Slashdot Mirror
Is a CS Deg Needed to Make Game Soundtracks?
Kurtiz666 asks: "A good friend of mine has his bachelor's in music composition - he wants to score game soundtracks for a living. He's a very good composer but has had difficulty breaking into the industry, doing only occasional work like soundtracks for plays and such. He thinks getting a CS degree will help him and is making plans to go back to school, but I'm not entirely convinced he needs this degree. I don't want to sound like his mother or anything, but I also don't want him to waste 2 years on school if he doesn't have to. So, how do you break into the game soundtrack field? Are there any software skills you recommend, and is a CS degree really necessary?"
I haven't done large scale soundtracks for games, only smaller stuff (and not on anything that became a big completed product), but based on my experience, and what I've seen in the industry, he's on the right track with just doing plays and whatever he can. I've done scores for a couple theatrical productions, and having that on your resume will prove your ability to write music to supplement drama and action better than a CS degree.
My advise: don't get the CS degree. Keep doing music. Participate in small projects on the side of your regular occupation.
I've also heard that starting out just running mail and doing intern work is a great way to get your foot in the door at game dev shops.
"Better to be vulgar than non-existent" -Bev Henson
If he is going for a degree just to get a job, it's a bad plan. If he really is interested in computer science as a field he should go for it. It is never a good plan to choose a course of study just for a line on a resume. Over time that line falls farther and farther down the page. It always pays to study what you love - even though you may find it doesn't help you get a job at all.
I have nothing to hide. So, why are you spying on me?
I mean, John Williams does not, to my knowledge, have a degree in filmmaking. Your friend is probably better off putting together a portfolio of his compositions, and then shopping it around until he drops. Covering both theme and incidental music would probably be wise, as well as a variety of genres. Don't bother with scores - the people who would hire him likely can't make sense of them anyway. Tell him to call in every favor he's got, get some musician friends into the studio, and do some recording. Lotsa luck to him.
ABSURDITY, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
ocremix.org
/. :)
vgmix.com
etc?
Seems they would know better than
DYWYPI?
Do the soundtrack for it, for free, and get yourself noticed.
What on earth does game soundtrack composition have to do with computability, context free grammars, operating system resource allocation, space and time complexity analysis, etc? The entire premise of the question is insane.
It sounds like this person thinks that CS is where you go to learn to use a computer. That would be like sending an aspiring painter to get a degree in physics so he could learn to use a paintbrush.
Yes. You need a CS degree. That's all there is to it. You don't need any skills or experience or anything. In fact, knowing anything about music would be bad. Duh!
The Wizard of Oz to the Scarecrow: I can't give you a brain, but I can give you a diploma.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Writing music is an art, whether it's for top 40 radio, games, or theater. Most of the time you don't get hired to write music as a permanent job, though there are a few out there. If you want to get into the industry, start writing music and TONS of it. Get some games and re-write the music for them. Make some videos showing the game with your music behind it. Offer to write music for free for ANYONE who is willing. The best way to make money writing music for games is to get known as a game musician.
Another thing to do is learn how to write music on as many different audio apps as possible, as well as with physical instruments like guitar, keyboard, drums, etc. If someone asks you to come in and write music using a Jeskola Buzz Machine http://www.buzzmachines.com/, you need to already know how. You also need to understand mixing and mastering and need to know how to use analog and digital recording equipment. Mixing isn't too difficult but mastering really takes talent and skill.
Basically, he needs to shell out some cash on music equipment and software instead of on a degree. If he insists on going to school, he needs to go to a school like Full Sail http://www.fullsail.com/ that actually offers courses that would be relevant to the field.
He was writing music, and having some sucess, but he wanted to make really romantic music, you know, the sort of music that people play while they make sweet love.
Took him 12 years to become a gynacologist, but it was worth it. That man's name? Michael Bolton.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I may make some suggestions here that seem obvious, but if they're obvious to you, just ignore them.
I've been working in computers since 1986, in computer audio since 1993, and I know a fair number of people in the game industry.
In my experience, I have never gotten a job that was worth a damn without having contacts on the inside. Never. I have had crummy jobs that I applied for randomly, and I have had cool jobs that I got because I knew someone. Maybe this makes me lame, but I suspect it makes me typical.
Make friends in the game industry, or at least also trying to get in to the game industry. You don't even need to know them in person; this is the era of the Internet. The goal is that sooner or later they'll be in the meeting where the project manager at their game company says "Okay we're shipping in two weeks; it's time to add the music", they'll be able to say "I know this guy..."
They don't even need to be high up in their company. I started at Creative Labs working tech support. Within a few years, I had moved around in the company to marketing, and I was in the meeting where my boss said "We need someone to compose some music for our web site." We hired Paul Godwin because someone in that meeting knew him.
You have a web page up with at least snippets of some of your compositions up, right? If you can't find an open source game to help out with, turn off your PC speakers and compose some music for a game that already exists! Put 'em on your site arranged by genre: fps, rts, driving, puzzle, whatever.
In addition to a sharp looking site, you need to have some demo CDs. I bet you can make even the little business-card CDs in redbook format. I'd make 'em redbook with small song segments since you will be limited to 8-10 minutes of music. You can make them mixed-mode if you feel like, but I bet redbook with a nice printed label with your name and URL would suffice. You don't need to press them on everyone you meet, but keep them around.
If you don't already, spend some time learning about how the industry works. It may be boring and/or trite, but consider this: You meet someone who works for a publisher, and says "yeah we don't actually make any of the games ourselves." Dead end? Hardly! Maybe they don't make the games themselves, but they work with dozens of small software houses, each of which does need composers. "What titles are you publishing right now? Really, who is that by? Are you going to publish any future releases from them? You know I'd love to get in touch with someone there about composing some music for one of their titles."
Are you ready to be self-employed? Lots of small-time game operations are run on a shoestring. They're not going to need a properly-paid composer full time on staff. Get your state business license, come up with a nice looking invoice, learn how consulting contracts work.
And last, save your nickels and dimes, because next March 20-24, no matter what, you need to be here.
Best of luck.
Chris O
San Carlos, California
S -> SAb
A -> BSa
B -> ACSa
C -> dSD
D -> BaSBA
Is this grammar capable of producing sentences of finite length?
Also, determine an upper bound on the time complexity for computing Ackermann's function. Describe the significance of this function in the context of algebras.
Next, demonstrate that the grammar of ANSI C is not context-free. What modifications to the grammar would you perform to cause it to be context-free? Is the resulting grammar LL(1)?
I hope you found all that to be interesting, fun, and relevant to music scoring, because that's what you'll be doing in Computer Science.
I know this was only posted an hour and a half ago, but there have been some damn good suggestions here, so I wanted to say thank you for your replies (negative and positive).
I'm not the one trying to break into the gaming industry...I'm a graphic designer. Ask me anything about QuarkXpress and I'm probably able to answer it - kerning, tracking, tabs, keylines, all that geeky gd stuff. You don't have to believe me, that's fine. But thanks anyway, and thanks in advance to anyone posting advice after this.
This kid really needs a nudge in the right direction, and judging by the replies I've seen, he should have a good idea of where to go from here. You very well may have changed someone's life (for the better). Whether or not he appreciates my going behind his back to ask career advice is another story....but it's worth the risk in trying to help a friend, right?
Anyway, thanks a lot, Slashdotters.
Kurt