomize” control.
Individually trigger footstep samples
In additional to auto-triggering, AudioSteps allows individual triggering of one footstep
sample after another. There are three “Walking Speeds” to switch: “Slow”, “Med” and “Fast”.
In “Advanced Step Controls”, there are individual triggers C of “Normal”, “Skid”, “Scuff” and
“On Spot” footstep types for either left or right foot. The “Skid” footstep can be used upon
interruption of a walking sequence. The “Scuff” footstep can be used when the footwear
scrapes the ground surface. The “On Spot” sound is made by slight footstep movements
without actually walking.
The “Clumsiness” control allows mixing incomplete footsteps for realistic footstep sequence
rendering. The “Envelope” control G allows shaping the attack and release phase of a
footstep through intuitive dragging of control points. Notice that the envelope can be
selectively applied to each of the footstep types.
Virtual keyboard and MIDI control
These individual footstep triggers can be directly controlled by MIDI and the mapping of the
MIDI key range is shown in the virtual keyboard D below. You can also switch foot-rolling
speed by MIDI E. You can adjust the key range settings in “MENU” F options. If you enable
“Note Off” H, the attack and release phase of a footstep will be triggered for “Note On” and
“Note Off” MIDI messages, respectively.
Recording setup simulation
There are two recording setup simulations: (1) “Mic. Perspective” simulates close miking and
distant miking. (2) “Footstep Distance” simulates the footstep sound source distance.
Pitch and Master sections
In the Pitch section, “Transpose” applies transposition with randomization tweaks. In the
Master section, “Filter” provides low-cut and high-cut frequency controls. There is also
master gain control. All these controls apply to the output of the footstep sounds.
Presets
For the moment, there are no factory presets. You can store and reload your customized
presets for later use.
Status bar
The status bar I displays the sound bank loading status and control tooltips.
Automation
You can automate almost every parameter of AudioSteps.
AUDIOSTEPS SYNTHESIZER
AudioSteps General Architecture
Footsteps sounds are created by the scratching occurring when applying any footwear on any
surface. The scratching, and therefore the sound, may vary considerably depending on the
footwear and surface combination, but also depends heavily on the way the pressure is
applied by the footwear – the gait – that make all footsteps sounds different from each other,
and yet even more different between people.
The models created for AudioSteps allow recreating all the above mentioned aspects. At the
heart of it lies high quality footsteps sounds recordings, used as a base for the
footwear/surface combination sound. Then numerous high-level sound design parameters
give you access to real-time, easy sound editing to help you shape the sound to your needs.
AudioSteps workflow is organized as follow:
1. Choose the soundbank of the wanted footstep and surface combination.
2. Choose to control by Auto Triggering or manual triggering of individual footsteps.
3. Adjust sound design parameters like Mic. Perspective, Pitch, etc.
4. Record the sequence using MIDI or automation.
Each element of this AudioSteps will be detailed in the following.
Soundbank Selection: Footwear and surface combination
You can select among 23 combinations of footwear (tennis, ballet shoes, business shoes,
hiking boots and stiletto heel) - surface (gravel, concrete, dirt, tiles, water and wood parquet)
combinations.
For each combination, you can select among three walking
speeds:
Slow This gets along with creeping gaits.
Med This is a casual speed, for most usual situations.
Fast This is useful for the running scenario.
Normal Steps Behaviour
Auto Trigger Activate this option to automatically generate footsteps sequence. The
generated footsteps are controlled by the following parameters.
Tempo This controls the triggering rate as a unit of BPM.
Randomize This adds randomization to Speed. It is useful to generate a more natural
footsteps sequence.
Clumsiness This control mixes “imperfect” footsteps into the footsteps sequence.
Advanced Steps Control
In addition to using “Auto Trigger”, you can trigger individual footsteps with the following
controls:
NORMAL This is the basic, usual behaviour. It might be used for any pass-by occurrence
including walking, running or creeping.
SKID This is the stopping sound ending a footsteps sequence.
SCUFF This is the characteristic scrapping sound produced by a sliding foot when landing,
stopping or stumbling.
ON SPOT This is the walking in place sound, to be used for instance in conversations.
ENVELOPE This is used to selectively apply the envelope to each footstep sounds. It allows
shaping the envelope of a single footstep sound. You can shape the footstep sound the way
you like by dragging the four control points: trim begin/end and fade in/out time.
Virtual Keyboard
The virtual keyboard displays the key ranges for footstep speed switch and triggering.
The left-hand side three white keys are used to switch among Slow/Med/Fast walking speed.
The right-hand side seven keys are used to trigger Left Normal, Right Normal, Left Skid, Right
Skid, Left Scuff, Right Scuff and On Spot footsteps, respectively.
You can enable Note Off to trigger the attack and release separately with Note On and Note
Off MIDI messages.
Keep in mind that you can edit those areas by going to the Options Menu, in the Audio tab. In
the MIDI section, change the “root notes” and the areas bounds will be updated.
Recording Setup
Mic. Perspective simulates different miking perspective
and directivity - one of them usually being a cardioid, the
other an omnidirectional. Whatever gear you choose, all
our recordings are made with high-quality professional
recording microphones and preamps in order to get the
highest possible signal-to-noise ratio.
Footstep Distance simulates the footsteps distance from the listening point based on
reverberation.
Pitch
Transpose allows pitch transposition as a general sound design parameter.
Random Range allows pitch randomization relative to the target transposition. The Random
Up limit and Random Down limit sets the respective randomization limit.
Master
Filter allows you to filter the low-end and high-end with the desired cut-off frequencies.
Gain is the master gain control.
Preset Manager
You can add/delete and import/export presets. Right click on each preset for more options.
Option Menu
The Audio tab in Menu provides the setup path of Databanks (soundbank). In case you do
not install the soundbank at the default path, you can set up the soundbank here.
The MIDI root note settings allow set up of the key ranges of your convenience (for the
virtual keyboard).
The License tab is where you enter your product keys: one for the plugin, others for the
databanks.
The About tab gives you more information about this plugin and our company.
OPEN SOUND CONTROL
AudioSteps is an OSC friendly plugin, meaning that you can use any OSC enabled device or
software you want to control it. We also provide fully functional templates for both
TouchOSC and Lemur users on iPad. You can find the files here:
http://www.audiogaming.net/download/osc/AudioSteps.touchosc (TouchOSC)
http://www.audiogaming.net/download/osc/AudioSteps.jzml (Lemur)
TouchOSC Setup Guide
The following guide covers the installation and configuration of TouchOSC on iPad for
AudioSteps.
TouchOSC is an OSC app available on the App Store. Search it in the App Store or go to
hexler.net to download it on your computer. Once the app is installed, please plug your iPad,
start iTunes and go to your device’s “Apps” tab Scroll to the File Sharing section where you
will find a list of Apps. Select TouchOSC from this list and a new list of TouchOSC related
document should appear. You can now add the AudioWind template by dropping it into that
list or by clicking the Add button.
Next you will need to start TouchOSC on your iPad and tap on the OSC row in the Connection
section and turn the Enabled switch on.
The host should be the IP address of the computer running AudioSteps, please scroll to the
next section if you don’t know how to find your IP address. AudioSteps is, by default,
configured to send on port 8000 and receive on port 9001.
You can of course customize the ports to be used. Please make sure that those ports are not
already occupied by any other process on your computer and to reflect your configuration in
the AudioSteps preferences (see below). Once the configuration is done, go back to the main
menu in TouchOSC and tap the Layout row. The AudioSteps template should appear in the
list, tapping it will make it the current active template.
The TouchOSC configuration is now over you can go back to the main menu and tap the Done
button in the upper-right corner of the iPad.
Lemur Setup Guide
The following guide covers the installation and configuration of Lemur on iPad for
AudioSteps. Lemur is an OSC app available on the App Store, you can search the App Store or
go to liine.net to download it on your computer. Once the app is installed, please plug your
iPad, start iTunes and go to your device’s “Apps” tab Scroll to the File Sharing section where
you will find a list of Apps. Select Lemur from this list and a new list of Lemur related
document should appear. You can now add the AudioSteps template by dropping it into that
list or by clicking the Add button.
Next you will need to start Lemur on your iPad and tap on the gear icon in the upper-right
corner of the screen and tap the More settings… row
In the OSC section, tap the Add Target and fill the Host field with the IP address of the
computer running AudioSteps, please scroll to the next section if you don’t know how to find
your IP address. The incoming port of the Lemur app is set to 8000 and can’t be changed, you
can only customize the outgoing port which should be set to 9001 if you want to use
AudioSteps’ default port configuration. If you want to use another outgoing port, just make
sure that this port isn’t already used by any other process on your computer and to reflect
your configuration in the AudioSteps preferences. When you’re done, your OSC Targets
should look like this:
Tap the Done button to close the Settings panel and once again tap the gear icon in the
upper-right corner of the screen and tap on the Project row. The AudioSteps template should
appear in the list and tapping it will make it the current active template.
How to know my computer’s IP address
If you’re a Mac user click to the Apple icon on the upper-left corner of the screen and select
System Preferences. Go to the Network button which should be on the third row and your IP
address should appear.
If you’re a Windows user, click the Start button, open the Control Panel and go to Network
and Internet, then go to Network and Sharing Center. You should see your network under
View your active networks. Click the name of your network next to the Connections label on
the right and then go to Details. Your computer’s IP address should appear in the value
column next to IPV4 IP Address.
AudioSteps OSC Setup Guide
To enable OSC, open AudioSteps preference by clicking the Menu button. Go to the OSC and
check the Enabled box, the Remote IP field and Port should now be editable. The Remote IP
should be the IP Address of your iPad which can be found in the configuration page of both
Lemur and TouchOSC we have seen previously. If you are having trouble finding this IP you
can still open the Settings app on your iPad, go to the Wi-Fi tab and tap the blue arrow next
to the network you’re currently connected. If you configured Lemur or TouchOSC with our
default port values, you shouldn’t need to go any further. Otherwise, make sure you reflect
the exact same port configuration on both the computer and the iPad.
Congratulations! Now you should be able to control AudioSteps with your iPad !
EXAMPLES
Add sound to a video in Nuendo with AudioSteps
Open Nuendo’s VST instruments panel (F11 shortcut on windows), instantiate the AudioSteps
VSTi plugin. Answers “Yes” when it asks if you want to create a new Midi track associated
with this plugin.
Use AudioSteps databank selector to choose the databank you want to use.
Record a MIDI sequence in sync to the video: you can either use an external MIDI keyboard,
the internal keyboard or the pads provided inside the plugin GUI. You can also directly place
Midi events on Nuendo’s piano roll.
You can now easily transform the sound, by moving the “Distance” slider (1), changing the
pitch a little up (2), and cutting off the high frequencies and adding some “Clumsiness” (3).
Don’t hesitate to try other controls too!
3
1
2
Now, create an additional track In Nuendo, and load another instance of the AudioSteps
plugin. Use the databank selector to select a bank on a “Water” floor.
You can now mix the two kinds of footsteps together to get a layered footstep sound.

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