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gandlethorpe posted:Thanks for making this thread. I'd like to start things off what something I've been wondering about. Modern video game music is different from regular music because when video game composers put the music together they usually are restricted to a certain structure they have to follow in order for it to flow seamlessly from part to part, but also sound like the song is not over yet! Most of the time the music has a distinct intro, then proceeds to the loopable part, sometimes fading out, or if they are good, they have an outro that flows to the next scene. There might also be flourishes depending on what is happening in the game, like when danger is near, or if everything is quiet. This restriction is helps with the overall immersion in a game if the feel is supposed to be about giving a certain feeling. An early attempt at this is in final fantasy games, where the music makes a woosh sound. It breaks from whatever music is currently playing and the sound is jarring enough to transition to more upbeat battle music. Another example that comes to mind is in the game Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory composed by Amon Tobin. Here is a track called battery with a lot of the cues added in. Notice it feels a lot more aggressive in parts, and its obvious this is cued in when there is tension and battle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsxhy_9iijg This is different from the album version of battery, which is much more mellow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adh99_Q735w When music is seamlessly connected in a game, it sounds cool, "feels" right and is a lot more fun to listen to. Another reason why video game music feels more "video gamey" is partially due to the looped music. Depending on how long a loop is, you might hear the same melody over and over again. You might have heard of the popular song structure AABA where the song goes verse, verse, bridge, verse. Of course that does not include the intro and outro. There are variations on this especially in modern music but its basically like this. Modern video game music doesn't really need to follow this structure because the music must loop, so you might get a song that pretty much goes ABABABA or AAAAAA ad nauseam. Keep in mind a lot of composers are getting a lot better at giving much more variation to the songs these days! A final reason I can think of for the "video gamey" songs is because pretty much all video game music is meant to be atmospheric. It has to serve the gameplay. I can't think of a single non music video game where the music is the focus of the game. If the music distracts from playing the game in a bad way, then the game probably wasn't designed very well. To add to this post, a VG soundtrack that I love that I never really hear much about is the Drag-on Dragoon OST. I've never played the game, but I love this music. The tracks are all pretty different and spooky in a way. I used to play other video games to this music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKV15WG5pKs And I've got to add the Secret of Mana OST. Especially the track Meridian dance. Even when I listen to it now I still love the sound of the whole ablum, and I wonder how many people love electronic music now just because of how great this soundtrack was. Here is the song Meridian Dance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qy4-VeSnYk MaxArtea fucked around with this message at 03:12 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 03:06
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