22.1 Surround Sound. Whoo!
I was prepared to write tonight’s blog about how I think surround sound is overrated. But then I spied Star Wars sitting there all innocently in my DVD collection. And there’s the GTA4 case on the coffee table in front of me. Both of those titles just scream to be listened to with a good surround setup (so to speak). Sometimes it’s fun to be in a bed of sound with the hi-def on-screen action and just lose yourself in another world. Surround sound definitely can help to achieve that, especially in a dark room watching a dark movie or game.
I guess my big problem with surround sound is that it’s not always all that necessary and it can sometimes actually get in the way. So many games just don’t need it. Sure, if it’s a first-person game it is nice to have. But, really, if the screen doesn’t fully envelope you then why should the sound? Without fail, during a gaming or movie session the first time I hear a sound come from a rear speaker I’m actually brought out of the gaming or movie experience. If you turn around you don’t see the person the sound came from. You see the speaker or a wall or the plant your grandma gave you. So you have to remember that the next time you hear a rear channel sound. After a few minutes of playing the game that becomes less of a problem and it can really be helpful to know when a bad guy is shooting at you from behind. But the fakeness is still in the back of your mind and you just know it doesn’t sound quite natural. How did that plant fire that gun?
This may sound strange coming from a game composer and sound designer. Aren’t I supposed to be all revved up about the latest and greatest audio advancements? Well, as someone who works on games I just want the game experience to be the best it can be. And a great gaming experience does not require surround sound. It requires magnificent content and appropriate implementation. I haven’t seen one game that requires surround sound in order to be fully enjoyed. Sometimes in certain games it enhances, but that’s about it.
Interestingly, a recent Nielsen survey of console owners did find that 54% of PS3 owners, 48% of Xbox 360 owners, and 43% of Wii owners own at least 5.1 surround systems. These figures may be inflated because of the group that was surveyed, but I’m sure surround systems will become more and more a common part of most people’s home set-ups. As the Wii has proven for video, however, the latest and greatest technological advancements don’t always bring the most fun game experiences.
It’s still about the content.
Music libraries for games?
A recent “sponsored feature” on Gamasutra focused on a new online music and sound library for games. An online sound effect library seems like a good thing. I’ve used a couple of those myself for personal projects where I didn’t want to spend the time making my own sounds. But a music library? No, this is not wise for games.
Music libraries certainly have their place. If you need something for a short corporate or personal video, something for your customers to listen to while on hold, or something for various other background type uses you can go grab something that you like and plug it into your project.
But a game is a different beast. How could you possibly hope to capture the character and essence of your unique game with a piece of music created only to fill some abstract “mood”? You built your game from the ground up with a certain style in mind. You hired artists to singlemindedly follow that style. Then you’re going to ruin all that stylistic cohesion by plugging in a random piece of music? Nahhh, you’ve got to bite the bullet and bring an honest-to goodness composer on board to complete your style. Sonically and visually, you’ve got to keep it all going in the same direction.
So the overall visual and audio coherence of your game is crucial. But coherence among all the pieces of music is also just as important. Grabbing random pieces of music to plug into different levels just creates a mismatched mess of an audio experience. Like I said in my GravRally post-mortem post from last month, using different pieces of music from a library within one game is like having anime, line-drawings, and Cubism as your art styles from level to level. Yes, that could be the point of your game but it most likely is not.
You can of course have different styles of music within your game. But wouldn’t it be nice to have bits of melody wander from piece to piece? Players may recognize that orchestral violin solo melody as it is being played by the muted trumpet later on in the jazz combo level. Or they might not but, ahh, they will feel the game pull together into a tight, cohesive, and satisfying experience!
You’re not going to get that from a music library. You will only get disjointed pieces that only tangentially resemble the style of your game and have little to no chance of resembling the other library pieces you cobble together. This isn’t just coming from me as a composer, but as a fan of games. I have not seen one game successfully use music from a music library.
And anyway, wouldn’t it suck to hear your game’s theme tune used in some online ad for Viagra?
Peggle’s biggest mistake.
I love playing Peggle. PopCap did a great job making a fun and addictive game. It’s the definition of a casual game. Play with one button. Play as long as you’d like. Easy to learn, hard to master. It is genius.
BUT they made a strange choice for the victory music. After you’ve cleared the last orange target peg, part of the Ode to Joy from the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony plays. It’s a magnificent piece of music, perhaps one of the world’s greatest composer’s greatest achievements.
The problem is, it gets old. Really old. The first few times you hear it, you can’t help but laugh. Such a grandiose piece of music for such a silly cartoon-y game, those goofballs! But, like I said earlier, this game is addictive. You’re going to play through several levels in one sitting. Then more after you get some pesky work out of the way. Then more… and more… and then the Beethoven has worn out its welcome. Something that’s fun and different at first (Beethoven is pretty different for a casual game, or most games) but then wears out its welcome is just a novelty. And novelty is not what you want for such an important part of the game.
You want to be rewarded when you clear a level. Sure, at first it’s a fun reward. But there are a few properties of this music choice that make it unsuitable for prolonged use. 1) The choir is singing very loudly, some would say it sounds shrill. Yeah, it’s definitely shrill. 2) The quality of the audio file itself is pretty bad. It almost sounds clipped. 3) The music itself is very old and has been heard too much already in many other contexts.
The Ode to Joy is brilliant when heard in context, in the last long movement of a huge symphony. It’s rewarding in and of itself. When you take it out of its context, you are playing with fire. How do you do it justice? Well, that’s what gives the player the initial chuckles. The jarring juxtaposition of genius and silliness. But, the genius soon loses out to the silliness and we need to hear something else.
I tested out a couple other pieces of music. The theme to Star Wars had a similar problem, though it was much more tolerable because it has no choir. What I finally settled on and have loved hearing through the hundreds of levels I’ve played (I’m one level away from the top level possible… man, I played Peggle a lot) is part of Buckbeak’s Theme from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. It is not as bombastic as Beethoven’s piece but still says “victory!” in its own more relaxed, majestic way.
If you want to try your own music, just convert whatever music you want to use into OGG and rename it “odetojoy.ogg” and place it in the directory “Peggle\music”.
As for the rest of the audio in Peggle, I enjoyed it. The in-game music is nothing to write home about. Some bland tracks, but it keeps out of the way (see Seinfeld post below). The sound effects are very good and the got the most important sound just right, the bouncing on the pegs. They do their trademark rises in pitch after successive peg hits. Very nice.
Anyway, now you know my big gripe with the game. Now you should go play the game if you haven’t yet. I don’t know what I’m going to do if the rumors are true about Peggle coming to DS, by the way. I will play through it again.
That darn Seinfeld theme.
As I was washing the dishes tonight with Seinfeld on in the background I got to thinking, “Wow, Seinfeld’s music really sucks. But it might be the best comedy ever on TV. Maybe music’s not that important. Whahhh!”
Or something like that.
Is music really that important when paired up with TV, movies, theater, or games? Well, after much soul-searching I’d have to say “yes!”
Ok, maybe I was a bit harsh on Seinfeld’s music. It’s not actually terrible. The key in Seinfeld’s case is the music’s not good, but it doesn’t get in the way. That’s important for both good and bad music. It shouldn’t get in the way of the storytelling. But the big shame with Seinfeld is that the music could have made a great show even greater. Cheers had a great theme. People ask me to play it on the piano. It was a really funny and well written show too, but you could say that the music helped stick Cheers even further inside the American psyche. Cheers’ music instantly transported you to that lonely, insecure world of that Boston bar. But it was friendly and non-threatening, also just like the bar.
Seinfeld’s music, on the other hand, really doesn’t bring you into Jerry’s world. It does after 9 years of being the theme, just by association, but it’s a cold and uninviting theme. Its synthesized sounds do nothing to bring you into Jerry’s apartment. It’s kind of goofy, but Jerry’s comedy isn’t simply goofy. It’s deeper and more nuanced than that. The music is just too shallow for the show.
So I have no reason to worry. Seinfeld would have succeeded with white noise as the theme. But a good soundtrack will help make a good TV show or game great and a bad show or game at least interesting to listen to. The great games will survive without an amazing soundtrack, but it would always be a shame to have the asterisk… “One of the top five games of all-time *but the soundtrack was dull.”
One last point, though I’m usually not concerned whether or not games can be considered “art” (just play them and hope to have some fun, let history decide how to categorize games), if games are to be considered “art” I would think they’ve got to have the entire package, music included.
TSN… #3: TSN use a minor scale as a melody.
… use a minor scale as a melody.
This one surprises me. With the almost infinite possibilities at your disposal, why would you use the minor scale as your melody? I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t heard it with my own ears, but this sin has indeed been committed. Maybe it’s been a rough week. The inspiration’s not there? Writer’s block is rearing its ugly head? Well, there’s no excuse for this. Except maybe one: You’re shipwrecked on an island with your piano and the island’s inhabitants have never heard Western music. Then , sure, whip out the minor scale and wow them all.
But for the rest of us, the good book demands you go for something a little more original. And no, using the first 7 notes of the minor scale, then slipping in the major 7th degree before getting to the octave still accounts as a definite no-no. Oh, how many movie trailers have used that one?
Like many other melodic no-no’s, changing the harmony under the melody does not give you the right to use a forbidden melody. It is still too noticeable as a compositional disaster. In fact, if you find yourself using even the first 4 notes in sequence of the minor scale, go back to the drawing board. The first 3 notes is even pushing it. Reach down deep and give us something fresh.
Voice acting in games: a great interview
I just found an excellent interview over at Gamasutra dealing with voice acting in games. They interviewed the Dialog Manager at Sony named Greg deBeer. He brought up many good points and it is a good introduction to some of the finer points of voice acting.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3676/giving_games_a_voice_sonys_.php
I agree with him to an extent about not hiring celebrity actors to do game voice.
deBeer: “…hearing an identifiable celebrity voice takes you away from the game. Instead of being immersed in this environment with these characters who are supposed to be a part of whatever world you’re playing, you say, “Oh, I recognize that voice,” and it brings you back into the real world. It’s a very disruptive experience for me personally.”
I have found myself taken out of a game trying to place a voice I’ve heard. I think it’s actually a worse problem with b-list celebrities because you don’t instantly know who it is and it bothers you until you figure it out. With the more famous celebrities you can say “oh that’s cool I guess”, file away that info, and move on with the game. But with some character actor whose voice you recognize and you know you’ve seen on various TV shows or in movies, it just bothers me until I can figure out who it is.
The problem is, good strictly-voice actors are going to be in demand and are going to appear in many different games. It can also take you out of a game trying to figure out in what other game you’ve heard that voice actor. So, in the end, it sort of cancels out the negative aspect of having a celebrity actor in your game. Any recognizable voice is going to take you out of the game for at least a little while.
But we’re used to seeing actors play different roles in different movies. Was anyone seriously freaked out watching Harrison Ford running from the law in The Fugitive, not able to get past the fact that he wasn’t toting a blaster a la Han Solo? I don’t think so. We’re used to actors pretending to be many different people. But it is true that when we don’t see the actor, we have to concentrate a little harder on placing the voice rather than enjoying the game. This goes for animated movies as well. I was actually quite distracted for a long while the first time I watched The Incredibles, trying to place Mr. Incredible’s voice. Coach! Ah, there… now I can enjoy…
The biggest gripe I have with using celebrity actors is that I think it is a waste of money. They are not necessarily better voice actors and I’m not sure putting their name on the game is really going to effect game sales anyway, if star power is being used as a marketing tool. Just make a fun game. Let the fun sell the game. There are plenty of excellent voice-specific actors out there who will do a bang-up job for you.
Another point I agree with from the interview is to pleeeease get speakers with natural accents. Fake accents stick out like a sore thumb. A fake accent may sound close to authentic, but it’s always the subtleties that ruin the performance. The little words like “the” or “them” can instantly destroy any attempt at an accent. I noticed this in Grand Theft Auto 4 in my review of the month and it will always be an issue. Don’t be lazy with your casting. Get the real deal.
Anyway, enjoy the interview. I gotta say it’s nice for me to read, especially because he graduated from my grad school, CalArts. Go us!
Dynamic music in the year 3000.
I’ve always been interested in dynamic music and how best to create a dynamic music system for games. Today, though, I suddenly had a horrible thought. What if dynamic music gets so good in the future that there would be no more need for composers? OK, maybe not by the year 3000 as the title suggests, but maybe 2015 or 2020. As we come up with more rules for game audio systems to follow, will there be a time where the dynamic system can just compose stuff on the fly? Adios, game dev world. Hello, Best Buy blue shirt?
It could happen, I suppose. Artificial intelligence is always going to get better. It’s possible now to track certain game states, like how close enemies are and how much health you have, and play appropriate music. We can even have computers play only certain layers of music or mix and match layers depending on various game states. Is it only a matter of time before the computer is composing and orchestrating on the fly? The enemy just saw you on his radar, but he’s 300 yards away. Cue the woodwinds playing a danger chord progression. He’s approaching and now you see him. Cue the brass and percussion to take over the chord progression. He shouts at you to go away. Cue the melody in the cellos and horns.
But what exactly is the melody or the chord progression? Ah ha! Composers may not be out of luck! At the very least in this future world of brilliant dynamic music systems we’ll be composing the nuggets of music that the computer will sculpt into a masterpiece soundtrack. And if we treat our computer masters nicely, they may even let us compose the main menu tune ourselves.
I guess it comes down to the question that everyone will wonder at some point: How human will our computers get? Computers are excellent at following rules. They can take what we create and manipulate it all very well. But creating something requires that human spark. There’s something so satisfying about a piece of music that seems to flow intuitively. You know a great piece of music when you hear it because it seems like it sprang from nature and it flows the way it just should flow. Will computers ever achieve that level of human intuition? I don’t know. Probably someday they will. But by then, our games will be taking place in our holodecks and the world will be a much different place. Artists and programmers will be looking for new work, too, as our games will be written and drawn entirely by simple voice commands.
Could be the year 3000 after all.
Keep those recorders handy!
A tip for all you sound designers: keep your portable recorders handy! I have mine ready to go on a tripod next to my main computer. If I hear something somewhere that would be useful to have someday, all I have to do is pick it up and start recording. Make sure the batteries are good by testing it once a month or so and you’re sure to capture all those sounds that you’ll be glad to have one day.
I was motivated to write this after a couple nights of thunderstorms. You can never have too many authentic thunder booms in your sound effects library. And let me just recommend one of the coolest little recorders I’ve ever had: the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder (no, I’m not getting money for this mention) Its sound quality is very good and it has 4 mics inside so you can do mono, stereo, or surround recording. A single 2GB SD card holds tons of audio and its user interface is very easy to learn and use. It even has a metronome and tuner built in.
I’m very happy to get rid of my puzzling minidisc recorder. Anyway, that’s the tip for the day. Keep those recorders within easy reach. And get a good backpack or case for when you’re out in the wilderness or on vacation, or simply strolling around your neighborhood. You’ll be glad you did.
How to talk to composers.
This post is dedicated to the many fine game developers out there who may not be sure whether or not they’ve been communicating “correctly” with composers in order to achieve the best soundtrack possible. It was inspired somewhat by my own dealings in the industry (which have almost all been great) and also inspired by watching our dog and cat try to figure out each other’s weird forms of communication. Cats are not receptive to play bows.
If the sum total of your musical experience are those miserable 3 months of piano lessons your parents forced you to take when you were 7 years old, you may be hesitant to talk to a composer about the soundtrack of your game. You may have a good idea about what you want, but you could be unsure about discussing music with someone who makes their living doing music. You’re sure to look like a fool talking with someone who possesses so much more musical knowledge than you, right?
Well, here’s a little secret about most composers. They BS like crazy. You see, there are no absolutes in music. Music can’t say “tree” or “scarf” or “flaming tarantula”. It’s an incredibly abstract art. It’s a great way to communicate feelings or moods but a horrible way to communicate information. So when someone claims to know exactly what a composer is saying with a text-less piece of music, you can be sure they are practicing the timeless art of BS. Sure, it’s fun to talk about music and attribute all sorts of deeply meaningful high-falutin’ concepts to it, but in the end all the discussion can not possibly mean squat. The only thing that means squat is what the music says to an individual.
Now with that mind, you should feel easier talking to a composer about your soundtrack. Takes the pressure off knowing that there is in fact no right and wrong in music, eh? Tell them what feeling you want the music to evoke. Tell them how fast or slow you’d like it. Describe anything you feel will help bring the musical vision in your head into light. Talking to the composer is important, but there’s another thing you should do to really help communicate your needs for the soundtrack:
Show the composer pieces of music that you think are appropriate for the game, or pieces that at least have some aspect that you would like to hear in your game. Don’t worry about plagiarism. Any composer worth his or her salt will give you something fresh and new that uses the aspects you like from the other pieces, but in no way steals those specific aspects. Browse Amazon and send links to their demos. Upload an MP3 of a piece that you think captures your needs. Pictures are worth 1000 words. Music is the same way.
Let me go back a second to clarify my “there is no right and wrong in music” statement from above. That statement only applies to the overall conceptual ideas contained in the music. One person’s reminiscent feeling may be another’s foreboding feeling. Neither is right, neither is wrong. However, when discussing music theory and using musical terminology, there is indeed a right and wrong. You can’t say something is in a major key when it is in a minor key, for instance. And that bring me to my next point:
A little musical knowledge can be dangerous. If you tell the composer you want the tempo to be “andante” but you actually want “presto”, you may be sabotaging the soundtrack from the beginning. You would never tell a visual artist that you want an “azul” color when what you actually want is brown, right? If you’re not sure about your musical terminology, just use plain old simple English. We understand that just as well, if not better than, the silly (mostly Italian) words we’ve come up with to describe the various parts of music making.
And finally, part of talking to anyone is listening to them as well. Do go into the soundtrack discussion with an open mind. Composers have made it their life’s work to create and listen to soundtracks. We may have an idea or two that is worth considering. Before giving them your ideas about the soundtrack, give them all the information you can about the game (art, story, maybe a prototype) and ask them to come up with their own vision for the game. We enjoy that sort of thing. And we may come at the soundtrack from a different angle than you do, which you may actually find very appealing.
Or not. Keep in mind, the composer is there to make the soundtrack you want. It’s got to be true to the overall vision for the game. If they come up with something wonderful, by all means use it. But you, having lived with the game for far longer than they have, should be quite secure letting them know what you want. Don’t worry about being looked down upon. If that happens, you can be sure that composer is probably very insecure and they’re artificially inflating their security by belittling you. Music isn’t about security. The good ones know that and are happy to take each game’s unique musical journey with you.
TSN… #2: TSN use the Batman theme anymore!
And now for the second installment of Thou Shalt Not…
…use the Batman theme anymore anywhere!
It was fine in the first Batman movie. It sounded pretty cool. But since that movie came out in 1989, I have heard that theme coming from way too many movie and game soundtracks. What’s going on? I swear I’ve heard it on 70% of the aspiring game composers’ websites out there.
What is it exactly? Using the degrees of a minor scale: 1-2-3-6…-5-flat5:
Elfman’s Batman snippet:
Sometimes people change it a bit by doing 1-3-5-6…-5-flat5, but I’m gonna say that counts too.
Something about that little melody must have resonated in lots of people’s minds. The darn thing just won’t go away. I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire again a couple nights ago and it crept up there. I heard it Lord of the Rings too, for crying out loud. I was guilty of using it in a string quartet I wrote shortly after college. But as soon as I realized what it was, I threw that part out. I mean, it’s Batman.
And, no, according to the Ludus Sonitus Decretum from which I got these rules, just changing the harmony underneath this melody doesn’t count. It’s still too noticeable.
Please, all, let’s let this melody rest for a few decades.
About This Blog
This blog is dedicated to topics concerning the creation of music and sound for games. It will deal with issues that come up in the day to day work of The Game Composer as well as thoughts on the industry as a whole. I hope it will be useful for developers and other game audio professionals. Feel free to contact me: thegamecomposer@gmail.com
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