Making My Own Music (Inside Video Game Music)

Originally posted on October 18, 2014In this episode, I talk with Grant Kirkhope, a long-time game composer who wrote the soundtrack for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. We talk about his boss battle song “Balor.”Grant is a member of the Classic FM Hall Of Fame, and his video game soundtracks have sold more than 25 million copies.In my interview with Grant Kirkhope, we cover the following:His musical background, attending The Royal Northern College of Music, playing in metal bands, and working at Rare, Big Huge Games and 38 StudiosGrant has been fortunate to have a live orchestras record the soundtracks for Viva Piñata, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, Viva Piñata 2, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, CityVille 2 and Civilization: Beyond EarthGrant writes the music and creates a MIDI mockup, before handing it over to someone for orchestrationDuring the recording, Grant stays in the control room, making sure the performance is right while recording engineers, conductors, mixers, and mastering engineers handle the tasks they specialize inWhen making MIDI mock-ups or for pieces not being performed by a live orchestra, Grant uses Hollywood Brass, Strings, and Orchestral Woodwinds libraries from EastWest StudiosFrom playing trumpet in orchestras, Grant has great knowledge of what the different instruments can do and what they are great atHe listened a lot to the first three Harry Potter soundtracks composed by John WilliamsWe talked about writing complicated runs for woodwinds, and that orchestral players are good enough to play themI then played “Balor” from Kingdoms of Amalur Boss Pieces with EndingsHe talked about the looping version for the game and the versions with endings for the soundtrackGrant likes to use motifs that pop up in different pieces throughout the game and soundtrackHe liked working with Curt Schilling, although he did not know about baseballGrant talked about working with his friend Danny Baranowsky on the Desktop Dungeon soundtrackHe likes working with indie developers and how they focus on great gameplayOne of Grant’s favorite all-time games is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the PastHe likes games that use Danny Baranowsky’s and Jimmy Hinson‘s (Big Giant Circles) musicGrant Kirkhope's website is grantkirkhope.com. You can find Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on Steam, Playstation and XboxIs there a game composer you’d like to hear from? Let me know and I will reach out to them for an interview. Email [email protected].

Originally posted on October 11, 2014In this episode, I talk with Tim Shiel, a composer from Melbourne Australia who wrote the Duet soundtrack. We talk about his song Nay.In my interview with Tim Shiel, we cover the following:His musical background playing grunge music in high school, and then releasing music under the name Faux PasHow he toured with Gotye in 2011 and 2012 for the Making Mirrors tourThe five-minute video of Gotye and Tim made by Abelton about how they used the software during live showsHis radio show Something More on Double J (now triple j)How he went from wanting to get into game music to getting the Duet soundtrack gigInspired by Indie Game: The Movie and Jim Guthrie’s story which led to meeting the folks from KumobiusThe Duet game, and how it appeals to hard-core gamers and to casual gamersTim made a lot of Duet sounds on the OP-1 from Teenage EngineeringHe uses a Nord Stage 2 as his MIDI controller as well as use the Nord sound libraryThe music for Duet is laid-back “atmospheric” dance music. Tim talks about getting it to fit into the game, to sound decent on an iPhone speaker but great on headphones, and to stand alone as a soundtrack albumTim talks about making the loops long (three to five minutes) with different sectionsI briefly talk about the form of Nay. After having the “A” note in the bass for the whole song, near the end there is two measures of F and two measures of G before returning to A. Tim talks about the tension-releaseI then played “Nay”Tim talks about the “rewind” sounds that play when your red or blue game balls hit a blockHe used a reverse reverb trick on the voiceover with a lot of side-chain compressionSome of Tim’s favorite games include the Mass Effect series, Pool of Radiance (Commodore 64). He really likes the music on Rymdkapsel (music by Niklas Ström)Tim’s latest EP is called Time Shield available at timshiel.bandcamp.com (as well as many other releases).He is now working on the soundtrack for GameLoading: Rise Of The Indies, a feature-length documentary film and with a project called Telling with Ben AbrahamIs there a game composer you’d like to hear from? Let me know and I will reach out to them for an interview. Email [email protected] can hear my music at TomSnively.com on the Music page. You can try Match Em and Molecular Music Box by finding the links on tomsnively.com.

Originally posted on October 4, 2014In this episode, I talk with Rich Vreeland, who also goes by the name Disasterpeace. He is the composer of the FEZ and many other game soundtracks. We talk about his song Adventure from FEZ.In my interview with Rich Vreeland, we cover the following:His musical background growing up and at Berklee College of MusicHis 42 projects available for sale on his music pageRetaining or giving up rights to be able to release the soundtrack himselfHis album Neutralite and how he collaborated with SpamTronIf it is hard to wait after writing a bunch of music for a game to be completed and releasedRich has a blog entry where he talks about the synthesizers he uses. I ask about how to move up from beginner at synthesisWe talk about Adventure, and how there are only seven or eight tracks in the songI then played Adventure from the FEZ soundtrackRich gave tips on making things loopable, and how the soundtrack version differs from the game versionHow he use Leq and AudioLink to match the volume level for the game assets, separately from having the soundtrack mastered for the game Monsters Ate My Birthday CakeHis “game”/music app JanuaryRich is performing October 11th at IndieCade, singing and playing piano on new songsRich also wrote the score to the film It Follows in about three weeks to have it ready for the Cannes Film FestivalHis alias, Disasterpiece, how we came up with it and the occasional problems of having two identitiesHis favorite games of all time are NHL ’94 (Sega Genesis), Tecmo Super Bowl (NES), Super Mario RPG, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and Chrono Cross.He loves the music in Yoshi’s Island (Koji Kondo) and Chrono Cross (Yasunori Mitsuda), and more recently Machinarium and Samorost 2 (Tomáš Dvořák). Spelunky (Eirik Suhrke)You can find Rich Vreeland at disasterpeace.com. You can find FEZ at fezgame.com.Next week I am interviewing Grant Kirkhope who wrote the soundtrack for Kingdoms of Amalur, GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Pinata, Perfect Dark and many more.Is there a game composer you’d like to hear from? Let me know and I will reach out to them for an interview. Email [email protected].

Originally posted on September 27, 2014In this episode, I talk with Ben Prunty, the composer of the FTL soundtrack. We talk about his Battle version of his MilkyWay song. I also talk about the podcast name change from Making My Own Music and the change of focus.Originally this podcast was called “Making My Own Music” where each episode went into a song, mostly ones I composed. I talked about Rue’s Whistle and episode 1 of MMOM where I talked about my musical background. I also mentioned episode 28 of MMOM where I talked about Molecular Music Box and a couple of solo piano songs I wrote using it.I talked about episode 27 of MMOM where I talked about RPSwipe, a mobile game that I wrote the music and sounds for, I also wrote my own game, Match Em which used a song called Rise Above that I talked about in episode 20.I also had some interviews, I interviewed Charlie McCarron in episode 22 and Joe Gilder in episode 23. In episode 24, I interviewed Whitaker Trebella about the music from his game Pivvot.In my interview with Ben Prunty, we cover the following:His background going to audio engineering school, recording and mixing rock bands“It takes ten years to make an overnight success” from his blog entryHe started on Gravity Ghost in 2010, and it is not going to released until January 26th, 2015. Is it hard to have to wait so long for people to hear some of your music?The FTL soundtrack has sold over 100,000 copies. We talk about owning the soundtrack rights for indie gamesHe mentions the hardware and software used to make FTL in a blog entry. He mentions Native Instrument Komplete 10 that has over 12,000 sounds. How do you find the next patch to use when writing a song?He has a blog entry on an analysis of themes in the FTL soundtrack. What is the right amount of self-referencing material on a soundtrack? He’s varied on Gravity Ghost, FTL and StarCrawlers coming out in NovemberWe talk a little about the effects processing in FTLI ask about programming drums. Does he think about whether it is playable by a human drummerI then play the Battle version of MilkyWayWe talk about music theory studyWe talk about how he enters notes and quantizing/humanizingWe talk about a separate mixing process he does when the recording of a soundtrack is completeHis favorite games are EarthBound, System Shock 2, God Hand, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. EarthBound and the first God of War are his favorite game soundtracks.Ben's website is benpruntymusic.com.Next week I am interviewing Rich Vreeland who goes by the name Disasterpeace who wrote the soundtrack for FEZ and Tim Shiel who wrote the soundtrack for Duet.Is there a game composer you’d like to hear from? Let me know and I will reach out to them for an interview. Email [email protected] can hear my album Major 7ths and Minor 9ths on Bandcamp. You can stream it for free or download it for “pay what you want.” You can try Match Em and Molecular Music Box by finding the links on tomsnively.com.

Originally posted on September 20, 2014In this episode, I talk about Molecular Music Box, a music app that I wrote that creates algorithmic solo piano music, and two songs that I composed using the app.I started by talking about my entry for the August 2014 Ludum Dare. I worked by myself but used clip art from MyCuteGraphics.com. The theme was “Connected Worlds” and I made a game called The Circle Of Life. It is about the life cycle:In the food chain, we are all connected. The butterflies eat from the flowers, but the birds eat the butterflies, but the foxes eat the birds.In “The Circle Of Life” your place in the food chain keeps changing. You are the purple butterfly and have to eat from the flowers. But don’t get eaten by the birds. But then you are a blue bird and have to eat the butterflies. But don’t get eaten by the fox!I had fun with the audio. When the animals eat the other animals, you here me or my son saying “Nom nom nom!” in the correct place in the stereo field. I got top 11% ratings in humor and top 34% in audio.I originally saw a video for Molecular Music Box by Dr. Duncan Lockerby, a professor in the UK. With an algorithm, you can create solo piano music using 2 numbers and a starting note, for example 4 E 3. 4 is the “initial length” and 3 is the “secondary length.” It's hard to explain in just audio, so I played a song first to demonstrate, 9 D 1 1/2.Start with a low D and hold it for 9 beats. Then play the next white key up, E, and hold that for 9 beats. You continue up the white keys. While this is happening, you use a “loop pedal” to record and repeat 4-measure loops. So, whatever sounded during the first 4 measures gets played again in the 5th measure while you add new notes. Each time you loop the 4 measures, there will be additional notes played.You continue doing this until you are starting a new note at the same exact time an existing note is set to sound. In that case, you change from the initial length (9) to the secondary length (1 1/2), and play new notes for 1 1/2 beats each until you again have a note already starting at that time. When that happens you switch back to the initial length (9 beats).If you’d like to try Molecular Music Box, you can play around at https://tomsnively.com/mmb/. The program has sliders for initial length and secondary length so you can make them go from 1/2 to 16, and the initial length can go from C2 (two octaves below middle C) to C4 (middle C). I also added three advanced features: adjust tempo from 60 to 300, a “key” slider so you can have the song use any key instead of all white keys, and you can change the loop length to go from 8 beats up to 32 beats.The piano sounds come from Mildon Studios; he published a free library.In 8 C 14 1/2, I am using the key of Eb making the song in natural minor. I also changed the loop length to 15, so the song has 3 measures of 4/4 followed by 1 measure of 3/4. I then played 8 C 14 1/2.Composer Michael Chadwick used Molecular Music Box as one part in a larger song called Chemical Music.