Showing posts with label NPR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NPR. Show all posts
Monday, November 18, 2013
Game audio in the News: NPR-- Calling the Shots.
I just heard the NPR story "Calling the Shots: Realistic Commentary Heightens Video Games" on their website. It's always nice when a story focuses on game audio, since most mainstream media stories about games deal with graphics and storyline. One of my favorite parts of the story is hearing how the commentators create the dialogue for the game by listening to pre-recorded audio and reacting to it as they would in a live game situation. I played FIFA a bit this summer and it was close to feeling authentic with the dialogue, but I'm hoping these new games/ consoles take this game audio feature to the next level. The timing of the story is perfect considering that the PS4 and Xbox One are just coming out for the holiday season. I look forward to hearing more from these systems and the latest generation of game audio.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Surveying literature: searching online databases for game music
I spent several hours today in the UM libraries searching for articles about game music. I'm now realizing a broader distinction between "game music" and "game audio." I'm interested in game audio: I want to better understand the broader discussion of game audio (dialogue, voice acting, recording techniques, implementation, etc), but I ultimately want to focus on game music (composers, composition process, musical aspects, musical-technological interaction). So to go to the next level, I'm turning my attention to individual chapters in books and journal articles with a focus on "game music," and thus turning away conversations about recording dialogue and special effects. These, of course, are interesting to me as part of the audio experience, but they aren't game music: my primary focus. I'm also trying to make sure I finish physical materials ASAP so I can switch to electronic materials for the summer when I'm away from home. I always bring too many books with me... I'm going electronic this summer.
Tonight I did a very broad search for the top 100 items on ProQuest for "Game Music" and came up with a ton of hits. Here are my favorites and most interesting quotes, weblinks, and reactions:
-"Game Music Central Presents 'Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music.'" Canada NewsWire
Notes: Gamemusiccentral.com no longer exists in this form. Online media and game music... can they coexist? How does video game music market itself and connect with others? How does it react with the world around us? How do artistic concerns drive it?
- "Game Music Gaining Interest, Money, Respect." Melinda Bargreen. Seattle Times
Notes: NBA Live 2003 became the first soundtrack to go Platinum.
Alistair Hirst: "having an orchestral soundtrack is seen as a 'big plus, bringing value to the game.'"
-"College orchestra plays thumb wiggling video-game music." Stacey Hollenbeck. Tribune News Service.
Notes: As of Oct 2007, "6 of the 11 marching bands from the Big Ten schools had played video game music at some point in their half-time shows." Is UM one of these? I can't tell via the web, but would love to know if any readers have info on a UM half time show involving game music. I did find two blog entries by the composition department at MSU about game music...
- "'Live': Game music 'the radio of 21st century.'" David Stabler. The Oregonian.
Notes (2009): 68% of American households play video games. They spend more time playing them than watching TV, reading, or going to the movies. The average game player is 35. 40% are women.
Tommy Tallarico: "When you watch a movie, you hear the music once and six months later, the DVD comes out and you might hear it again. Within one year, you probably hear maybe three hours of John Williams' music. Compare that with "World of Warcraft," where a player is hearing the music 40 to 60 hours a week."
-"Video-game music isn't just kid stuff, it's a concert." Melinda Bargreen. Seattle Times
Notes: In 2003 EA reported: "40% of respondents said that after hearing a song they liked in a video game, they bought the music CD. Several emerging pop-artists, after being featured in video-games, now have hit the Billboard charts, according to Billboard's Feb 15 issue."
-"Game Music in the Conservatory." Dayton Daily News
Notes: Michael Sweet: "We're seeing kids want to play the violin, french horn, or other instruments because they've heard it in a video game or seen it at a game music conert."
- "Concertos for Your Console: video game music is now so good, fans want to see it performed live. Robert Colvile. The Daily Telegraph.
Notes: Jason Hayes: "People who aren't gamers still think video game music is all kind of like Pac-Man. But for composers there's always a new challenge-- you're basically collaborating with the player."
-"'The Fat Man' rules in computer game music." Mary Hellman. San Diego Union-Tribune.
Notes: Johnny Wilson: "George Sanger was the first to take a music composer's attitude toward the product and to integrate the music with the visuals. The score for Loom was revolutionary... What you had was true scoring, with themes for characters and scenes. It reminded me of what John Williams had done with 'Star Wars.'"
-"In a Nod to Lush Film Scores, Game Music Gains Texture." Matthew Mirapaul. New York Times.
Notes: "Computers and game consoles now support multiple audio streams-- up to 256 separate "voices" on the Xbox, for example. Whether the music source is a MIDI synthesizer or a prerecorded sound file, the systems are powerful enough to combine and modify the streams in interesting ways-- provided that the composer has provided the options in advance."
-"Using Living, Breathing Musicians In Game Music." Jack Wall. Game Developer
Notes: "If your budget doesn't permit the recording of a live orchestra, then do your best to record enough living, breathing musicians to bring the game alive. And please, if you are composing for a game trailer that will play next to John Williams' Episode III trailer, remember... it will be playing next to John Williams' Episode III trailer."
-"Staying in Tune with the Times: Video Game Music Has Come a Long Way." Nick Lewis. The Ottawa Citizen.
Notes: "Since many young people today play video games more than they listen to radio or watch TV, video games are breaking talent the way MTV did in the 80s. A recent poll of core gamers aged 13-23 showed 55% of them learned about new artists from video games."
-"Hot for Game Audio." Damian Kastbauer. Game Developer.
Notes: Reviews much of the same literature I've read or have ready to read: Collins- Game Sound, Brandons- Audio for Games, Stevens/Raybould- The Game Audio Tutorial, OpenAL documentation-- (I need to learn more about this), Bridgett- From the Shadows of Film Sound, Sangers- The Fat Man on Game Audio. This may be the gem of my search: my investigation of this may be best summed up by perhaps my favorite social media post: "This exists" (the Game Audio Podcast).
My beloved, NPR, garnered two links:
Lindsay Totty. "From Mega Man to Final Fantasy, Live Video Game Music." Ok, so maybe I can convince the U to let me travel to ONE music conference... Where should it be? MAGFest? GameSoundCon? Project Bar-B-Q? Also... I've just been reading/watching interviews with Koji Kondo where he emphasizes the importance of melody in game music composition. Interesting that Nobuo Uematsu does the same here: "Lindsay: Uematsu echos the thought that it's melody that makes for great game music. Uematsu: It's pretty easy for me to come up with melodies. 24 hours a day, it's in my head all the time, and I struggle to choose which ones to use."
David Greene. "Video Game Music: Big Music, Big Money." The classic Greek conversation between student and master. How much does it cost to make game music? Tommy Tallarico: Extremes: $50,000 to $1,000,000. The average: $250,000 to $400,000.
Tonight I did a very broad search for the top 100 items on ProQuest for "Game Music" and came up with a ton of hits. Here are my favorites and most interesting quotes, weblinks, and reactions:
-"Game Music Central Presents 'Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music.'" Canada NewsWire
Notes: Gamemusiccentral.com no longer exists in this form. Online media and game music... can they coexist? How does video game music market itself and connect with others? How does it react with the world around us? How do artistic concerns drive it?
- "Game Music Gaining Interest, Money, Respect." Melinda Bargreen. Seattle Times
Notes: NBA Live 2003 became the first soundtrack to go Platinum.
Alistair Hirst: "having an orchestral soundtrack is seen as a 'big plus, bringing value to the game.'"
-"College orchestra plays thumb wiggling video-game music." Stacey Hollenbeck. Tribune News Service.
Notes: As of Oct 2007, "6 of the 11 marching bands from the Big Ten schools had played video game music at some point in their half-time shows." Is UM one of these? I can't tell via the web, but would love to know if any readers have info on a UM half time show involving game music. I did find two blog entries by the composition department at MSU about game music...
- "'Live': Game music 'the radio of 21st century.'" David Stabler. The Oregonian.
Notes (2009): 68% of American households play video games. They spend more time playing them than watching TV, reading, or going to the movies. The average game player is 35. 40% are women.
Tommy Tallarico: "When you watch a movie, you hear the music once and six months later, the DVD comes out and you might hear it again. Within one year, you probably hear maybe three hours of John Williams' music. Compare that with "World of Warcraft," where a player is hearing the music 40 to 60 hours a week."
-"Video-game music isn't just kid stuff, it's a concert." Melinda Bargreen. Seattle Times
Notes: In 2003 EA reported: "40% of respondents said that after hearing a song they liked in a video game, they bought the music CD. Several emerging pop-artists, after being featured in video-games, now have hit the Billboard charts, according to Billboard's Feb 15 issue."
-"Game Music in the Conservatory." Dayton Daily News
Notes: Michael Sweet: "We're seeing kids want to play the violin, french horn, or other instruments because they've heard it in a video game or seen it at a game music conert."
- "Concertos for Your Console: video game music is now so good, fans want to see it performed live. Robert Colvile. The Daily Telegraph.
Notes: Jason Hayes: "People who aren't gamers still think video game music is all kind of like Pac-Man. But for composers there's always a new challenge-- you're basically collaborating with the player."
-"'The Fat Man' rules in computer game music." Mary Hellman. San Diego Union-Tribune.
Notes: Johnny Wilson: "George Sanger was the first to take a music composer's attitude toward the product and to integrate the music with the visuals. The score for Loom was revolutionary... What you had was true scoring, with themes for characters and scenes. It reminded me of what John Williams had done with 'Star Wars.'"
-"In a Nod to Lush Film Scores, Game Music Gains Texture." Matthew Mirapaul. New York Times.
Notes: "Computers and game consoles now support multiple audio streams-- up to 256 separate "voices" on the Xbox, for example. Whether the music source is a MIDI synthesizer or a prerecorded sound file, the systems are powerful enough to combine and modify the streams in interesting ways-- provided that the composer has provided the options in advance."
-"Using Living, Breathing Musicians In Game Music." Jack Wall. Game Developer
Notes: "If your budget doesn't permit the recording of a live orchestra, then do your best to record enough living, breathing musicians to bring the game alive. And please, if you are composing for a game trailer that will play next to John Williams' Episode III trailer, remember... it will be playing next to John Williams' Episode III trailer."
-"Staying in Tune with the Times: Video Game Music Has Come a Long Way." Nick Lewis. The Ottawa Citizen.
Notes: "Since many young people today play video games more than they listen to radio or watch TV, video games are breaking talent the way MTV did in the 80s. A recent poll of core gamers aged 13-23 showed 55% of them learned about new artists from video games."
-"Hot for Game Audio." Damian Kastbauer. Game Developer.
Notes: Reviews much of the same literature I've read or have ready to read: Collins- Game Sound, Brandons- Audio for Games, Stevens/Raybould- The Game Audio Tutorial, OpenAL documentation-- (I need to learn more about this), Bridgett- From the Shadows of Film Sound, Sangers- The Fat Man on Game Audio. This may be the gem of my search: my investigation of this may be best summed up by perhaps my favorite social media post: "This exists" (the Game Audio Podcast).
My beloved, NPR, garnered two links:
Lindsay Totty. "From Mega Man to Final Fantasy, Live Video Game Music." Ok, so maybe I can convince the U to let me travel to ONE music conference... Where should it be? MAGFest? GameSoundCon? Project Bar-B-Q? Also... I've just been reading/watching interviews with Koji Kondo where he emphasizes the importance of melody in game music composition. Interesting that Nobuo Uematsu does the same here: "Lindsay: Uematsu echos the thought that it's melody that makes for great game music. Uematsu: It's pretty easy for me to come up with melodies. 24 hours a day, it's in my head all the time, and I struggle to choose which ones to use."
David Greene. "Video Game Music: Big Music, Big Money." The classic Greek conversation between student and master. How much does it cost to make game music? Tommy Tallarico: Extremes: $50,000 to $1,000,000. The average: $250,000 to $400,000.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Surveying Literature: A Classical Musician's Game Theory
One of the perks of my starting to mention to many of my friends, colleagues, and students that I'm interested in video game music is that people are telling me when they encounter something to do with game audio. I had three different people mention to me that they heard a story on NPR about game audio a few weeks ago and I've been hunting around for the article. I finally found it!
The article is short, although the audio clip interview is much more thorough, and also there are links to music from Tetris and Halo 3 on the page. This interview is more or less a promotion for Angèle Dubeau and the La Pieta string quartet's new album of video game music, Game Music.
One of the things that immediately caught my ear was when Robert Siegel says that much of this music is written "to hear as you kill things." I was particularly attuned to his comment because of the recent Sandy Hook shootings and my hearing that the killer played violent first person shooter games, although now I'm not sure this was true! While Siegel is correct that many video games have plenty of violence, of course, not all games are based on killing things. Even when the game does revolve around killing, I started wondering about how different settings make the violence come across differently... For instance, how violent is it for Mario to jump on goombas and turtles with the lighthearted music in the background? Or what of Link killing enemies with his sword-- certainly more violent, but still somehow cartoony and not too serious. Then, of course, there are first person shooter games modeled after military training games. In the Jørgensen article I just read and mentioned, a player describes the music of Hitman Contracts as feeling "chaotic" and adding to the frenzy of the game. When the audio was turned off, another player mentioned that gun scenes "don't work right... it's just two animated figures standing there shooting each other."
I'm not advocating these games as being good or bad, but all of this did get me thinking about how games are perceived as being violent (and thus, the music being composed "for killing things") as well as how the music of games emphasizes the mood and adds to the setting to make a more or less serious atmosphere.
The article is short, although the audio clip interview is much more thorough, and also there are links to music from Tetris and Halo 3 on the page. This interview is more or less a promotion for Angèle Dubeau and the La Pieta string quartet's new album of video game music, Game Music.
One of the things that immediately caught my ear was when Robert Siegel says that much of this music is written "to hear as you kill things." I was particularly attuned to his comment because of the recent Sandy Hook shootings and my hearing that the killer played violent first person shooter games, although now I'm not sure this was true! While Siegel is correct that many video games have plenty of violence, of course, not all games are based on killing things. Even when the game does revolve around killing, I started wondering about how different settings make the violence come across differently... For instance, how violent is it for Mario to jump on goombas and turtles with the lighthearted music in the background? Or what of Link killing enemies with his sword-- certainly more violent, but still somehow cartoony and not too serious. Then, of course, there are first person shooter games modeled after military training games. In the Jørgensen article I just read and mentioned, a player describes the music of Hitman Contracts as feeling "chaotic" and adding to the frenzy of the game. When the audio was turned off, another player mentioned that gun scenes "don't work right... it's just two animated figures standing there shooting each other."
I'm not advocating these games as being good or bad, but all of this did get me thinking about how games are perceived as being violent (and thus, the music being composed "for killing things") as well as how the music of games emphasizes the mood and adds to the setting to make a more or less serious atmosphere.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
SurveyIng Literature: The Evolution of Video Game Music (NPR, All Things Considered)
Today I'm listening to an NPR story from 2008, The Evolution of Video Game Music. If you've not heard it, I totally recommend it. Not overly technical, but for a video game/ music lover, it's a good intro. One of the best parts is hearing the video game music in the background!
Some highlights for me are:
The mention as far back as Space Invaders of game designers testing to see the effect of the sound effects to have an effect on the player's emotional state. This has me thinking about the interplay between marketing and video game music-- wondering what sort of marketing video game music principles exist.
The program compares video game music in comparison with film music-- but, says that unlike film music which has, according to Tommy Tallarico, "background" music, video game music has "foreground" music.
A question seems to be resounding as a theme in several of these sources: Is video game music serious music? I wonder, why does it matter?
The audio story goes on to mention Video Games Live and how successful these concerts are selling versus a classical concert. Video Games Live concerts are a multimedia experience where the audience is encouraged to be loud and energized compared with the "stiffness" of a classical concert.
Very interesting to learn that Berkley and USC are teaching video game music composition. As a college teacher, I'd be interested to teach a video game music history course.
Just hearing the music excerpts in the background of the NPR story as the music becomes more contemporary in time is awesome! Or follow links on the left side of the NPR page for live performances of a Final Fantasy piano medley and some of your favorite classic themes from Tetris, Super Mario Bros, and Myst.
Some highlights for me are:
The mention as far back as Space Invaders of game designers testing to see the effect of the sound effects to have an effect on the player's emotional state. This has me thinking about the interplay between marketing and video game music-- wondering what sort of marketing video game music principles exist.
The program compares video game music in comparison with film music-- but, says that unlike film music which has, according to Tommy Tallarico, "background" music, video game music has "foreground" music.
A question seems to be resounding as a theme in several of these sources: Is video game music serious music? I wonder, why does it matter?
The audio story goes on to mention Video Games Live and how successful these concerts are selling versus a classical concert. Video Games Live concerts are a multimedia experience where the audience is encouraged to be loud and energized compared with the "stiffness" of a classical concert.
Very interesting to learn that Berkley and USC are teaching video game music composition. As a college teacher, I'd be interested to teach a video game music history course.
Just hearing the music excerpts in the background of the NPR story as the music becomes more contemporary in time is awesome! Or follow links on the left side of the NPR page for live performances of a Final Fantasy piano medley and some of your favorite classic themes from Tetris, Super Mario Bros, and Myst.
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