RPG Tools: SoundPad

The follow-up promised last week, but first, the boilerplate... The modern GameMaster is always looking for online tools to help make their campaign more immersive. After all, many of us have been relegated to playing online - the pandemic pushed it, but so did adulting, now parents can take a short break to put their kids to bed, etc. in the middle of a session, no problem - and GMs have to create the immediacy of the in-persion experience somehow. A lot of online tools are subscription-based, and that interests me less. Over the course of a few articles, I want to look at a few, neat, online tools that can make a difference in keeping the players engaged, the equivalent of the props and hand-outs you might have crafted and passed around in the old days.

This week: SoundPad

SoundPad is a new feature on Tabletop Audio that allows you to create soundscapes and sound effects at the touch of a button. Whatever genre or environment you're playing in, SoundPad probably has you covered, with (to date) 32 packages of (usually) 40 sounds for Horror, Film Noir, Westerns, Cyberpunk, Spies, Sci-Fi (and are you on a planet, a starship, a futuristic city?) and of course, Fantasy, to name but a few, as well as action styles (Medieval combat, futuristic battle, wuxia...) and a more generic package that gives you sounds for Critical Hits, Levelling Up, etc. (at the risk of making it too much like a video game). Once you "launch soundpad", you'll be taken to the sound collection which includes background atmospheres, sound effects (period-correct phone rings, footsteps, vehicles, etc.), tones and music. Here's a sample of some sounds from the Cthulhu SoundPad:

Now, of course, the GM already has their hands full during a game, so clicking on "riffling through desk" or "pouring whisky" might be overdoing it, but GM chores are something that can be shared. A player who likes to "DJ" might enjoy using the platform to drop in appropriate sounds as they occur, and be directed by the GM to play certain atmospheres as they come up. What's to stop a table from having several devices at the table and clicking their own sword strikes and laser shots?

But generally, a GM might use SoundPad to pre-record atmosphere - wind, music, waves lapping at the shore's edge - in a way that Tabletop Audio doesn't already provide. Each sound can be looped (as you can see, with a check box), and the full loop, with all its layers, can be saved and replayed from the Pad. You can also donate to their Patreon to download the sounds separately so you can edit them yourself in Audacity, Garage Band, what have you. Doing your own editing is still the only way to really control a pre-recorded ambience (say one that has footsteps, then a scream, all while mysterious music is playing, without having to push various buttons in sequence), and as someone who HAS done that, I'll tell you one of the toughest things to do is finding the right sound effects and recording them from YouTube to make it work. It's a lot of searching for that exact boxing bell or vuvuvuvuvuvu psionic thrumming. SoundPad has done the work for you: Clean SFX appropriate to your genre, all in one place, with controllable volume and the possibility of layering.

That's all well and good, you say, if you're all sitting together at the same table. But what about online play? Obviously, if you have prefab sound files ready to go and you're already using the capabilities of Discord, Roll20 or Foundry to play them, that's fine. But can you pipe in sound effects straight off SoundPad? The answer is yes:

As you can see here, there is a (*new*) Broadcast button that gives you a link to share with participants. The Players connected to that link will hear everything you play! Surprise them with a gunshot (trigger warning), or a TUN-DUN-DUNNNNN suspense sting, exactly when you want it. I think the link is Pad specific, so one thing I don't think you can do is switch Pads without some fussing. Still, it's pretty fun. And immersive. Especially if you're agile with the Pad. Obviously, you can't make Players wait around while you look for specific sounds; it needs to be seamlessly embedded into the session.

So to your Launch Pads, 10, 9, 8, 7...