Make some noise about it

I have been working on a variety of things this week (Horse updates will hopefully occur in the next day or so), but most importantly I have been working on my solo deal: namely, making music.

So, for those of you with no attention spans who require images, this is what I have been working on:



Part of the music for Bullet, so far. This was based on my brief of 'epic strings' a la Hans Zimmer's work in The Dark Knight. It's scored for string orchestra plus timpani, bass and snare drum, and to be honest, it came out kinda Philip Glass (Philip Glass, Philip Glass, Philip Glass /music joke).

You can listen to a first musical 'sketch' of themes and ideas for Bullet here.

Bear in mind that the samples are the default output from Sibelius (the notation program, not the composer), and is kind of dodgy sounding. This will not be the final sound - it's just to give an idea of the harmonic structure and the kinds of motifs I want to layer in the music.

I'm fond of that triplet figure, even though it would be kind of horrible to play. Fortunately this won't be getting recorded, so I can fudge the samples as much as I like in Pro Tools. But in any case, Tyson and I have agreed that this first attempt is too dark for the game in question - Tyson pointed out that he felt like he should be killing kittens if this was in the background while he played. The next step, from where I'm standing, is to get rid of some of the heavier scoring in the bottom end and adjust the chord structure underscoring that top motif in the violins so that it's a little bit less edgy but still has a lot of depth.

Waiting to hear from the rest of the team before I make a move on this, though.

Next on the list was Islands:


Musical 'sketch' for Islands is here.

There's not as much stuff here, because it was really really easy for me to nail down the main motif. Going for that floaty Jo Hisaishi piano sound, a la Spirited Away. It accidentally ended up moving into 5/4 after those three introductory bars when I started noodling around with the chords on the piano, and it works really well because the extra beat gives it that slight lilt that emphasises the sense of air and flight.

I'll be eventually writing modulations, chord changes and variations on the theme (chords need work. I am not a pianist and I don't do interesting ones naturally), as well as instrumental parts to bring in and out, but this main motif will always be at the heart of it. This one I do want to record the parts for. On top of the piano, I want to write at least a sax part and a flute part, and maybe a guitar part. I am now wondering if I have any favours to call in from, say, horn players or oboists...

Anyway, I am still waiting to hear back from the team on this one.

My sound system is also making some progress, but I want to go back to focussing on implementing some more things in Horse, and writing music for it. I'd like to have a reasonable version of it ready for Supanova this weekend, so tomorrow is a Horse day.

Going solo

Hey there cats and kittens. This is your recently-appointed resident sound guy talking (okay, sound girl, technically, but that sounds naff and wishy-washy).

Finally getting around to blogging about my individual role for this semester's projects, so that all of you (my current developers-in-arms) what's going on, and what you can ask me for if you need it.

The way I am currently thinking about it, the role of sound in these projects can be broken down into three areas:

1. Design

The decision-making process. This is really key to the what, if any, impact sound has on the way the player plays the game, and the player's impression of the game.

Off the top of my head, this is the sort of stuff I can work with people on, if you guys want my input:

• deciding where and if music or sound effects should be used
• picking and choosing the right kinds of sounds and the right places to use them
• what will they signify to the player?
• do they serve as feedback or stimulus?
• will the player be able to read them correctly?

2. Sound programming

I would really like to build some kind of simple system that everyone can use to easily organise and trigger sounds and music for their games (probably in Unity, since the majority of projects will be happening in that).

I haven't had a chance to think too deeply about this yet, and I would welcome feedback on the kind of system people would like in order to help them streamline the audio pipeline. How would you guys like to be able to handle sound in your scripting?

3. Composition/Recording

This one is slightly trickier. I am a little rusty in this area, and I am not sure how quickly I will be able to produce music and/or effects. At this stage, I'm going to say tentatively that I will do the music for two projects this semester. These are actually already pretty much set - I'd like to compose for Horse, because there is the potential for a lot of fun and silly chiptuning there, and Tyson has already lined me up to work on their Bullet game, so unless the projects get especially shuffled around these two are pretty much locked in.

That said, if people want me to record Foley or create SFX (or even come over to my place and do their own while I record), I am happy for this to be arranged.

Do let me know if you want this facility available to you as an option, because I need an excuse to go get a new mic + monitoring headphones, and I will need time to sort that out.

So, in a nutshell, get in touch if you want soundie stuff, kids.