how would you describe your music-makin' process?
This is a very long response! I've been thinking about this for a while. Let's see. Feel free to ask more specific questions.
When it comes to the music I write for my games, since I also design the games, I am familiar with the area's content (the level design, what obstacles there are, NPCs), thematic material (ideas these things try to express), and how that area plays into the game at large, as well as the player's possible fatigue and playtime when they are at that point, and hopefully a sense for where Jon is going with the art style. I then also take into account how I would like to help narrow players' space of interpretation for the area: music is really powerful in how it shapes how we view an area. (Fun experiment: take a place you go to a lot. Now imagine being there but it only places a loud deafening bass tone. Now imagine it playing some Beethoven symphony. Compare and contrast how you might feel.) So I think also being the game's designer really, really helps with the music. There is less information loss between designer and composer (since you are both!)
I deliberately never listen to music anywhere except my bedroom, or futiley on an airplane trying to tune out the deafening engine roar. I think there is a validity to listening to some music while in public spaces and thinking about how it changes your perception of the space, but I find myself more drawn to how the space and ambient noises paint a mood. Then I think I'm in a better place intuitively when it comes to doing music for my games, knowing that people will most likely be listening to that music.
This makes me think about music in restaurants and stores and how it is 95% of the time inappropriate and jarring...
Anyways, over time you build up this set of intuitions for sounds and mood, as well as on top of previous composers' work and how they represent moods/ideas with sounds. Having a visual literacy also helps, too.
With this stuff in the back of my head and all the game contextual info, I'll then go in and try to think of some short melodic phrase or some texture in my head I think would work, and then build from there. Sometimes this is spontaneous, sometimes I hear something in a song that I think works well and adapt that with other intuitions I have. This has happened sort of recently with Point of View Point by Cornelius, No Man's Land by Tangerine Dream, etc.
Generally speaking, I have a more melodic approach for the Gauntlet areas in The Ocean and a more ambient approach for the Nature areas, reflective of the gameplay found in both. Compare 2nd and 3rd songs in https://soundcloud.com/seagaia/even-the-ocean-sampler-2
Ask.fm has a character limit (why....?)
Continued at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hn887juoe79asdo/ASK_FM_music_making.txt
When it comes to the music I write for my games, since I also design the games, I am familiar with the area's content (the level design, what obstacles there are, NPCs), thematic material (ideas these things try to express), and how that area plays into the game at large, as well as the player's possible fatigue and playtime when they are at that point, and hopefully a sense for where Jon is going with the art style. I then also take into account how I would like to help narrow players' space of interpretation for the area: music is really powerful in how it shapes how we view an area. (Fun experiment: take a place you go to a lot. Now imagine being there but it only places a loud deafening bass tone. Now imagine it playing some Beethoven symphony. Compare and contrast how you might feel.) So I think also being the game's designer really, really helps with the music. There is less information loss between designer and composer (since you are both!)
I deliberately never listen to music anywhere except my bedroom, or futiley on an airplane trying to tune out the deafening engine roar. I think there is a validity to listening to some music while in public spaces and thinking about how it changes your perception of the space, but I find myself more drawn to how the space and ambient noises paint a mood. Then I think I'm in a better place intuitively when it comes to doing music for my games, knowing that people will most likely be listening to that music.
This makes me think about music in restaurants and stores and how it is 95% of the time inappropriate and jarring...
Anyways, over time you build up this set of intuitions for sounds and mood, as well as on top of previous composers' work and how they represent moods/ideas with sounds. Having a visual literacy also helps, too.
With this stuff in the back of my head and all the game contextual info, I'll then go in and try to think of some short melodic phrase or some texture in my head I think would work, and then build from there. Sometimes this is spontaneous, sometimes I hear something in a song that I think works well and adapt that with other intuitions I have. This has happened sort of recently with Point of View Point by Cornelius, No Man's Land by Tangerine Dream, etc.
Generally speaking, I have a more melodic approach for the Gauntlet areas in The Ocean and a more ambient approach for the Nature areas, reflective of the gameplay found in both. Compare 2nd and 3rd songs in https://soundcloud.com/seagaia/even-the-ocean-sampler-2
Ask.fm has a character limit (why....?)
Continued at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hn887juoe79asdo/ASK_FM_music_making.txt
