Unit 73: Sound for computer games. Assignment 1

Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in Games Development
Unit 73: Sound for Computer Games
Assignment 1: Understanding the use of music within games and the methodology of recording and production. 
Student: Shay Wragg
Tutor: Josh Rai

Assignment 1 - Understanding the use of music within games and the methodology of recording and production. 

Introduction

Sound has been used in video games for many years and each year it gets better. Some of the very first games consoles had no sound at all, some later consoles had a more retro simple soundtrack such as Super Mario, but now we have extremely well composed music tracks with amazing quality of sound. 

Sound can effect the gamer intensely during a play through of a video game, music alone gives the listener all types of emotions but along with a great story line and an all round good game, it's an experience that matches no other.

The quality of some games' soundtracks are that good that they are sometimes released separately to the game, or in some sort of special edition. For example developer Rockstar Games released a vinyl edition of Grand Theft Auto V's soundtrack called 'The Music of Grand Theft Auto V' Reviewers had commented on the soundtrack and said that "The music had been appropriated effectively for gameplay''.

The Music of Grand Theft Auto V Here:

Comparison 

I have analysed two entirely different games' soundtracks and i'm going to tell you the differences and similarities.

The Last of Us Soundtrack - Main Theme by Gustavo Santaolalla

The Last of Us follows a protagonist named Joel who is trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world. Joel lost his his young daughter at the start of the outbreak and is essentially alone. He is eventually paired up with a young girl called Ellie that is immune to the virus and throughout the game they both are trying to survive mutated cannibals and a world with nothing left to offer. 

The game is known for it's amazing storyline that gripped gamers all over the world, this is partly because of the games soundtrack as it suited the game tremendously.

The soundtrack is an original development composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, a musician known for his musical expertise and knowledge for Nuevo Tango music. Neuvo Tango music is elegant and tends to be quite sad and depressing.

I imagine Sony had written up a contract for Gustavo Santaolalla for copyright reasons.

The soundtrack is a somewhat heartbreaking piece of music that portrays the tragedy of the main story of the game, it can also increase suspense dramatically at times. It sounds as if Timbre is used in the music to propel the sounds of the Charango (an instrument similar to the Lute), these sounds are accompanied by guitars and drums and it works perfectly.

The games scenery symbolizes an old western type of film as it is almost derelict, nothing but a wasteland. This is why Sony got Gustavo Santaolalla to compose the soundtrack because his style is similar to a spaghetti western style of music, and they seem so alike in many ways.

Some of the gameplay even replicates a western, things from the protagonists voice, Joel speaks with a southern accent and sounds like a stereo typical cowboy, there is also some scenes in the game where he rides horseback.

This is a screenshot from the section of the game where Joel is on horseback riding through the woods, this particular screenshot reminds me of Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption which is revolved around the western outlaw genre. 

As you can see the two screenshots look extremely similar but are from two completely different games.

Naughty Dog most likely went for a surround sound composition as they had an extremely large budget for this game, if playing with a headset the sounds of the game can be heard from all directions which captivates the player and gives an all round immersive experience.

Finally i think the developers edited the score on a apple Mac OS, which means the file format they used would be AIFF. Although usually the original audio file would be optimized to fit the consoles limitations and this would mean compressing the file and potentially losing quality, but i think as the PS4 is a high spec console, the file may not have been compressed.

Here is a video of Gustavo Santaolalla and the game team talking about the development of The Last of Us' score.

The Last of Us Main Theme

Halo 2 Soundtrack - Main Theme MJOLNIR Mix

Halo 2's soundtrack is the complete opposite of The Last of Us, it starts out with a hymn like choir singing but soon after the sound of two electric guitars emerge, at this point in the piece timbre is used to project the sound of the guitars over the choir and violins, the soundtrack was MJOLNIR Mix was composed by Bungie's Martin O'Donnel and Micheal Salvatori along with a musician called Steve Vai, Grammy award winning guitarist.

Bungie most likely contracted Steve Vai after searching and coming across his massive achievements in the music industry, and as he only featured in the MJOLNIR Mix it's likely he was on a short contract and was paid rather that him keeping the rights to the track.

I think the song represents action, as the game is based warfare in outer space and the choice of an electric guitar suits that. The electric guitars are also used for a somewhat dramatic experience, almost like something important is about to happen. 

The electric guitar and the charango used in The Last of Us score are two completely different instruments played in two completely different genres, The Last of Us score is extremely story driven as really captivates the player in the moment, where as the Halo 2 score gets the player excited and ready to play at a quick pace. i personally think this is what Bungie wanted the player to feel when they created the mix.

Here are two screenshots showing the difference of the two games.

The MJOLNIR Mix was created for a teaser trailer at E3 2007, which indicates to me that the song would maybe play while the credits roll or towards the end of the game, possibly even in the title screen.

As the games is extremely old and released for the Original Xbox, the chances are the MJOLNIR Mix was composed via either mono or stereo audio sampling, edited with a computer running windows and my guess was compressed with a lossy method into an MP3 file to meet the Original Xbox Limitations.

Here is the Halo 2 Soundtrack - Main Theme MJOLNIR Mix

So finally as you can see these are two massively different soundtracks from different games and generations, The Last of Us' main theme is a lot crisper, sadder and even used older fashioned instruments where as Halo 2's MJOLNIR Mix used newer instruments, was a lot more exciting but the quality obviously wasn't up to this generations standard. Never the less, they both are two iconic soundtracks.