Embedded Files
Lush Krom's
Skywind Voice Mixing & Mastering
Skywind Voice Mixing & Mastering
By Lush Krom
This guide was written in 2025.
1. Organization
1. Organization
Organizing your files into a folder on your PC that is easy to access is crucial. All the files inside will be named properly, the file cutters ensure this. Rarely will you come across any weirdness or corrupted files. Let one of the Audio Department Leads know, in case you do run into a problem that wasn’t caused by you and ask if it’s intentional. Do not touch the file beginning/end in any way and do not add Reverb. The file cutters have instructions they are familiar with and the game engine handles Reverb. Your job is Repairing, Cleaning and Delivering.
Create a New Project and drag and drop your files (often hundreds, sometimes thousands) into your DAW onto one channel. Bit Depth: 16 Bit / Sample Rate: 44.100
Make sure to check whether your DAW allows for Exporting all these regions as separate files in one go. In case your DAW does NOT have that feature, you will need a script, because exporting a thousand files would be NUTS!
One of the Leads will help you navigate to an existing script - Or you can use AutoHotkey (a free software for Windows) and create your own custom Hotkeys for any processes in your DAW/ on your entire Computer that require keystrokes. If you need further guidance with it, hit me up in the Discord server.
The channel with all the files on it carries all the tonal/corrective processing. It then goes into a Group/Bus/Aux that carries the loudness processing.
Create another channel for your References that you can download from ClickUp. Drag and drop them in as well and match their Volume to about -20db. Since these are natural sounding Voice Lines, a range of -19db to -22db seemed fine, without a noticeable, off-putting change in volume.
2. Listening
2. Listening
The listening part is fairly straightforward. You want to listen to some of the voice lines and get a feel for what can be done to repair them, enhance them, bring them together, match the vibe of the already existing voice lines and ultimately just make them sound more pleasing than before.
Your goal is to preserve the natural feel of them, so avoid going overboard with the processing. Remember you want to hear a voice, not a pop-vocal.
Once you’ve got an idea of what you’re dealing with, make sure to set a mark in your project whenever you find a tonal change. Pray that you won’t find any of those in the card you’re working on, because it quickly becomes a nightmare of automation (lol).
While listening, you can then gently increase or decrease the volume of specific voice lines with the clip gain (the volume of that entire audio file, no plugin needed) if they seem too loud/quiet and catch your ear. I like to do that while listening, because it’s a time saver.
3. Processing
3. Processing
I will now share with you the processing chain that worked for me. I have done about 30+ cards in 2-3 weeks and I wasn't pushing myself over any limit, take that for what it’s worth.
Keep in mind that you always have the freedom to change your processing chain, it doesn’t have to be (nor should it be) the same each and every time. Pick and choose what you need. This will get you started:
dxRevive (Noise Removal) Mild
iZotope RX Voice Denoise (Noise Removal) Mild
iZotope RX Mouth De-Click (Mouth Click Removal) Heavy
Utility/Gain (Volume Automation) Heavy
Pro-Q3 (EQ - Dynamic EQ) Heavy
Kotelnikov or Pro-C2 (Compression) Mild
Soothe2 or Pro-MB (Resonance Control - Multiband Compression - De-Essing) Mild
Softube Tape (Gentle Tape Saturation) Very Mild
UAD LA-2A (Gentle Compression) Mild
Kotelnikov or Pro-C2 (Compression) Very Mild
Sonible Smart:Limit (Limiter at -2db) Very Mild
4. Loudness
4. Loudness
When it comes to loudness, your goal is to make sure your files are all perceived at the same volume. When working with many short audio clips like this, my method is to drop them into the YouLean Online Loudness Analyzer. You can do the same with a few analyzer plugins, but chances are you might not have one of those. The YouLean Online Loudness Analyzer is a free website (provided by the company YouLean, if you’re into audio you might know them) where you can pick some of your audio files (in a 1000 file project i’d recommend around 100-200) and quickly see how their volume is doing. You might see your combat lines are a little too loud, but the conversational ones might be a little too low. In that case, you can quickly bump up the volume for the conversational ones in your project and lower the combat ones slightly.
The important part is that this method seems accurate and in line with what others have measured their Volume at, without guessing.
5. Team Feedback
5. Team Feedback
This part is important! You absolutely need to check in with your peers, get their opinions and suggestions and take them into consideration. They often point out things that you might have missed and this is what keeps everything in line and on the same page. The peers have always been great and helpful with me, i’m sure your experience won't differ too much from mine. It can take a while to get feedback at times, in that case you can already start working on your next card and get ready for approval.
I would usually get a card ready, send it into the discord server and work on my next one while waiting for approval. That was the usual for me.
6. Refining
6. Refining
After getting those suggestions and opinions on your Card, refine these voice lines accordingly and consider implementing those suggestions into your workflow from the get-go next time. Be very gentle with the changes you do from this point on, because you’ve mixed the entire thing already. Do not undo what you’ve mixed already. Surely, many of them sound good already and all you have to do is zoom into a few and get them fixed.
7. Delivering
7. Delivering
The files should be exported in 16bit, 44.1k, Mono, not normalized, wav. Even if you get the files in a different format, such as 32bit, the delivery instructions never change.
Export/Bounce/Render your files (each audio file separately)
Remember to use any script, if necessary. Do not attempt to export hundreds/thousands of files manually (trust me lol)
The name of each file has to represent the one that they originally had in the folder you downloaded
Put all the exported files into one big folder (there's a guide on how to name the folder on ClickUp)
Zip the folder up (regular settings, nothing fancy)
Upload the folder to OneDrive (ask one of the Leads about it if you don’t have access to it yet and where exactly to put it). You’ll need an account for that.
And that’s it!
And that’s it!
You’ve now completed your first card. Hooray! It gets easier the second time and EVEN easier the third time so please don’t shy away from a little challenge initially!
It feels very nice to know that your stuff is being used in a huge mod that tens of thousands of people are going to play once it’s released.
And who knows, maybe one day you’ll even beat my record and take the throne!
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