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Techniques and Styles of Video Game Music

Posted by Soulskill on Mon Dec 01, 2008 10:05 PM
from the badap-bop-boodop-beep!-boop! dept.
Media Music Entertainment Games
MarkN writes "Video game music has come to represent much more than just the beeps and boops of early video games that often got muted out of annoyance. It's a genre that stands on its own, stylistically and musically. It necessarily differs from typical soundtrack fare in a few important ways — it's written to accompany an activity rather than meant to be listened to passively, it is often required to loop and extend indefinitely, and it has the potential to be adaptive and respond to player feedback. In this article, I talk about some of the techniques used to make game music effective within its constraints and with all of its potential, and discuss how different styles and musical techniques can relate to the gameplay."
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Submission: Techniques and Styles of Video Game Music by BigCow (1130533)
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  • Pinball games with Bsmt2000 sound and the mid 80's / 90's games had good midi based music where real good.

    Chris Granner and Brian Schmidt did real good work with the sound on the games they did the sound work for.

     

  • Different kinds of game music? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by elynnia (815633) on Monday December 01 2008, @10:39PM (#25955089)
    I thought this was a reasonably sound article, but it neglected something that I always found interesting about game soundtracks: namely, the correlation between the musical styles used and the game's country of origin.

    For instance, Final Fantasy and Myst both feature orchestral soundtracks but the composing techniques used do vary, leading to different effects being created. The tendency seems to be that Japanese games feature melodic tunes for every scene/stage/level whereas Western games tend to use more ambient compositions.

    Would someone with more knowledge in the area care to elaborate?
    Aly.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Panseh (1072370)

      For an exploration type game such as Myst, or free-roaming American RPGs, there is no real set plot or characters aside from your own. These games feature ambient music (minimalistic) that set the mood and tension for cities and dungeons, but they also do not stand out enough to distract gamers from their immersion in exploration.

      In addition to exploration aspects, Japanese RPGs feature wide casts of recurring, developed characters important to a fairly linear plot. Having recognizable themes (melodies) for

    • Oh, so true, so true, my friend!

      Take the marvellous music of Tetris - it is impossible to express it in other terms than it's Russian-ness!

      It has this particular ... uhm... aire of a Diaghileff dance with tints of Mussorgsky expressed authenticly by the unexplicable broad Russian soul of a Solzhenytsin. It sparks the image of Vrubel's Seated Demon in my mind. I wonder if I'm the only one.

      Art academics is the cancer that is eating culture. imho. I wish they left games alone but they're befuddling th

  • Rez? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Lorigo (1421739)
    I'm surprised nothing from Tetsuya Mizuguchi is mentioned in the article. He produced/concepted Rez, Lumines and Every Extend Extra among others. These games heavily intertwine gameplay into sound and music. Often times the player not only affects the music being played, but 'creates' some of it. When you lock-on to targets in Rez, sometimes it syncs up with the beat, which creates majestic results.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Petrushka (815171)

      I've been a big fan of adaptive game music ever since I realised it existed. The big leap, for me, was Monkey Island 2, where the background music in the starting town would gradually change mood and instrumentation depending on which house you walked into. In 1991, the effect was stunning. The tune was simple and unchallenging -- there's an mp3 arrangement here [scummbar.com]: the track is "04 Woodtick" -- but it was the adaptation that was the amazing thing. It was particularly important then because the music was prett

      • Re:Rez? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by poot_rootbeer (188613) on Tuesday December 02 2008, @09:20AM (#25958893)

        a little thought reminds me that adaptive music goes back at least as far as Ballblazer in 1984-85

        "Pitfall II" (1984) also used adaptive music; the soundtrack started off energetic, would switch to a gloomier minor-key version when you got hit and were sent back to a savepoint, and would return to heroic after picking up a prize. The original Atari 2600 version also may have been the first game cartridge to include its own custom audio chip; music was so important to that title that the extra hardware costs were justified, even as the market crash was beginning.

  • Tin Drum studios i think? I cant believe I remember that, haven't played that game in years. It was a techno soundtrack but very ambient-like in most cases, was the classic didnt notice it much until you started humming out the beats later on.

  • For anyone who is at least a fan of video game music, I highly suggest attending a Video Games Live concert. I'm going to one in January and it should be awesome. I'm not the biggest fan of video game music, but mostly I'm going for the experience that the VGL guys create with the videos in the background and such.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by VickiM (920888)

      I went to one a few years ago at GenCon and found the host to be a prick, personifying all the bad stereotypes of a "hardcore gamer." I left feeling a little embarrassed about the whole thing. It didn't really compare to Dear Friends with regards to tone, which unfortuantely had a short run.

      The music, though, was great. If they've adressed the host problems, I'd love to go again some time and take a few friends.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by poot_rootbeer (188613)

        I went to one a few years ago at GenCon and found the host to be a prick, personifying all the bad stereotypes of a "hardcore gamer."

        Funny, I find him to personify all the bad stereotypes of a "self-congratulatory putz".

        The only credential Tommy Tallarico can claim that qualifies him for his role as a curator video game music is that he was the first to have the idea. (His sound design work on classic game titles like "Cool Spot" and "Color A Dinosaur" certainly doesn't suffice.)

        His inclusion of his own wo

  • The music that plays in the menu when you first start the game up is important for setting the tone of the game. The music for the game Mafia was absolutely masterful at this.
  • I think that Aliens Vs. Predator for PC, despite having static tracks that cycled at random (at least specific tracks depending on what race you were playing as) had some of the most fitting game music ever. it was very true to style the movies and made you feel like you were really taking part in a movie of your own. Halflife did it a different way, instead of music throughout, certain shorter tracks would trigger at certain parts throughout the game, also giving it a more cinematic experience. Serious Sam
    • Also i cant forget the Phoenix Wright games for their very good soundtrack. I dont think anyone who has played them can ever forget the good feeling you get when suddenly you hear the high intensity action sound of the Cornered them from the first game. I dont think the games would have been nearly as climactic if it hadnt been for that song to let you know that you really had your opposition on the ropes...

    • I thought Shadow of the Colossus for PS2 did dynamic music extremely well. As you wandered around, you got a certain type of music. As you spotted a colossus, the music shifted. And when you entered "combat" with the colossus, the music became much more tense.

      A level that demonstrates this perfectly is the level with the flying colossus in the desert. You come down to the plains, the music is almost calming. As you watch the colossus appear and fly around you, the music definitely changes to build anticipat

      • I know what you are talking about and agree. The controls of that game were a little lacking at times, and it could get a little repetative, but overall it was a pretty decent game with music that worked well for it.

  • They have a whole section about dynamic music in TFA, but fail to mention full dynamic systems like LucasArt's iMUSE [wikipedia.org].

    Yes, OK it's nice that Mario Kart Wii's music gets muted when you're underground.

    But at the same time, LucasArt's adventure games have been able to assemble musical score on-the-fly based on the combination of a several pre-written pieces and a set of conditions based on current status.
    These doesn't use as much a "musical score" or a pre-written "music" as they mix freely a large quantity of

    • I don't know if this is an example of the LucasArts iMuse or not, but my seminal video game music experience as far as dynamic music goes was the x-wing games that Lucas Arts put out. It had music that would change based on the context of the game, for exmaple, if new imperials showed up it would transition to the imperial theme. It was the first time I was really aware of the music as a tool to understanding what was going on in the game. It was a great way to be aware of reinforcements showing up for the

  • Both Anarchy Online and EvE Online had such evocative music that I found myself listening to it offline, even after I no longer subscribed. The music actually got me to resubscribe to Anarchy Online for a while just because I loved the atmosphere it evoked.

    I've heard some good game music before but only these two made me think I needed to add their soundtracks to my library.

  • The author is stating the obvious and making superfluous categorisations. All the 9 pages could well be fit in one or two paragraphs - in one slashdot post if you wish.

    Though his style is admittedly admirable. What he lacks contentwise he makes up with literary style.

  • I'm a composer, myself, and a game soundtrack enthusiast, and one thing I've noticed time and time again is the drastic differences in philosophy between Japanese and western game soundtracks.

    Japanese composers tend to approach scoring from a more stylized approach, more akin to opera or broadway musicals. The technique of giving each character and element its own unique theme was first pioneered by Wagner back in the 1860s, but it has become a staple of dramatic scoring and often used for "epic" film sound

  • Sonic games often had some great music to play to. Especially in later games such as Sonic Adventure, it often sets the tone for final bosses.
    • I'll see your FF7 and raise you one MYST. No game had EVER done audio as well as Myst, and I've been doubting that it would even be possible.
      • What about this game? [wilddivine.com]. It's an oldie, though slightly newer than Myst. The website is totally cheesy now, but the company used to be more bio-feedback hardware + game based, and less "feel goody". I think they even released some tools (OSS perhaps? was windows only if I remember) that would read and graph the input from their hardware. I joined the forums (which appear to be down now) and advocated for a hardware-only sale so others could write software for it -- they agreed on the forums, but never del

      • Myst is awesome, yes.
        However, I'll just say that plenty of games have "done audio as well as Myst". A recent example would be Dead Space. Get that bitch in surround sound. It's a different direction, and it's about the audio, not the music (you said "audio"), but it's certainly one of the best I've ever heard.

        There are tons more examples, but lists are lame.

    • A lot of that has to do with what's called being a "cantabile" melody. Cantabile is Italian for "singable," or "in a singing style." If you think about Aeris' theme, it's VERY easily singable, and the fact that it's such a well-written melody makes it extremely memorable, too. If you think about the opera tune from FFVI, it's equally singable and equally great.

      On the other hand, some great melodies -- like the Super Mario Bros. theme, for example -- are just as memorable without being particularly singab

    • Let's take the wayback machine quite a ways...

      "Stones" from the Ultima series... :) Very simple, but digs in like an Alabama tick. I can still hear it if I even say "Stones".

      On a more recent note... Total Annihilation's soundtrack was (and still is) epic.

    • Aeris. Her name is Aeris.

      I don't care that you played the Japanese version, her name is Aeris.

      It's not a translation issue, it's a pronunciation issue. This shit is up there with "magiks".

      • I agree. However, the name of the song is indeed "Aerith's Theme".

        • Only because the character's name is spelled "Aerith" in the Japanese version of the game and soundtrack. The soundtrack was produced in Japan, and the publisher (DigiCube) kept it like that either accidentally or intentionally as otaku fan service.

          You might as well call it "ãããfãã®ãfãf¼ãfz".

          Or you could look at the iTunes soundtrack list, published more recently without the baggage of needing to please gobs of insane fans, which correctly calls it "Aeris's

      • Actually in the Japanese version of the game, the manual says in romanized characters (thats english alphabet for those that dont know) it is spelled with a 'th' not an 's'. And this should prove that her name is infact Aerith not Aeris. The issue is the fact that the english translation chose to change the name. This is not an uncommon thing, as we see changes being made to characters names all the times in games (Tina = Terra; Mash = Sabin FFVI), (Vega = M. Bison Street Fighter II) I could go on...

    • Re:Overrated: same as all other music (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Cocoa Radix (983980) on Monday December 01 2008, @10:49PM (#25955173) Homepage

      I don't mean to be so brusque, but that's a really stupid statement. I've studied music seriously for some time now, and I truly believe that the music that's been composed for films and games comprises the deepest, most complex, and most intellectual music that's been written since the last remaining important "Classical" (really late-Romantic or Contemporary) composers died roughly sixty years ago.

      That's not to say that all game and film music is brilliant -- far from it. Ambient music is often dull or lacks individuality, and techno music is really just mindlessly repetitive (most techno songs are one measure of music repeated hundreds of times with new sounds added in at fairly regular intervals).

      The challenge that composers for games and films face is that their music must be memorable and enjoyable without being overly intrusive. I've heard it said that the best film/game music is that which you don't really actively pay attention to while watching/playing, but find yourself humming later on. I agree with this.

      I'd urge you to listen to some of the great soundtracks out there. For film, anything by John Williams (Star Wars, Schindler's List, Harry Potter I-III) or Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings) should show you what extremely high-quality film music sounds like. As far as games go, Koji Kondo is obviously an extremely popular name, but some of the lesser-known composers, in my opinion, offer a deeper musical experience. Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest) uses a lot of very unique harmonies and harmonic progressions, which gives his music an extremely individual sound; Ko Otani (Shadow of the Colossus) can use an orchestra to create any number of believable atmospheres without being "ambient" in the slightest.

      All of this music works perfectly both in-game/in-film and out. And that's what makes it more than mere "entertainment accompaniment."

      • I think the transition from Classical to soundtrack music was a bit more gradual than your first paragraph implies. Guys like Gershwin, Bernstein, and Copland wrote pieces for both the concert hall and the cinema, before people like John Williams came along. There was good symphonic music in both venues for many decades before the best composers stopped writing standalone pieces.

      • Re:Overrated: same as all other music (Score:4, Interesting)

        by darknb (1193867) on Tuesday December 02 2008, @12:45AM (#25955997)

        I don't mean to be so brusque, but that's a really stupid statement.

        You shouldn't toss rocks in glass houses, you've made several uninformed statement yourself.

        Ambient music is often dull or lacks individuality, and techno music is really just mindlessly repetitive (most techno songs are onemeasure of music repeated hundreds of times with new sounds added in at fairly regular intervals).

        You've generalized two very deep and very excellent genres of pop music by focusing on their shittiest output. Techno at its best is about subtle variation, as the track cycles through each repetition it alters itself and the enjoyment comes from the focus on the clever details.

        The challenge that composers for games and films face is that their music must be memorable and enjoyable without being overly intrusive. I've heard it said that the best film/game music is that which you don't really actively pay attention to while watching/playing, but find yourself humming later on.../p>

        Ko Otani (Shadow of the Colossus) can use an orchestra to create any number of belvable atmospheres without being "ambient" in the slightest.

        This is where your Classical* bias shines most clearly, because you have stated that the best quality of film/game soundtracks is the balance between enjoyability and unintrusiveness. This is the exact definition of the Pop genre of Ambient Music. I will quote now from the wikipedia article on Brian Eno, because this it can easily be verified as true.

        Brian Eno is generally credited with coining the term "ambient music" in the mid-1970s to refer to music that, as he stated, can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener", and that exists on the "cusp between melody and texture."

        I highly recommend you pick up "Music for Airports" and enjoy the gorgeous ambient music you've been missing out on.

        As for Video game soundtracks I would love to play a classic shooter ,in the style of R-type or Ikaruga, which employed a Techno soundtrack to alert you when ships or bullets were entering the screen. Rez and Audiosurfer are a good start, but the music is too much the main focus. What would be better would be to have the focus be on the game(play) whilst the music provides an ambient backdrop. This way you might find yourself falling into a groove as you play, without the game explicitly forcing you to play a 'rythm-based game'. A great example is "45:33" by LCD Soundsystem. Essentially its is a long (guess how long), ever changing Techno track designed to be listened to as you run. This way it regulates your periods of rest/effort by helping you develop a physical groove.

        • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

          by Anonymous Coward

          LCD Soundsystem produces house music, not techno.

          It funny how people that claim to be knowledgeable about music refer to anything electronic with a beat as techno. I'm not saying you did this, but a couple other people did in their posts.

          Personally I despise techno, but I love most trance and house genres.

          • Sorry, your right, it should read "House", but the difference largely comes from the genres they spawned, so I (sloppily) interchange them.

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Cocoa Radix (983980)
            I'm very interested in the difference between house, trance, techno, and all of those (sub?)genres that someone like myself would group together as "techno." Could you give me the names of a couple of artists who clearly display the idiosyncrasies of each genre? I'd like to hear them all to be able to make the distinction via listening, rather than via Wikipedia.

            • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

              by Hatta (162192)

              In Rock music, a band might have a fast song and a slow song and a song with funny timing all on the same album. In the electronic music world, these would all be considered different genres. The differences between these "genres" are so minute only the most dedicated fan can hear them. Mere mortals like us can't possibly be expected to. Just look at the self superiority the AC above seems to feel about correcting the genre of LCD Soundsystem.

            • You can try Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music.
              http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/music.swf [techno.org]
              It is a bit old, but it has multiple samples of different genres, and it is pretty thorough.

          • Like there *IS* a difference. Seriously, how many genres do you people need? It all sounds alike anyway.

            Seriously, the differences between genres in electronic music are about as big as the differences between songs for any good rock band. But hey, as long as you can dance to it, right?

        • Pick up Biosphere's "Substrata" and Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works Vol. II" as well. Those'll get you into ambient quick. :)

          • If you get into Aphex Twin, make sure you keep your copy of Windowlicker hidden at work. It tends to scare the coworkers...

        • darknb, you make a lot of good points. I just want to point out that I said that ambient music is OFTEN dull -- there is some ambient music that I very much like. Jeremy Soule, who did the music for the Guild Wars games, produced a largely ambient soundtrack, and I like it both in- and out-of-game.

          Thanks for the suggestions of "Music for Airports" and "45:33"; I definitely will check them both out. I do admit fully to being hugely classically biased and just, on the whole, a giant music snob. But I am a

        • Brian Eno is generally credited with coining the term "ambient music" in the mid-1970s to refer to music that, as he stated, can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener", and that exists on the "cusp between melody and texture."

          The term may be from the mid-1970s, but the concept is much a half-century older. Erik Satie conceived the same thing as "furniture music" around 1917.

        • dude, music for airports is PHENOMENAL. glad to see people have a taste for this kind of stuff on here.

      • Ambient music is often dull or lacks individuality

        Really? I find Brian Eno's "Music for Airports" essential beauty. Its layered harmonies, simple progression, and pure tones exude a perfection of aesthetics. It is calming, shockingly beautiful, and all-together unique.

        • Hint: Most slashdot users NEVER PLAYED most anything Final Fantasy, and thus wouldn't know jack about Uematsu Nobuo, who while good doesn't compare to Meguro Masashi for pure emotion in the music.

        • I didn't forget Nobuo; he's one of my favorite, and, indeed, one of the best video game music composers. I was trying to give the names of a couple of lesser-known composers because I'd imagine that the majority of gamers know a lot of Final Fantasy music pretty well, whereas not so many would know, say, Dragon Quest.

    • Whether you like shit, crap or simply awful music there's something for everyone in the world of computer music. Seriously, i don't know anyone.

      Fix'd, for obvious reasons.

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