Medieval skirmish loops

Question

So a little introduction to a part of what I'm working on. I'm working on creating SFX for a real-time-strategy game with a medieval setting.

Okay, one of the main needs of SFX for the game is a combat loop or skirmish. Like a group of knights/warriors/whatever battling amongst themselves with clashing swords and the such.

So, since I haven't played too many games like this I'm a little unfamiliar with how these games deal with these scenarios or how they should sound. I'm thinking of getting some people together (with or without metal objects, have to consider safety), setting up a pair of overhead omnis and getting them to yell like warriors in Lord of the Rings or something of the sort and getting a few takes of this. Then I would layer the recordings, the ones sitting in the back would have reduced higher frequencies with some reverb and the layers in front would feature the opposite. I was also thinking of getting some isolated yells to add some distinction and interest to the loop as well as sword clangs I have already created.

So my question is, would this be a good approach which would yield usable results? Any pointers or things I should consider would be very helpful. Thanks!

Answer 1

You should record a local martial arts/sword group or a medieval fight show for authentic and realistic sounds. They're especially popular in Denmark, Germany and Poland:

Or you can recreate such scenes with sound libraries.

Good choices would be the "Group Vocals" section from ILIO's Origins: http://www.ilio.com/products/ilio-samplelibrary/origins and "Medieval Weapons" by Boom Library: http://www.boomlibrary.com/boomlibrary/products/medieval-weapons

And of course the "usual suspects" like Sound Ideas and Hollywood Edge.

EDIT: And play (or watch some Let's Plays) games like "Stronghold" and "Age of Empires 2" to get inspired. (I think those games used samples from Sound Ideas and Hollywood Edge)

Answer 2

Layering is a definite possibility. I would recommend doing sword noises (look it up), clashing metal, grunting, yelling, running sounds, impact noises and cloth rustling. put them all together in post. Make a couple different 30second to 2minute tracks of this general war sound. Then in you game it can cycle between them (maybe randomly) with some overlay so it's continuous. As long as each conglomerate track starts and ends with a fade in/fade out it should be pretty good.

Don't underestimate the power of layering simple sounds together to make complex scenes much larger than the sum of their parts.