BWW 2021 - Progress so Far...

Carrying on with the composition of music for a video game, I was tasked with picking a video game and moving image to work on with the games design students of the gaming department. Prior to this, we were told that currently, the video games created by the students can be loosely divided into two categories - Sports games and War Games.

I have decided to go with the latter, since that would be more to my taste, due to the dark and brutal themes prevalent in war, which as a consequence are reflected in the music for war games, such as the games I played, like StarCraft, Diablo, Heroes of Might and Magic and Cossacks.

Many times, games like this feature different themes in the music, inspired by the cultural significance and associations of the idea(s) presented by the game maker, as mentioned in the former post. Other times, the score serves as a emphasis tool; a way to emphasise the emotions conveyed in the scene(s), which may often be fast paced, packed with action and chaotic, and without the music, there would only be the sounds of war (diegetic sounds). Often the music and emotion portrayed in those games is dark, bitter, sad, tragic, epic or heroic, depending on the ideas and story of the game, for example, a science fiction/fantasy game, like StarCraft, often features some pretty eerie and dark music, tinged with ethereal or horror themes, alongside "military" or "redneck" and epic themes to contrast the emotions depending on the tide of war and the scenes. Such as seen in the Original StarCraft OST, where different moods are portrayed by the music, based on the scene, the cultural significance and the emotion that is trying to be conveyed for each race.

For my project, I have chosen a historical/fantasy game, based around Ancient Greece and the Hellenistic Pantheon. The games general storyline revolves around the Gods battling out against each other in a tournament, to prove their worth to the matron Goddess, Athena, who has taken over as the ruler of the Gods and ordered the tournaments to take place. Despite its fantasy and mythological based themes, the game features a historical setting in ancient Greece, which differs significantly to other games such as StarCraft, which features a futuristic/science fiction theme. I thus took inspiration from other fantasy and historical based games that I know, such as Cossacks, Diablo, World of Warcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic.

These games often feature soundscapes of nature, such as forests, seaside and mountains, as well as (in fantasy games) soundscapes of supernatural settings such as abyssal plains or otherworldly dimensions, like the Battlegrounds of Eternity, from Diablo III, which feature a score associated with them, as well as an ambience and soundscape (such as the sounds in the aforementioned example, of eternal war between Demonic and Angelic forces). War games also feature Foley tracks, which are the diegetic sounds created by the characters. In historical games, sounds from weapons such as swords, maces, axes, flails, spears, tridents, daggers and knives are made using a range of sound design techniques, such as synthesis - manipulating a sound wave electronically to create an artificial sound, reminiscent of the originally intended sound, (Anon, (n.d.)) which I can do with synthesisers such as Logic Pro's ESP, ES1, ES2 and Alchemy synthesisers or my Korg Pa 700 workstation, or alternatively with samples. Sampling is the process of creating a new sound by taking snippets and bits of original/existing sounds, and applying them into the track by using a sampler to play them back and record them and arrange them in a new sequence, and perhaps apply some post processing, such as pitch shifting, to make it seem less organic, or mixing and reverb, to give it better quality, thus creating an entirely new sound (United States. (2016)). An example of sampling, would be the mellotron, and other orchestral samplers, such as Spitfire LABS and other Spitfire samplers, often used in game and film music to recreate the sound of orchestral and choral ensembles, without having to hire real ones, while still keeping the good sound quality.

I am planning to use the choir from the Spitfire LABS sampler blended with the choir from the Mel9 Pedal, alongside atmospheric effects, such as Tundra Atmos, to give the track a score and a soundscape. However, Sampling isn't always necessarily used for music. In order to make the aforementioned Foley tracks, I could use the samples of metals, such as clinking coins, to make the sounds of armour and weapons

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I was given the moving Image to which I need to compose for. It consists of a character walking across different surfaces, such as grass and stone. This will need footstep sounds, that will need to differ from each other depending on the texture they are made upon, in game, for example, the sound of feet hitting stone, will have a faster attack and a sharper transient, than feet hitting

dirt, or grass, in the latter case, there also will be a "release" sound of the grass moving into place, when the character picks up their foot.

For this, the sounds will also need to be synced up to the moving image, however, for the end result, the gaming students require a "sound library" - a folder consisting of the bounced stems in WAV form, of the sounds composed, so that they can apply these sounds into their game, when and where they see fit. This is common practice in the making of games, and many games will contain a sound library, consisting of every single sound that occurs in game, sorted into categories and subcategories, that will be stored in the game's directory; a main archive for the game's files stored on the hard disk. An example of a game directory is the Minecraft.jar folder, that is installed onto the computer, whenever Minecraft is installed. The folder contains important information that helps the game run properly, with the sound files for everything in the game being stored there.

The moving image that I have received, also contains the character performing actions such as swinging a mace, and using some sort of divine ability/shield spell. Each of these sounds will need to be recreated somehow, using either samples or synthesis, or a mixture of both using layering, a production technique that involves blending together two different sounds, essentially layering them over the top of each other to create a different sound (Hyperbits. (n.d.)). They then need to be created into a sound library, that the gaming students can use at will, by bouncing each individual sound file as a stem in WAV format.

Having briefly watched the video, I have made a "mental sketch" of the sounds that will be required to make it work. Whilst samples often grant the most realistic sounds, It is hard to record samples to a professional standard, due to how inconvenient it is, due to things like room noise and environmental noise. Whilst professionally recorded sample libraries exist, such as the ones from Spitfire Audio, or East West, which can cover things like music, to a professional level, and atmospherics to a somewhat descent level. However certain specific nuances and sounds, such as foley effects like footstep sounds and prop sounds, such as weaponry, are unavailable as sample libraries, due to how subjective the requirement of these sounds is, meaning that there are infinite possibilities for sounds that may be required by a foley artist, each dependent on the film/game, scene, cultural significance and the items/characters present on screen. This means that in order to get specific foley sound effects, I will need to create these sounds myself.

For things like footsteps, which are almost impossible to record, due to how loud the outside world is, which will impact the quality and feel of the recording, can be recreated with some tweaking and experimentation, and I daresay, a bit of skill, on a synthesiser. While I could make some great sounds on my Korg Pa700 workstation, the instrument currently resides in the attic (my future studio), so the next best thing I have is the software synthesisers present in Logic Pro X, such as the ESP and ES II synths, as well as the TableWarp2 synthesiser, which comes by default in the Sforzando player.

Alongside my mental sketch, I have also been asked by the developer of the game, for sounds of armour, weapons, water and some human grunts/cries, the latter of which can only be made with an audio recording.

The ESP synthesiser, is very easy to operate and can easily be used to create percussive sounds, such as fake drums, or the sounds of walking. For the sounds of feet hitting the ground, I plan to use some white noise, with all the other waves turned off - this will give an unpitched sound; a a sound that does not contain a specific note, but instead contains a large cluster of different frequencies, that cause the sound to have no definitive pitch (TheFreeDictionary.com. (n.d.)), such a sound is created by footsteps on most types of ground, as well as by unpitched percussion instruments, such as most cymbals, shakers, most non-sonorous percussive objects, like sticks, and drums that aren't tuned to be in a specific note, in a way that Timpani or Rototoms may be tuned. with the usage of white noise, pitched down so that it only filters through the lower frequencies, then with some tweaking of the Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release (ADSR) parameters, which control the dynamics and formation of the sound wave, such as giving it a sharp transient (Swisher, D. (2019)), a transient being the initial impact (attack) of a sound wave (Joey Sturgis Tones. (n.d.)), I can emulate the dynamics of feet hitting the ground, while walking.

I will need to make multiple tracks of the ESP with the walking sound, with each sound being slightly different, for every surface the character walks upon. The character here walks upon grassland, as well as concrete/stone. The grassland sound will contain a dull impact, that will have more low end punch, and slightly less attack, than the stone ground, due to the grassland being softer and thus taking away some of that sharp transient, in a similar vein to how softer mallets will make a bass drum have more low end punch and less sharp transient than harder mallets and implements such as sticks.

Stone on the other hand, will probably contain a slightly sharper transient due to the hardness of the material, which theoretically should create a bigger and sharper impact than grassland. I can recreate this by using the ESP with the white noise as before, but pitched up slightly, to let through higher pitches, to get a slightly tighter tone, however retain the low end stomp. Then I can proceed to slightly turn down the attack on the ADSR parameters, to give the sound a faster attack, that will emulate stone more. Both the grassland and stone will have virtually no Decay or Sustain, and very little Release, to emulate the tightness, dullness and the general lack of resonance, of solid ground. I will however apply a very small amount of reverb, using Chromaverb, that should help the sounds sound more spacious and feel as if they are happening in a large open area.

I also intend to use some layering, to achieve the sound of the grassland. This will require the usage of two separate ESP tracks, due to the fact that the ESP has only one white noise generator, and one pair of ADSR parameters. Whilst keeping the thumping sound mentioned above, for the initial impact of the characters' feet with the grassland, I will also mix in some high frequency white noise, with a medium attack, short sustain, and a pretty hasty release, to emulate the sounds of grass rustling under the characters' feet, as they walk upon the grassland.

To create weapon sounds, I can use the metal blade of a knife from my kitchen utensils drawer at home, scraped with some other metal implement, such as a smaller butter knife, or the edge of a spoon or fork, to create the resonant, metallic sound of a sword. I can hit the blade of the knife with the back of a spoon to create clashing sounds, reminiscent of those that occur when the blade of a sword clashes against another sword, during combat. I can use these samples in the Tx16WX sampler by CWITEC, to play them back at will, and pitch them down, to sound like a larger blade.

For "blunt" weapons, such as a mace, I can make swooshing and swinging sounds, using the ESP. I can use white noise once again, with the attack set to slow, a fast release, and some small amount of sustain and decay, with a fast wave speed, to emulate the sound of a mace or other weapon swishing through the air.

For Armour, I can use a fistful of loose change, being shaken around, and then pitched down in Tx16WX, to emulate the sound of armour clanging as the characters move. I can jolt the change in my hand forcefully, and pitch that down, then hit a soda can with a pen, then apply both sounds as separate programs, on the same MIDI channel, with the same output, to create the effect of armour being hit, by blending both sounds together (can for impact, and coins for clanking/resonance). Similarly, I can move the coins about in the palm of my hand, then pitch them down some more, to create a sound of armour being equipped.

I can make spell sounds using Sfordzando's TableWarp2 synth. The synth has multiple oscillators, with the ability to make a vast array of different noises and waves. I can use the dissonant sound of a Xor wave within the synth, which is a Square wave, that has been passed through a Xor gate, which is a type of circuit that fires, if only one of it inputs fires (TheFreeDictionary.com. (n.d.)), giving it a strange sounding sound that sounds very futuristic and somewhat otherworldly. With a slow attack, and some LFO (low frequency oscillator) modulation, which essentially creates low vibrations that oscillate the other oscillators, and thus create pulsating effects, like Vibrato and Tremolo (May 2020, C.M. (n.d.)), I can create the effect of some strong and unstable magical energy building up and creating the shield effect. I can also use Spitfire LABS' organic textures to create wind and thunder effects, for elemental based magic powers, that will go into the sound directory, ready to be applied as required.

Water sounds can be made, with Spitfire LABS Tundra Atmos, which contain some professional quality nature samples. For the soundscape aspect of the water sounds (the sounds of the water flowing in the distance, unaffected by the player), I can use a long note, playing back the sample of a stream from Tundra Atmos, which can then be looped, to play infinitely.

For the Foley aspect of the water sounds - sounds that will occur when the characters' step through water, I sampled the sounds of a college sink filled up with water, with me pressing my palms into the water rhythmically, in a walking like manner, to simulate feet walking through shallow water. These sounds were difficult to obtain due to the room noise that is present in the area, due to interference with things like the hand dryer, as well as the general chatter from people on the outside, as well as the rooms' acoustics, which are easily distinguishable as a "bathroom" or "toilet" setting.

Acoustics in a room, are essentially the way sound travels through the room, and can be a big game changer when making sounds and music, for example, the reverb of a concert hall on Toms, Bass Drums and Taiko, is oftentimes what gives them the cinematic impact and massive sound, that they're famous for, which they would have less of when placed, for example, in a shed. The sound is accomplished due to how it spreads and bounces through the room (the acoustics). A smaller room, will provide a smaller, and less cinematic sound, due to the sound having less space to travel, thus creating less reverb, due to having less decay, decay being the body of the sound wave, as opposed to the transient, which is the initial attack of the wave. Also, a room with poor acoustic treatment, such as one that has parallel walls, that end in corners, will cause the sound to disperse unevenly, with the bass being more prone to escaping into the corners, leaving the sound sounding shrill (Feinstein, S. (2016)).

I plan to fix the issue in post production, by applying a compressor and a noise gate (the Cockblocker by Spectre Digital). A compressor should compress the sound, meaning that it should sound tighter and be less roomy and sound more direct, due tho the compressor compressing the waves, and making the whole thing smaller and more precise sounding. The Cockblocker pedal applied after the compressor, should eliminate any room noise, and tighten the sound, essentially cutting off any surplus sound. The Cockblocker is a powerful gate, that is normally applied to heavily distorted metal guitars, or hard hitting metal drums, and thus it is programmed to clamp down, and tight once set to come in, meaning that all noise should theoretically be blocked, leaving with just the tight outline of the water sounds. To these sounds I will then apply some Chromaverb with the dry parameter (which controls the amplitude of the sound unaffected by the effect) all the way up, and the wet parameter (which controls the output of the effect,

Gateway, M. (2019)), three quarters down. This should make it sound like the water is in a large open area, but not too far away, and without overly massive acoustics and decay. This should hopefully make it sound less like a sink in the college toilets, and more like a natural water source.

Finally, I have to also make some human grunt and pain sounds, that would be made in battle to intimidate the enemy and add more power to the strike or to call for help if wounded. The only way I can make these is with audio recordings, as synthesisers, and most pitch shifted samples, cannot recreate the human voice well. For this, I have a set of sounds I made, into my microphone, which are aggressive vocal effects, consisting of short staccato shout, using the overdrive technique found commonly in vocals in the thrash, hardcore and punk styles of music, and used by singers like Tom Arya from Slayer and Rob Halford from Judas Priest. I also made slightly higher scream, in the vein of Halford, and Danny Filth, which would be used as an aggressive battlecry. I also made a dramatic grunt of pain, which could be used when a character is injured in combat, or receives a hit. Finally, for the sheer fun, I made a morbid sounding death rattle sound, by slowly pushing out air from my diaphragm, while overly tightening my throat and larynx muscles, while making a whimpering noise, to get a very choked up and muffled sound, reminiscent of someone in great pain struggling to breathe as they die, after being mortally wounded in battle. This of course would be the death sound for when the characters die and it's game over.

I have yet to make the sound library and bounce out the files as stems, as well as process them, mix them and sort them into folders. I will also need to separately bounce out the score that will play in game, that I will need to loop, and bounce out the soundscape, which is ten minutes long, on demand of the gaming students, and will need to be loop able, so to ensure it plays infinitely. I am currently enjoying the project, and am very close to finishing. I have also composed some main menu music for the game in question which I will need to show to the developer. Hopefully my soundtrack will turn out great, and be used within the game.

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Feinstein, S. (2016). The Importance of Room Acoustics. [online] Alesis.com. Available at: https://www.alesis.com/kb/article/2228.

Gateway, M. (2019). What Is Reverb? Reverb In Music Production & Mixing Explained. [online] Music Gateway. Available at: https://www.musicgateway.com/blog/how-to/reverb#:~:text=Dry%20vs%20Wet [Accessed 5 Dec. 2021].

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TheFreeDictionary.com. (n.d.). unpitched sound. [online] Available at: https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/unpitched+sound#:~:text=%5B%C2%A6%C9%99n%E2%80%9Apichd%20%E2%80%B2sau%CC%87nd [Accessed 5 Dec. 2021].

United States. (2016). Music Sampling: Breaking Down the Basics - TuneCore. [online] Available at: https://www.tunecore.com/blog/2016/08/music-sampling-breaking-down-the-basics.html.