The Game Composer’s Blog

Some good books.

Today I thought I’d recommend a few books for people looking to get into the game music biz or looking to improve their craft. These are all books that have proven to be quite helpful in educating me about music and the business of game music. And a disclaimer, I will put links to Amazon for all these books but I don’t see a dime from these recommendations, so there are no ulterior motives here. These are just some books that you might find useful.

The Study of Orchestration by Samuel Adler: I refer to this as my bible. It has an excellent overview of all the individual instruments of an orchestra as well as how they work together in their groups (strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion), and how the groups function within the orchestra. It is full of musical examples from lots of different literature which illustrate the concepts very well. The descriptions of the various characteristics of different ranges of each instrument are very helpful. There’s nothing like good old experience when writing for live instruments, but this book will definitely give you a head start.

The Complete Guide to Game Audio by Aaron Marks: This book is a wonderful primer for getting into game audio. It covers several topics including music, sound effects, and voice. I particularly enjoyed the author’s personal stories about his dealings with game company execs. Hearing his stories helped me be a little more confident in standing up for myself and my craft in such dealings. I hope his stories encourage other audio providers to feel the same way. The book includes several examples of what to expect when dealing with contracts and other legal matters, which is extremely helpful. It doesn’t delve too much into the technical, but there is some good material on how to make your sound effects stand out. Overall, an excellent overview of our industry and a great “pep talk” for getting into the industry.

On a related note, Aaron Marks teamed up with Jeannie Novak to write Game Development Essentials: Game Audio Development which looks like it’s an updated take on the same things. I’m sure there’s much to be updated in the seven years since the first book was released. I haven’t read it yet, but I look forward to it as apparently I’m profiled in the book.

Practical Recording Techniques by Bruce Bartlett and Jenny Bartlett: This book definitely eased my apprehension when recording various live instruments. It will help you get the best sound out of that pianist, guitarist, and flautist that you hire for your music. It covers every kind of mic out there and tells you which mics you should use for which situations… and even how to best position them. The book definitely eliminates a lot of trial and error that you could go through. No sense reinventing the wheel. Check this book out.

Mastering Audio: The art and the science by Bob Katz: I’m still wrapping my head around some of the stuff in this book. It completely changed how I look at mixing and mastering. But the main point is, my music sounds better because of this book. It’s easy to neglect or ignore the steps of music production that come after composition, but you’re not done creating music until all the bits and bytes are in your game. Mastering isn’t just a technical requirement of producing music. It’s part of the art, and an art itself.

So there you go, the books from my “essential collection”. Pick up one or two and I’m certain you’ll get just as much help out of them as I have.

October 1, 2008 Posted by thegamecomposer | Career Advice, Reviews | books, game music | Leave a Comment