Audio

History

Video game music is the soundtrack used to compliment video games, with early video game music being once limited to simple melodies and early sound synthesizer technology. Due to these limitations, it inspired the style of music known as chiptunes, which combines simple melodic styles with more complex patterns or traditional music styles, and therefore became the most popular sound of the first ever video games.

With the advances in technology, video game music has now grown to become as complex as television and film scores, thus allowing for much more creative freedom. Along with simple synthesizer pieces, video game music nowadays includes full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in video games can be used for a games title screen, options menu, bonus content and also throughout the entire gameplay. In addition to this, video game music can be either made originally or licensed. In order to create or collect this music, teams of composers, music directors, and music supervisors must work alongside the game developers and publishers.

When video games had first emerged as a popular form of entertainment in the late 1970's, music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes and phonograph records. For a more affordable method of having music in video games, digital means were used. This is where a specific computer chips would change electrical impulses from computer code into analog soundwaves relatively quickly, for output on a speaker. Much like video game music, sound effects were also generated in this fashion. This allowed for the inclusion of music in early arcade video games, although it was usually monophonic, looped or used sparingly between stages or at the start of a game. An example of this is the 1980 Namco title Pac-Man.

Influences

One of the main influences for me choosing audio as one of my job roles is the audio from the game Doom. The soundtrack for the 2016 Doom was composed by Mick Gordon, whom of which "married the the gothic brutality of the early Doom games with a more modern, heavy-metal symphonia", according to Revolvermag. Including everything from bone-chilling synth work to a jagged guitar riffage, Gordon's score seamlessly combined the previous two decades of industrial music.

In an interview with Revolvermag, the composer was asked how he fell into game scoring and stated, "games have an additional unique technical requirement where you have to develop ways for the music to play in-game based on what the player is doing." When asked how he kept a balance between the old and new when writing a score, he replied "With Doom, we really wanted to musically highlight the amazing sci-fi visuals that the art team were building. That was the first thing that inspired the musical direction. The futuristic element. Once you've nailed down the "sound" and overall direction, it's important to define what made the original Doom special. For me, that was the fast-paced combat intense combat paired with fast music. It's panic, but there is a strong element of groove that comes from the fluid movement." Lastly , when asked, artistically, what were the differences for you between composing for the levels set on mars and the levels set on hell, Gordon stated "The mars areas in Doom 2016 primarily have two types of environments. One is very industrial, with giant machines all covered in rust and red mars grime. The second is very high tech, with lots of glass and shiny metallic surfaces. What both mars environments have in common is the fact that they're human. Musically, that meant that each received a treatment that was more grounded in music that reflected humans. As the environments were created by humans, even though the're on mars, the music needed to sound like humans created it, too. Once you've got that down, you can design an opposing sound for hell. That lead to hell being more atonal, dissonant and weird. Discordant. Less-structured etc."

From looking at this interview, I can identify that as a video game music composer, level design and the environments within the game play a huge role in deciding what the music will sound like. In addition to this, its also important to produce music that does not only fit the in-game environments, but also the aesthetic tone, and that different levels/environments have an opposing sound, in order to signify a difference to the player.

Another main influence for me choosing audio as one of my job roles is the audio from the game Halo: Reach. "Halo's music score, as iconic as anything found in gaming, film or TV, is stronger than ever", stated Popular Mechanics.

For Halo: Reach, audio director Marty O'Donnell, whom of which was in charge from everything from sound effects to music, wanted to create something that would reflect the game, and intern make something more serious. In making the audio for the game, a mix of haunting Gregorian chants and string-section bravado were used, unlike anything heard in the industry before. He knew how important the music was to the game and insisted that it was a major part of the games identity, being as instantly recognisable as the franchise's central hero, Master Chief. Furthermore, throughout the Halo series, the creators specifically left out the option to turn the music off, something which is almost unheard of for video games. In creating the audio for the game, O'Donnell's main challenge was to keep the score from becoming annoying or predictable. In conjunction with this, each of the sounds in Halo: Reach always has a time limit, with the score being specifically paced for a player running through the game's campaign on the Heroic difficulty.

From looking at this, I can see that as a composer of video game music it's important to make sure that the audio is suitable to the games environment. In addition to this, its also important to give a good pace to your audio, in order to link it to the changes of pace throughout the game. By doing this, it will result in the the pacing of the game to be more natural and therefore more fitting to the theme/genre, if you wanted your game to be more more/less intense.

Career Pathway

As a sound designer, both communication and collaboration are key with the rest of the team. In addition, being a sound designer often involves recording audio elements and crafting them in an audio workstation to match alongside animations or environments in the game. With this in mind, creating content that matches an already established aesthetic or, if your in a position to do so, its essential to also set your own audio aesthetic that works in tandem with the gameplay and art style. Once the audio has been created, a sound designer will then implement it in audio middleware, hooks it up in the game engine, and tests it in gameplay.

Audio engineering and sound design in games can come in a variety of ways, within many different courses. Furthermore, internships at game company startups are also a possible solution for someone working in audio or sound design within the gaming field. In conjunction with this, for this job you will need to learn a wide variety of hardware, software, and different techniques in order to create the audio and get into the game. As well as this, you will also need a strong esthetic sense, along with technical elements combined with the ability to work well with others and to work hard. Another method of working in games audio is to get better at what you do, such as replacing audio on game clips and learning to use audio middleware, in order to help you progress. Much like this, talking to people already in the profession, as well as attending industry meetups and conferences can also be helpful.

Here, I have looked at both a junior and senior job role for one of my chosen job roles, being audio and sound design within the video games industry.

For the junior job role, I have specifically looked at a permanent audio designer role at AAA Games, situated in the north of the UK. Located in Sheffield, the successful audio designer will need to have a passion for creating world class audio content, in order to join the team on an unannounced AAA console title. In addition to this, you will be working alongside the teams enthusiastic designers, both creating and implementing original SFX using their in house library and field recordings as well as helping to source and record new material.

Responsibilities:

- Create AAA standard, original SFX using a wide range of sound design methods and techniques

- Have an in-depth understanding of Wwise middleware

- Represent audio interests within cross-discipline feature groups

- Work closely with their talented Audio Team to deliver AAA audio for their games

Requirements:

- Full cycle work experience as an Audio Designer on at least 2 shipped AAA titles

- Demonstrate sound design skills

- Advanced working knowledge of Wwise middleware

- Good knowledge of field and studio recording

- Familiarity with Foley recording and application

- Experience in working with sound to picture

Desirable skills:

- Experienced Nuendo user

- Comfortable running dialogue sessions

- Experienced in multichannel sound design

- An understanding of current developments in interactive audio

- Working experience of creating UE4 Blueprints or similar visual scripting

I believe that this job role would be suitable to myself, as I believe that I could successfully cope with the responsibilities of the job role. In addition to this, I believe that the desirable skills needed for this specific job role, would be suitable and appropriate for me. However, if I was to work towards this job role, I would need to ensure that I would fit the requirements, such as having an advanced working knowledge of Wwise middleware and also having a good knowledge of field and studio recording. To do this, I would need to practice using and working with Wwise middleware, in addition to gaining some knowledge and experience of field and studio recording, in order to help me secure this job role, whilst also gaining a better understanding of it.

Here, I have looked at a more senior role, within the field of games audio/sound design.

For the senior job role, I have looked at a permanent Mid/Senior Sound designer role at AAA Games, situated in East Anglia. Located in Cambridge, the Sound designer's primary responsibility will be to ensure and raise the commercial quality of he studio's output, for any and all media that might require sound production and/or restoration. Responsibilities will include several audio sub disciplines and the candidate will e encouraged to demonstrate creative initiative and ownership within these areas.

Responsibilities:

- Create and implement high quality sound effects, taking ownership from initial creative conception through tot the final stages of fine-tuning for any and ever game scenario, using middleware such as Wwise and engines such as Unreal

- Direction, editing and implementation of both VO and music

- Ensure all work is authored to the highest standard and demonstrate a keen ear for improving upon existing content in a bid to raise the bar

- Take an active part in audio QA, fixing both logged and newly introduced issues to ensure the desired audio presentation is maintained throughout development cycles

- Liaise effectively with production ensuring a workable balance between creative demands and commercial/business requirements

- Designing solutions for audio implementation issues with code and design teams

- Liaising with outsource audio providers (composers, foley artists, VO studios, Actors etc.)

- Acting as a mentor to more junior members, offering constructive advice where appropriate, taking a leadership role in scheduling and supporting development of relationships within the studio

Requirements:

- Extensive games industry experience with high profile published titles to your name with a demo real to prove this

- Experience creating a wide range of sound effects for console using custom recordings and library material to generate highly original, satisfying audio

- Ability to author sound effects appropriate to gameplay and narrative requirements, both technically and stylistically, for ultimate user satisfaction and feedback

- Experience using Wwise and Unreal Engine 4 is essential

- Apitude in visual scripting

- High level of ability and familiarity with DAWs such as Reaper, Pro Tools, etc, and a wide range of plug-ins

- Post production and finalising of mixes to an excellent standard

I believe that this job role would be suitable to myself, as I believe that I could successfully cope with the responsibilities of the job role, once I have had some experience within a similar type of junior job ole, such as the one above. However, on the other hand, I believe that the requirements for the job would only be appropriate for me, if I had some previous experience within a similar audio or sound design job role, although more in the junior form.

Experimentation

Here I have created a sword brandishing sound effect for my fantasy, adventure game.I created this sound effect by scraping two table knives together in a quick, sharp fashion in order to get more of a realistic sound. I recorded the sound using my Ipad and then put the sound into Audacity, after converting the file to an mp3. From there I began to edit the sound, firstly by removing all the parts of the recording I didn't think were necessary. I did this by using the pen and crop tool, as well as zooming in to identify the areas which I wanted to remove. I then removed the white noise in the background by pressing the noise reduction button on the effects panel, and then getting a sound profile which meant that I could lower the sound in parts of the track file which I had selected. I then added some reverb to the track file, by pressing the button in the effects panel in order to give the sound a more realistic sound. After this, I selected two different parts of the track file and pitched them up, as well as adding a envelope to the sound, in order to give the effect that sound is getting louder/has a higher pitch as the sword is being brandished.

Here I have created a water drop/splash sound effect for my fantasy adventure game. I created this sound effect by using my Ipad to record my hand moving water within a bowel at different speeds. I then put the recording into Audacity, in order to edit the sounds which I had made. Firstly, I tried to increase the sound by using the amplify button on the effects panel, although due to being an already quiet sounding track file, the amplified sound couldn't be increased as much as I why like it to have been, as the more the sound is amplified the more white noise in the track file. After this, I then chopped up the track file, removing any unwanted sounds within the track file. Following on from this, I then added some slight reverb to the sound, in order to give it more of a wet sound.