It’s been a couple of weeks, and darn it, I’m putting out something! I just finished working on an episode of Wonderpets (doing orchestrations and MIDI mockups), and I realized that there are a lot of tricks to making your mockups sound really realistic. I thought I’d send out some pointers to my readers…
First tip? When you set up your computers and write orchestral mockups, a great way to make them sound more realistic is to have each of your families (strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion) route out to one stereo output. Then, you can do two things.
1. You can control the volume of each family of instrument, so as you’re mixing your orchestral piece, you can blend instruments together, or bring out a certain section if need be.
2. You can have different amounts of reverb on each family of instruments, which helps to “place” the instruments closer or further in the spatial field. For example, strings traditionally are in the front of the orchestra, with the brass further in the back. You can “represent” that in your mockups by having your strings have less reverb (lower mix, lower volume), and your brass have more reverb. That helps the listener feel like the instruments are spatially correct. You can have different amounts of reverb by putting a “send” on each audio track to a reverb aux track, and adjusting the amount of volume sent to the reverb for each family.
So, ideally, your orchestral sounds should mix-down to four stereo audio channels. One for strings, one for brass, one for woodwinds, and one for percussion. You can then control the volume and reverb from those four “stems” (important industry term), and make your orchestrations sound more realistic.
So, I’m up… at 3 in the morning…. with my two ladies (wife and daughter) asleep.
And…Stevie Nicks is on, with a killer backup band, and Vanessa Carlton as a guest pianist/vocalist. Both women are phenomenal, and Stevie is a legend in rock… and…
She sang “Rhiannon” about 20 minutes ago… and, good god, when the chorus hit, I got those beautiful shivers up my spine. That gorgeous feeling when a musical hit strikes you so convincingly… man, that was wonderful. Man, those gorgeous major 7th chords in the chorus…
There’s no analysis here, no harmonic discussion. I just know that I have a couple of dozen composers subscribing to my blog, and I wanted to send out to them… don’t ever forget the power of the shiver. The moment when a singer hits that note.. you know that note… the one that makes you tingle. For me, it’s one of David Gilmour’s notes in his first solo in “Comfortably Numb”, or Alex Lifeson’s solo at about 3 minutes, in “La Villa Strangiato”…
It’s the moment when music stops becoming “technique”, and starts becoming “message”.
It’s when you stop worrying about “scales”, and start desiring to connect with your listener…
It’s when you stop worrying about the craft you’ve been training for 12 years, and start desiring to make your girlfriend/boyfriend tear up from the beautiful melody you were inspired to write…
It’s about the tingle… and always, strive to evoke it…
Disclaimer: This post has nothing to do with video game music. But, all work and no play… you get the idea.
So, I have several loves. One of them is video games. I also love my family, cooking, martial arts… and cheesy “made-for-cable” B-grade science fiction movies. Ever since I sat down and watched “The Beastmaster” with Marc Singer, I’ve been in love with these movies. Nowadays, films like “Tin Man”, and “Mansquito”, and “Reign of the Gargoyles” regularly make it into my DVR.
So, one of my close friends writes a fun, rambly blog (http://haplography.blogspot.com/) which talks about… well, anything he wants.
In this case, it’s about what could be the greatest Sci-fi movie event ever. Check out the July 8 post of http://haplography.blogspot.com/.
18 short days from now, the SciFi Channel will feature the world premiere of (wait for it…) ANACONDA 3: THE OFFSPRING STARRING DAVID HASSELHOFF (AND JOHN RHYS-DAVIES AS “MURDOCH”)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Are you serious?!?!? Dave Hasselhoff and Professor Arturo in a made-for-sci-fi-channel movie? Involving giant snakes? This could be the greatest Saturday afternoon spent in front of the TV ever!
Thank you, Haplo… thank you for alerting my wife and I to one of the great television events of the year.
So, I’m sorry I’ve been a bit behind on my blogposts. I got hit with a bizarre 3-way workload; I was teaching two classes, one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and then got offered a freelance gig by the music director of Wonderpets as a digital and real orchestrator. Which ties into my current post…. scoring for video games vs. scoring for television.
First, let me say that I am a video game composer, first and foremost. I happen to love the dynamic of working with game developers, I love the project life cycle, and my sound really works with video game needs. Second, let me say that when certain jobs come into your sphere, it’s really worth taking a look at it, even if it’s outside your normal bailiwick. In this case, it’s an Emmy-award winning show that needs orchestrators to make MIDI mockups of full John-Williams’y style music. Sounds like it’s right up my alley! Oh, and I get to work from home…
So, I’m in week 3 of this show, and, since I’ve finished my two classes, things are settling down. But, I have already learned some very important lessons about scoring for television, and how it’s so different than scoring for games. I thought you guys might like to hear some of the differences between the two….
1. Timetable. Television production has a much quicker turnaround on their product. I have no idea why, but through the history of TV and film, less and less time has been put aside for music and audio. Currently, I’m responsible for orchestrating a full 11 minute episode in under a week. This means that I get the piano part, and have to “explode” it out into brass, strings, winds, etc. in just 5 days. That’sfast. Really fast. Compare that to video games, where they may say to you, “We need 2 hours of music”; but they give you a year to write it. VG music is much more of a “9 to 5″ project work style, where television is a series of sprints.
2. Distribution of labor. Because the timetable is so short in TV, the product (in this case, the music) has to be divvied up amongst all these different people. In my case, there’s a composer, who writes all the music, but only writes it in piano. Then, he sends it to me to orchestrate, whilst he drinks another cup of coffee and starts on the next episode. Once I’m done with my part, I send it to a conductor, who gets everything ready for the music recording session. At that point, I drink my next cup of coffee, and start on the next episode. And that’s not including all the engineers who record and prep all the singing! All these individuals are coordinated by the music producer. Contrast that with game music, where oftentimes, the music is a “black box” type of product. I’m talking with a game producer now, and I’ll basically be responsible for hiring/gettting/blackmailing whomever I need to create the finished game music. The game producer will not have to ever coordinate any of the support players. He just pays the check, and gets the beautifully produced final music product.
Woof! Okay, enough on that for now, I’ll post part two later this week. Let me say that even though they are totally different, I do love writing for television as much as for video games… but boy, are they different animals!
My apologies, I got hit with a couple of crazy deadlines. Long and short is, I’ve just been hired as a MIDI orchestrator (doing orchestral mockups with sample libraries) and a regular orchestrator for the Emmy-winning show, the Wonderpets! Who-hoo!
It’s a lot of fun, great experience and credits, and I have the chance to be nominated (along with the rest of the music team) for an Emmy next year! My first episode is due on Friday.
Having said that, this in no way deters me from my video game music career. I am writing some action music, and I have an interesting set of posts on how to get your brass to sound monstrous. Also, I have a review of some tracks from Metal Gear Solid 4’s soundtracks, and some hints on how to break into the biz.
Thanks for your patience, wish me luck! I’ll post more over the weekend.
Hi, all!Okay, here’s the second part of the analysis. Today, I’m focusing on orchestration, and instrumentation choices. This is the other reason I love this game score, because the instruments chosen create such an empathic connection between the gamer and the game. It’s very smart orchestration, and in today’s gaming world, where sometimes, the bigger the sound, the better the game, it’s refreshing to see such an effective score written with such efficient orchestration.
One disclaimer; this soundtrack was written using slightly older sample libraries, so it sounds a little synth-y (probably because it *is* synth-y!). But, Sakuraba’s orchestration is fantastic, and was done treating this piece like a real orchestra, so the principles will translate to newer sample libraries and live orchestras.
Okay, here’s the link to the cue:
Most of what I love about this orchestration comes from one central tenet. Sakuraba wrote this cue with an absolute commitment to delicacy and intimacy. As much as I love big, epic scores (and believe me, I love writing big battle music), there is a wonderful skill in creating a piece of music that makes you feel like you want to listen to it alone, in a misty, grey forest. And, this cue achieves that admirably. Let’s look at why:From the opening phrase, Sakuraba sets the stage for an intimate sound. The two main instruments are flute (melody), and piano (harmony). A great principle for orchestration is this; fewer instruments on the melody makes the melody more intimate. This is why, in Bioshock, when the main melody is stated in one violin, instead of the entire section, it sounds so heart-wrenching. Now, in contemporary game scoring, many composers will feel the sad, lonely shape of this melody, and think that writing it in full strings will enhance that affect. And, it definitely will! But, it will at the cost of closeness and sympathetic emotion. A single flute (or oboe, or cello) can create such a sense of connection with the melody, and Sakuraba uses it masterfully.
Because the melody is only in one relatively quiet instrument, Sakuraba has to accompany it with another serene instrument. Light chords on the piano add the harmony, without it becoming plodding. The piano also plays parts of the melody behind the flute, to add a little bell-like sparkle to the sound. At this point, the opening section is pretty much done. And, here’s why it works so well. We are now hearing two (and only two) musicians playing, instead of a whole orchestra. We’re instantly transported to the place where we would be hearing two musicians, which is a small, familiar, close room. The act of choosing so few virtual musicians has created our mental expectation that these musicians would be close to us, in the same room. There’s now this imagined personal connection with the melody and harmony, that wouldn’t have happened with a full orchestra.
Sakuraba keeps this intimacy in the second section. When the second section starts, Sakuraba creates this great sense of motion and rhythm by adding a strumming acoustic guitar. Again, what I love about this is how minimalist and lean he is with his orchestration. Instead of adding something really “invasive” like a drum kit, or pulsing horns and strings, he creates a rhythmic pulse with a quiet, unobtrusive instrument, and allows the piece to still feel serene and calm, while creating a sense of pulse and pushing. Truly, this segment is a great example of “less is more”, and for you martial artists , “Shihume”. (For you non-martial artists, Shihume translates roughly to “elegance through simplicity”, and “beauty through austerity”.)
As the B section closes, Sakuraba pulls back the burgeoning sound, and has the piano and trilling strings delicately turn the piece back into the last statement of the A theme, with the orchestration from the beginning. At no point is big percussion or brass used, yet the cue has passion, emotion, and a connection between the listener, and the game itself.
So, what I learned from this is the value of “hacking away non-essentials”. Sometimes, trying to do the absolute minimum musical gestures to get your musical message across will create a much more powerful and effective musical message. Just like a single brush stroke on a blank canvas has a lot of drama and emotional power, so do these simple, exposed orchestral techniques. They truly create a piece of music that tugs at the heart.
Thanks for reading, and I’ll post on something totally different later this week!
I’m about to make a bold, and possibly contentious statement. I think that the Japanese video game composers got it right, and us American and European composers are still trying to catch up to their level of game scoring. That’s not to say that we don’t have some phenomenal composers in our midst. For example, I think Jeremy Soule and Tommy Tallarico make fantastic music, and people like Mason Fischer (Galactic Civilizations 2) regularly make their way into my playlist. Oh, and check out “up and comers” Sean Beeson for some phenomenal music that I hope will get him great gigs in the future. But what I think the legendary Japanese game composers (like Koji Kondo, Motoi Sakuraba, and the icon himself, Nobuo Uematsu) have really nailed is the idea of really strong, sweeping themes that can almost carry the music by itself. Our composers tend to write more texturally and rhythmically, which is great, and can really propel the game. But, I think our melodic and thematic writing is not on par with the great Japanese game composers. Here’s a test: Quick, right now, hum a video game melody! Don’t think, do it!
I’m going to put dollars to donuts that the first theme you sang was one of these three (in order or probability)
1. Super Mario Bros. Theme
2. Legend of Zelda Theme
3. Something from the Final Fantasy Series.
Notice that an “American” game score did not make it in there at all! (and, if you did sing an American or European composer’s game score, definitely post what it was on the comments, I’d love to hear it!). So, we still have a ways to go thematically before we’re on par with these guys. How do we solve this? Simple. I think we can learn a lot about great video game melody and theme writing by listening to and analyzing great scores by great Japanese game composers. So, without further ado, I’m going to analyze sections of Motoi Sakuraba’s excellent score, Star Ocean: ‘Till the End of Time. This will be a 2 part blog. Today, I’m doing thematic and melodic discussion. Next post (probably Friday), I’ll be talking a bit about harmony and orchestration.
Okay, on to this analysis. I’m not going to talk about the composer or this game. If you want to know more, click on those links above. Suffice it to say, Sakuraba is one of the heavy hitters in Japanese video game music, and with good reason. This game is a sci-fi RPG with heavy mystical elements; pretty typical, sweeping story, good versus evil, moral choices, and humongous enemies.
There are a couple of very strong themes in this game. Let’s look at the Fallen Leaves theme. The specific cue I’m talking about is the Fallen Leaves - Flute version cue, from the soundtrack (CD 1, track 08). As you can guess by the title, this theme is used often in the game to help support introspective moments of the game, and also the sense of loss, aloneness, and things passing. In order to isolate the melody and harmony, I’ve played a quick and dirty version of this on the piano; here’s the mp3 and the lead sheet (played and transcribed by yours truly):
First, Sakuraba uses many long, hanging notes in his melody, instead of short, choppy notes or quick runs of notes. From a composer’s standpoint, long notes often create a sense of serenity and of intimacy. This fits right in with the context of this cue. However, just long notes don’t make the melody so evocative. Right off the bat, Sakuraba does this wonderful gesture in measure 1 and 2, where he has that long, beautiful B natural, followed by an ascending scale, and then several drops downward in the melody in mm. 2 and 3, down to a low D. That ascending scale evokes that image of dry leaves spinning in the grey sky, fluttering up in the air. At the same time, the descending falls in mm. 2 and 3 sound and feel like dead leaves drifting to the ground. Notice how Sakuraba makes the first and last notes of each phrase be long and held, while he puts the busier notes in the middle of each phrase. This allows the melody to feel slow and sad, while still having that “fluttering leaf” feel in it.
Also, notice how Sakuraba keeps putting descending drops as a motivic device in his melody. These falling notes really evoke the sensation of watching, well, falling leaves! Notice in bar 7 and 8, he takes the same rhythm from bar 3, and uses it to close out the first section (A section) of the melody. This is another lesson we can take; re-using melody shapes and rhythms, instead of constantly creating new ones.
When we get to the B section (mm. 9-16), we see and hear another excellent development technique from Sakuraba. He takes the ascending shape from m. 1, and inverts it, so it descends from A down to D. This is a great way to create some beautiful contrast between sections of a melody, so that the B section sounds different than the A, but that they’re still related. Notice how , at the end of the melody, Sakuraba brings the notes higher and higher, until finally, he hits the highest note (A natural) of his melody in bar 14. Structurally, when you save the highest point of your melody for 60-80% of the way through the melody, you create a fantastic tension and emotional release. For me, I feel like that note evokes the image of something struggling against death, and this note is his last frozen moment of resistance. Then, as the last two bars play two big drops, from E to B, and then B to low E, the leaf, frozen in that moment, slowly drifts down, lifeless, to the ground.
So, what can we take from this melody? Well, first, we can learn how melodies do not need to be thousands of notes. Single notes that are at important points, and held for a long time can really pull at our heartstrings. Second, we see how important it is to have the melody evoke imagery and emotions. Sakuraba created shapes in the melody that trigger the feeling of falling leaves, and emotionally, loss and solitude. This gives the melody power beyond that of mere musical structure. And, finally, we see how taking motives, or catchy fragments of melody, and transforming/morphing them keeps the melody interesting, while, at the same time, keeping it all interconnected.
Okay, next post, we’ll talk a bit about orchestration and harmony. Have a good one!
So, I was surfing the web last week, and came across this great blog, worldiv.com, which focuses on MMORPG. Well the author, wrote an article discussing the evolution (or lack thereof) of MMORPG music. As you can guess, I found it pretty interesting, and commented on his observations here. I thought I’d share with you some of my thoughts about this topic.One issue that many MMORPG’ers bring up is the lack of thematic material in MMORPG music. The music in many MMO’s is well crafted, and very satisfying as background atmosphere, but it really doesn’t create the cinematic feel that movie scores from Star Wars or Lord of the Rings do. And, the reason for that is that few MMO’s have strong themes incorporated into their music. And, therein lies the crux of the problem. I think the issue comes down to the strongly specific evocation that musical themes generate. If you think about it, cinematic themes are designed to trigger dramatic and emotional contexts for the listener. Dark brass with a military rhythm in the percussion creates the feeling of an evil army general. Long, slow oboes and flutes with string harmonies create a feeling of innocence and beauty lost. So, the benefit of a great theme is that it can generate strong archetypes for the player to identify with. It’s most commonly used to musically identify a specific character (main hero, villain, etc.). But, what happens when every player is the hero of their own story? In a MMORPG, every player plays their own unique character, who develops from a new blank slate into a heroic figure through game play and character choices that each player makes for himself, not according to a script. How can a game music composer write thematic music that can reflect and evoke all the possible character choices a player could make?
Here’s an example: A common character in fantasy RPG’s is a wizard or mage. Well, both Gandalf and Raistlin are mages, but they reflect very different expressions of that character choice. I would write vastly different themes for each of those characters, even though they are both wizards. Now, suppose I worked with a game developer who said, “Hey, Mike, I have a great idea! Write a wizard theme , and whenever a character who has chosen to play a wizard plays, your theme will accompany him!” Well, do I write a mysterious, noble Gandalf theme, or a dark, brooding Raistlin theme? Or, do I go a different route, and write a Fizban theme? No matter what, it’s not going to cover all the emotional growth that a character can entail. Thus, the current defensive trend of creating slightly more “background” and “ambient” music to play in an MMORPG… it still creates a bed of general emotion and drama, but is sufficiently vague to not steer the player in any one emotional direction. It’s a good solution currently, but I still believe that as MMORPG’s develop, composers will start to discover ways to incorporate specific music which will support each subscription member’s unique character development.
One solution that might work is for a composer to create a “matrix” of music, consisting of 3-5 themes for each character class, and each one reflect an aspect of a character’s “position” in their world. The themes would be categorized, by things such as “good/neutral/evil”, or “offense/support/healer”, and then, based upon the skills that each player selected, as they grew, the appropriate theme would be chosen to play with the character. What makes this particularly interesting is that I could write three versions of each theme, corresponding to low, middle, and high levels. Each version would have the same theme, but the orchestration would grow progressively more epic, so that as you were playing your character, you could hear your theme growing and becoming more grand as you gained levels. Of course, that involves writing a lot more music, but it would add an extra level to that feeling of “writing your own heroic/villainous story” for each player; and really, isn’t that what a lot of MMORPG’s are all about?
Who knew that Google reader kept copies of blog posts, even after a blog is deleted or reset?
My wife did… while I was cursing a blue streak, she was calmly copying all my old posts into a word document. Suddenly, she said, “Are these the blogposts you lost?”… as she emailed me the document… I love my wife. Soooo much!
So, posts will be coming back in a bit, as I get time… In fact, the first one’s up!
Last week, a fellow composer asked me a question about how to play in an instrument on one track, but have multiple instrument tracks sound. This is used often when you want to make a nice bed of strings. You might have three violin sample libraries, and you want one melody line to trigger all three instruments. Well, quick and dirty, here’s what you do.
Open up your sampler (Kontakt, Mach V, Gigastudio), and load up each of your instruments. For this case, I’ll load East/West Violins, Miroslav Violins, and Sonic Implants Violins.
Now, go to each sample instrument, and set it to receive data from the same MIDI channel. In this case, I’ll go to East/West, and set the MIDI channel to receive data from channel 1. I’ll then go to the Miroslav patch, set the MIDI channel to receive info on channel 1, and do the same for the Sonic Implants. What we’ve just done is told our sampler, “Hey, when you receive MIDI notes and data from channel one, play that data through all three of these sample instruments.”
Now, go to your sequencer (Digital Performer/Logic/Cubase/Sonar), and create a new MIDI track. Set that MIDI track to transmit on the same channel that your sample instruments are set to receive. (In this case, I’m setting it to MIDI channel 1). Now, play something from your keyboard on that channel. What will happen is, your sequencer will get notes and data from channel one, and send it to your sampler. Your sampler will send those notes to all three of your sample instruments. Viola! Instant layered multi-sample sounds! Use the sampler’s volume controls to mix your three instruments to taste, and sit back and enjoy! J
