I have GDC voice so forgive that
welcome cellphone's evaluations lalala
okay moving on
I we're here for the composer
confessions we clearly pre-planned
the width of the table relative to the
number of people for this panel so just
give a dive right in the idea with this
is to explore some lessons learned in
the field you know on-the-job things
that aren't traditionally covered at
things like GC or in school programs or
master classes or that kind of thing
because they tend to be the thing that
you would never think of until it just
happens and you encounter it and then
you just have to think on your feet
unexpected sort of lessons some of which
are kind of interesting and novel and
some of which are horrible and painful
so uh uh everyone here is speaking for
themself I just reached out to these
phenomenal people and said hey if we did
this thing what would you say and all of
them came back with really different
topics that basically said okay cool
just I'm counting on you to show up and
know what you're doing and so if this is
terrible
starting five minutes from now then you
have only yourselves to blame so I'm
gonna go first
I'm Austan I worked on some of these
things and my confession of sorts is
that it turns out we have absolutely no
control over our listeners slash
audience slash players and what they are
going to take away from our music and so
a shorter way of saying that is that we
don't have the power of suggestion that
we think we do as composers so when
we're getting started in our careers and
you know student work and that sort of
thing I think we spend a lot of time
trying to really hone our craft with the
goal of creating very specific emotional
and visual responses so in other words
we aspire to a very vivid and and exact
images feelings etc in the minds of our
listeners and I've been guilty of this
where I'll think to myself because this
music was written to evoke X it
therefore will forever universally evoke
X t-rex vs. the Hulk in the most
universal of musical images but really
anything in front of it's like this
water bottle I I was inspired by this
water bottle so theoretically anybody
listening for the future will just form
water bottles in their head
it turns out that's totally bullshit
should be obvious this is why it's a
confession so as an example on journey I
was aspiring to you know by the time you
reach the end of the game something that
I would call you know just like sweeping
or soaring or if I'm feeling daring I
would wanted it to feel exhilarating or
even spiritual and so this particular
excerpt
[Music]
okay so the actual actual response
stunning music it really reminds me of
Metal Gear Solid soundtrack here's to
you you should check it up so I did
check it out this is a real comment
[Music]
so you know I think we all have
experienced unexpected comparisons like
you know maybe like this or something
else but people will like in things that
they hear to other things and that is
often bewildering and in this case you
know genuinely have no idea what the
hell's going on there
maybe maybe again the goal was you know
sweeping and spiritual and maybe to
naydon here's to you is sweeping and
spiritual and so in that sense maybe I
succeeded I have my doubts but so this
was a recurring theme at some point so
relaxing Austin winner either Brian Eno
of soundtracks again I think we're
hearing things differently I really
thought my goal explicitly was to be
melodic soaring I'll say again it turns
out I'm actually being super meditative
and tranquil I have heard the word
relaxing about my music so many times
and I don't think I've ever once tried
to write something that was relaxing
except maybe for flow here's another one
love me Jenny
thank God I spotted one like that much
later down the road because I think
that's actually a compliment I think
they're actually trying to be nice and
I'm hope that just as a defense
mechanism I'm saying they're not sort of
bored out of their mind but I don't know
they fell asleep before they could type
a question mark so it's hard to know for
sure what we're even saying point is
journey was repeatedly called out as
relaxing meditative textural things that
I really didn't say think was the goal
and the strange thing is it wasn't
people criticizing it they were saying
this is what I like about it and
identifying things that explicitly was
not trying to be it gets weirder I
played this game after I got my wisdom
teeth out it relaxed me and took my mind
away from the pain because I couldn't
swallow the idea pro
and pills so I'm like you're welcome I
think the culmination was when I Gian
rated it the number one soundtrack for
studying I again this is not something I
can have any explanation I would not
have thought sweeping and soaring is
compatible with studying but this is
where I was constantly learning this
listen over and over so it might be
something more like this I realized I
can't predict what people are going to
say or what their takeaway is going to
be and the bottom line is that's okay
it's it's it better be okay we can't
control it as much as we think we can or
as much as we are specifically trying to
evoke very precise images and feelings
and things like that we we just can't
one more highlight but this is from a
journey youtube upload when I'm home I
want to do cooking work or cooking I
listen to Bioshock anyone here with me I
love just showing up truth is I probably
would big fan of Bioshock so
flash-forward I thought I'd learned this
lesson after many years of the sort of
incorrect compliments I think I probably
internalize that a little too much so
when it came time to do ABS ooh both
probably because I probably internalized
some of that journey feedback too much
but also because earnestly the game had
a very very different sort of energy to
it very kinetic very full of life so I
said okay I want to be very emotionally
I accepted apparently journey as
tranquil and meditative and now I don't
want to do that now I want to be very
melodic not meditative at all really
match the kinetic energy of the game and
I don't I want to pretend that's not
because of this feedback from journey
but it probably made its way in there a
bit so here's an example of me not being
meditative and not and trying to be more
overtly melodic
[Music]
okay bah-bah-bah so after getting about
50 of these apparently it sounds exactly
like Tomb Raider or Tom Raider that's
Tom Salters pet project I guess should
have seen some of that coming although I
honestly had not played Tomb Raider
since it came out 20 years ago and I
went back and was one of those like
motherfucker I can actually hear why
people are saying that but so after
wading through all of those here's a
review I found on Amazon and if you if
you look at the bottom this score seems
overly intellectual instead of from the
heart I find the music lines Lewton
lose me as a listener in the same way
what I'm trying to say is I feel lost I
feel I get lost listening to his newer
scores without being able to remember
the melodies go back and listen to flow
or journey and you cannot forget the
tunes so somehow the less melodic more
meditative score is more melodic than
the explicitly trying to be melodic
score at least flows on the list which
is especially bizarre and helps me try
to let it go because flow is just
overtly not melodic anyone who says so I
just don't even know where they're
coming from and this was probably the
true culmination is literal side by side
comments very disappointing it's lacking
strong musical ideas it sounds
intellectual and not from the heart I
think that might be the same person and
then immediately blow it like I'm crying
piles of tears and all this sorted so
I'm sitting here looking at this and
it's it dawns on me that it's possible
to simultaneously fail and succeed and
that was something I had never thought
about before considered possible so the
bottom line is when getting into the
creative zone and the process the big
confession was that I try to let go of
the whole outside world Wow
writing but then as soon as the writing
is done it be I turn into this month
that scouring the world to see if I
succeeded in my goal did I actually
create what I thought I created based on
what people are saying about it and the
confession really is that there no good
comes of this this is not a healthy
practice we can't control what people
are gonna think we can't control what
their takeaway would be as my father
used to say you would worry a lot less
what other people think if you realized
how infrequently they do actually I said
that wrong and made it sound extremely a
soulish you would rely you would worry a
lot less what people think of you if you
realized how infrequently they do so
basically the bottom line is we should
be grateful that anyone is listening at
all and extremely grateful if they like
it and then just accept everything else
I'm going to turn it over now to a
legend of game music as noted composer
of classics bill 964 banjo kazooie even
pinata about 40 million others yes so
thanks for that picture Austin yes
they'll be a thank you will certainly be
chance for that you know get you back a
later day I'm sure yes I guess mine is
going to be the slightly cynical version
of this talk he said was a cynical guys
I'm a simple guy depressed most of the
time so my talk is like learning to let
go right so I think that as composers
right we think that we know the best
always and who were working for is not
got a clue and that is completely
clueless and they don't know what music
and all that we know best and they're
wrong but I think that like I slowly
realized over the years that you can't
think like that
like the minute you're you hire yourself
out to somebody else then they're
probably going to tell you what to do
and you probably better do it are you
gonna be probably get fined they're
going to get Austin to do instead you
know so so like that's my thing about
that learning to let go at that
ownership that I think that you just
have to be prepared to be told that it's
not what they want and you really should
try to do it again and know
of arguing with them is gonna make any
difference it's just gonna go I don't
like it and that's it so like composers
back composers as best I'm a composer
t-shirt so you know it's like track
events like an area underground a fan -
you know - like Pantera it's just
probably not going to happen so it's
it's I guess I learnt that well I guess
I guess a long time ago but it still
works me to this day that I'd people say
grant I like it shake just do again and
like I really want to say who they
thought you think you are way better
than you but you can't of course I'll do
it good enough yes that I love to do it
again you know so I use the analogy of
like you go to a restaurant and you'd be
saving up for ages for this great steak
that you've heard about me we don't want
to have and like you go to the
restaurant you sit down the way it comes
across and like he says to you what you
can up sir
I'm gonna have this fantastic steak
can't wait for it await such a long time
and it goes away to the kitchen and he
comes back a bit later so looks me and
the lads in the kitchen I've got a bit
of a chap and we decided that we think
you're gonna like the chicken better
it's way better and you're like just a
minute order the steak I want the steak
I paid for the steak and if you don't
give me I'm going to go somewhere else
that someone will give me the steak so I
think that's that's in a nutshell what I
think about that whole kind of composers
know best thing because we probably do
that you know you're never going to get
that past lots and lots of people get
you to smiling so right you know when
they do say it's not great and you just
you know what you know what to say you
want to curse a lot
you just kind of smile and say yes I'll
quite happily do it again it's nice at
least no problem at all you know I do
think that it's a really valuable skill
to learn like I was working for I didn't
movie last year and I thought I've
gotten great with a director is all
going really fantastically well I know
all demos that I did on the scenes he
loved and loved and loved and Sammy
emails you nailed the awesome awesome
awesome I don't think at all you have
done great hearing I'm really it's it's
fantastic so we got to the got invited
to the mix thing at the big fattest emic
stage at most nonsense he all that stuff
you know and then it started he starts
to go out to dark oh it's dark it's con
so dark everything's dark it's dark and
movies dark I'm going to change it you
know I've got to change all of it and
like I was thinking we'd spent money
recording the orchestra it was all live
orchestra
you've got to check what's a fiddle it's
a fiddle in it Jolley fiddle like you
know really Celtic I was thinking what
the shit you know there's nothing you
didn't say anything about the fucking
fiddle you know when when we were
writing it in the first place and why
you want a bloody fiddle in it now am I
gonna get that from her
I've got an expedia in the orchestra how
am I gonna do that like it was your
elephant I couldn't say any of that I
just said I'm gonna go and get one right
now I'm gonna sort it in there you're
not even gonna notice its difference
with the MIDI in the orchestra it's
gonna be perfect
I'm doing it like you know even though
you want to go Jesus Christ man couldn't
you just ought about last year when we
were pretty well doing it you know like
why did you have to say it right now in
the mixed age when everyone's sat there
going oh god he's not a fiddle where's
his fiddle you know it's like that right
so I think that you have to get used to
just letting go and instead of going
what that boogery talking about
I'd love to do that fiddle thing I can't
wait yeah he's another great marketing
always knows best so like do you like
him deaf things right the dev team
usually pretty separate to the marketing
like completely separate so you know get
used to the fact that you probably not
going to get to write the trailer right
I have had this argument a few times and
I always lose I thought maybe one once
and where you know you're gonna say
wouldn't it be nice to have some of the
themes from the game in the trailer and
the kind of marketing guy kind of goes
then why's that well because you know
this ski got themes from the game in the
trailer it's not know an IP knowing
those the themes rights what's the point
of that see kind of you lose the
argument might go and if it's Star Wars
you probably don't want gonna wanna hear
the themes with Star Wars in the trailer
but when it's X again no one's heard of
before who gives a shit right
like we don't you know we don't wanna
hear those themes because I've got this
trailer piece that I've used 55 billion
times before that I can give to my video
editors right now that can cut to the
exact this generic
paint you know that shit right so like
we've all heard a million times right so
but yeah the marketing guy knows the
piece it's used a bazillion times give
it to the editors the good is going to
get on with it right
I like no amount of you saying but it
wouldn't it be great with because it's
easy for him right you don't have to
wait for you to write the piece for the
guys to cut the video to the piece
you've written and recorded by somebody
you can just give him this generic thing
that he's happy used a billion I was
like I was such an a project were the
final trailer before
before the weeks of the game was this
piece of music they used a lots of terms
after arguing lots of times and losing
and then he despaired literally a month
later there was a trailer for the next
game that we're doing this exact same
trailer pieces or than the one that we
did like and I was just like shit you
know why would you do that but no one
gives a shit no one really cares right
it's not like no one's going to go oh I
did that trailer people to grow in that
trailer piece is bad
this it's a trailer right and you know
people spend lots and lots of money
writing these gigantic pieces were like
a fifty billion piece Orchestra and I'm
massive choir you're never gonna beat
win that battle so you just have to go
mr. marketing of course we'd like to do
let's just do that thing so it's just
getting used to that letting go off like
the ownership because you are a hired
contracting person just like carrying a
pool guy or a gardener or a mechanic to
do that job for you that's what they do
not hiring you to do that job and you
may not get a look-in on any of that
stuff right it just could be taken away
from you and like you know save yourself
a lot of heartache if you get used to
gonna go alright fair enough because I
got really stressed about a lot of times
and fought over it and lost every bloody
time
so that's mr. marketing guy but that's
not the way I wrote it
so another example the movie did last
time like wrote the music did the demo
he loved it thought it was great and
then you go away and like a lot of times
composers don't even get invited to the
mix part right it could just be that
you've done your job job you've been
paid goodbye and you'll see it when it
comes out and then in the theater right
but I did turn up to I did going back to
the mix thing so and you find that they
produce a guy who decided that he
thought this piece would go better there
and he cooked the end and put it at the
star and then took a bit from the end
and put it in the middle to link them
together and you're like but that's not
the way I wrote it right like you know I
did that piece and hit the beats here
hit that slap in the face hit that
gunshot like it's all just gone to shit
because it's not there anymore you know
and but nobody loved it and you just
there's no fight against that you waited
leach I'm going but I can't wrote the
piece like that and so what we like it
like this that's it right and you just
you're done there's no way you're gonna
win that war so it's just getting used
to let go of all that and it is hard
right it is really hard and I'm
particularly bad at letting go of it so
I'm kind of telling myself as I'm
telling you guys too
but I just think that it's a it's just
cuz you're a contract guy right you are
just been you've been high
and that's it you just got to take it
you might even get a look in on this
stuff so that's my thing about that yes
the boss is always right so like you
know yeah again this movie did last year
it's not about experience right I did
have a good experience generally
speaking but I was in the Buddy
screening and mr. head dude who's you
know fantastic like Chinese guy and
finest the entire thing was to
billionaire whatever he is like he spent
most of the time arguing about bodies
named Kim in the credits rather than
like anything about the movie he wanted
to make sure that yes I'm I know that
the credits the guy who comes last is
the most important man so I must be a
lot that big discussion went on and he
made some passing comment about some
music somewhere and that was I can't
remember the comment it was so flippant
but the entire entourage around him shut
themselves instantly oh my god rip it
out he doesn't like it mr. doodle rats
so the whole thing is right in front of
you yeah so Jesus it says play forgotten
or really what you thought about but you
owe me just been chucked into the into
the bin oh that's just gone right
because he made us some kind of passing
bizarre coming that no one understood
but felt like this take out right now
with no seats off it's all and it's like
that so and yet again you just got no
say over you but you see realize it in
the pecking order
composers don't come very high like this
it's a whole mountain of people set
above you producers and all that
nonsense above you who have got way more
say than you have and they all shit
themselves when the kid guy blinks right
so there's all that kind of you know
sitting in your little cave writing your
music it's all nice and introverted
you're all sort of there it's all great
you may need to take one step out of
there you're in that land of real world
where everyone's got an opinion and your
opinion matters for nothing
right a lot of the time so that's
another lesson that I learned very
recently that you know you just not you
just have to let go of it there's no
point crying about it or punching the
director on the way out like it was
inclined to do you know so it's the
thing that I think you just have to kind
of get used to the further you kind of
go down a path of becoming are more of
us established contracting Composer it's
no different anything else right and of
course you happy about it right so like
you know so the gist of my segment here
I guess it's like let go of everything
you know you've written you music and
sometimes you might get a saying the end
of it but lots of thing about this past
of never see again a TC in the finished
product and it might not be how you
intended it to be I have to say my my
experience of write music for 20 21
years has been pretty good I've got most
of them my way most of the time but
there are going to be a venturi and it's
not going to win that battle and it's
like you have to be prepared to say not
get upset about it and like I have got
upset tons of times but I don't know I
just think you have it could be the best
lesson to learn I think it's to be able
to say all right I wrote to you sort of
like - it's in more or less how I wanted
it to be and you know that thing you
wrote that fits perfectly when the
person sees it maybe in the movie
theater or the game they don't know what
you what you wrote in the first place so
what they see is what ended up being
there and they don't know if you work
what your it was better or not so you
just have to kind of accept the fact
that that's it and you've lost that
battle and get on with the next thing
and just you know that said am a little
bit as uplifting
well do uh we'll do closed captions for
translating all that as well next major
badass multi-instrumentalist composer
will row j ii Esquire of deaconship
Bournemouth Shire known from work at
LucasArts in the Old Republic to Tomb
Raider and Temple of Osiris and recently
a new the distant light cool so Star
Wars The Old Republic was my first
triple a score and a big turning point
in how I write for the orchestra in this
talk I'll cover some of the fundamental
mistakes I made in my early approach to
orchestration how I learned from them
and how I've applied this knowledge to
all my writing since then I've written
several Indies game scores before
working at Lucas but the Old Republic
was the first time I had a triple-a
score and my first time writing for live
orchestra we had a very tight deadline
and so it was also my first time writing
extensively for Star Wars so there was a
lot of pressure to get the John Williams
sound right I used high-quality samples
for the mock-ups and my cues were
approved so conceptually the music
worked well but I never had the
experience of going from mock-up to live
orchestra and I had no idea of the
headaches that this excuse would cause I
wrote for the sound not for the players
and so I was in for a rude awakening we
had four other composers and a ton of
music to get through in a short time
some of my views were played
effortlessly with musicians reading
beautifully on their first try but
others Easy Pieces left them confused
and grumpy and dissatisfied so here's a
few reasons why my first problem was
writing parts with awkward entrances and
needlessly unnatural rhythms players
would have to count several measures of
rest before oddly timed entrances with
no obvious backing and this led to very
unconfident performances and unnecessary
retakes
I had some cues like you see here this
is real by the way this is not made-up
some Jews were instruments just had very
inconsequential parts right eating half
the piece just to play only a short
passage again this was because I focus
only on the sound and not on the
performance or the players and I had
some generally dissatisfying parts as
well which yeah which sounded great in
samples but didn't work when played live
in this instance as you see the harp
just plays a single tremolo throughout
the whole queue and it was a great
texture for the ice planet hoth but in
practice it was very boring and very
static and honestly just unacceptable to
give to a professional player who'd
studied their whole life and speaking of
harp so harpist play accidentals via
petals that transpose all notes of a
kind here I tried a harmonic shift
between two hexitonic modes which is a
very Star Wars II technique but
unfortunately this required six pedal
changes at once and yeah most harpist
only have two feet so it was actually
impossible to play and lastly I had some
cues that I just simply didn't proof
lead it closely enough when I got them
back from our orchestration team one
piece had incorrect dynamics at the end
turning an ambient piece unexpectedly
violent and another just had very
glitched rhythms where you know we had
to fix it at the podium which is a huge
time waste I learned from these mistakes
and studied other scores with a focus on
performance before my next score for
Star Wars first assault I developed
strategies to make sure that the parts
were playable sight readable and
enjoyable here's some of those
techniques the first principle I
followed was to just make sure everyone
has at least something interesting to do
in each cue previously I might have
allowed a harp part to be nothing but
Gliss is for an entire queue but in this
example I made sure that they had some
melodic doubling to keep the
interesting avoid writing awkward
entrances at all costs these again can
lead to unconfident performances if you
need a rhythmic elements a neat trick to
try is write it in four-four but use
tuplets or syncopation here the strings
have scattered entrances but it's easy
to count in four-four especially with
the harp doubling make sure brass isn't
being abused with constant fortissimo
horns especially need time to rest
particularly if you need them to make a
big entrance later on so in this example
from Laura Croft actually I remove them
from the texture at measure 8 using a
trombone to support the trumpet so that
the horns can come in full force later
on try writing in fun challenges that
sound more difficult than they actually
are showcasing the players versatility a
Goods habit is to study instrumental
etudes to get to know what's guaranteed
to be mastered by a professional for
example these wind runs and arpeggios
arpeggio and O's violas try using cues
to provide alternate textural options
when recording you can easily adjust
dynamics or tacit instruments but you
can't really add new parts using cues
allows you to thicken the textures if
necessary for example expanding a solo
to a full section you should take into
account not just the performance but
also the venue for Star Wars first
assault we were at Abbey Road which is
big enough to seat an entire Orchestra
in two different configurations we had
two factions in the game so we recorded
Imperial music in portrait and rebel
music in landscape so to wrap things up
the most important thing is to talk to
musicians about any questionable parts
ideally befriend someone from every
section and get their feedback for
whatever you're not comfortable with
before it hits the copyist their input
is invaluable and as a final note I also
found that keeping reality and player
psychology in mind helps with sampled
orchestral cues to write interesting
part for both foreground and background
keeping in mind live player limitations
and a sample queue will always sound
more realistic thanks
so probably all of us saw Mick win GDC
yesterday so I don't really need to say
anything so me Corden my name is Mick
Gordon and I have no idea what you're
talking about the first developer came
to me and said we want some music you
see it needs to be modern catchy groovy
and cool no problem I said I know
exactly what to do so I went to my
studio and I worked all night on a
dubstep song wubs from left to right I
emailed them back with the finished
track I made a dubstep track for you I
look forward to your feedback no no no
they said this is not the music we
wanted you misread it was chiptune music
we wanted modern catchy groovy and cool
that's what we wanted from you the same
the second developer came to me and said
we want some music you see it needs to
be half squad needs to have square waves
have noise and be retro too no problem I
said I know exactly what to do so I went
to my studio and I worked all night on
chiptune music bit crushing from left to
right I emailed them back with the
finished track I made chip tunes for you
I look forward to your feedback no no no
they said this is not the music we
wanted you egghead sine waves noise and
retro - it was heavy metal we wanted
from you
the third developer came to me and said
we want some music you see it needs to
be aggressive fast and hair-raising - no
problem I said I know exactly what to do
so I went to my studio and I shred it
all night nine string guitars panned
left and right
I finished the track and emailed them
back
I made some metal for you I look forward
to your feedback no no no they said this
is not the music we wanted you
knucklehead
aggressive fast and hair-raising to
something like bark is what we wanted
from you
the fourth developer Kant will hang on
sorry
the fourth developer came to me and said
we want some music you see it needs to
be bespoke baroque and counterpoint - no
problem I said I know exactly what to do
so I went to the organ and I played all
night doing my best bark impression semi
quavers left to right I emailed them
back with the finished track
I made some organ music for you I look
forward to your feedback no no no they
said this is not the music we wanted
you're dead I didn't really say that's
just the best picture I could find
bespoke baroque can have counterpoint -
we wanted a full orchestra from you not
just an organ you fool hey the fifth
developer came to me and said we want
some music you see it needs to be epic
massive and guttural - no problem I said
I know exactly what to do so I looked at
my budget and my budget was tight but I
recorded the orchestra anyway a hundred
piece from left to right I emailed them
back with the finished track here is the
orchestra I look forward to your
feedback no no no they said this is not
the music we wanted dickhead
EPIK massive and guttural - it is
dubstep we wanted from you
despair sat in rejection after rejection
I was failing in my ability to interpret
direction developers were given me the
best direction that they could and I was
frustrating them because I completely
misunderstood you see a composer client
racial relationship is a relationship
alright
without proper communication it ends up
in a fight without a shared common
creative language you're completely
alien to each other you're not able to
tell when you're wrong or when you're
right but if you get to know each other
you'll understand each other and you'll
be able to combine your mind when they
say jump you'll already know how high
the two of you will become partners in
crime so get to know each other really
well become a great team and when it
comes to music time you're going to
succeed so get to know your clients be
friends and share a joke that is the key
to success my friends that's all folks
I had no idea that was going to happen
that was awesome
the king of Indies hyper light drifter
Fez and forty thousand others rich
Weiland aka disasterpiece
hey guys so uh my talk is called curve
balls I often find the beginning of a
project to be the most exciting period
there's a sense that anything is
possible which has often propelled me
down many avenues in search of the thing
along the way Murphy's Law that anything
that can go wrong will go wrong kicks in
and I rarely end up where I intended
sometimes projects turn out worse but
often in my experience they turn out
different or better during the course of
my work on a thing there tends to be a
psychological transition from an
exciting beginning of boundless
possibility to a starker more
responsible reality you bring an idea
out of the ether and give it life it
gradually frames itself and the edges
come into view and creasing lis the
thing as I've so lovingly called it
solidifies this process is a necessary
part of the work and it's a part of life
too right we have little choice but to
persist through the unending number of
curveballs thrown our way starting with
being born and so we do our best to
adapt the curveballs often take us down
paths we would never take or could have
never imagined they opened doors for us
that would otherwise remain closed and
they lead us to new conclusions they
change us in my opinion this malleable
process is often necessary to complete a
work regardless of whether we see or
believe in it at the time
I find that only in the days that follow
can I truly begin to comprehend its
meaning when starting work on a new
project I often set off in the first
direction that sparks my curiosity
I try to keep the utilitarian needs of a
video game in mind but if I'm staring
down a new idea I sees it as an exciting
challenge this tendency of mine
perpetuates a myth I can't help but tell
myself time and time again this will
work right before I know it I might be
neck-deep and an esoteric cobweb of
systems or syncing large units of time
into something wonderful or wonderfully
inappropriate I'm guilty of occasionally
forgetting that when working on a
project with real-world restraints my
ideas have to be grounded in that same
reality so I spent a few years creating
music and sound for a game called hyper
light drifter during this time I had a
dream that I would write long artfully
composed pieces of music they would move
effortlessly from idea to idea all while
while evoke the perfect expression every
step of the way I wanted to write these
songs at the piano and notate them
completely before even thinking about
the electronic production or how they
would be even be implemented in a
videogame here I had created a set of
goals for myself which is often
something I do during a project but this
time they ended up not suiting me or the
project at all first off
I hated using software annotation and I
wasted a lot of time inefficiently
grumbling my way through it
second the piano pieces I'd written with
all their shifts in tempo energy and
tone were very hard to translate to an
electronic sound there kind of glued to
the sound of the piano I underestimated
the difficulty of recreating the essence
of a performance from a completely
different context I've transferred
pieces to new instruments before and
thinking this was no different or
assuming I took it for granted
lastly the compositional style was not
nearly a July knife to keep up with
contextual changes during gameplay for
example the player would move into a new
area and start doing a new thing and the
music would be off somewhere else
expressing some other idea it was really
hard to find that by the way I was
surprised it seems obvious looking back
but at the time I thought I could pull
it off the path I had chosen proved to
be a long brambly one with a big dead
end sign it was emotionally tough to put
so much time and effort into an
unsuccessful direction and it took a
while to pick myself up and set out
again
I only stumbled into the right solution
when I was thrown a curveball the
developer decided to create a demo and I
suddenly needed to drop what I was doing
and write music for a very large
vertical slice of the game in a very
short period of time granted it was a
curveball I was aware of but due to poor
planning it crept up on me in a way that
I think still serves the purpose of this
talk feeling urgency I had to forego my
agenda and just write something anything
and and put it in the game this simple
process yielded the best results and
changed the trajectory of the project
for me and so I learned a valuable
lesson sometimes I am too precious about
my work I tend to inflate the importance
of ideas I've devised before they've
ever proven themselves to work and
sometimes it's hard for me to let go of
those expectations and move forward
towards the end of hyper light drifter
as the pressure really started to mount
and I was struggling creatively I picked
up a mantra broad strokes painting with
broad strokes has often been
counterintuitive for me and it still is
the rabbit hole is my favorite pitfall
pun intended
but by prototyping my work in practice
not in a vacuum and saving
detail-oriented decisions for later I've
started to save lots of time the
curveballs are frequent now but they are
more useful than ever thank you
[Applause]
finally a Titan of our industry the
order to marae der dead space etc etc
etc Jason graves I hope you guys are
having as much fun as we are up here
because honestly we didn't know what
anybody was going to be talking about so
how many composers if we got out there
hands up alright how many of you folks
are basically terrified of failing all
the time
handed up yeah my name is Jason graves
and I'm addicted to attempting to fail
this is composer confessions in my
confession is I really love to push
boundaries and I don't feel like I'm
really doing that if I'm not on the
precipice of getting fired you know like
how far can I go with what they're
talking about with what they want oh my
gosh that's still up there alright
prepare now there's been some really
nice presentations so far but I I mean
Austin's save the the best graphics
interface and everything for last so I'm
gonna talk about a couple of different
games from a franchise called dead space
and a lot of this is probably unknown
because it was all behind the scenes
stuff but I'm gonna give a couple of
examples and then I'm gonna talk about
why I love the idea of setting setting
yourself up for possible failure I hate
that word failure and I know it was in
composer confessions but I see it as
more like opportunity than anything else
so dead space 3 I believe no where where
the audio was nothing no that's how do
but yeah I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine
[Music]
so this is all music that was not used
in the game
and it was all reported live
and at one point in time there was going
to be this giant spaceship I'm not
making this up a giant spaceship of
redneck like truckers from space that
you were gonna be doing things with we
were going to do country songs like
space cowboy country songs we were going
to have all kinds of crazy sort of
country influenced kinds of things in
the score and those of you who are not
familiar with dead space it's very
organic sounds that are completely
messed up in a very natural way people
just playing their instruments wrong so
as a result I have had two weeks of
reporting and Nashville with electric
guitars accordions hormone-iums a pedal
steel players vocalists all kinds of
experimental stuff that I just sort of
pulled some things real quick to play
this is more the ambient stuff but there
was action in there as well and it's all
country music it's just you know the the
perverted version of country music and
it was really one of those moments where
I was like this is the third one I feel
like I want to do something a little bit
different and they want to do country so
how far can i push it before they just
you know say you're in you're crazy you
don't you can't do that and this was the
result and everyone seemed to like it a
lot but there was a lot of internal
shifting if any of you remember when
Dead Space 3 came out it was a little
confused it wasn't sure is it horror is
it action what's what's kind of going on
in the the audio director that came in
was like now I don't want any country
stuff and just just cut everything and
it was a lot of music it was a lot of
you know me pouring my heart into it and
working with all these players and
learning all these new techniques it
didn't make it into the game and gosh I
haven't figured out anything to do with
it yet but it introduced me to Nashville
and I became friends with Allen there
who's the contractor and also plays
violin and I've been there five or six
times recording orchestral scores and
small pick up things and that was all
through hanging out with him over
recording this dead space 3 stuff and
it's really one of those whatever
doesn't kill you makes you stronger and
I try to push as hard as I can no matter
how scary it might be or how much I'm
convinced that I don't know how I'm
going to make this work if I'm not in
that position mentally then it's almost
like that's
I operate my best that's when I'm really
feeling charged and trying to do
something really different so I'm gonna
go backwards to Dead Space 1 which
originally had a much different idea in
terms of the tone of the gameplay and I
think it's really cool being composers
up here our music is so influential in
how people feel when they play the game
and the original dead space wasn't
necessarily super scary it had more of a
[Music]
this is what they wanted
but it never really worked we ended up
this outing to throw out like 30 minutes
of music and go with the opposite kind
of approach where there's no rhythm
there's no melody there's like what can
you do to terrify the player the most
I'm I love talking over my own music if
you haven't noticed so this is what we
ended up doing instead awkward pause
awkward pause it's coming
[Music]
[Applause]
now the interesting thing about this
music the first track was all done in
MIDI with me in my own studio to do the
scary stuff they wanted to have control
over the music but they wanted it to be
scary and there were no Elliott torque
libraries back then and I the audio
director at the time Don Beca said well
how can you give us the scariest music
in the world but let us have control
over it now it's like oh yeah if you
want to do something like that you're
gonna need to go and give me all the
live budget upfront let me go record the
orchestra playing all these different
sounds and things and then give me
months to cut it all up and put it
together into something and maybe give
you a demo after that but if we were
longer like six month plan at the least
thinking of course he would never go for
it and he was like yeah man let's do
that which that was the ultimate like
setting myself up you know enough rope
to hang yourself and all that kind of
stuff and I was terrified the entire
time I was working on the job I was
going to GDC talking on a panel and in
between my panel and the next panel I
was gonna attend I was going back to my
hotel room and working on orchestration
and trying to figure out what to do with
the players but I learned so much from
all of that unknown territory at first
that I was just completely terrified of
and of course everyone says well that's
why the music's so scary no it's it's
scary because I grew numb to making it's
not scary enough I have to make it
scarier but just having that sort of
drive to do something different and to
really get it under my fingers and feel
confident that about halfway through the
project maybe you know I think this is
gonna work I think it's gonna work and
then usually by the time everything's
finished it ends up working but it's not
something that's been completely
intentional it's not something I think
that any of us are feeling like oh man
we've got this you know don't sweat I
mean maybe we've got the martini glass
and we're like I know exactly what you
want don't worry about it but inside or
terrified because we're trying something
new and I've seen people from Jerry
Goldsmith that John Williams Bernard
Herrmann I mean any of these amazing
media composers talk about how terrified
they are at being creative trying
something new putting yourself out there
but the more you do it
you're still terrified all the time but
at least you have a little bit of a
background like okay I've done it before
I know I'm gonna somehow do it again and
you just keep moving forward and you use
all that stuff that you learned from the
last time you internally almost were
fired even though no one thought that
and it's the next gig and you're
starting over and pushing yourself and
learning more so I'm gonna end with a
little emoji thing and when we go to the
last slide okay great
Austin we have ten minutes for questions
thank you all have at it
smarten yeah yeah Austin this questions
for you Oh God
well based on can I go back to Jason
military slides based on your well
documented ability to write really
relaxing music I was wondering if you
have considered maybe switching to a
lucrative career writing for music and
spa meditation CDs well I can you sell
the stuff I do right and I don't have to
even switch careers because that was a
great presentation um
this question is for all of you when you
have multiple projects you're working on
especially when they involve different
styles like one game is gonna be
completely orchestral and another
project is gonna be like death metal
electronica how do you approach that
like what's your process for me I I try
to build up a little bit of momentum on
individual projects so that I can give
myself like a buffer zone to kind of get
into that headspace so you know I might
I might work on one thing for a week at
a time and then switch if but you kind
of have to figure it out based on you
know what the projects are and what the
requirements are but that seems to work
for me because I could say panic
probably about all the thing you need to
do it's like a million different styles
and like every wants it tomorrow never
wants it like yesterday you know so I
think that you do panic a little bit but
I think panic is probably quite healthy
and it gets you going but you know
nothing you do is ever gonna work out
like you think it's gonna work out
everything you're gonna do is always
going to go wrong somewhere it's always
going to be like I'm going to manage it
and then I'm not going to manage it
you're gonna shit yourself and think I'm
never going to get there so it's never
gonna be perfectly scheduled out so
you're gonna get time to work another
thing you just got panic and get on with
it it's like a start
yeah timewise there's one problem but
for me it's sometimes just conceptually
getting yourself back into that sound
world and that can be very challenging I
can add I for what it's worth I really
love when I have juxtaposed my projects
that are radically unlike each other
because the
flash of shifting gears actually helps
make each direction of travel feel
fresher if because if I wrote nothing
but the or you know the big sweeping
orchestral thing then that it would
certainly get stale and flat immediately
but if in the middle of that you know
we're interleaving all these forays and
to other stuff for me I'm wired to
benefit from that I like it so to me the
problem you're identifying is a good
situation
yeah also just ask Jason yeah he does
that quite we're gonna share the mic
because I've got four mics down there
I've I've found that splitting it up
just an entire day dedicated to one
project and then unfinished that day on
that project and then I start thinking
about the other project for the next
morning by the time I get up in the
morning I'm completely dedicated at that
second project or even at extreme times
it's been split during the day but I say
at 12:30 I'm working on the other one
and I try to do the best I can to
mentally compartmentalize those yes so
question this is from coming from a non
professional composer I'm a game dev
that doesn't actually do a composition
so back before the technology became
what it was today people tended to have
different areas of games that had loops
and it was like a 30-second loop or a
minute loop of music thinking back to
like the Zelda n64 days so a lot of the
melodies that were there are very you
recognize them you hear it you're like
oh that's that area of this game with
all these ambient layers and stuff going
on how do you try to keep melodies that
you can recognize and that people can
recognize in new games that require that
to use that new technology I actually
have an answer that might be a little
upstream but I think it's actually up to
the design of the game because what I
always find is important it's to just
identify moments in the game where you
can bring music to the forefront rather
than trying to have every single piece
be list like incredibly melodic I don't
think that you know that really works
with games anymore
but what you can do for example how many
people here have played Red Dead
Redemption and you know exactly where
I'm going with this you as soon as you
go to Mexico and it plays that beautiful
song that's a musical moment that
everyone remembers and that didn't come
about because they said like oh yeah
let's have like this awesome song you
know all the time no they identified a
moment in the story and in the gameplay
where this would work and they cut out
the AI and they made sure you couldn't
get attacked or whatever but everyone
kind of came together and they planned
for it so it's actually something that
you as a designer can help as well yeah
if you pick your spots and you underline
certain moments it kind of gives them
you know it can give those moments more
I guess gravitas and it's a good thing
that can be a good thing to do with
melodies so that no you know you kind of
remember those melodies yeah I think
also a simple trick that I used a lot in
both journey and absolute but I use it
in general is I treat melodies as big as
one-shots often in when entering an area
to the point of like the Red Dead
Redemption example but it can be even
within a single cue where you know
player comes over the hill we announce a
big melody but when it loops the melody
doesn't loop with it and the the sort of
support accompaniment backing track
whatever does loop which is by design
more sort of simple or ambient or
whatever the case so that it feels like
you've just made this giant statement
but you're also not just bludgeoning it
to death because that actually ends up
taking away from it my favorite example
is I love to take like a 10-second
excerpt of the Rite of Spring and then
just loop it over and over to see just
how fast it becomes the from one of the
best things ever written to one of the
worst things ever written and so like
the looping this is the is the problem
it's not designed for that so figuring
out ways to be able to make your big
statement and then not you know thank
you I think I attempt to beat you to
death most of the time
and that's why when we go to pax
everyone comes to ask for your autograph
don't start a service called in hello um
so I'm a developer and I've been that
person who's giving the feedback and
that person that's been giving the brief
so sorry guys I just want to ask what
kinds of brief do you wish you got from
developers that you don't get I'm just
gonna jump straight in there that the
the thing that annoys me the most is
when you're pitching on a project and
they give you a single page that
describes the game in a very high-level
way and they go so what would the main
theme sound like you have no clue what
the main themes gonna sound like you
have a single page to work from you know
to me the main themes often the last
thing that comes from the project and
often you know the the composer that
they choose to go with can often be
selected from that round and and that's
kind of a kind of a really weird thing
for me um but it's just kind of what I
was talking about just getting to know
everybody and things like that the point
I was trying to make there is so when
you say to a composer I want you to make
it grand your definition of grand is
completely understood by the composer
that you're working with I mean what I
mean is grand what rich thinkers ground
what you think is grand is very very
different so it's having that shared
common creative language that's very
important so it's good till I ask for
you know some youtube links or some mp3s
or things that you think might suit the
style of game you're working on or
whatever it may be so at least it puts
you in the right direction rather than
it's kind of going out work for somebody
who said you know I thought that what
the musics are sound like but I'll know
it when I hear it and that's a bit like
I could be hitting that's Christmas
writing this music you know it's
completely useless because I go sends
you for YouTube or one YouTube clip of
something that he likes
now you'd get that straightaway you
understand it right you know and
sometimes getting briefs with no mp3's
is a bit crap because you don't know
what the really mean by what they're
saying I've liked red briefs got but I
need to pitch for I'm thinking that
they're asking for some bizarre
combination of something plus hip hop
which it used to be all the time now
whatever you're right right jazz but
with a hip hop be right big band with me
but whatever it is right so like it
seems to be sticky pop in it whatever it
is and so you know it's just it's just
senseless you need to send you something
I got some of us MVP meets and we want
something that isn't like this but it's
got the right energy that's like what
what on earth is all about right so just
send send a couple of YouTube clips or
some em PVC to think in the right
direction at least give us a clue
probably take one last one here and then
we're out sort of a personal question if
you can name two people one modern era
composer or artist that you really
admire and previous era composer yeah
for me one of the richest Stravinsky so
yeah several previous errands for me
Jerry Goldsmith is sort of King of Kings
but today these days I have to say I am
an equally the club of Johann Johansen
devotees that's my answer
come on Greg Shelton well modern day I
really I love John Williamson
I just classical you know so modern yeah
thank you
I'm not sticking with films I was well
know Stravinsky I love Stravinsky's
ballet sweets and all that stuff that's
what I first listened to I love how
programmatic it is and through-composed
and it reminds me of film music it tells
a story yeah yeah I'm John Williams is
God without doubt and I guess I'm quite
I'm a bit metal fan so I guess like
Queens right go someone like Judas
Priest that's like I'm dinner like
probably I'd fully headband quite
happily to that for all day long man I
guess like volumes and all gamma kind of
classical guys I really like a lot I
mean another Stravinsky guy but eternal
this another name Hindemith is one of my
all-time favorite classical composers
early 20th century and as far as modern
folks Yoko Kanno is probably my favorite
by far anime composer
I I don't really have an answer to me
it's all just music I love everything
there's not one specific thing that I
like and one specific thing that I don't
like it's all the same notes on the page
to me so I don't have anything I'm sorry
it's a lame answer I'm gonna be a little
weird I kinda similar because I listen
to a lot of music and and maybe nothing
particular stands out but but what does
stand for me is actually artists and
other mediums so I was thinking actually
thinking of Miyazaki and Mobius who like
for some reason visual art kind of
speaks to me and kind of inspires me to
to write music so thanks all for coming
[Applause]