What's on your mind?

[DerVVulfman]

*DerVV uses his patented twin-catfish doubleslap attack on PK8 ... for doubleposting! *

um.....
And for some time, I have been thinking about in-game music and how some people are eithe writing music for games or are using existing music. And some pieces that I have heard, either composed or used, have been pieces that I call game fail pieces. That is, they have music that doesn't truly fit for a game score.

Yep, I've been thinking seriously in regards of the ReGaL project and any would-be composers. Oh, hey Rosy! This is not a Rosy critique. But being a composer, you may appreciate my observations.

In professional games, I hear pieces that fall under two categories: cutscene emotional music and steady stream music. The former is probably the easier to compose as the artist can make music build and give a palpable tension or romantic heartthrob to a scene. However, the latter may be harder as it needs to actually loop.

Steady stream music, as you can hear within games such as Final Fantasy, Oni, Doom, Suikoden II, are pieces of music for an ongoing event, map or game stage that will continue to repeat until the game stage is over. These pieces, as they repeat, always keep a steady rhythm and tension. An action piece within Doom will be a kinetic and fastpased horror piece without any pause or change in tempo. Likewise, walking through the Honeybee Manor in Final Fantasy VII will afford the player a comically light selection that never rises or lowers. Oni has a techno beat that is always fast paced and has a persistant life except the music for the cutscenes. And The Chase from Suikoden II is no less fast paced, though a solely done with violins, fast pased drum beats, harmonized trumpets and japanese flutes. And again, there are no highs or lows throughout as it keeps the same energy throughout the piece.

Just listen to these pieces (courtesy of VGMusic, DoomWorld and Youtube) and you'll hear how they always stay balanced through their respective pieces:

Final Fantasy VII - Honeybee Manor
Suikoden II - The Chase (though VGmusic has it as Luka Battle)
DOOM II - Map 1
The Lost Vikings - Candyland

Oni - Konoko Chase

[video=Youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guuJJrhAMCo[/video]

Another thing... choirs. I hardly hear actual singing in game music, though it's becoming a bit more common place. Perhaps we can blame a little known LucasArts game called Full Throttle for that. Their opening credits was actually hard rock for a game where you played a biker. But it's becoming more prominent as one can easily hear it in games by Squaresoft and ... um... whoever made Suikoden II. :P But be wary. Choirs and singing should be used sparingly and for the more intense or climactic scenes of a game. Avoid anything with recognizable lyrics unless it is a cutscene as hearing the vocals repeat from one stanza to another and back can possibly kill the illusion. Actual lyrics may work best only for beginning and ending credits and custom cutscenes.