Music and Sound Effects

How to Setup and Use Syrinscape with Fantasy Grounds – Part 2 Using It

June 5, 2021 by Colin The Virtual DM Leave a Comment

Syrinscape is a leader in the TTRPG sound FX department. Fantasy Grounds is a leader in the Virtual TTRPG department. Being able to use these two incredible products as part of your virtual gaming sessions is great. Being able to use them together is AWESOME.

Thanks to two products created by Mattekure and Rob2e called the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Links and the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Chat Triggers, you can setup up Fantasy Grounds so that you can trigger sounds in Syrinscape Online Player. Place the triggers in your stories and notes OR have them triggered automatically based on target words that show in the combat tracker. It truly is AWESOME!!

Topics Covered In The Video

This video is part 2 of a 2-part series. In part 1, I covered how to set up Syrinscape for use in Fantasy Grounds. In part 2, I am going to cover how to use Syrinscape in Fantasy Grounds.

Here is what I will cover in Part 2:
00:00 – 00:27 – Introduction.
00:27 – 01:20 – What you will learn.
01:20 – 05:05 – How to use manual sound triggers.
05:05 – 08:57 – How to use chat sound triggers.
08:57 – 11:53 – How to use the Syrinscape master interface.
11:53 – 18:07 – How to create custom sounds and upload to Fantasy Grounds.
18:07 – 19:12 – Closing.

Links Mentioned In The Video

Here are links to the websites that were mentioned in this video.

Tutorials from Ben Loomes – CEO at Syrinscape

Link to download your csv file from Syrinscape
https://www.syrinscape.com/account/remote-control-links-csv/

Link to covert your csv file from Syrinscape to a mod file for use in Fantasy Grounds
https://mattekure.com/Syrin2FG/

If you like this video, please remember to give it a “thumbs up”. I would appreciate it. Make sure to Subscribe to the channel and hit that notifications icon so that you will know as soon as I post my next video.

Do you use Syrinscape and/or Fantasy Grounds? Do you use them together? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for watching and reading.

How to Setup and Use Syrinscape with Fantasy Grounds – Part 1 Setup

February 15, 2021 by Colin The Virtual DM Leave a Comment

Topics Covered In The Video

This video is part 1 of a 2-part series. In part 1, I am going to cover how to setup Syrinscape for use in Fantasy Grounds. In part 2, I am going to cover how to use Syrinscape in Fantasy Grounds.

Here is what I will cover in Part 1:

00:00 – 00:24 – Introduction
00:24 – 02:56 – What You Will Need to Make This Work
02:56 – 07:48 – Installing Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Links and Chat Triggers
07:48 – 11:22 – Setting Up Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Links and Chat Triggers
11:22 – 14:32 – Connecting the Syrinscape Online Player to Fantasy Grounds
14:32 – 21:08 – Adding the Syrinscape Online Player to Your Voicemeeter Audio Setup
21:08 – 22:41 – Closing

Links Mentioned In The Video

Here are links to the websites that were mentioned in this video.
Dungeon Masters Guild – https://www.dmsguild.com/
Syrinscape – https://www.syrinscape.com/
VB-Audio Software – https://vb-audio.com

This link will take you directly to the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sounds Bundle.
https://www.dmsguild.com/product/319720/Fantasy-Grounds-Syrinscape-Sounds-BUNDLE
Note: This is an affiliate link. I would receive a small commission if you chose to purchase these products using this link. Thank you in advance.

How to Add Your Voice, Sound FX and Music to Discord and Zoom

January 29, 2021 by Colin The Virtual DM Leave a Comment

Being able to add your voice, sound FX, and music to Discord and Zoom for your virtual tabletop sessions help you to immerse your players in their current game environment. Whether they are walking through a crowded city street, climbing through a desolate mountain range, or crawling through a deep, dark dungeon, you can create the perfect audio environment to pull them deeper into the moment… maybe even scare the pants off them once in a while.

Topics Covered In The Video

In this episode of The Virtual DM, I am going to show you how you can create an audio setup on your PC that will allow you to mix your voice, sound FX, and music together for use on Discord, Zoom or really any communications program you use for your virtual table sessions. Here is what I will cover:

00:00 – 00:34 – Introduction

00:34 – 02:24 – Downloading and Installing Voicemeeter Banana and Virtual Audio Cable

02:24 – 05:38 – Review of Voicemeeter Banana

05:38 – 09:36 – Configuring Window Audio Defaults

09:36 – 16:18 – Configuring Voicemeeter Banana

16:18 – 21:25 – Adding Sound FX and Music

21:25 – 26:38 – Configuring Discord and Zoom

26:38 – 27:51 – Important Note About Voicemeeter Banana and Default Sound

27:51 – 28:43 – Closing

Links Mentioned In The Video

Here are links to the websites that were mentioned in this video.

VB-Audio Software – https://vb-audio.com

Tabletop Audio – https://tabletopaudio.com

Ambient-Mixer – https://ambient-mixer.com

If you like this video, please remember to give it a “thumbs up”. I would really appreciate it. Make sure to Subscribe to the channel and hit that notifications icon so that you will know as soon as I post my next video.

Additional Content On This Topic

You can find additional content on this topic at the following links.

How to Play Music and Sound Effects on Discord – https://thevirtualdm.com/how-to-play-music-and-sound-effects-on-discord/

Add Music and Sound Effects to Your RPG Virtual Tabletop Sessions – https://thevirtualdm.com/add-music-and-sound-effects-to-your-rpg-virtual-tabletop-sessions/

What setup do you use to get your voice, sound FX and music into your virtual tabletop sessions? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading.

How to Play Music and Sound Effects on Discord

October 8, 2020 by Colin the Virtual DM 10 Comments

In last week’s article, I discussed how you can add music and sound effects to your RPG virtual tabletop sessions. This week, I am going to discuss how to play music and sound effects on Discord along with your regular voice chat.

As you can probably guess, I use Discord as my voice chat of choice for my RPG virtual tabletop sessions. I am happy with the results, and more importantly, my group is happy with the results as well.

Now I am a bit of an old school guy when it comes to audio, so I haven’t yet gotten into the use of Discord Bots for music and sound effects. I have read lots of great reviews on their use, so I do plan to try them at some point. This will be more for curiosity than necessity, but I am a “give-it-try” kind of person when it comes to new technology.

So, without further ado, here the current setup that I run on my PC.

My Music and Sound Effects Setup

The signal chain for my current Discord setup is as follows:

Source → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Output Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Discord.

Output Channel on Discord → Virtual Audio Cable → Input Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Output Channel on Audio Mixer Application → Headphones

Here is some additional detail on the various components:

My Sources

• Channel 1 > Microphone. I am currently using an old Samson CO1U USB microphone that I have been using for over ten years. It is a great microphone, but I use it now more out of nostalgia than anything else. There are lots of great USB microphones available these days. I would suggest looking at Blue’s lineup including the Blue Yeti, and Blue Snowball. I own a Blue Yeti, and it sounds great. My brother just purchased a Blue Snowball, and it sounds great.

• Channel 2 > Syrinscape. I will begin by saying that I LOVE this application. The quality and variety of music and sound effects make it worth every copper piece. This channel of Syrinscape is triggered from inside of Fantasy Grounds using the Dulux-OZ DOE: Sound Extension. This extension is no longer available which is a shame. There are two new updated options available from the DMs Guild which I plan to switch to in the coming months as they make things much easier than the DOE: Sound Extension. The first is the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Links extension, and the second is the Fantasy Grounds Syrinscape Sound Chat Triggers.

• Channel 3 > Chrome browser where I have Tabletop Audio, Ambient Mixer, YouTube, and Spotify loaded on various tabs depending on my music and sound effect requirements for the session.

• Channel 4 > I use this channel for a line-in from my iPad. I run the iPad primarily to access my iTunes music library as iTunes is a big resource drain on my PC. I also use this channel for Jingle Pallete when I need it.

• Channel 5 > Input from Discord. This is the voice chat coming from my players during our session. It is very nice having this on a separate channel as it allows me to easily turn the player’s voice chat up or down.

• Virtual Channel 1 > Audio for my auxiliary PCs. In addition to my main PC, I run two additional PCs. One for recording/streaming, and the other for my session notes and reference material. Yes, this is a luxury, but I had the PCs available.

• Virtual Channel 2 > Audio for my Local PC. It is great having the audio from my local PC on a separate channel as it allows me to mute it during our sessions so that no unexpected computer-related sounds play.

My Virtual Audio Cables

To get the various sources that I use routed to the correct inputs on the audio mixer requires the use of virtual audio cables. I have been using the Voicemeeter VB-Cables for some time, but I have recently added in the Muzychenko Virtual Audio Cables. The Muxychenko Virtual Audio Cables are pretty much the grandfather of all virtual audio cables, so the technology is very solid. These virtual audio cables allow you to use up to 256 cables which makes it very easy to configure different applications to use a different virtual audio cable.

My Audio Mixer Application

The most important part of my music and sound effects setup is the use of an audio mixer application. My current product of choice is the Voicemeeter Potato Ultimate Mixer. It is an incredible little audio mixer and one that I have enjoyed using. The “Potato” has 8 inputs and 8 outputs which gives you an incredible amount of flexibility in your setup.

My Voice Chat – Discord

The final part of this setup is Discord itself. I use Discord because it is an easy product to understand, has a great support community, and gives me easy access to other Dungeons and Dragons and RPG Virtual Tabletop communities on their servers. I hear lots of great things about other voice chat options such as Team Speak, Mumble, and Overtone, but I am going to stick with Discord. It is a bonus that they have now nicely integrated video chat as well.

Using Music and Sound Effect in Your RPG Virtual Tabletop Sessions

My main RPG virtual tabletop is Fantasy Grounds, and I REALLY love it. Unfortunately, Fantasy Grounds does not have a building audio player like Roll20 or Astral. Luckily, there are some great options to work around this, and I believe that the end product is even better. I have had great success in using my above-mentioned setup so far. I am a huge fan of how using music and sound effects can help to pull your players into the moment and the story. But it must be done right. The technology must add to the experience instead of getting in the way. I have never felt that this current setup has ever done that.

How do you deliver music and sound effects to your RPG virtual tabletop sessions? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading.

EDIT: I now have a video available that explains step-by-step how to get the above setup working on your PC. I have changed my configuration a little since this article. I will update the article as soon as I can. In the meantime, check out “How to Add Your Voice, Sound FX and Music to Discord and Zoom“.

Add Music and Sound Effects to Your RPG Virtual Tabletop Sessions

September 10, 2020 by Colin the Virtual DM Leave a Comment

I am going to start by saying that once you begin you are going to wonder why it took you so long to add music and sound effects to your RPG virtual tabletop sessions. It adds to the atmosphere and helps draw the players into the story and the moment. It just adds more fun!!

A properly placed sound effect of the low, guttural growl of a watchful dragon is much more effective at adding suspense than trying to describe a low, guttural growl. The responses I have received to these types of moments let me know that my players love it as well.

The sound tools available to a DM these days are fantastic, easy to use, and getting better every month. I have a wide array of tools that I use, so I would like to share those with you today.

I generally group the sound tools that I use into two categories; “ready-made” and “do-it-yourself”. There is a cross over between the two, but we will look at them separately.

“Ready-Made” Music and Sound Effects Tools

I define “ready-made” music and sound effects tools as those that have a prepared array of soundboards that only require you to select the music and/or sound effect you are looking for, press a button and it starts playing. These are available both as stand-alone applications and browser-based applications. The ones that I have used the most are:

Syrinscape – https://syrinscape.com/

Syrinscape is my main music and sound effects tool, and it is, in my opinion, the best. Their large library of music and sound effects has something to fit any moment including soundboards that are built specifically for RPG adventures for D&D 5e, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and many others. There is also the ability to mix the music and sound effects into custom soundboards which I enjoy doing. Syrinscape is a paid subscription, but it is worth every copper piece.

Battlebards – https://battlebards.com/#/home

Battlebards has a large library of music and sound effects. I particularly like the music that is available on their service. It is fantastic to set the mood on a transition in your session. I have not used this service much in the past year, so I can’t comment much more on it. Battlebards has a large user base which I think speaks for itself. Battlebards is a paid subscription.

Tabletop Audio – https://tabletopaudio.com/

Tabletop Audio has a decent-sized library of music and sound effects. Its library is not as in-depth as Syrinscape or Battlebards, but its SoundPad application is a fantastic way to add to already existing ambient tracks without having to prepare them ahead of time. Tabletop Audio is free to use but does accept donations. Please donate if you use this application.

Ambient Mixer – https://www.ambient-mixer.com/

Ambient Mixer allows you to use existing ambient sound creations or to build your own. This is a great way to build a very specific ambient soundtrack for a particular point in your session. You can upload sounds to your account if you can’t find the perfect one. Ambient Mixer is free to use but does accept donations. Please donate if you use this application.

Spotify – https://www.spotify.com/ca-en/

I was surprised when I first learned that Spotify has so much music available that suits RPGs. You can gain access to this music with only a free account. Here are a couple of examples. One is an album and one is a playlist.

Album – Massive Ambient Music, Vol.1 | Playlist – Field Music

YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/

I have been listening to great RPG soundtracks on YouTube for years. I didn’t think about adding them to my RPG music and sound effects toolbox until I started to find some great channels and playlist that were dedicated to creating ambient videos. The one thing that you do need to make sure with your chosen videos is that they do not have commercials injected unexpectedly. There is nothing worse than getting to a dramatic moment in your session and having a commercial start on your soundtrack. Here are a couple of examples. One is a channel and one is a playlist.

Channel – Brian Davis | Playlist – RPG / D&D Ambiences

“Do it Yourself” Music and Sound Effects Tools

I define “do it yourself” music and sound effects tools as those that require you to find the sound clips you need, edit it as required, and load it onto your soundboard. I am a bit of a sound geek, so I really enjoy building my own music and sound effect this way. There are a ton of tools available to make this happen, but I am going to discuss the two that I use. I use these tools because they are free and work very well. That is all that I need.

Audacity – https://www.audacityteam.org/

I use Audacity to mix and edit music and sounds that I find into the finished products that I need. This is a fairly simple application to learn and has most everything that is needed for basic audio production. Audacity is free to use but does accept donations. Please donate if you use this application.

Jingle Palette – https://www.jinglepalette.com/

I use Jingle Palette to load my newly created music and sound effects for easy triggering during my session. This soundboard is dead easy to use. I have tried a bunch of others, but I keep coming back to this one.