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Memoirs of a Videogame Music Composer
kukyfrope writes "GameDaily has conducted an in-depth interview with videogame composer Jesper Kyd (Hitman, Freedom Fighters). They discuss what it takes to be a composer, what inspires him, how he comes up with new ideas for his projects, and about the current 'generic' state of music in most games. 'I am not interested in writing music that is disposable or that doesn't touch people in some way. I try to write music I would want in the game as a gamer, so if I am happy with my music I know I am doing something right.'"
I knew as soon as I read the title of the article that it would be about Jesper Kyd. His music is amazing and fits the mood perfectly for games like Hitman. There's some tracks of his on his website http://jesperkyd.com/
The music in a game can make a huge difference in how fun the game is. The good games (metroid prime comes to mind), draw you in with the right music, playing the right music at the right time. Other games just take music from top 40 rock bands and call that a sound track. In some games this works well, but in others, it works terribly. Music doesn't usually make or break a game, but it can be the difference between a good game, and a great game. And it's not quality that matters, but music that fits the mood of the game. I'd much rather have crappy midi music than high quality CD music if the Midi music created better atmosphere.
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Danny Elfman http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000384/ the former front man for Oingo-Boingo, singing voice of Jack and soundtrack from Nightmare Before Christmas, has done ton's of movies and game sound tracks including parts of: Kingdom Hearts, Fable, and the Simpsons games. He's been on many more game sound tracks that aren't apparently listed on IMDB. The man is a musical genius.
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I used to half like ACDC's TNT. But now the Tony Hawk series has ruined it.
Evil Genius had a very fun soundtrack. Most of the tracks were really good. I remember looking for the music for the game to listen to outside of the game because of how good it was. It's very "spy movie" (specifically James Bond-ish) and a lot of fun.
I don't play games for their music- in fact, I always turn it off if there's an option for it. I'd rather have my mp3 collection cranked in the background.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Gamespy recently had an interview with another composer, Jeremy Soule.
I haven't heard anything by Jesper Kyd, but many of my favorite videogame composers get the balance just right - Nobuo Uematsu's "Fianl Fantasy" work, Kurt Harland's "Soul Reaver" tunes, Hans Zimmer's "Metal Gear Solid" scores, and of course the classic Super Mario music. (Stop laughing, dammit! Who among the 8-bit generation doesn't remember how awesome it was to grab a starman and hear the invincibility theme for the first time, or didn't get even slightly spooked by the underworld music?)
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How do 'normal' music artist make sure that when they 'write' music, they aren't inadvertently reusing some melody from some song that they heard on the radio 5 minutes ago?
Of course, music has always been important to the succcess of games. Hubbard sold a lot of games for the C64 simply because he was credited as the games musician (anyone remember the theme to M.U.L.E.? :).
I think music is even more important in video games the further you go back.
Of all the tools available to early game developers, music I really think was the most developed because the essence of a good tune comes through with virtually any technology that can at least play a tone.
Just start remembering your old favorite games, at least with me what I always remember first is the music.
I'm going through an audio technician graduate course right now which also deals with elements of composition. I really want to get into game soundtrack composition and production. I would have to say my two earliest influences were Kemco's "Shadowgate" and "Uninvited", specifically the versions for the NES. Hearing that music pulled me into the game far more than I ever thought possible. Other favorites (soundtrack wise, at least) were Zelda 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Double Dragon 2 (wow...enough sequels?), and of course, Deja Vu.
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If you don't know him, go on, google it, hear it, and form an opinion. Changes are that you'll love it to bits.
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Jeremy Soule is the first to come to mind, and while I like Jesper Kyd's work, I think Soule is better. The music for Oblivion was so-so, but I think that the music in Morrowind is some of the best I've ever heard. It's amazing. Compare the Oblivion title and the Morrowind title and tell me that Morrowind's is not better.
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I downloaded a NES emulator just so I could play M.U.L.E... love that game and soundtrack!
Liked his music better back in the Silents days.
Realise that most pop songs are based around age old patterns - verse/chorus/verse/chorus/middle 8/chorus, twelve bar blues, I/IV/V progressions. There are only twelve notes in the chromatic scale, there's only so many ways you can arrange them into familiar-but-interesting sounding patterns. Deconstruct metal songs and you find pop ballads, deconstruct punk and you find country and folk songs. Try and do something really, truly new and you get free jazz, which certainly has a fanbase, but not one that's going to pay the bills. The real miracle of pop music is that it has repackaged and represented the same songs for well over a century without many people really noticing.
That's a risk when you write any music. VG music is fairly different from most radio music, however, so inadvertently copying songs from the radio isn't as much a problem as inadvertently copying songs from another video game.
What is more likely, however, is that you'll use some aspect of the music you liked in the original and fit it into the rest of the new piece. Then your piece is influenced by another, but it is not a copy - which, IMO, is fine.
That's a risk when you write any music.
So how do composers and publishers manage this risk?
What is more likely, however, is that you'll use some aspect of the music you liked in the original and fit it into the rest of the new piece. Then your piece is influenced by another, but it is not a copy - which, IMO, is fine.
Unless their company is bigger than your company and can afford more experienced legal representation.
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You write it, copyright it, play it to a few music-geek friends
How do I find a "music-geek friend" who doesn't charge an exorbitant sum?
otherwise you publish and be damned.
So what if I am damned? How can a startup video game developer afford to hire legal representation in case a music publisher sends a letter alleging copyright infringement and demanding $30,000?
What I mean is using something like a particular arpeggiation or even a single chord that you may have heard before in a strategic section of a piece. For example, I liked the progression from a diminished seventh chord to a dominant major triad used in Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique and later found myself using a similar resolution in one of my own pieces. Trying to argue against using such a small element of music in an otherwise-original piece is like trying to argue that moving from V to I or resolving from a tritone is plagiarism. To avoid being influenced by these things is to ignore the last thousand or so years of progress in music.
I'm not talking about using entire measures from other pieces. That isn't inspiration. That's plagiarism. I suppose you can clarify the difference between the two by saying the former is a concept that can be expressed as a part of music theory, whereas the latter is an application of that theory.
I'm not talking about using entire measures from other pieces.
It can happen inadvertently. Every piece is going to have at least a few entire measures identical to some measure in some existing copyrighted piece; the combinatorics can't be avoided within the Western musical system. So how do I know whether I'm inadvertently using a measure from a well-known copyrighted piece? And even if I'm clearly in the right, how do I economically convince a judge of this?
That music was perfect for it. Short, and a rather limited scope (I would've gotten a kick out of them doing extra tracks for the Super Agents and Villains), but perfect.