Sun Feb 01, 2009 9:00 pm
Dev Blog: Brad - How To Soundtrack!
While I’m officially a musician by trade, I was never really formally trained in composition. I started writing music when I was in high school, using Finale 3.0 (this was '98 vintage or so). Most of this music has never seen the light of day for many excellent reasons, most of which involve 'they didn't sound good' and 'those parts are impossible to play'. My interest in composing grew alongside my general interest in music, and when I went to college for music education I began composing more and more - both classical and electronic music. This 'indie' work was both good and bad for my musical development as a composer - while I learned a lot about the programs and techniques that are available on the web, I rarely wrote anything that was 'difficult' to write. As any artist will tell you, working outside your comfort zone is how you get better at your chosen medium, and as a result I wound up stagnating for several years. It wasn't until my senior year of college, bored out of my mind with the filler classes I was taking to pad my college average, that I started writing music that wasn't easy for me to do. NOTHING works better to make yourself better than to get outside the box, and I began exploring the outer walls of my box. It was a paradigm shift in many ways, most notably that I became more comfortable taking techniques I had learned from performing classical music and applying them to the world of electronic and game music. I also became much more comfortable with the programs that I use. Most of the soundtrack work that I’ve done for Novo has used FL Studio 8, with some work done in Reason 4. FL's an excellent program for musicians of any level, from beginner to professional, due to its flexibility and easy-to-use interface. I’ve used a variety of paid and free synthesizers and effects, including the various Elastik and Liquid Instrument bundles by Ueberschall, EWQL's Colossus VST, Native Instrument's Massive and Absynth, Guitar Rig 3, and Steinberg's Virtual Bassist on the paid side and the mda effect pack and the LazySnake Rhodes simulator on the free side.
When I initially talked to Josiah about the musical feel they were going for in Ye Olde Panic, he told me to work up some music that was high-energy, used fantasy-style instrumentation, and had a good melody that would allow people to hum it when they were done with the stage. There are three issues with writing music of this type.
1. Fantasy-style instruments - like the lute, violin, recorder, and other baroque instruments associated with medieval times - generally are very quiet, and also very difficult to synthesize due to the high levels of performer interaction and emotion you normally get. Electronic music is notable for drag-and-drop music - you take some bassline, a few synths, and some drums, and you've got a song pretty easily. Simple harmonies, simple melodies. Synthesized classic instruments need a lot of work to sound real, since it's impossible to play every note the same volume. Oh, and did I mention it's the main reason that performers are still around today? If programmers could figure out a way to play an instrument naturally through a computer, I’d be out of a job.
2. High-energy music typically relies more on the principle of tension and release rather than anything else to make it high-energy. For example, think of your favorite techno song. Most of what makes it exciting is delayed gratification - it'll build up a bit, and then drop down, it'll show you a hint of what's coming, and then hide it again. Then, after teasing you for a few minutes, it'll finally get to the chorus, and the melody will be screaming and the bass is pumping and the drums are really loud and everyone's freaking out. The only issue is, the melody and the instrumentation didn't get it there - the layout of the song did. You can literally take any random combination of lead synth, bass, and drums and get the same effect, as long as they sound decent next to each other. Josiah (and I, for that matter) specifically wanted a melody-driven track, one that you could sing in the shower the morning after you played a level.
3. Good melodies are tough to write. This sounds really dumb, but take a look at the songs that have stood the test of time - songs that are a part of our culture today. Everyone on the planet can sing a song like 'Piano Man'. It takes a lot of creative writing below the melody to make a good melody work - and electronic music (as noted before) isn't known for its complexity.
I generally start out a song with percussion, since the groove is usually what directs where the mix is going to go and how I’m going to get there. I’ll lay down a few ethnic percussion beats - I use bongos, shakers, and tablas on most of the tracks to some degree. I generally try and integrate electronic percussion - PONG's bleeps and bloops - whenever possible, since I think that combining ethnic and created percussion is laying the groundwork for a track that will feel more organic, even with un-real instruments involved. I’ll generally work out a chord progression at this point, and start layering in synths to act as a backdrop for the melody. I really like synthesizers that do something - whether they sweep from side to side, if they click and clack in time with the music, or anything that involves change. I think it helps keep a mix moving forward. Once I’ve got a decently clean loop going, I’ll go through and start noodling a melody. I don't pick an instrument for this yet - I generally just use a basic organ sound to figure this out. I try to build off of where the chords are going, rather than where they are at that moment, since again I think it helps keep the energy flowing forward through the mix rather than stagnating. Once I’ve got a decent melody 'penciled' in, I’ll start trying out different instruments to see what fits. If I’ve got a lot of softer, organ-like sounds in the background, I’ll generally go with something a little more round and full to fit the melody into the backdrop, like a violin or an ethnic flute. If the mix is heavily rhythmic, and has a lot of sharp percussive sounds, I’ll go for something more nasally, like a plucked koto or shamisan, or a set of bagpipes. The main idea is to keep the mix feeling like it wasn't just thrown together, but rather crafted out of an enormous pile of parts that were chosen specifically for their color and sound. Once you've got the basics of the track put together, it's all arrangement from there. It’s just a matter of putting things in the right order to create the tension and release that gives music energy and direction beyond just the initial 30 seconds of sound.
The music I’ve created for this project has been (what I feel to be) some of my best work to date. I’ve been influenced a lot lately with d'n'b and the faster varieties of funk music, and I’m really starting to feel a vibe throughout the tracks that makes them feel like they're all part of a greater whole. I’ve got a demo below that you can listen to - just a teaser, I know! - of three of the pieces that are probably going to be on this soundtrack in some form. I hope you enjoy it!
Demo Track Medley!
When I initially talked to Josiah about the musical feel they were going for in Ye Olde Panic, he told me to work up some music that was high-energy, used fantasy-style instrumentation, and had a good melody that would allow people to hum it when they were done with the stage. There are three issues with writing music of this type.
1. Fantasy-style instruments - like the lute, violin, recorder, and other baroque instruments associated with medieval times - generally are very quiet, and also very difficult to synthesize due to the high levels of performer interaction and emotion you normally get. Electronic music is notable for drag-and-drop music - you take some bassline, a few synths, and some drums, and you've got a song pretty easily. Simple harmonies, simple melodies. Synthesized classic instruments need a lot of work to sound real, since it's impossible to play every note the same volume. Oh, and did I mention it's the main reason that performers are still around today? If programmers could figure out a way to play an instrument naturally through a computer, I’d be out of a job.
2. High-energy music typically relies more on the principle of tension and release rather than anything else to make it high-energy. For example, think of your favorite techno song. Most of what makes it exciting is delayed gratification - it'll build up a bit, and then drop down, it'll show you a hint of what's coming, and then hide it again. Then, after teasing you for a few minutes, it'll finally get to the chorus, and the melody will be screaming and the bass is pumping and the drums are really loud and everyone's freaking out. The only issue is, the melody and the instrumentation didn't get it there - the layout of the song did. You can literally take any random combination of lead synth, bass, and drums and get the same effect, as long as they sound decent next to each other. Josiah (and I, for that matter) specifically wanted a melody-driven track, one that you could sing in the shower the morning after you played a level.
3. Good melodies are tough to write. This sounds really dumb, but take a look at the songs that have stood the test of time - songs that are a part of our culture today. Everyone on the planet can sing a song like 'Piano Man'. It takes a lot of creative writing below the melody to make a good melody work - and electronic music (as noted before) isn't known for its complexity.
I generally start out a song with percussion, since the groove is usually what directs where the mix is going to go and how I’m going to get there. I’ll lay down a few ethnic percussion beats - I use bongos, shakers, and tablas on most of the tracks to some degree. I generally try and integrate electronic percussion - PONG's bleeps and bloops - whenever possible, since I think that combining ethnic and created percussion is laying the groundwork for a track that will feel more organic, even with un-real instruments involved. I’ll generally work out a chord progression at this point, and start layering in synths to act as a backdrop for the melody. I really like synthesizers that do something - whether they sweep from side to side, if they click and clack in time with the music, or anything that involves change. I think it helps keep a mix moving forward. Once I’ve got a decently clean loop going, I’ll go through and start noodling a melody. I don't pick an instrument for this yet - I generally just use a basic organ sound to figure this out. I try to build off of where the chords are going, rather than where they are at that moment, since again I think it helps keep the energy flowing forward through the mix rather than stagnating. Once I’ve got a decent melody 'penciled' in, I’ll start trying out different instruments to see what fits. If I’ve got a lot of softer, organ-like sounds in the background, I’ll generally go with something a little more round and full to fit the melody into the backdrop, like a violin or an ethnic flute. If the mix is heavily rhythmic, and has a lot of sharp percussive sounds, I’ll go for something more nasally, like a plucked koto or shamisan, or a set of bagpipes. The main idea is to keep the mix feeling like it wasn't just thrown together, but rather crafted out of an enormous pile of parts that were chosen specifically for their color and sound. Once you've got the basics of the track put together, it's all arrangement from there. It’s just a matter of putting things in the right order to create the tension and release that gives music energy and direction beyond just the initial 30 seconds of sound.
The music I’ve created for this project has been (what I feel to be) some of my best work to date. I’ve been influenced a lot lately with d'n'b and the faster varieties of funk music, and I’m really starting to feel a vibe throughout the tracks that makes them feel like they're all part of a greater whole. I’ve got a demo below that you can listen to - just a teaser, I know! - of three of the pieces that are probably going to be on this soundtrack in some form. I hope you enjoy it!
Demo Track Medley!
Composer - Novo Interactive
