Video Game Music Class: Happenings last week and this week.

I'm writing this morning from the airport, where I'm about to fly to LA for the sold-out GameSoundCon 2014.  Super excited for the trip-- not only to meet the game audio experts, but also to learn a bit of FMOD and Wwise.  Pretty sure I'll be the only faculty member on the UM campus who has familiarity with these softwares.  I'll be able to demo them live in class later in the semester instead of my usual playing some of the video tutorials from Stevens/Raybould The Game Audio Tutorial.  Exciting times.

Last week in class, we talked briefly about MIDI and iMuse.  A number of the engineers in class have used MIDI in various ways before, as have the Peformance Art Technology students, of course.  Virtually no one knew about iMuse, though, except one student who had played a game that made use of its technology.  There are some great videos on youtube via Peter Silk's channel that demonstrate some different features of iMuse that I show in class when we discuss iMuse.  The great thing about these videos is that its much simpler and clearer to hear how they're working in some cases than it is to describe exactly what's happening in words.

We also had a superb Skype chat on Thursday with Aaron Marks.  When we have in-class Skype sessions, I pass out index cards to take attendance and ask the students to write a brief thought/reaction to the conversation also.  Often, I get creative doodles on the notecards as well and one student's drawing of the Skype session with Aaron was too amazing not to share with the world.  Talented artist!

Finally, I thought I'd share one other list.  Because we'd been speaking with Chance Thomas two weeks ago and Aaron Marks last week, the theme of this week's online discussion was to get familiar with a game audio composer of the students' choice.  I suggested that they research one of their favorite games and learn a bit about who created the music/sound for the game.  (As I think about it, I'm probably also a bit motivated for this line of thinking as I continue to watch the Diggin' in the Carts series about Japanese video game composers.)  I learned several things from their choices, some about composers I thought I knew well-- for instance, I didn't know that Nobuo Uematsu was an English major (What Do You Do with a BA in English?!)-- and I also learned about several composers and foreign games I'd never heard of.  Cool people and games to get more familiar with!

If you read much of my blog, you know I love lists, so I present below the list of "favorite game composers" from my Fall 2014 video game music students.  There was a fair amount of overlap, so there are fewer composers than I have students!

Austin Wintory
Ari Pulkkinen
Grant Kirkhope
Gustavo Santaolalla
Harry Gregson Williams
Masaya Matsuura
Masafumi Takada
Junichi Masuda
Motoi Sakuraba
Yuka Tsujiyoko
Simon Viklund
Jesper Kyd
Christopher Tin
Jun Maeda
Yoko Shimomura
Daisuke Ishiwatari
Koji Kondo
Brian Trifon
Darren Korb
Jun Senoue
Kevin Manthei
Kan Gao
Robyn Miller
Jeremy Soule
Garry Schyman
Joe Hisaishi
Greg Edmonson
Kazumi Totaka
Yoko Shimomura
Ben Prunty
Magnus Birgersson
Jack Wall
Ryo Nagamatsu
Nobuo Uematsu
Daniel Rosenfeld
Steve Jablonsky
HirokazuTanaka
Setsuo Yamamoto
Jim Guthrie
Michael Land
Kow Otani
Kenta Nagata
Ron Fish
Marty O’Donnell
Mitsuo Terada
Carlo Castellano
Keiichi Suzuki
Christopher Lennertz
Glenn Stafford

Stewart Copeland

Musings: Women in Video Game Music.

Anyone who knows me is aware of my interet in women in music. Here I am in the summer teaching at an all girls performing arts camp.  I'm fascinated by the idea that almost all major players in music composition are men. I could easily name 10 men to 1 woman as composers, and I researched women composers for my DMA!

The same is true in many other areas of music. Women conductors are a rarity, as are women performers (I'm thinking major, touring personalities).  I don't know why. One of my favorite thing about opera is that both men an women have big roles, fame, personalities, etc.

And what of game music? So far, my studies would point to the same. Most game composers seem to be men. I'll know better in a few more years about this ratio, but from what I've absorbed so far, I'd say it's true.  What's interesting to me is that in the realm of game music studies, I'd say women are ahead of the curve. Alexander Brandon, George Sanger, Aaron Marks, sure, they're composers who've written books-- great books!-- about the industry and business. Every composer Aaron Marks highlights in his book is a man!  But in terms of scholars publishing, I'd say Kiri Miller, Karen Collins, and maybe even Kristin Jorgenson are some of the biggest players. Not that there aren't other folks, and definitely men too... But as I'm getting a feel for the field now the major establishment academically seems to be by women. Awesome. Of course they're ahead of the curve!

Just reflecting on that divide tonight for the holiday. Why is it?  Looking forward to getting to know about more of the players in the field, both men and women, soon.

Surveying Literature: The Complete Guide to Game Audio (Aaron Marks)

For the last few weeks I've been pouring through the second edition of Aaron Mark's Complete Guide to Game Audio.  This book is an absolutely incredible resource for anyone considering working in game audio.  It lays out skills and tools necessary in the business, creating music, sound effects, and mixing the audio experience of a game, and also goes into great detail about business expections: where to find jobs, how to negotiate contracts and what standard rates are, branding/marketing an audio business, preparing a demo portfolio, etc.  Reading this book was an amazing experience that I've been enjoying for the last month or so-- and completely worthwhile.  From a historical standpoint, it's wonderful to have everything written down so clearly from an insider perspective working in the business; from a practical standpoint, it's exciting to have everything presented so clearly as steps that can be completed.  Reading the book even made me think that I could create some game audio!  Maybe I'll start getting my game audio portfolio ready...

Undoubtedly, the coolest features for me are the audio examples on the accompanying disc that comes with the book.  I knew early on in my video game music class that I wanted to have the students create some examples of video game music, but I was only thinking of it as a fun, creative exercise.  I hadn't considered (until I read this book) that creating game audio examples was actually practical too; it's the starting of a portfolio-- or at least getting students thinking about making one.  All the exercises suggested in the book, like making your own audio for a video of gameplay, or looking at artwork or having text descriptions of game situations and creating audio, are exactly the kind of final project exercises I'm going to have in my class.  It's awesome reinforcement to hear from a game audio expert that these are practical, worthwhile steps for those interested in game audio.

I'd definitely say this book is inspirational... It made me contemplate if I could compose game audio!  Anyone serious about getting into the industry, or who just wants to see the profession from an insider perspective should give this book a read.  It's definitely one of the best books I've read on this journey so far.

Here are a few other thoughts I had as I read the book:

I mentioned earlier when that I bought The Last Story primarily because the music was by Nobuo Uematsu.  Here I learned that Bobby Prince also enjoys that distinction on box covers.  I'm interested to learn who was the first game composer to be featured in that way.  Did s/he negotiate that?  Was it part of the marketing of the game?

Many of the books I've read focus on creating audio for big, blockbuster games.  This book does have a blend and mentions some portable gaming, but still, it seems that the focus is on the high end.  Early on, Aaron mentions that the current trend in game music composing is orchestral, but that's probably not the case on iPhone games, for instance.  I'm interested in learning more about composing for mobile devices because there isn't much written about that yet and it that might be an easy (and quickly evolving) way to get into the field.

I also particularly liked the section of the book about "getting in the mood" and "setting the scene" when composing game audio.  All the advice about watching similar movies, playing games in the same genre, etc for inspiration...  I loved to get this practical advice.  The idea of creating a sound palette was very interesting... one I wouldn't have necessarily thought of right out the gate, but that's the point of all the tips in the book!

One of the coolest aspects of the book is the list of composers, software, hardware, instruments, sound libraries, techniques, etc. that are sprinkled through the book.  I've recently been grappling with the idea that most music is organized by composer, and have been wondering how that might be possible in the game medium, where genre, platform, and game title have (perhaps) more weight than organization by composer.  Thus, in my attempt to become familiar with more of the folks working in the field, here's an interactive version of Aaron Mark's featured/interviewed composers:

Lennie Moore
Mike Brassell
Jamie Lendino
Richard Jacques
Alexander Brandon
Fernando Arce
Eric Doggett-- had trouble finding a great link, so here's a link to Moondog Media, he co-owns
Mark Scholl
Tom Salta
Watson Wu
Adam DiTroia
Darryl Duncan
Chris Rickwood
Henning Nugel
Jon Holland
George "The Fat Man" Sanger
Tim Larkin
Tom Graczkowski
Aaron Marks
Ron Jones
Keith Arem
Kristopher Larson
Will Davis
Nathan Madsen
Chance Thomas
Matt Piersall
Tim Rideout

It's cool to see that many of these musicians are also conductors, teachers, film composers, etc....  Game composing is just a part of what some of them do!  This list is also all US or UK composers.  Hopefully soon the language barrier will be broken and allow for more composers from outside of the English speaking part of the world to be in a collection like this with similar interview questions answered.


Magazines he suggests subscribing to (that are still in publication):
PC Gamer, Game Informer Magazine


Great websites:
gamesindustry.biz
gamasutra.com
gamedev.net
music4games.net
gamespot.com
gameindustrymap.com
ign.com
gamespy.com
gamejobs.com
audiogang.org
gameaudioforum.com


Best game audio conferences:
GDC (Game Developers Conference)
Project Bar-B-Q
Audio Engineering Society