A product testimonial from Ed Walker, Sound Designer, DiRT 2, Codemasters Software Company Ltd.

When Codemasters announced Colin McRae: DiRT™ 2, the latest iteration in the Colin McRae racing game series, expectations for the game audio were incredibly high. The original Colin McRae: DiRT, published in 2007, received a massive amount of praise from gamers, critics, and fellow audio professionals.
 
We were happy with the results ourselves, but felt there were areas we could improve upon. One of these areas was the audio mastering of the platform output. With DiRT 2 we went to considerable lengths to ensure that the console audio output was not only in line with other game titles, but also that it conformed to film industry standards. For example, we dedicated the Center channel to speech and designed low-frequency audio assets specifically for the LFE channel. We also mixed the game audio levels to guarantee that there was a lot of dynamic range and enough headroom for the collisions to have impact without getting too close to 0 dB. The way we chose to do this was by using a professional audio surround sound decoder, the Dolby® DP564, to constantly monitor the platform audio output.
 
It can be unproductive using consumer or even professional decoders that are not 100 percent accurate. When decoding with a consumer unit, it is possible to spend a lot of time trying to fix problems that don’t exist or to miss things that are wrong as a result of incorrect bass management.

While working on DiRT 2, I constantly made recordings of the audio output from the DP564 decoding each platform that I referred to throughout development. It is important that the audio mix is consistent across the different platforms, and by using these recordings and having the DP564 running in front of me at all times, I could see and hear exactly how the audio placement and audio mastering were progressing.
 
Codemasters often develops the same title across multiple platforms, comparing and matching the audio output across the PS3™, Xbox 360®, and PC editions. The most sensible way to do this is to start with one common type of encoding and audio connection. I use Dolby Digital 5.1 through a Toslink™ optical connection. Once DiRT 2 sounded great on all platforms using Dolby Digital 5.1, we then checked and mixed the other audio configurations.

As games are often played back using TV speakers, the stereo mix is very important to us. We produced separate mixes for stereo and surround, and we used the DP564 to check the stereo levels and Dolby Pro Logic® II compatibility. I listened to DiRT 2 on a number of home consumer units to make sure it sounded okay. I didn’t need to change anything based on the sound of a particular consumer system, because I knew I had gotten it right using the DP564.
 
As far as I can see, there is really no substitute to a DP564 when you need to decode an optical Dolby signal in a professional environment. In the past, I have spent a lot of time with my hand on the subwoofer trying to work out if it is moving because of the LFE send or because the bass is being crossed over incorrectly.

Using the DP564 you can instantly see if the LFE is working. DiRT 2 definitely benefited from the DP564 running in front of me at all times. I could clearly see the output metering, and always trusted that the audio signal was being decoded precisely.