Games are now the largest single sector of the entertainment industry, and the Games sector is expanding in size and scope at a very rapid rate. The production values in games like God of War created by Sony Digital Entertainment's Santa Monica Studio are rivaling those in movies, meaning there are good careers for people with a wide variety of talents.

Composing music for games now involves classically trained composers writing for symphony orchestras and full choruses. The technology of PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube make any kind of music possible and sound is now a major part of gaming experience.

Game music is now a major seller on stand-alone CD

When Jack Wall composed the score for Myst III, he used a full symphony orchestra and choir. The soundtrack was packaged on a separate audio CD in 250,000 Special Editions, while more than 30,000 CD's of the game's music were sold online.

Click on this anchor link for a fun and informative story about classically trained movie music composer who wants a chance to score a game.
http://www.dlynnwaldron.com/ComposingMovieMusic.html#Anchor-SCORING-47857

The Los Angles Philharmonic with the John Alexander Chorale performed video game music in the Hollywood Bowl on July 6th, 2005, in the first concert of a multi-city tour http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home each using a local symphony orchestra. It was an exciting evening with a variety of musical forms, including traditional and modern symphonic. Below are photographs by D'Lynn Waldron and the program of the night. One of the evening's most impressive combinations of symphonic music and spectacular graphics, God of War, was not listed in the ads, perhaps because it's rating might give parents the misimpression that the evening would not be suitable for younger children. Among the composers present was Tim Larkin www.timlarkin.net whose wide variety of work was represented by Myst.

GAME MUSIC RADIO http://www.gamemusicradio.com streaming video game music 24/7, plus interviews, etc.
GAME AUDIO NETWORK GUILD http://www.audiogang.org
BOOKS ABOUT CREATING GAMES http://www.dlynnwaldron.com/creatinggamesbooks.html
GAME MUSIC SITE http://www.music4games.net

Before the concert there was a meet and greet with renowned game composers, designers, producers from all over the world including:
COMPOSERS
Marty O'Donnell (Halo)
BT (films, DJ, Tiger Woods, NFS)
Richard Jacques (Headhunter, Outrun)
Michael Giancchino (Metal of Honor)
Laura Karpman (EverQuest II)
Jason Hayes (Warcraft)
Nathan McCree (Tomb Raider)
Gerard Marino (God of War)
Tom Salta (Ghost Recon II)
Bill Brown (Rainbow Six 3)
Christopher Heral (Beyond Good & Evil)
Tim Larkin (Myst)
Video Games Live co-creators Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall
PRODUCERS AND DESIGNERS
Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid)
Yuji Naka (Sonic the Hedgehog)
Nolan Bushnell (Pong, Atari, Chuck E. Cheese, uWink)
Toby Gard (Lara Croft/Tomb Raider)
Lorne Lanning (Oddworld)
David Perry (Earthworm Jim, Aladdin, Enter the Matrix)
Doug Tennaple (Earthworm Jim)
Jordan Mechner (Prince of Persia)
Seamus Blackley (X-BOX co-creator)
Bill Roper (Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo)
Jason Rubin (Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter)
Ted Price (Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank)
John Romero (Quake, Doom)
Donald Mustard (Advent Rising)
David Jaffe (Twisted Metal, God of War)
Scott Hartsman (EverQuest II)
Vince Desi (Postal), and others
Comic book legend Stan Lee, the creator of Spider Man,etc.

CHRONOLOGY OF GAMES MUSIC
1978 Space Invaders' panic-inducing bassline
1980 Berserk's voice synth: "Get the humanoid"
1980 Pacman's jingles
1985 Tetris' infectious Russian muzak
1989 Michael Jackson Moonwalker game
1994 Sophistication of Final Fantasy VI
1996 Trent Reznor does music for Quake
1998 Zelda takes sound to new level
2000-1 PS2, Xbox, GameCube offer new possibilities
2003 Tony Hawks Underground, 70 songs in one game
2004 PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube make anything possible musically and Myst III, God of War. etc, use a full symphony orchestra and chrous.

Symphony Orchestra available in LA to record music for games
at prices & terms competitive with going abroad!
State-of-the-Art 24-bit/96kHz Digital Multi-Track Recording.
Specialists in recording Classical Music.
D'Lynn Waldron, PhD & Tom F. Pittman, ©05
We use the best equipment currently available to capture reality in the highest quality and the purest way.
This is a partial list of the equipment we use:
• A matched pair of Earthworks QTC1s.
• A matched pair of ADK A-51TLs.
• Rode NT-3 cardioids and NT-4 stereo microphones.
• AKG 1000s.
• True Systems Precision 8 Microphone Pre-Amp.
• Alesis HD24XR 24-track multi-track hard disk recorder.
• Alesis Masterlink ML-9600 2-track high-resolution hard disk recorder.
• Yamaha MG16/6fx mixer,
• Sennheiser EH-2270 headphones.
• Yamaha MSP5 speakers
ORCHESTRAL RECORDING SITE www.orchestralrecording.com
AUDIO SAMPLES

ARTICLES AND ADVICE ON CREATING MUSIC FOR GAMES

Orchestral Composers Advice Given at 2004 Game Developers’ Conference
For more on this subject go to music4games.net

Chance Thomas (HUGE Sound), Jack Wall (Wall of Sound), Jeremy Soule and Tommy Tallarico (Tommy Tallarico Studios) gave the following advice to those who compose for games:

1) There is a major advantage to releasing soundtracks separate from the game itself. Chance Thomas's soundtrack was released before a game and included a playable demo. While the game did not sell well, the soundtrack brought in over half a million dollars helping to make up for the money lost on the game.

2) The composers convinced their producers to record live orchestral versions of the game soundtrack by suggesting a live orchestra as soon as they had the job and emphasizing as the game developed, that for an investment of $50,000 in a million dollar budget, good music would make a huge improvement in the quality of the product. Jack Wall did this with the producers of Myst III.

3) The producers of the games must be willing to fight at the corporate level to get live music .

4) If the recording is done as a ‘buyout’, the publisher of the game will not have to pay residuals to the musicians, but this has to be worked out with the musicians’ union.

4) Recording orchestras requires high level technical expertise and expensive equipment, and the game company person contracting for that has to know what he is doing, or things can go wrong.

5) The composers emphasized that when you use a live orchestra, you are better off to pay for high quality musicians because settling for a less than stellar orchestra is setting yourself up for problems. The composers pointed to Los Angeles, London and Seattle as having great orchestras.

7) Jack Wall said that you should use your orchestra to do something special that you can't do with MIDI. He encouraged composers to develop scores that push their pieces to the next level and use all the resources the orchestra has to offer. Composers are also encouraged to learn all they can about the instruments in the orchestra so they won’t write music that a live orchestra cannot play.

8) The panel cautioned against relying on your own skill to perfect a written score, unless you are already a master orchestrator. Tommy Talarico and Jeremy Soule both bring in someone to proofread and edit their scores. Professional musicians demand professional quality scores and for a small investment (Tommy suggests $55 a page) you will improve the quality of your work and help ensure your session goes smoothly.

9) Starting small is the best way to prepare for the daunting task of handling a full orchestra later on. Chance Thomas started by recording a string quartet because "Showing up in front of fifty guys that are more classically trained than you are would be stupid."

10) Chance suggested focusing on finding a recording venue with great acoustics rather than depended on an increased number of musicians for that larger than life orchestral sound.

11) When asked about 5.1 surround mixing, Jeremy emphasized the importance of having an expert recording engineer.





Website copyright by D'Lynn Waldron,PhD 2005