Stop the technological madness!
A few weeks ago we went to the opening night of Tron:Legacy at the local theater. The movie was on the low side of average for me, even being a modest fan of the original. I won’t get into the soundtrack for now… apart from saying, oh boy, another minor scale melody! (this time for a pivotal dogfight scene) But I digress. The movie got me thinking that I don’t really care very much about 3D. It was the third or fourth film we’ve seen in 3D and once again I was left disappointed by this highly touted technology. It is a neat technology… for about the first four minutes of a movie. But then the novelty wears off and I couldn’t care less about it.
I’m only growing concerned about 3D now because every TV maker seems to be trying their hardest to make consumers buy their latest TV’s to get this ‘amazing’ new feature. But I don’t want to watch 3D movies. I don’t even care if video games are in 3D. I don’t want to wear glasses… over my glasses. Or have to sit in a special place to get the full effect. It’s not worth it. It’s just a short-lasting gimmick.
You know what technology I am excited about? Holograms! Once we are projecting our entertainment on our coffee tables or somewhere else in our living rooms… and better than that Princess Leia R2D2 crap, then I’ll upgrade! What we need to be focusing on right now is… content!
I’m looking at you, too, audio. But I already addressed that in my Surround Sound post from awhile ago. Tron just got me thinking about that again and solidifying my resolve against sacrificing quality content for keeping-up-with-the-Joneses novelty.
And that ends my first post of 2011. After only posting twice in 2010, I hope I can beat that in 2011. Halfway there already.
Program Notes
Video game music is a slave to the video game. Film music is a slave to the film. Maybe that’s why when I sit in a concert hall, I’m extra touchy about the music I’m about to listen to being a slave to anything. Sometimes I feel like I’m being actively encouraged not to let the music just speak to me but rather to let the music be a slave to the composer’s intentions or to some musicologist’s interpretations or who knows what else. What’s the first thing that happens after you enter a concert hall, even before you find your seat? There they are, the legions of nice people handing out the program notes.
And then you have them in your hand, waiting for the concert to begin. It’s natural to just sit there and read through them. It’s interesting to read about the history of the pieces and the lives of the composers. But those program notes are going to direct you to listen to the piece in a certain way. Once an idea about a piece gets in your head, it’s difficult to get rid of that idea. The program notes instantly hamper your ability to find meaning of the piece yourself. Our brains try to find meaning and structure in everything. Music is a great art form because it is so nebulous and open to wildly varying interpretation… as long as the listener is not swayed by already established notions as to what the music means.
Of course, some music is written with a program in mind. Pictures at an Exhibition is an example of that. But Mussorgsky’s work is a masterpiece because the program (the paintings) are not necessary to enjoying the piece and finding meaning with it yourself. A work that relies too heavily on a program is probably not going to stand the test of time. A great deal of modern music sadly falls into that category. The problem is that many of these modern pieces (20th century and beyond) is that they were constructed not with their sound as their primary guide, but rather some new theory of structure or some formula. The sound is merely tangential. My question is, why don’t these composers just write a book about their theories instead? Then we don’t have to sit through them in a concert hall.
A funny aside, I remember once sitting in class in grad school and listening to a visiting composer’s piece of music. The piece was a mess. Absolutely terrible. Before we opened up discussion on the piece, the composer wanted to “explain” where the piece came from and proceeded to tell us a truly horrific episode from their past and how the music is about that. At that point, all honest discussion of the music itself came to a screeching halt… well, before it could even start. If we said anything negative about the piece, we feared being insensitive at best. So there’s an example of a piece of music completely reliant on its program.
Anyway, I’m hoping as a video game composer that my game music can also stand apart from its program (the game). Granted, that’s not going to happen a lot, especially with a piece that’s a minute long and is supposed to loop forever. But that’s my dream. It’s very rare for any game or film music to be able to stand alone. Only a couple come to mind right now, namely the games Grim Fandango and Outcast and the movie Weekend at Bernie’s 2.
But back to the concert hall. To fix this reliance on the Cliffs Notes that are program notes, I humbly request every concert venue in the world to please pass out your program notes after the concert. Then we can see how well our own formulated opinions match up with the established opinions. We may find we don’t care half as much when we bring our own meaning to the conversation. As Garth Marenghi (sarcastically) put it when describing why he writes long explanations about his own paintings, “There’s nothing worse than a work of art that leaves you asking questions.”
A visit from the Muse.
There I was, sitting at the piano. I was embarking on a new piece of music for a new game. This piece was to be the main theme of the game. The pressure was on. This is always the most critical part of doing a game soundtrack: the beginning. Everything springs from what I do here.
I had come up with three or four different ideas. They were all good and I enjoyed developing and playing them, but none of them really fit the game. Do I try and work one of these ideas into something that fits better? It just wasn’t happening. I was going to have to start on a new idea. After playing the piano for another five minutes or so, I briefly paused and sat back.
Right then, during the new silence, a melody entered my head. It came from out of nowhere. And it was a good melody… and perfect for the game. I started playing it on the piano and developing it. This was it! And it seriously just entered my brain from who knows where.
I think, as my wife pointed out later, this is the type of phenomenon that gave birth to that mythical idea of the Muse. The artist is just a mouthpiece for whatever the Muse wants to bestow upon humanity. Well, I wouldn’t go that far. But I can certainly see how such a concept could arise. Seriously, the melody came out of left field. I had been playing something completely different and this melody just sprang into my head. It was… freaky.
I’m aware that sometimes I’m feeling more “inspired” than other times when I’m writing music. But seldom does something just present itself this way to me. I like it. I hope I can get to know my Muse a little better. Anyone else out there experience a visit from the Muse?
And about the game: this is a game that I’m not quite free to discuss yet but the soundtrack will be over 50 minutes and will be available to buy along with the game. The main theme is a 7+ minute suite and (I’m very happy to say) I think it’s the best work I’ve done yet in game music. Haha… take that, 1- minute main menu music loops! You’ll hear a lot more about it later as the marketing machine revs up.
Your composition assistant.
Today’s post will take a look at a piece of equipment that I’m sure all of you have in your studio, the most valuable composition assistant you can have… your cat.
My composition assistant Charlie making sure I don't write something stupid.
If you’ve ever heard cats wailing outside your window at 3 in the morning, you know what genius insights they can bring to your music. They understand it all… dynamics, mood, flow… and of course they understand how to craft your music to fit perfectly in your games, having had all those hours on your lap observing you playing game after game. You thought they were bored? No, they were soaking in every detail of every game.
Don’t shut them out of the process. Seek their advice. Not sure you should use an F or an F# in your melody? Ask them, they’ll know. Not sure in which direction to take your music? Watch them as you play through it. It will soon be quite clear.
Where does their expert knowledge come from exactly? The latest felino-musical research indicates that cats always have music in their heads. That music forms their personalities, in fact. Their meows are simply times when a note or two escapes their heads. It’s no coincidence that they meow more when food is present, by the way. The only thing cats love more than music is food, so naturally when the food shows up they lose concentration and lose meow control until they begin feeding and their heads fill with songs of feast and joy.
Different music can call for different cats, of course. Ragdoll cats tend to be more helpful with large scale, slower, elegant pieces. Siamese cats are usually specialists in popular music types… rock, R&B, that sort of thing. Burmese cats enjoy helping with jazz. The typical domestic shorthair has a great balanced knowledge of music which I usually prefer.
If your studio currently lacks cat technology, you should consider getting one. In these uncertain times, with environmental and economic problems all around us, you can be happy in your choice to obtain a cat. They are an inexpensive investment while also being a wonderful green technology. They run on tuna power and pollute minimally. Take a trip to the cat corner of your local music store and sit down with a cat or two to see if they match up with your musical philosophies. You’ll be glad you did.
(This post is dedicated to the memory of our cat Charlie who lost his 7 month battle with lymphoma early Monday morning. Thanks for reading, and please go give your cat a scratch on their head for us.)
My Seattle orchestral conducting debut
This Saturday (March 7) I’ll be conducting Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra as the orchestra’s founder and usual conductor, Alan Shen, takes a seat at the piano to play this masterpiece. Our rehearsal last night went very well and the piece is coming together nicely. I have many friends who play in the orchestra and it’s been a joy to work with them on this piece and hear how much the piece has improved over the weeks. This is the first time the orchestra has been led by someone other than Alan, so I feel very honored.
This has been a great experience to help me grow as a musician, but it’s also been very beneficial for my game composing career. Always dealing with sample libraries, sometimes you forget what a real orchestra can sound like. An orchestra is the only ensemble that is capable of both huge power and extreme precision. You lose some of that spectrum when dealing only with sample libraries. But hearing real players play music reminds you of the full potential of music. I do play tuba in a couple of orchestras, but there’s nothing like standing in front of an orchestra and hearing them play, with such amazing music making potential resting in your hands.
On a personal note, I wish Lucky Mosko were still with us. He was one of my composition teachers and my conducting teacher at CalArts. He was an accomplished composer and conductor and taught conducting in a way that made complete sense: be clear and be efficient. He learned how to conduct from Antonia Brico, the first female conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic… if you want to hear an interesting story, read more about her or watch the documentary they made about her in the 70′s. It was always interesting hearing what Lucky had to say about Ms. Brico and I can only hope that one day I conduct half as well as either of them. I can’t help but think of Lucky at some point during my conducting day… imagining him feeling the tension in my upper arm (should be none!) or analyzing my pattern.
Anyway, you’re all invited to come watch us! The concert also has Barber’s School for Scandal Overture and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony #2. Tickets are cheap, $7 online or $10 at the door with discounts for students and seniors. Find out more about the concert and the orchestra at www.psso.org.
Word of the day: Frankenstein (verb)
Frankenstein: verb – To patch together the best bits of recorded live takes for use in an audio recording. Commonly used to take the best segments from multiple takes of a performer’s recording and create a more perfect overall track.
I first started using the word “Frankenstein” 9 years ago when I first started doing music for games. I commonly played several different instruments in my music. Maybe while playing trombone I would play one section great in one take but then find a note that’s a little off later on while listening in the monitors. I always do a few takes even if I think I’ve nailed it (just to be safe) so I would simply take that note from another take and crossfade into it then out of it. And, voila, I just Frankensteined!
With digital music recording, it has become extremely easy to take bits and pieces from various takes and patch them all together into one long, almost-perfect track. And when done correctly, the listener has no idea that they are listening to a patchwork of several different recordings all crafted into one whole. One of my professors in grad school conducted and produced new music recordings and was always extremely proud to say how many cuts there were in the final product and how undetectable they were. And, indeed, nobody can tell when you’ve Frankensteined.
I guess some purists might say Frankensteining is an abomination. Don’t you lose some of the heart or soul from a player’s performance when you stitch together takes like that? Maybe so. But when doing a recording session, a player will not really vary that much between takes unless it is a part of the music, like often it is in jazz. Breaking up a long jazz solo will be jarring, better to take a longer performance, warts and all. But there are a great many types of music that doesn’t apply to. If a long held note is out of tune, nobody will notice or care if you fix it by Frankensteining. In fact, they’ll probably appreciate it. Of course, the term itself does have some negative connotations…
I was going to claim on this blog that I’d invented the term. Back when I first started using it, I’d never heard it used before and I was very proud to have invented such a cool term that so perfectly describes what you’re doing. Unfortunately for my ego, though, after speaking with friends and other audio people, I’ve learned that they use it too. I guess it is a pretty obvious term to use. Oh well. Still, it’s a great word and a fantastic technique to help your recordings sound as good as possible.
AIAS awards soundtrack category… wha??
Yesterday I learned that the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences unveiled their finalist lists for their 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. One category stood out to me as being very silly:
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack
Guitar Hero World Tour – Activision – Neversoft Entertainment
LittleBigPlanet – Sony Computer Entertainment America – Media Molecule
Motorstorm Pacific Rift – Sony Computer Entertainment America – Evolution Studios
Rock Band 2 – MTV Games – Harmonix Music Systems, Inc.
Singstar PS3 Vol. 1 – Sony Computer Entertainment America – SCE London Studio
So what particular skill went into assembling these track lists? As far as I know, these soundtracks are just playlists of the producers’ favorite tunes or, more likely, tunes that they thought would help their games get more sales. Seems like nothing more than either personal preference or marketing decisions, probably the latter. How do you give an award for a playlist? Seems like nonsense to me.
Or even worse, this could just be considered to be an award for who can cough up the most dough to give to the record companies to license their tunes.
That said, I am torn on who I hope wins between two of the choices. I would love to see Little Big Planet win because their list seems more varied and includes a track from Prokofiev’s soundtrack to Alexander Nevsky. But Rock Band 2 has Weezer, the greatest band in the world (or something like that).
Daily burnout.
I’ve been experiencing something fairly frequently this month which I thought would be an interesting topic for me to write about on the blog (poor, neglected blog!). 2009 is off to a great start for The Game Composer and I currently have three projects going on at the same time, with a fourth and fifth soon to start. I love writing music and there’s nothing I would rather do.
But.
Kind of like being granted a wish, then asking for immortal life, but then having that wish turn into a curse by being transformed into a living block of immortal stone… be careful what you wish for. (Bonus points for those who know which classic Doctor Who episode this example came from.)
Actually, it’s not even close to being a “curse” and this blog is going to be full of hyperbole with just a grain of truth found within. I love every minute of my job and it would take a nervous breakdown to keep me from accepting new work. There’s always time to make music. It’s just that after creating brand new music every day, I feel like a vegetable every night. Sometimes at an orchestra rehearsal after a full day of work (I play tuba in a couple groups here in Seattle) I probably come off as the dullest person ever because I’m still decompressing from work. I don’t know how other composers out there do it, but when I’m composing, I pour every ounce of mental energy right into the music. I try to see every possibility flowing from every note. I am constantly accepting and rejecting the biggest and smallest ideas in a non-stop flood of creation. It’s quite taxing.
Luckily, the payoff for creating music is huge and it’s all worth it. Even when I’m drained at the end of the day, I feel satisfied, even when all I’ve gotten out of a session is a nugget of an idea to go with the next day. Sometimes that’s all you need. And with a good night of sleep I’m rarin’ to go the next day. It never fails.
Not sure what the point of this blog is. I guess I just wanted to share how a busy composer feels at the end of the day. I bet it’s not that different from anyone else who pours themselves into their work. I wonder how many other vegetables there are at the end of a long day out there. Maybe that’s why Americans watch an average of 32 hours of TV a day.
Or maybe this is all a roundabout way of explaining why this blog hasn’t been updated lately. I’ll see if I can change that…
Anyway, here are some tips I’ve found to help stave off that daily burnout, in no particular order:
- Don’t listen to music in the car. Music is sometimes there only as background noise. Driving is a perfect time to give yourself a break from music, all music. I’ve been listening to Podcasts and loving it (TWiT and Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, whoo!). Maybe start listening to books.
- Take breaks during the day and give yourself at least one day completely off a week. It’s easy to try to do too much. That usually ends up being counter-productive. It’s amazing how much more quickly good ideas come to well-rested brains. This does mean, of course, that you must also give yourself a good night’s sleep every night.
- Get some exercise. Yes, it will make you more tired in the short-term but in the long-term, your body is going to have a higher capacity for storing energy, creative and otherwise. And don’t ever discount the power of endorphins.
- Just play music. Someone’s already done all the hard work of composing. Enjoy the fruits of their labor. This will remind you that music is still your friend, even if you had a slow day of composing.
- If you have several projects going on at once, try to make sure they require different genres of music. This will keep you on your toes and happy. If you have a hard time coming up with one Baroque harpsichord piece, how re you going to do four? Oh, you trendy harpsichord game soundtracks… how I loathe thee.
Hope these tips help. Anyway, way past time for bed. Already broke one of my own rules…
Best Buy’s new music instrument store.
Have you been in a Best Buy lately? I don’t know about the one(s) in your city, but the one here in North Seattle has a brand new corner which sells guitars, drum kits, keyboards, and various other musical instruments and accessories. As I was perusing the DVD section last month (looking for the new Doctor Who Season 4 set – whoo!) I was surprised when I saw the giant wall of guitars hanging in the new corner room of the store. I walked into the new section and quickly wanted to run back out. There’s something about those mega-chain instrument stores that make me very uncomfortable. It’s probably that horrible Guitar Center customer service experience I had a few years ago which forced me to try and dissuade everyone I know from ever shopping there, but that’s a story for another time (maybe those failed rockers, who look down their noses at up-and-coming kids who may have more talent in their kneecap than they have in their entire body, shouldn’t be dealing with the public).
But I digress. A couple weeks later, I did walk back into that corner of the store and I saw a decent selection of stuff and a worker who was more than happy to let me check out the place on my own. I don’t know if their prices are any good or if they had the latest versions of all the Gibson guitars, but I couldn’t help but think there is one and only one reason for that part of the store to now be there:
Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
The kids today all want to rock! And that’s a great thing. The more kids out there are rocking and learning about the great hits of yesterday and today – how they’re constructed, how they’re performed, what they’re saying – the less they will be inclined to accept inferior music. It can only help raise the quality of popular music. And, perhaps, put an end to the reign of the record companies. With the internet, those record companies are now dinosaurs, chewing on whatever they can to stay alive… even the hand that is currently feeding them!
“The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small.” – Edgar Bronfman Jr., head of Warner Music (Aug 7, 2008)
They still don’t get it! These games are responsible for reviving interest in so many of the artists on all these record labels. I have younger friends who have now bought Boston albums thanks entirely to Rock Band. It warms my heart to see them appreciate the genius of the band who gave the world Foreplay/Long Time. Sure, I was initiated long ago but these poor youngins grew up musically crippled by the likes of Hansen and Vanilla Ice.
“I think the industry as a whole needs to take a very different look at this business and participate more fully. If that does not become the case, as far as Warner Music is concerned, we will not license to those games.” same dude, same day
Argh! Music is no longer a commodity. There’s something to be said for musical education, performance and otherwise, and the latest generations are growing up more musically literate and won’t be as easily manipulated by the evildoers of the RIAA. Quality has a way of killing mass production.
Long live rock. Long live video games. And go ahead and keep selling those instruments, Best Buy. You have my blessing. Every guitar sold is a nail in the coffin of the senile old record companies.
My Wii Music conundrum.
Wii Music has been released today. Months ago when I first heard about the game, I was pretty excited about it. But after learning more about the game, I’m not that keen on getting a copy. Maybe it’s the limited song list (Twinkle Twinkle?). Maybe it’s the lack of challenge of playing the instruments. Maybe it’s the poor MIDI-like sound quality of the instruments. But mostly I think it’s the fact that almost any time I want I can sit down with my wife and friends and play music as much as we want.
I don’t think I’m the target audience for this game. And I’m kind of disappointed that they couldn’t have expanded the track list or made more challenging modes for people who have a little more experience with making real music. Guitar Hero and Rock Band were able to bridge that gap as even people who play guitar could enjoy those games. I don’t think it’s that hard to do.
So it looks like I’ll be waiting for the price to drop to $30 or so before I play with the Wii Music toy. I do think there’s some fun to be had. I’m still looking forward to trying out the conducting minigame and I’m sure jamming will be fun for awhile, but I can’t get too excited beyond that.
All that being said, Nintendo needn’t worry about my business. They’re going to sell millions of copies of this game. And I’m happy about that. It’s going to get lots of kids excited about music and maybe our nation’s orchestras will thank Nintendo years on down the road.
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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