Video Game Music Class: an overdue update.

It's been forever since I've updated what's been going on in class and today's time to catch up!

For the class I missed in early October while traveling to GameSoundCon, I asked my students to watch some of my videos (linked in the right sidebar) about Leitmotifs in Final Fantasy 7, idée fixe in Super Mario World, and musical form in Super Mario Bros and then answer some questions about what they saw.  The class is also a pilot trial of Canvas for UM, so I used that to administer the quizzes while I was away.  It worked pretty well, except that-- as least, at of my writing-- it's not possible to have an audio file be an answer in a multiple choice quiz question in Canvas.  The tech staff gave me a workaround, but it wasn't as streamlined and didn't allow the level of control I was hoping for.  For instance: I want to have the question: "which of these themes is NOT one of the Leitmotifs discussed in the video" where A, B, C, and D are audio files with a maximum of two plays each.  Seems basic to me, and I think language teachers would see advantages of this as well.  However, not possible.  The challenges of modern music teaching...

I tried out a new class on South Park: Stick of Truth that went very much in line with my blog entry about playing the game.  I'm thinking more strongly about the connection between my blogging and teaching this semester, and am seeing the powerful connection between the two.  Using my blog this way was a big moment for me because it was the first time that I realized my notes here are easy and convenient ways for me to construct lesson plans for game music class.  Most of the time, I've got links to the audio and all my notes on the game's audio are collected right here.  Super convenient for creating a lecture.  Now, even though I enjoyed creating the class, I'm not sure I'll do a SoT class again because the material is racy.  Teaching this course is always a balance between finding modern games and franchises that the students know while keeping the material appropriate for the classroom.

We had a photographer come to class to get some pictures for UM's biannual magazine, Muse.  (I'll throw the link up once it's out.)  VGM will be getting a little publicity in the Winter edition.  I asked several members of the class who have created games to show them during the class period so that we could hear and react to their audio.  Really an interesting exercise that's valuable for these game creators as they get feedback about their creations, and also for the students in class who have never made a game --and may never-- because they see their peers' creativity and the work that goes into it.  Really awesome discussions this day.  Also, note to self: brilliant toss to the students regarding the photo op.  It's always better to showcase them!

Last week, we covered music games (Parappa, Vib Ribbon, DDR, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Wii Music, etc) and "live" performance of game audio via YouTube.  This took the form of a "party" day where we watched a few videos of Smooth McGroove and other game music covers before seeing a chunk of a Video Games Live concert.  I baked cookies for them.  97 cookies for this class!  Also encouraged the students to dress up (as is the fashion with game music shows) and a couple of students wanted to take a picture with me afterward as we were all Zelda related.

This Tuesday I did an in-class tutorial about creating audio with GarageBand.  Not that GB is the greatest software, but it's prevalent, free, and user friendly.  Also, it's fairly common for students to have used GB either through their own experimentation or in a high school music class.  Experience tells me that some will use other software: Logic, Ableton, ProTools, and FL Studio come to mind as professional level tools some serious music lovers in class will learn/already know.  I've also had students work with an online chip tune music program, or a DS music maker and these work just fine too.  My point in asking the students to create game audio is in part to realize that game audio can be anything.  New theme songs for Pac-Man?  Great.  Beach Boys sound-a-like to avoid licensing fees for BioShock 7?  Awesome.  Get creative.

Tomorrow we'll have our last Skype conversation of the semester with Alexander Brandon.  It's awesome to talk with a game composer at the point when the students are thinking about their own projects.  I know the discussion will be great.  Really looking forward to it.

  

Current News: Day 1 at GameSoundCon

I'm just getting back to my hotel from the first day at GameSoundCon.  Great day!  Totally lifted my spirits from the fact that my flight in yesterday was delayed, the hotel oversold, and I was moved into a craphole where I feel like the sheets are going to give me Ebola.  As I walked into GameSoundCon this morning, George Sanger was lugging his suitcase up the steps in front of me and we started chatting.  When I got to the registration table, Alexander Brandon was passing out the registration information for the N-Z folks, which of course included me!  These are two great composers whose music I admire and whose books I love and have written about (George and Alex).  A great start to the day to help wash away the rough arrival yesterday.

After a mass meeting, I spent the morning in FMOD sessions with Stephan Schutze.  I felt a bit awkward initially when Stephan asked everyone how they identified as a sound designer or as a composer.  Then he asked who didn't raise a hand-- just me-- and I said I identified as a teacher of game music.  He went on a bit of a tirade about how there were a lot of "Bobs" who were teaching game audio and had no business or knowledge to be doing so and it was fraud.  Then quickly followed this with the caveat that he was glad I was seeking out the training that many didn't know they needed or care to get.  After that bump and a technical problem with the projector, the sessions progressed quickly as he showed many of the features of FMOD.  While the class wasn't the sort of FMOD 101 I was hoping for, it was interesting to watch what was possible in the software.  One of the main points he stressed was that folks used to linear media need to get out of the mindset of "get your sounds in ProTools, mix them, and export them off to the game."  Instead, technology today allows for the game engine to mix the sound interactively in the game.  Principles I understand already from readings, but cool to see how he applied them with the software.

After lunch at a gastro-pub, I headed to Alexander Brandon's session discussing his work on the Wasteland 2 and Pillars of Eternity.  Most cool about this session was hearing how he worked in Unity 4 on this game and used various techniques and softwares to conquer audio problems.  Alex seemed to be a fan of Wwise, which was not used in these games, but he is hoping to use in future games.  He also discussed the differences in updates to Unity 5 that are improvements to how the audio works.  While I haven't used Unity much at all except for exploring just a bit of Steve Horowitz' book, it was cool to see that the interface wasn't so much different from the Unreal demos I've seen in The Game Audio Tutorial.  At the end of this session, I was sitting close enough to Winifred Phillips to get her to autograph my copy of her superb book, which I've been reading on this trip.

I was planning to head back to the FMOD session for some talk about generative audio, but instead I headed down to chat with some of the sponsors.  There were numerous tables set up by different groups and products: IAsig, Wwise, RealSpace VR Audio, and ProSoundEffects.  I'm planning to join IAsig next year as this year is my year of GANG.  Wwise and ProSoundEffects are both things that I think could enhance my teaching at UM, so I chatted with them about possibilities for students and educational packages.  The hardest of these for me to describe is RealSpace VR audio.  They had headphones where the audio changed in relation to the placement of a second device around you, changing the mixing as you were stationary in the headphones and the device was moved around you.  Next, they had me put on enormous goggles and a second set of headphones that looked into a beautiful 3D environment and it was possible to move through the environment by looking at various objects in it and hear the sound change in relation to your position in the virtual environment.  I'd never seen or heard anything like that.  Definitely something to keep an eye on in the future!

Marty O'Donnell gave the keynote address.  I forget that he wrote that memorable Flintstone Kids jingle from my childhood.  Never knew it was his daughter who sang the final "and growing!"  I never played Halo, but of course know the music anyway.  I played a bit of Riven, but was way more into Myst-- didn't realize he got into the later sequels in this series.  Anyway, fascinating to hear about his journey and some of his advice.  I may use some of his points and examples in my own teaching.  His three main points were: 1-practice, 2-take risks, and 3-have friends.  Good advice in any field, certainly any musical one!  The end of the talk was a bit of a downer as he talked about abuse in the game audio field and how to protect yourself and your creations.  Again, good advice, but too bad that folks get burned enough to make that a front and center issue in the field.

All in all, a wonderful, tiring, busy day.  Looking forward to tomorrow with some Wwise training and audio roundtables.

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: Audio for Games (Alexander Brandon)

Over my recent trip up north I finished reading Alexander Brandon's Audio for Games: Planning, Process, and Production.  I have to say that out of all the things I've read, this book was one of my favorites.  For one, it's written by an industry professional who can give insight that only someone who's lived and worked in the field can.  For another, the writing is in a clear, easy to read style, and the book has a great flow overall.

I was struck by how much space/attention the book gives to organization and workflow.  Of course, this process development is useful knowledge, but not what I'd think would be such a large focus of a book on audio.  From that I deduce that the game audio process needs better organization.  Really, no matter what your industry, if you're in management at all, this book would be a worthwhile read for how to work as an efficient and organized team.  I read this book at exactly the right time considering that I've been playing around with The Game Audio Tutorial and integrating audio, which is a process this book explains methodology for, but gives no practical exercises.  This book and GAT would pair well together in an audio integration class.

Any portion of this book is worth a read if you're interested in game audio, but I easily had three favorite chapters in the book:  The fourth chapter, "Design" presents a really interesting historic discussion of the use of audio in games.  I'm sure I've read most of that information elsewhere, but at this point, the repetition is making everything click and Alexander's writing style is really easy to follow.  Since I'm interested mainly in the creation of game audio and those who create it, chapter seven, "Ideal Production," resonated with me.  Although certainly dated now that it's eight years old, this chapter is an important historical documentation of what has happened, methods, prices, licensing practices, etc.  (Actually, early in the book, Alexander says that if you're reading the book in 2015, don't discount all the info, just up the technological requirements!)  Finally, I loved the last chapter "Looking Ahead" where interviews with Guy Whitmore, Tommy Tallarico, and George Sanger present some contrasting views toward the future of game audio.

While I'm also hoping to better understand how game audio functions in smaller productions as well, this book gives insight into how game audio is produced in the larger game companies.

Other short reactions through the reading:

As someone who's played a lot of RPGs, I love that the book states that RPG audio is pretty much as complex as it gets and if you can do that, you can do any of the other styles/genres of games.

I love the emphasis again on creating prototypes and sharing them with the development team.  Almost all game audio creators write or talk about the importance of that task.  Certainly, it's the absolute clearest way to communicate about game audio to non-audio folks.

In the Workflow section of the book, Alexander describes the follow Operational tasks:
-Lead time (scheduling, budgeting, staff meetings, documentation, programming/design meetings)
-Purchasing: software/hardware
-R&D: reference soundtracks, field recordings, Foley work, experimenting with sound and instrumentation, and most importantly: playing games that relate to yours!
-Prototyping:  Everyone says this is important and much better than text descriptions of audio!

I hadn't considered that games have Quality Assurance staff to play-test games (here focusing on game audio), but the book lists tips for the best ways to get the most out of game testers for game audio.  Bug databases, for instance.  

Who knew that game audio designers used metric tools to gather information about how many times music/sound occurs in a given area?  What are these tools?- the book doesn't go into detail.  Wonder if these can be applied to retrospective gaming studies as well as games in development?  It'd save me a lot of post-its and ink pens....

Ever wonder why turning on your console/starting a game is so loud?  "A lot of developers use their highest volume in the game as the same volume played when the turn on the console and the console logo is played... From there, you need to figure out how voice, sound effects, and music will all interact."

Hierarchy of game sounds: Voice (loudest), sound effects (next loudest), music (softest)-- exception might be a musical stinger.

"What makes an audio asset final?  When it's produced?  When it's integrated?  When it's integrated and mixed?  When the leads sign off on it?  Yes to all."

As usual, here's a list of games that are mentioned in the book:

Pong
NBA Live
Mortal Kombat
Madden
Doom 3
Halo
Tiger Woods 2004
Links
Wipeout XL-- prime example of music licensing
Warren Spctor: Ultima 6, Ultima 7: Serpent Isle, System Shock, Ultima Underworld, Deux Ex
No One Lives Forever and No One Lives Forever 2
Deus Ex: Invisible War-- one of the first games to fully feature a physics sound system
Parappa the Rapper and Rez-- music influenced the game design
Knights of the Old Republic-- LucasArts/iMUSE
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge-- first title to use iMUSE
The Dig-- iMUSE with streamed stereo audio files-- incredible audio/soundtrack
Castle Wolfenstein
Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss-- first FP perspective to use an interactive soundtrack
Fade to Black-- adaptive soundtrack (not great integration)
Thief-- ambient sounds make an overwhelming impact
Dungeon Master-- occasional ambient sounds from an early title (1989)
Total Annihilation-- 1997, live orchestra work (Jeremy Soule)
Secret of Evermore-- Jeremy Soule's first sountrack
Russian Squares-- subtle changes to music in a puzzle game
Thief: Deadly Shadows-- audio engine was Ion Storm
Halo: Combat Evolved-- Marty O'Donnell
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City--  players listen to the radio, Madonna/Michael Jackson, etc
Frequency, Amplitude: use licensed pop songs where your goal is to mix and remix the songs
Star Wars and MLB Slugfest: Loaded-- use non-top 40 licensed music
The Legend of Kage-- upbeat pop soundtracks with too loud sound effects for the Ninja Stars
Earthworm Jim and Cool Spot: examples of Tommy Tallarico's composing work
7th Guest and Wing Commander-- examples of George Sanger's cinematic sounding work

As a teacher of technology, I understand that technologies change through time.  Many various ones exist that do similar work and the ones we come to use are the ones we like the most.  Any list is thus incomplete and dated.  However, one thing I was wondering when I started this project is what game technologies audio folks working in the industry use.  Finally, here's a book that really lists many technologies and what they're good for in game audio.  Thus, complied from the book, here's a list of all the software that's mentioned, in some cases with notes about what one might use it for:

mSoft-- sound effects
Hollywood edge (FileMaker)-- sound effects
Pro Tools, Cubase SX, Nuendo-- multitrack SFX (or music) production
Renderware Studio-- audio engine for real time mixing, simple GUI, map editor
Unreal Engine-- map editor for integrating sound
PerlScript-- running batch script
DirectMusic
Sound Forge
Microsoft Project/ Visio-- for making a Gantt chart
Absynth/Reaktor-- among top synthesizer programs on the market
Bugzillla, BugCollector, TestTrack Pro-- bug databases
DirectSound, DirectMusic-- first freely available software to create adaptive soundtracks
Miles Sound System-- middleware
Direct X
GameCODA-- an engine sufficient for simple titles and most more complex projects
Creative EAX-- creates decent reverb for free
SoundMax-- middleware to synthesize sounds in real time
Galaxy Sound System (part of Unreal)-- an example of a custom made tool
Xact-- Xbox Audio Content Tool
Scream-- Scriptable Engine for Audio Manipulation (Sony)
Alienbrain-- file management system
iMUSE-- Interactive Music Streaming Engine
Gigastudio
Visual SourceSafe-- file management for Deus Ex: Invisible War
Logic
Xbox ADPCM (adaptive differential pulse code modulation)-- file type used by Xbox
PlayStation 2 VAG-- file type used by PlayStation