Music and audio in video games has come a long way since the onomatopoeic sounds of 1970’s arcade games. Today audio in video games is a complex science and it can be a lucrative revenue stream for music producers. However, it is an entirely different challenge to writing club tracks or producing albums.
Kris Giampa knows a thing or two about audio and music in video games. As Senior Sound Designer at Electronic Arts’ Pandemic Studios in Los Angeles, California, Giampa has been in the video game industry since 1999.
In 2001 he started his career in sound design and worked for companies like Interplay and Treyarch (Activision). His work has landed on games like the three installments of Spider-Man, Mercenaries 2, and he’s currently in development of the AAA quality game ‘The Saboteur’.
In this special feature, Giampa along with Pandemic Studios’ Lead Audio Programmer Erik Pettersson, gives us an overview of how to get music in video games.
Different options
Many producers and DJs often wonder how they can get their music on video games. The good news is that there are many different ways one can get involved, but first you need to decide which path to take.
- Are you composer/producer/record label who is trying to license music for video games?
- Are you a composer who wants to specifically write a score for a video game?
- Are you a sound designer who wants to make and implement sound effects for video games and maybe even become an audio programmer?
Each role has its own path and requires different skill sets, so let’s examine each path:
Getting music licensed for video games
Publishers
Before we talk about licensing, you first need to understand the difference between publishers and devolpers. Publishers are big companies who usually license properties from companies and then hire a development team or a studio to make a video game for them.
Some publishers hire multiple developers to create games for them. However you should almost always think of publishers (Eg: Electronic Arts or Activision) and developers (Eg: Pandemic Studios or Treyarch) as separate entities.
A lot of the time getting music licensed for games is about knowing the right person to send your license-able material to. Generally, in most big publishing houses there are music supervisors who do all kinds of things like talking to the managers of big artists and bands, to working out exclusive or non-exclusive licenses dependent on the type of game, while maintaining relationships with labels from big to small.
These are the guys to contact at the big publishers. One word of advice, do not hound them too much. If you are able to make a connection to send them material and they want to license it, they will get hold of you eventually.
Licensing services
There are services out there that can help get your music placed in games, commercials, TV shows and movies. I in particular, have never tried this route, so I can’t endorse it either way. But my personal opinion is that it’s always better to have someone take a percentage of a license that they helped you get, than have no license at all.
Be wary though. There are companies out there that will try to get artists to pay an upfront fee in order to “get their music placed”. This isn’t a great idea.
A better option is for the company to take a percentage of a payment once it has been placed, as these companies will usually work harder for their commission.
Do you really think your latest club tune will sound awesome while slaying dragons? Umm, no.
The right music for the right game
When submitting your music to video game developers directly, remember that certain games require certain types of music to compliment the action on screen. Do you really think your latest club tune will sound awesome while slaying dragons? Umm, no.
Club music usually works best in games that are sports related (like arena music for football, hockey, baseball, soccer or basketball games), rhythm based games, and racing games.
Open world games like Grand Theft Auto 4 have radio stations inbuilt into the game mechanic, and these stations feature a lot of dance music. There are some sci-fi adventure type games out there that might suit club music too. Of course, it all depends on the vibe that the game developer is attempting to create, so it can vary wildly. Try to find out exactly what mood the developer is looking for, and what games they are working on, before submitting your music.
Developers
For smaller developers who aren’t owned by big behemoths, your best bet is to find the audio director who is in charge of the audio for the studio.
Audio Directors get a lot of demos from not only record companies, but from small to big time composers who are just starting out, or from composers who have a historic resume of games titles and movies.
Usually these guys have too many demos and not enough time go through them all in a timely and efficient manner, as developers are usually in production and working hard.
Patience is important. I have witnessed many times during a crunch (a ‘crunch’ is when a developer is working many overtime hours trying to hit a strict deadline) a stack of un-listened composer demos and sound design reels getting bigger and bigger. Eventually the audio director will get to them though.
Composing musical scores for games
If you want to write musical scores specifically for video games there are many different paths to getting your demo reels into the hands of the important people.
You can try to get in contact with the audio director of developers or publishers, music supervisors at publishers, lead sound designers at developers or even possibly the creative director of a game in development.
Keep in mind that not only do the lead sound designers and audio directors have a big say in what type of music the game will ship with but it also goes through the creative director’s ears as well. It’s not always just one person’s decision to make the call on music selection.
The demo reel that you submit should show your versatility in musical composition. If your strength is club music you should feature a few of your best tracks but do not overload the demo with just dance tracks as this will likely get overlooked as video games need variety, and composers need to be able to create different moods.
When you are trying to show these companies that you are the best man/woman for the job, it’s a good idea to show off many different kinds of styles, but particularly your ability to create classical movie type scores.
A great sound I’ve been hearing lately is the mix between classical movie scoring and electronic music, as the combination creates a cinematic feel but manages to sound modern at the same time.
Industry events
Another great place to hand out demo reels is at industry events or trade shows. One of the best trade shows that would be worth your while is the Game Developers Conference (or GDC for short), otherwise known as E3.
The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 for short) is a trade show you might have heard of as that is where the newest games are unveiled and it’s where publishers fight for retailer shelf space.
GDC is the more professional of the trade shows as this is where a lot of developers and publishers go to listen to talks and discuss the bigger picture.
They also have their recruiters ready and waiting to talk to possible new employees. So if you were to run into a lead sound designer or audio director you will definitely want to talk to them and maybe give them a demo of your music or a sound design reel and resume/CV.
Sound designing and audio programming
When I tell people I am a Sound Designer in video games people usually think that I just sit around and create music for games all day long. That is not the case at all.
The closest sound designers usually get to touching anything music related has to do with the implementation of either the composer’s original material or licensed music.
Every once and a while I will pitch in to help with the score but as a sound designer it is not my main focus to create the score.
Being a sound designer in the industry usually means that you spend most of your time creating, editing, mastering and then implementing sound effects, voice, ambiance, foley and sometimes music.
For me, this is the most fun. You get to instill your creativity within this virtual world and make it sound not only appropriate but also effective.
The first half of the fun starts in how you’d like convey a specific type of sound in conjunction with the lead sound designer and creative director of the game. Generally speaking, you would design something on a few different layers and then export each layer with different variations.
The second half of the fun is to take your exported sound effect layers and implement them into the game, usually with either some proprietary sound tool that the developer uses, or middle wear programs such as Audiokinetic’s Wwise or FMOD.
Being an Audio Programmer
Lead audio programmer Erik Pettersson, aka Sonic Union [Lowbit Records], has been an audio programmer in video games for nine years. He has worked on multiple AAA titles such as the Battlefield franchise, Company of Heroes, and Mercenaries.
His specialization in audio programming for games has led him to work for some of the top game studios in the world.
Being a music producer for almost 14 years, Erik is also well versed in production with many successful releases on labels such as Global Underground, Aurium, and his own label Lowbit Records. Below, he explains what it is to be an audio programmer.
What does an audio programmer do?
The work of an audio programmer is very different from a composer or sound designer.
An audio programmer is usually tasked with programming the logic of sounds in games. That means that they program how sounds play in the game, what sounds to play, and how data from the game will affect sounds.
When it comes down to it, if you want to get involved with audio in video games in some fashion, there are many different ways to approach each position from different angles.
For example, when an explosion happens in the game, the sound programmer’s job is to program the right sounds to play, perhaps randomize between different versions of explosion sounds and pick one.
Another example would be when a player enters a car, it plays all the correct sounds for that particular vehicle, be it a Volvo, a Cadillac or a tank.
The sound programmer would also take different data from the vehicle’s physics like, RPM, speed, throttle and modify the car sounds (i.e. the pitch of the sound could be controlled by the RPM value from the physics). It is usually the sound designer’s job to interact with these parameters, dial them in, and make them sound appropriate during run time.
The audio programmer is also usually tasked with writing the audio engine, audio pipeline and audio authoring tools.
An audio engine is really what makes sound play in the game. The audio pipeline is how to get the sounds from the sound designers into the game.
The audio authoring tool allows sound designers to create layers of sounds, select different sounds to randomize between when a sound is played in the game, and set up how sounds are controlled from data from the game.
Today, most of the programming is done in C++, but C# is also commonly used for creating tools.
If you wish to become a sound programmer, a strong knowledge in C++ is a must, and if you have good audio knowledge and a passion for games, then you might be the perfect fit to become an audio programmer.
If you want to learn more about becoming an audio programmer, send me an email at epettersson@pandemicstudios.com.
When it comes down to it, if you want to get involved with audio in video games in some fashion, there are many different ways to approach each position from different angles.
It’s always better if you like to play games and have a passion for them while sharing that passion for audio. The two combined can be a magical combination that could spark a career you never knew was ever possible.
Want more?
Asides from being a Senior Sound Designer Kris Giampa aka Red-Eye also owns and operates Red Session Records. Erik Pettersson aka Sonic Union runs Lowbit Records alongside Bastards of Funk.
They are both willing to answer any questions any of you might have about music and audio in video games in the comments section below, and if feedback to this article is positive they may share their knowledge and discuss this topic in detail with further posts.
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