engineering-elevenlabs-sound-music

ElevenLabs Sound & Music

Purpose

SFX generation, adaptive music, voice acting, and audio state machine integration for games. Covers both the ElevenLabs API (voice lines, SFX) and Vertex AI Lyria (music generation) as user-choosable alternatives. One skill, two providers, one unified audio pipeline.

When to Use

Trigger keywords: sound effects, SFX, music generation, voice acting, adaptive music, audio, ElevenLabs, Lyria, game audio, soundtrack, ambient sound, voice lines, text-to-speech, voice cloning, game music, audio state machine.

Use this skill when:

• Generating sound effects or voice lines via ElevenLabs
• Generating music tracks via Vertex AI Lyria
• Building an adaptive music system that responds to game state
• Setting up an audio state machine with crossfade transitions
• Implementing mobile audio unlock patterns
• Designing a layered audio mix (music + SFX + ambient + voice)

Prerequisites

None. Provider-specific setup is covered in each client boilerplate.

ElevenLabs requires an API key (ELEVENLABS_API_KEY). Vertex AI Lyria requires a Google Cloud project with Vertex AI API enabled and authentication (ADC or service account).

Core Principles

"Silence is as powerful as sound. Restraint in audio design creates moments of profound impact." -- Fumito Ueda (ICO, Shadow of the Colossus)

"Music should mirror the emotional arc. The soundtrack IS the emotional journey." -- Jenova Chen (Journey)

1. Audio is 50% of the experience -- never an afterthought. Budget audio design time equal to visual design time.
2. Adaptive music: the soundtrack responds to game state (combat, exploration, menu). Never play a static playlist.
3. Layered audio: ambient + music + SFX + voice = immersive soundscape. Mix layers independently.
4. Two providers, one interface: ElevenLabs for voice/SFX, Lyria for music -- or mix them. The game code should not care which provider generated the audio file.
5. Preload critical audio, lazy-load ambient: menu music and combat stingers load first. Forest ambience can wait.
6. Respect mobile audio restrictions: iOS and Android require user interaction before playback. Gate audio behind a "Tap to Start" interaction.
7. Audio state machine: define states and transitions, not individual play commands. The system decides what to play based on current state.

Step-by-Step

1. Choose your providers

Need	Provider	Why
Character voice lines	ElevenLabs TTS	Natural speech, voice cloning for consistency
Sound effects	ElevenLabs SFX	Text-described SFX generation
Background music	ElevenLabs Music API	Prompt-driven, up to 5 min, vocals or instrumental
Background music (alt)	Vertex AI Lyria	32.8s instrumental WAV, fixed duration
Ambient loops	ElevenLabs Music API or Lyria	ElevenLabs for flexible duration, Lyria for WAV output

2. Set up API clients

• Copy boilerplate/elevenlabs-client.ts for voice and SFX generation
• Copy boilerplate/elevenlabs-music-client.ts for ElevenLabs music generation (preferred for most games)
• Copy boilerplate/lyria-client.ts for music generation
• Configure environment variables for your chosen provider(s)

3. Define your audio states

Use templates/sound-config.ts as a starting point. Define every game state that needs distinct audio (menu, exploration, combat, boss, social, idle). Map each state to track paths, volume levels, and crossfade durations.

4. Implement the audio manager

Copy boilerplate/audio-manager.ts into your project. This provides:

• State-based music switching with crossfade
• Independent volume layers (music, SFX, voice, ambient)
• Mobile audio unlock
• Preload manifest support

5. Generate your audio assets

Use the prompt templates from templates/prompt-catalog.md:

• ElevenLabs: voice lines, UI sounds, combat SFX
• Lyria: menu theme, exploration music, combat tracks, boss themes

6. Convert and organize

Lyria outputs WAV (32.8s, 48 kHz stereo). Convert for web:

# WAV to OGG (primary web format)
ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a libvorbis -q:a 5 output.ogg

# WAV to MP3 (fallback)
ffmpeg -i input.wav -c:a libmp3lame -q:a 2 output.mp3

ElevenLabs outputs MP3 or OGG directly -- no conversion needed.

7. Integrate with game state

Subscribe your audio manager to game state changes. When the game enters combat, the audio manager crossfades to the combat track. When combat ends, it plays the victory stinger then fades back to exploration.

Code Examples

ElevenLabs: Generate a voice line

import { ElevenLabsClient } from './elevenlabs-client';

const client = new ElevenLabsClient(process.env.ELEVENLABS_API_KEY!);

// Generate NPC dialogue
const audioBuffer = await client.textToSpeech(
  'Welcome, traveler. The road ahead is dangerous.',
  { voiceId: 'your-voice-id', model: 'eleven_multilingual_v2' },
);
await Bun.write('public/audio/voice/npc_greeting.mp3', audioBuffer);

ElevenLabs: Generate a sound effect

const sfxBuffer = await client.generateSfx(
  'sword clash, metallic impact, brief reverb',
  { duration: 2 },
);
await Bun.write('public/audio/sfx/sword_clash.mp3', sfxBuffer);

ElevenLabs Music API: Generate a combat track

// Uses @elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js directly (not the wrapper in elevenlabs-client.ts)
import { ElevenLabsClient } from '@elevenlabs/elevenlabs-js';
import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs';

const client = new ElevenLabsClient({ apiKey: process.env.ELEVENLABS_API_KEY });

// Basic generation
const audio = await client.music.compose({
  prompt: 'Intense battle music, driving and urgent, 150 BPM, electric guitar riffs, pounding drums, brass stabs, instrumental only',
  musicLengthMs: 60000,
});

const chunks: Buffer[] = [];
for await (const chunk of audio) {
  chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk));
}
writeFileSync('public/audio/music/combat_standard.mp3', Buffer.concat(chunks));

For granular control, generate a composition plan first:

// compositionPlan API may require a recent ElevenLabs SDK version; check docs if unavailable
const plan = await client.music.compositionPlan.create({
  prompt: 'Intense battle music, 150 BPM, no vocals',
  musicLengthMs: 60000,
});
// Inspect plan.positiveGlobalStyles, modify if needed
const audio = await client.music.compose({
  compositionPlan: plan,
  musicLengthMs: 60000,
});

Lyria: Generate a combat track (alternative)

import { LyriaClient } from './lyria-client';

const lyria = new LyriaClient({
  projectId: process.env.GCP_PROJECT_ID!,
  location: 'us-central1',
});

const tracks = await lyria.generate({
  prompt: 'Intense battle music, driving and urgent, 150 BPM, electric guitar riffs, pounding drums, brass stabs',
  negativePrompt: 'no vocals, no calm sections, no silence, no sound effects',
  seed: 2001,
  sampleCount: 2,
});

await lyria.saveAll(tracks, 'combat_standard', './output/music/combat');

Audio state machine usage

import { AudioManager } from './audio-manager';
import { AUDIO_CONFIG } from './sound-config';

const audio = new AudioManager(AUDIO_CONFIG);
audio.unlockMobile();

// Game state changes drive audio automatically
audio.transition('menu');        // Plays menu theme
audio.transition('exploration'); // Crossfades to exploration + ambient
audio.transition('combat');      // Fast crossfade to combat music
audio.transition('boss');        // Switches to boss theme
audio.playSfx('sword_clash');    // One-shot SFX on top
audio.playVoice('npc_greeting'); // Voice line on top

Cross-References

• game-backend-architecture: Server-side audio asset management, CDN delivery
• game-design-fundamentals: Feedback loops -- audio reinforces player actions and emotional beats

Pitfalls

1. Playing audio without user interaction on mobile -- iOS/Android will silently fail. Always gate behind a tap/click.
2. No crossfade between states -- Hard cuts between combat and exploration music break immersion. Always crossfade.
3. Single volume slider -- Players need separate music, SFX, voice, and ambient controls. Provide per-layer sliders.
4. Music API: forgetting 'instrumental only' -- ElevenLabs Music API may add vocals unless you include instrumental only in your prompt. For Lyria, include no vocals, no sound effects as a negative prompt.
5. Not preloading combat audio -- If combat starts and the track is still loading, the player hears silence. Preload combat tracks during exploration.
6. Ignoring audio file size -- OGG is smaller than MP3 at similar quality. Use OGG primary, MP3 fallback. Compress aggressively for ambient loops.
7. Hardcoding track paths -- Use a config mapping (state to path). Swapping tracks during iteration becomes trivial.
8. Not saving Lyria seeds -- Without the seed, you cannot reproduce or refine a track. Always log seeds in a manifest.

Designer Philosophy

Fumito Ueda (ICO, Shadow of the Colossus): Silence is as powerful as sound. Restraint in audio design creates moments of profound impact. When the music drops out during a key moment, the silence itself becomes the emotional beat. Do not fill every second with audio.

Jenova Chen (Journey): Music should mirror the emotional arc. The soundtrack IS the emotional journey. In Journey, the music builds with the player's progress, peaks at moments of connection, and recedes during solitude. Your adaptive music system should do the same -- the audio state machine is the tool that makes this possible.

Sources

• ElevenLabs API Documentation
• ElevenLabs Sound Effects API
• ElevenLabs Music API Documentation
• ElevenLabs Music Best Practices
• Vertex AI Lyria Documentation
• GDC Vault -- Game Audio Talks
• Web Audio API -- MDN