Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies the video game. Early music video games were once limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. This limitation inspires a style of music known as chiptunes, which combines simple melodic styles with more complex patterns or traditional musical styles, and becomes the most popular sound of the first video game.
With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and movie scores, enabling more creative freedom. Although simple pieces of synthesizers are still common, music games now include full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in the video game can be heard through the game title screen, option menu, and bonus content, as well as throughout the game. Today's soundtrack can also change depending on the player's actions or situations, such as showing the missed action in a rhythm game.
Music video games can be one of two options: original or licensed. To create or collect this music, the composer's team, music director, and music superintendent must work with game developers and game publishers.
Many of Japan's most famous original composers include Nobuo Uematsu, Koji Kondo, Yuzo Koshiro, Yoko Shimomura, Junichi Masuda, Hip Tanaka, Masato Nakamura, Koichi Sugiyama, Yasunori Mitsuda, Michiru Yamane, Yuu Miyake, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Manabu Namiki, Shinji Hosoe, and Hiroshi Kawaguchi. The leading Western game composers working today include Jeremy Soule, Jesper Kyd, Marty O 'Donnell, Jason Graves, Austin Wintory, James Hannigan, Garry Schyman and Peter McConnell, some of whom work in movies and television in addition to video games. Today, the original compositions include the work of film composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Mark Rutherford, Josh Mancell, Steve Jablonsky, and Michael Giacchino.
The popularity of video game music has expanded education and employment opportunities, generated awards, and enabled the soundtrack of video games for commercial sale and concert.
Video Video game music
History
Initial video game technology and computer chip music
By the time video games emerged as a popular form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical mediums in analog waves such as compact cassettes and phonograph records. Such components are expensive and prone to damage under heavy use making it less than ideal for use in arcade cabinets, although in rare cases, they are used ( Journey ). A more affordable method of having music in a video game is to use digital means, where a particular computer chip will convert electrical impulses from computer code into analog sound waves quickly for output on loudspeakers. Sound effects for games are also generated in this way. An early example of such an approach to music video games is the opening of chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikado's Gun Fight (1975).
Although this allows the entry of music at the beginning of arcade video games, it is usually monophonic, looped or used sparingly between stages or at the beginning of new games, such as the title Namco Pac-Man (1980). ) prepared by Toshio Kai or Pole Position (1982) composed by Nobuyuki Ohnogi. The first game to use the sustained background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikado's Space Invaders, released by Taito in 1978. It has four sequential chromatic bass records repeated in a loop, even though it is dynamic and interacts with the player, improving the speed at which the enemy descends to the player. The first video game featuring continuous and melodic background music was Rally-X , released by Namco in 1980, featuring a continuous tone that repeated continuously during game play. The decision to put any music into a video game means that at some point it should be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether the programmer has a musical experience or not. Some original music, some public domain music like folk songs. Limited voice capability; the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, can only produce two tones, or "notes", at a time.
When advances are made in silicon technology and costs go down, a new generation of arcade machines and home consoles enables major changes in accompanying music. In the arcade, the machine is based on the Motorola 68000 CPU and accompanies the various sound chips of the programmable Yamaha YM sound generator enabling multiple tones or "channel" sounds, sometimes eight or more. The earliest known example is the 1980s Sega arcade game Carnival , which uses the AY-3-8910 chip to create an electronic rendition of the classic 1889 "Over The Waves" composition by Juventino Rosas.
The Konami arcade game 1981 Frogger introduces a dynamic approach to video game music, using at least eleven different game tracks, in addition to the initial-level games and game over, which change according to the player's action. This was further enhanced by the 1984 Namco arcade Dig Dug , where the music stopped when the player stopped moving. Dig Dug composed by Yuriko Keino, who also composed music for other Namco games such as Xevious (1982) and Phozon (1983). The Sega arcade game in 1982 Super Locomotive featured chiptune variety from Yellow Magic Orchestra's "Rydeen" (1979); some computer games later also cover songs, such as Trooper Truck (1983) by Rabbit Software and Daley Thompson's Decathlon (1984) and Stryker's Run i> (1986) composed by Martin Galway.
The home console system also has a comparable increase in voice capability that started with ColecoVision in 1982 which has four channels. However, more important was the Japanese release of Famicom in 1983 which was later released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. It was capable of five channels, one capable of simple PCM sample sounds. The Commodore 64 home computer released in 1982 was capable of the initial form of filtering effects, various types of waveforms and ultimately undocumented ability to rotate 4-bit samples on the fourth pseudo voice channel. The relatively low cost makes it a popular alternative to other home computers, as well as its ability to use TV for an affordable screen monitor.
This approach to game music development in this period of time usually involves the use of simple tone generator and/or frequency modulation synthesis to simulate melodic instruments, and the use of "noise channels" to simulate percussion sounds. The initial use of PCM samples in this era is limited to short sound bites ( Monopoly ), or as an alternative to percussion sounds ( Super Mario Bros 3 ). Music in the home console often has to share available channels with other sound effects. For example, if a laser beam is fired by a spacecraft, and the laser uses a 1400 Hz square wave, then the square wave channel used by the music will stop playing music and start playing sound effects.
The mid-to-late 1980s software release for this platform has music developed by more people with a greater music experience than ever before. The quality of the composition has increased markedly, and the evidence of music popularity in this time period remains even today. The composers who make names for themselves with their software include Koichi Sugiyama (Dragon Quest), Nobuo Uematsu ( Final Fantasy ), Rob Hubbard ( Monty On the Run , Karate International ), Koji Kondo ( Super Mario Bros. , Legend of Zelda ), Miki Higashino ( Gradius Yie-Ar Kung Fu , Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ), Hiroshi Kawaguchi ( Harrier Room , Hang-On , Out Run ), Hirokazu Tanaka ( Metroid , Kid Icarus , EarthBound ), Martin Galway (< i> The Daley Thompson, Stryker's Run , Times of Lore ), Yuzo Koshiro ( Dragon Massacre , Ys , Shinobi , ActRaiser , Rage Streets ), Mieko Ishikawa ( Dragon Massacre , Ys ), and Ryu Umemoto (visual novel, shoot 'em up). In the late 1980s, video game music was sold as a cassette soundtrack in Japan, inspiring American companies such as Sierra, Cinemaware and Interplay to pay more serious attention to video game music in 1988. The Golden Joystick award introduced categories for > Best Soundtrack of the Year in 1986, won by Sanxion.
Some games for the cartridge system have been sold with additional audio hardware in them, including the Pitfall II for Atari 2600 and some late Famicom titles. These chips add to the existing sound capabilities.
Synthesis and early digital sampling
From around 1980, some arcade games began to take steps toward digital, or sample, sound. Namco's 1980 arcade game
Outside of arcade games, significant improvements to personal computer gaming are made possible with the introduction of digital synthesis FM boards, which Yamaha released for Japanese computers such as NEC PC-8801 and PC-9801 in the early 1980s, and in the mid-1980s, PCs -8801 and FM-7 have built-in FM sound. This allowed computer game music has greater complexity than simple beeps from internal speakers. These synth FM boards produce "warm and pleasant sounds" played by musicians like Yuzo Koshiro and Takeshi Abo to produce highly respected music in the chiptune community. The widespread adoption of FM synthesis by the console will be one of the major advancements of the 16-bit era, where 16-bit arcade machines use multiple FM synthesis chips.
One of the earliest home computers to use digital signal processing in the form of sampling was the Commodore Amiga in 1985. The computer sound chip featured four independent 8-bit digital-to-analogue converters. Developers can use this platform to take samples of music performance, sometimes just one long note, and play them back through the computer's sound chip from memory. This is different from Rally-X because the hardware DAC is used to play back simple wave samples, and sample sounds allow the complexity and authenticity of tangible instruments that the FM simulation can not offer. For his role as one of the first and affordable, the Amiga will remain a prime musical instrument composition that is sorted early, especially in Europe.
Amiga offers these features before most other competitor's home computer platforms even though the Macintosh that had been introduced a year earlier had similar capabilities. The main rival Amiga, Atari ST, sourced from Yamaha YM2149 Programmable Sound Generator (PSG). Compared to the home-designed Amiga sound engine, PSG can handle only 1 channel of sample sound, and requires the computer's CPU to process data for it. This made it impractical for use in game development until 1989 with the release of the Atari STE using DMA techniques to roll back the PCM sample up to 50 kHz. However ST remains relevant as it comes with MIDI controller and external port. It became an option by many professional musicians as a MIDI programming tool.
The IBM PC clones of 1985 will not see significant developments in multimedia capabilities for several more years, and sampling will not become popular in other video game systems for several years. Although sampling has the potential to produce a much more realistic sound, each sample requires more data in memory. This is when all memory, solid state (ROM cartridge), magnetic (floppy disk) or otherwise are still very expensive per kilobyte. The resulting soundchip produced music on the other hand is generated with some relatively simple lines of code and takes much more precious memory.
The arcade system pushed forward gaming music in 1984 with the introduction of FM synthesis (Frequency Modulation), providing a more realistic sound than the previous PSG. The first game, Marble Madness uses Yamaha YM2151 FM synthesis chip.
As the home console moves to the fourth generation, or the 16-bit era, the hybrid approach (sample and tone) to the musical composition continues to be used. Sega Genesis offers advanced graphics over NES and enhanced sound synthesis feature (also uses Yamaha chip, YM2612), but most have the same approach for sound design. Ten total channels for tone generation with one for sample PCM are available in stereo instead of five channels of NES in mono, one for PCM. As before, it is often used for percussion samples. Genesis does not support 16-bit sample sound. Apart from the additional tone channels, writing music is still a challenge for traditional music composers and it forces the imaginative use of FM synthesizers to create a pleasant listening experience. Composer Yuzo Koshiro uses Genesis hardware effectively to produce "progressive, compelling, techno-style compositions far more advanced than what players use" for games like The Revenge of Shinobi (1989) and > Streets of Rage series, set the "new high watermark for what the in-game music sounds like." The soundtrack for Streets of Rage 2 (1992) is specifically considered "revolutionary" and "time precedence" for home music mixes with "dirty" electric basslines and "trancey electronic textures" that "will feel comfortable in the club night as a video game. " Another important FM synth composer is the late Ryu Umemoto, who composed music for many visual novels and photographed them during the 1990s.
Because the cost of magnetic memory decreased in the form of floppy disks, the evolution of video game music in Amiga, and a few years later the development of gaming music in general, shifted to sampling in some form. It took a few years before the Amiga game designers learned to fully use digital sound effects in music (the case of an early exclusion was the music title of the Pawn's adventure game The Pawn , 1986). At this time, computers and music games have begun to form their own identity, and so many music makers deliberately try to produce music that sounds like the one heard on Commodore 64 and NES, which produces the chiptune genre.
The release of the freely distributed Amiga program called Soundtracker by Karsten Obarski in 1987 started the MOD-format era that made it easy for anyone to produce music based on digital samples. The module files are created with a program called "tracker" after Obarski's Soundtracker. This Trader MOD/tracker continued with PC computers in the 1990s. Examples of Amiga games use digital instrument samples including David Whittaker's soundtrack for Shadow of the Beast, Chris HÃÆ'¼lsbeck for Turrican 2 and Matt Furniss for Laser Squad me. Richard Joseph also composed some theme songs featuring vocals and lyrics for the game by the most famous Sensible Software is Cannon Fodder (1993) with the song "War Has Never Been So Much Fun" and Sensible World of Soccer (1994) with the song "Goal Scoring Superstar Hero". These songs use long vowel samples.
A similar approach to sound and music development has become commonplace in the arcades at the moment and has been used in many arcade board systems since the mid-1980s. This was further popularized in the early 1990s by games such as Street Fighter II (1991) on CPS-1, which used sound samples extensively along with sound effects and sample percussion. The Neo Geo MVS system also carries a strong sound development that often includes surround sound.
Evolution was also brought to home console video games, such as the Super Famicom release in 1990, and the US/EU Super NES version in 1991. It wears a special Sony chip specifically for sound generation and for DSP-specific hardware. It is capable of eight channel sound samples up to 16-bit resolution, has a wide selection of DSP effects, including ADSR types typically seen in high-end synthesizers of time, and full stereo sound. This allows experimentation with applied acoustics in video games, such as acoustic music (early games like Super Castlevania IV , F-Zero , Final Fantasy IV , Gradius III , and then games like Chrono Trigger , Star Fox and spatial acoustics (Dolby Pro Logic is used in some games, such as King Arthur's World and Jurassic Park ), as well as environmental and architectural acoustics ( Zelda III , Secret of Evermore ). Many games also take advantage of many high quality sample playback capabilities ( Super Star Wars , Tales of Phantasia ). The only real limitation to this powerful arrangement is the expensive solid state memory. Other generation consoles can boast similar abilities but do not have the same level of circulation as Super SEN. The Neo-Geo home system is capable of processing samples as powerful as its arcade counterparts, but several times the Super NES cost. The Sega CD (Mega CD outside North America) upgraded hardware to Mega Drive (Genesis in the US) offers multiple PCM channels, but they are often missed instead of using their capabilities with the CD-ROM itself.
The popularity of Super NES and its software remains limited in areas where NTSC television is broadcast standard. Partly because of the difference in the frame rate of the PAL broadcast equipment, many of the titles released have never been redesigned to play properly and run slower than intended, or never released. This shows the difference in popular video game music between PAL and NTSC countries that still shows up to this day. This difference will decrease when the fifth generation of home consoles are launched globally, and as the Commodore starts taking the backseat for general purpose PCs and Macs to develop and play games.
Although the CD Mega CD/Sega, and most PC Engine in Japan, will give gamers a preview of the direction the music video games will take in streaming music, the use of both the music sample and sorted it on the console even today's games. The benefits of large data storage from optical media will be combined with stronger audio generation hardware and higher sample quality in the Fifth Generation. In 1994, the CD-ROM equipped PlayStation supported 24 16-bit sample channels up to 44.1 kHz sample rate, sampling the same as audio CDs in quality. It also has some hardware DSP effects like reverb. Many Square titles continue to use sorted music, such as Final Fantasy VII , Legend of Mana , and Final Fantasy Tactics . The Sega Saturn also with CD drives supported 32 PCM channels at the same resolution as the original PlayStation. In 1996, Nintendo 64, still using solid state cartridges, actually supports an integrated and scalable sound system that is potentially capable of 100 PCM channels, and an enhanced 48 kHz sample rate. Games for the N64, due to the cost of solid state memory, usually have samples with lower quality than the other two, and music tends to be simpler in the constructs.
A more dominant approach to CD-based games, however, shifts towards audio streaming.
MIDI on PC
In the same timeframe in the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, IBM PC clones that used the x86 architecture became more common, but had very different paths in sound design than PCs and other consoles. Early PC games were limited to PC speakers, and some proprietary standards such as PCJR PC-3 chip. While sound samples can be achieved on PC speakers using pulse width modulation, doing so requires a significant proportion of the power of the available processor, rendering its use in rare games.
With the increase in x86 PCs on the market, there is a vacuum in sound performance on home computers that want to get expansion cards. The first two identifiable standards are Roland MT-32, followed by an AdLib sound card. Roland's solution is driven by MIDI sorting using sophisticated LA synthesizers. This makes it the first choice for game developers to produce, but higher costs as end user solutions make it a barrier. AdLib uses low-cost FM synthesis chips from Yamaha, and many boards can operate compatible using MIDI standards.
The AdLib card was captured in 1989 by Creative's Sound Blaster, which uses the same Yamaha FM chip in AdLib, for compatibility, but also added 8-bit 22.05 kHz (44.1 kHz) digital audio recordings and one stereo channel playback. As an affordable end-user product, Sound Blaster was the core sound technology of the early 1990s; a combination of a simple FM machine that supports MIDI, and a DAC engine from one or more streams. Only a small number of developers have ever used the Amiga-style tracking format in commercial PC games ( Unreal ) usually prefer to use MT-32 or AdLib/SB-compatible devices. As general-purpose PCs using x86 are becoming more common than other PC platforms, developers are drawing their focus to that platform.
The last major development before streaming music came in 1992: Roland Corporation released the first General MIDI card, SCC-1 based sample, an additional card version of the SC-55 desktop MIDI module. The comparative quality of the samples encourages similar offerings from Soundblaster, but the cost for both products is still high. Both companies offer 'daughterboards' with sample-based synthesizers that can later be added to a cheaper soundcard (which has only DAC and MIDI controllers) to provide fully integrated card features.
Unlike the standard Amiga or Atari, PCs that use x86 can even use a variety of hardware. More and more developers use MIDI sequences: instead of writing soundtrack data for each type of soundcard, they generally write a full-featured data set for Roland apps that will be compatible with lower feature equipment as long as it has a MIDI controller to run its sequence. However, different products use different sounds attached to their MIDI controllers. Some are tied into Yamaha FM chips to simulate the instrument, some sample daughterboards have very different sound quality; meaning there is no single, accurate sequence performance for any other General MIDI device.
All considerations in this product reflect the high cost of memory storage which is rapidly decreasing with optical CD format.
Pre-recording and music stream
Taking music completely pre-recorded has many advantages over sequencing for sound quality. Music can be produced freely with different types and number of instruments, allowing developers to only record one song to play during a game. Quality is limited only by attempts to master the track itself. The cost of memory space that was previously a concern is somewhat overcome with optical media being the dominant medium for software games. Audio-quality CDs are allowed for music and sound that have the potential to be completely indistinguishable from any music source or genre.
In fourth-generation home video games and PCs, this is limited to playing CD Mixed Mode audio tracks from CDs while the game is playing (such as Sonic CD ). The earliest examples of Mixed Mode CD audio in video games include TurboGrafx-CD RPG franchise Tengai Maky? , composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto from 1989, and the series Ys , composed by Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa and governed by Ryo Yonemitsu in 1989. Soundtrack Ys , in particular Ys I & amp; II (1989), is still considered one of the most influential video game music ever created.
However, there are some disadvantages of ordinary CD-audio. Optical drive technology is still limited in spindle speed, so playing audio tracks from game CDs means that the system can not access the data again until it stops the track from playing. Looping, the most common form of a music game, is also a problem when the laser reaches the end of the track, it has to move itself back to the beginning to start reading again causing a pause to be heard in playback.
To overcome this deficiency, some PC game developers designed their own container format at home, for each application in some cases, to stream compressed audio. This will reduce the memory used for music on the CD, allow for much lower latency and find time when searching and start playing music, and also allow for smoother recurrence as it can hold the data. A minor drawback is that the use of compressed audio means to be decompressed which puts a load on the system CPU. As computing power increases, this load becomes minimal, and in some cases special chips on the computer (such as sound cards) will actually handle all decompression.
The fifth-generation home console system also developed a special streaming format and container for compressed audio playback. The game will take full advantage of this ability, sometimes with highly praised results ( Castlevania: Symphony of the Night ). Ported games from arcade machines, which continue to use FM synthesis, often see superior pre-recorded music streams in their home console ( Street Fighter Alpha 2 ). Although the game system is capable of producing "CD quality" sound, this compressed audio track is not a true "CD quality". Many of them have a lower sampling rate, but not so significant that most consumers will notice. Using a compressed stream allows the game designer to play back the streamed music and can still access other data on the disk without any music interruption, at the expense of the CPU power used to render the audio stream. Manipulating further flows will require much more significant CPU power levels available in the 5th generation.
Some games, like the Wipeout series, continue to use full Blend Mode CD audio for their soundtracks.
The overall freedom offered to these music composers provides video game music with a foothold similar to other popular music that is not owned. A musician now, without the need to learn about programming or game architecture itself, independently produces music to their satisfaction. This flexibility will be implemented as popular mainstream musicians will use their talents for special video games. An early example is the Way of the Warrior in 3DO, with music by White Zombie. A more famous example is the Trent Reznor score for Quake .
An alternative approach, such as with the TMNT arcade, is to retrieve existing music not exclusively written for the game and use it in-game. The game Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and the next game Star Wars took music composed by John Williams for the movie Star Wars and 1980's and use it for game soundtrack.
Both use a new stream of music tailored for the game, and using previously released music streams is a common approach for developing sound tracks to this day. It is common for X-games sports-based video games to come with some of the latest popular release artists ( SSX , Tony Hawk , Initial D ), as well as any games with heavy cultural demographic themes that have music relevance ( Need For Speed: Underground , Gran Turismo , and Grand Theft Auto ). Sometimes hybrids of both are used, as in Dance Dance Revolution .
Sample sequencing continues to be used in modern games for many uses, mostly RPGs. Sometimes a cross between sequencing samples, and streaming music is used. Games like Republic: The Revolution (music composed by James Hannigan) and Command & amp; Conquer: Generals (music composed by Bill Brown) has used a sophisticated system that regulates incidental music streams by stringing short phrases together based on on-screen action and the most recent player selection (see dynamic music). Other games are dynamically mixing sounds on the game based on gestures from the gaming environment.
Because processing power increases dramatically in the 6th generation home console, it becomes possible to apply special effects in realtime to streaming audio. In SSX , a recent series of video games, if a snowboarder flies into the air after jumping off the road, the music softens or muffles a bit, and the ambient sound of the wind and the gusts of the air becomes louder to emphasize being air. When the snowboarder lands, the music continues the routine play until the next "gesture". The LucasArts company pioneered this interactive music technique with their iMUSE system, used in their first adventure game and Star Wars Star Wars: X-Wing and Star Wars: TIE Fighter . Action games like this will change dynamically to match the amount of danger. Stealth-based games will sometimes rely on such music, either by handling streams differently, or dynamically changing the composition of the sorted soundtrack.
Personalized soundtrack
Being able to play your own music during games in the past usually means turning off game audio and using an alternative music player. Some early exceptions are possible on PC/Windows games where it is possible to adjust audio gaming independently while playing music with a separate program running in the background. Some PC games, such as Quake , play music from a CD while retrieving game data exclusively from the hard disk, allowing game CDs to be exchanged with music CDs. The first PC game to introduce in-game support for the custom soundtrack was the Lionhead Studio's Black and White. The game of 2001 includes an in-game interface for Winamp that allows players to play audio tracks from their own playlists. In addition, this sometimes triggers various reactions from Creature players, such as dancing or laughing.
Some PlayStation games support this by swapping game CDs with music CDs, although when the game requires data, players have to swap CDs again. One of the earliest games, Ridge Racer, loaded completely into RAM, lets players insert a music CD to provide a soundtrack throughout the entire game. In Vib Ribbon , this is a game feature, with game-generating levels based entirely on music on any CD player inserted.
Microsoft Xbox allows music to be copied from CD to internal hard drive, to be used as a "Custom Soundtrack", if enabled by game developers. This feature is brought to the Xbox 360 where it becomes supported by system software and can be activated at any point. The Wii can also play a special soundtrack if it is enabled by games ( Excite Truck , Endless Ocean ). PlayStation Portable can, in games like Need for Speed ​​
PlayStation 3 has the ability to use special soundtracks in games using music stored on hard drives, but some game developers use this functionality. MLB 08: The Show , released in 2008, features My MLB sound tracks that allow users to play their preferred music tracks stored on their PS3 hard drive, rather than programmed tracks entered into the game by developers. An update to Wipeout HD , released on PlayStation Network, was created to also incorporate this feature.
In the video game Audiosurf , the custom soundtrack is a major aspect of the game. Users must select a music file for analysis. The game will produce a race track based on the tempo, tone, and sound complexity. Users will then race on this track, synced with music.
Games in the Grand Theft Auto series have supported a special soundtrack, using it as a separate in-game radio station. This feature is especially exclusive to the PC version, and is adopted to a limited extent on the console platform. On PC, putting custom music to the station is done by placing the music files into the designated folder. For the Xbox version, the CD must be installed into the console hard drive. For iPhone version Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars , players create iTunes playlists that are then played by the game.
Forza Horizon 3 uses a special soundtrack-like technology with the help of Groove Music.
Developments in the 2000s
The Xbox 360 supports Dolby Digital software, sampling and 16-bit @ 48 kHz (internal with 24-bit D/A converter hardware), hardware codec streaming and 256 simultaneous audio channels. Though powerful and flexible, none of these features represent a major change in how music games are made from the last generation of console systems. PCs continue to rely on third-party devices for in-game voice reproduction, and SoundBlaster is largely the only major player in the entertainment expansion card business.
The PlayStation 3 handles multiple types of surround sound technologies, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD, with channels up to 7.1, and with sampling rates up to 192 kHz.
The Nintendo Wii console shares many audio components with Nintendo GameCube from previous generations, including Dolby Pro Logic II. These features are an expansion of the technology currently in use.
Current game developers have many choices on how to develop music. More likely, changes in video game music creations will be very little related to technology and more related to other factors of game development as a whole business. Video game music has diversified much to the point where scores for the game can be presented with full orchestra or simple 8/16-bit chiptunes. This level of freedom has made the creative possibilities of video game music unlimited for developers. Since the sale of video game music is different from the game itself in the West (compared to Japan where game music CDs have been sold over the years), business elements also have a new level of influence. Outside music direct game game developers, such as music composers and pop artists, have been contracted to produce game music as they do for theatrical films. Many other factors are increasingly influential, such as content editing, politics at a certain development level, and executive input.
Maps Video game music
Music game as genre
Many games for Nintendo Entertainment System and other early game consoles have a similar style of music composition sometimes portrayed as "video game genres." Some aspects of this style continue to affect certain music today, although gamers do not associate much of the soundtrack of modern games with older styles. The elements of genre composition were largely developed due to technological barriers, while also influenced by electronic music bands, especially the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO), which was popular during the late 1970s to the 1980s. YMO took sound samples from some of the classic arcade games on their first album, the most famous being Space Invaders in the 1978 hit song "Computer Game". In turn, the band will have a major influence on most of the video game music produced during the 8-bit and 16-bit era.
Features of the video game game genre include:
- Pieces are designed to be repeated indefinitely, instead of having the suffix set or faded.
- Pieces do not have lyrics and play above the sound of the game.
- Limited polyphony. Only three tones can be played simultaneously in the Nintendo Entertainment System. Much effort was put into the composition to create the illusion of more notes being played at once.
Although the tone featured in NES music can be considered to mimic traditional rock bands of four parts (triangular waves used as bass, two analog pulse waves with two guitars, and white noise channels used for drums), composers often come out about the way they compose a complex set of notes and fast, partly because of the above-mentioned restrictions. This is similar to musical compositions during the Baroque period, when composers, especially when making solo pieces, focus on musical embellishments to compensate for instruments such as harpsichords that do not allow for expressive dynamics. For the same reason, many of the earliest compositions also feature different jazz influences. This will overlap with later influences from heavy metal and j-pop music, producing a composite style that is equally different in the 16-bit era.
In an unrelated but parallel course in the world of European and North American developers, similar limitations drive the style of music from home computer games. Music module file formats, especially MOD, use similar techniques but are more influenced than the electronic music world when developed, and produce a very different subgenre. Demos and demoscene evolved play a big role in the early years, and still affect video game music today.
Because of the technological limitations gradually lifted, composers were given more freedom and with the emergence of pre-recorded CD-ROM soundtracks dominate, resulting in a real shift in composition and voicing style. The earliest popular CD-ROM titles were released with high-resolution graphics and music recording. Since audio is not dependent on synthesizing sound cards, CD-ROM technology ensures that composers and sound designers can find audio sounds like in most consumer configurations and can also record sound effects, live, vocal, and in-game instruments. dialog.
Because the split between movies and video games has blurred, so does the sharing between movie scores and video game scores. Adventure and fantasy films have a need similar to adventure and fantasy games, namely the theme of fanfare, travel, heroes, and so forth. Some composers have written values ​​in both genres. One noteworthy example is the US composer Michael Giacchino who composed the soundtrack for the Medal of Honor game and later composed for the Lost television series and wrote scores for movies like The Incredibles (2004) ) and Star Trek (2009).
Outside of the game video
Appreciation for video game music is strong among fans and composers, especially for music from third and fourth generation of home video game consoles, and sometimes newer generations. This award has been shown outside the context of video games, in the form of CDs, music sheets, public performances, art installations, and popular music.
CDs and music sheets
Sell ​​video game soundtracks separately because CDs have become increasingly popular in the industry. Interpretive albums, remixes and live performance albums are also common variations for the original soundtrack (OST).
Koichi Sugiyama was an early figure in this practice, and after the release of the first Dragon Quest game in 1986, a live performance CD of his composition was released and featured by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (later by other groups including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and NHK Symphony). Yuzo Koshiro, another early figure, released a live performance from the soundtrack of Actraiser . Koshiro's contribution and fellow Falcom fan Mieko Ishikawa to Ys music will have a long-term impact so there are more albums released from Ys music than almost any other type of music-game.
Like the anime soundtrack, the soundtrack and even the music book sheets are usually marketed exclusively in Japan. Therefore, interested non-Japanese gamers should import soundtracks and/or music book sheets through online or offline companies dedicated exclusively to importing video game soundtracks. This is a bit less of a problem recently because the domestic anime and video game publishers have produced the same version of OST with the western version for sale in the UK and US, although this is often the most popular title.
The sale of video game soundtracks has created a growing symbiotic relationship between the music industry and the gaming industry. Generally, games are used to promote and sell licensed music, not just genuine scores, and recording artists are used to market and sell games. The music marketing agency Electric Artists conducted a study revealing a number of interesting statistics around '' hard-core gamers '' and their music habits: 40% of hard-core gamers bought CDs after hearing the songs they liked in the video game, 73% of gamers said the soundtrack in-game help sell more CDs, and 40% of respondents said the game introduced them to a new band or song, then 27% of them went out and bought what they heard. Some of the game's soundtracks have become so popular that they achieve platinum status, such as NBA Live 2003.
Public performance
Many original composers have exhibited their music through symphonic concert performances. Once again, Koichi Sugiyama was the first to execute this exercise in 1987 with "Classic Family Concert" and has continued this concert performance almost every year. In 1991, he also formed a series called Orchestral Game Music Concerts, which is famous for featuring other talented game composers like Yoko Kanno ( Nobunaga's Ambition, Romance of the Three Kingdoms , Uncharted Waters ), Nobuo Uematsu ( Final Fantasy ), Keiichi Suzuki ( Mother/Earthbound ), and Kentaro Haneda ( Wizardry ).
Once complied, the composition by Nobuo Uematsu on Final Fantasy IV is set to Final Fantasy IV: Celtic Moon, a live performance by string musicians with strong Celtic influences recorded in Ireland. The Love Theme of the same game has been used as a musical instructional part in Japanese schools.
With the success of the 1990s Square games of Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII by Nobuo Uematsu and Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and > Chrono Cross by Yasunori Mitsuda, public appearances are gaining international popularity. On August 20, 2003, music written for video games such as Final Fantasy and The Legend of Zelda was performed for the first time outside Japan, by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra at the Music Concert Symphonic Game in Leipzig, Germany in Gewandhaus concert hall. The event was held as the official opening ceremony of the largest trade show in Europe for video games, the GC Games Convention and repeated in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
On November 17, 2003, Square Enix launched Final Fantasy Radio on America Online. The radio station initially featured complete songs from Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XI: Rise of Zilart and sampling from Final Fantasy VII to < i> Final Fantasy X .
The first official Final Fantasy concert in the United States was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California, on May 10, 2004. All seats in the concert were sold out in one day. "Dear Friends: Music from Final Fantasy" follows and is featured in various cities across the United States. Nobuo Uematsu has also played various Final Fantasy compositions directly with his rock band, The Black Mages.
On July 6, 2005, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra also held a Live Video Games concert at the Hollywood Bowl, an event set up by video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concert featured a variety of video game games, ranging from Pong to Halo 2 . It also incorporates real-time video feeds that are in sync with music, as well as laser and light special effects. Media outside the video game industry, such as NPR and The New York Times, have covered their next world tour.
On August 20, 2006, MalmÃÆ'¶ Symphonic Orchestra with the host Orvar SÃÆ'¤fstrÃÆ'¶m held an outdoor music concert, Joystick in MalmÃÆ'¶, Sweden before the audience of 17,000, holding the present attendance record for a gaming concert. SÃÆ'¤fstrÃÆ'¶m has since continued to produce gaming music concerts throughout Europe under the name Joystick and Score.
From April 20-27, 2007, the Eminence Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra dedicated to video games and anime music, performed the first part of their annual tour, "A Night in Fantasia" concert series in Australia. While Eminence has been doing video game music as part of their concert since their inception, the 2007 concert marks the first time that the entire setlist is part of a video game. Up to seven most famous game composers in the world are also present as special guests. The music played included Red Alert 3 Theme: Soviet March by James Hannigan and Shadow of the Colossus by Kow Otani.
Since 2010, the video game-themed "pops" concert has become a big part of the revenue in many concert halls in the United States, when traditional classical music performances are declining in popularity.
On March 16, 2012 the Smithsonian American Art Museum "The Art of Video Games" exhibition opens with a chipmusic soundtrack at the entrance by 8 Bit Weapon & amp; ComputeHer. 8 Bit Weapon also made a song called "The Art of Video Games Anthem" for the exhibit as well.
In popular music
In the popular music industry, music and sound video games have appeared in songs by various popular artists. The sound of arcade games has a very strong influence on hip hop, pop music (especially synthpop) and the genre of electro music during the golden age of arcade video games in the early 1980s. The sound of the arcade game had an influence on the pioneering synthpop Yellow Magic Orchestra, which tasted the sound of Space Invaders in their 1978 debut album, especially the hit song "Computer Game". In turn, the band will have a major influence on most of the video game music produced during the 8-bit and 16-bit era.
Other pop songs based on Space Invaders soon followed, including "Disco Space Invaders" (1979) by Funny Stuff, "Space Invaders" (1980) by Playback, and hit songs "Space Invader" (1980 ). ) by The Pretenders and "Space Invaders" (1980) by Uncle Vic. Buckner & amp; Garcia produced a successful album dedicated to video game music in 1982, Pac-Man Fever . Former YMO member Haruomi Hosono also released a 1984 album that was produced entirely from a sample of Namco arcade games titled Video Game Music , an early example of a chiptune record and the first music video game album. Warner's record "Testone" (1990) by Sweet Exorcist took video game samples from YMO's "Computer Game" and defined the bibi scene of techno Sheffield in the early 1990s.
Recently, "video game beat" has appeared in popular songs like "Tik" Kesha, bestselling single of 2010, and "U Should Know Better" by Robyn featuring Snoop Dogg, and "Hellbound" by Eminem. The influence of video game music can also be seen in contemporary electronica music by artists such as Dizzee Rascal and Kieran Hebden. Rowdy music, especially the sound of sawtooth waves from the popular video game in East London. British power metal band DragonForce is also known for their "retro video game influenced" sound.
Music video game education
Music video games have become part of the undergraduate, undergraduate, and graduate curriculum in many traditional colleges and universities. According to the Entertainment Software Association, there are over 400 schools offering courses and degrees in video game design in the United States, many of which include sound and music design. Berklee College of Music, Yale University, New York University, and New England Conservatory have introduced all the game music into their music programs. These programs offer immersive education in music composition, orchestration, editing and production. Other post-secondary schools have more game-focused programs, such as the DigiPen Institute of Technology, Columbia College Chicago, and the University Art Academy, all of which offer courses in Music and Sound Design. These programs include courses in the creation of sound effects, interactive voice design, and scripting music.
Similar programs have gained popularity in Europe. The Utrecht School of Art (Faculty of Arts, Media and Technology) has offered Sound Game and Music Design programs since 2003. The University of Hertfordshire has programs in Music and Technology Composition for Film and Games, Leeds Beckett University offers Sound and Music for Interactive Games, and dBs Music Bristol teaches Voice for Games and Applications.
More informal institutions, such as training seminars in GameSoundCon also show classes in how to compose video game music.
Extracurricular organizations dedicated to video game music performances have also been implemented in conjunction with this new curriculum program. The Symphony Orchestra Gamer at the University of Maryland performs self-regulated video game music and the Video Game Orchestra is a semiprofessional outcome of students from Berklee College of Music and other Boston area schools.
According to the National Association for Music Education, video game music is now taught at the elementary and secondary levels to aid in the understanding of musical compositions. Students at Magruder High School in Montgomery County have even started a student-run gamer orchestra, and many high school bands do music games.
Academic studies
Academic research on video game music began in the late 1990s, and developed until the mid-2000s. Initial research on topics often involves the study of historic gaming music, or comparative studies of music video games and music movies (see, for example, Zach Whalen's article "Play Along - An Approach to Videogame Music" covering both). The study of video game music is also known by some as "ludomusicology" - a portmanteau of "ludology" and "musicology" (study and musical analysis) - a term independently created by Guillaume Laroche and Roger Moseley.
Prominent figures in early video music and audio research are Karen Collins, who is a professor at the University of Waterloo and the Canada Research Chair at Interactive Audio at the University of Waterloo Games Institute. The monograph 'Sound Game: An Introduction to History, Theory and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design' (MIT Press 2008) is considered a seminal work in the field, and is very influential in the further development of the study of video game music.
The Ludomusicology Research Group is an inter-university research organization focused on the study of music in games, music and music games in the video game culture, consisting of four researchers: Michiel Kamp, Tim Summers, Melanie Fritsch, and Mark Sweeney. Together they hold an annual international conference held in England or Europe (at the time of writing, most recently the Ludo2017 conference held at Bath Spa University). The group was founded by Kamp, Summers and Sweeney in August 2011, which has also edited a collection of essays based on a sound study game titled 'Ludomusicology: Approach to Video Game Music', published in July 2016. They also edited the special edition of 'The Soundtrack 'and started a new series of books for' Study in Game Sound and Music 'in 2017. In September 2016, Tim Summers's book' Understanding Video Game Music 'was published by Cambridge University Press. Fritsch officially joined the group in 2016. He has edited the 2nd edition of the online journal 'ACT - Zeitschrift fÃÆ'¼r Musik und Performance', published in July 2011 including ludomusicological contributions written by Tim Summers, Steven B. Reale and Jason Brame. He has been a regular at conferences since 2012 and published several chapters on this topic. While Camp, Summers and Sweeney have backgrounds in Musicology, Fritsch has a background in Performance Studies.
The North American Conference on Video Game Music (NACVGM) is an annual international conference on video game music in North America since 2014. The event is hosted by Neil Lerner, Steven Beverburg Reale, and William Gibbons.
At the end of 2016, the Society for the Study of Sound and Music in Games (SSSMG) was launched by the Ludomusicology Research Group along with North American Conference organizers on Video Game Music and Audio Mostly conferences. SSSMG has the goal of bringing together practitioners and researchers from around the world to develop a field understanding of music and audio games and videos. The focus is on the use of its website as a "center" for communication and resource centralization, including a video game research bibliography of music (a project originally started by the Ludomusicology Research Group).
The Ludomusicology Society of Australia was launched by Barnabas Smith in April 2017, during the Ludo2017 conference in Bath, England; aims to "offer a centralized and professional musical study in the field of local music to academics, industry people and gaming enthusiasts in the Australasian region."
Composer
Creating and producing video game music requires a strong team and coordination among different game development divisions. Because the market has grown, so does the type of work in gaming music. The process often starts with a game designer, who will have a certain theme or music genre for the game. Their choices include contracting an original composer or licensing existing music, both of which require other music experts.
During the early console and console era (1983 to mid 1990s), most music games were composed by full-time employees from certain game companies that produce games. This is largely due to the highly specialized nature of video game music, in which each system has its own technology and devices. Not infrequently game companies like Capcom or Konami have a room full of composers, each in their own workstation with headphones that write music.
After the hit CD-era and music recording studio became more common in games, it became increasingly common for music games composed by independent contractors, hired by game developers on a per-project basis. Most bigger budget games like Call of Duty, Mass Effect, Ghost Recon, or Lost Planet recruit composers in this mode. About 50% of game composers are freelancers, the rest are employees of game companies. The original score and soundtrack may require the recruitment of a Music Director, who will help make game music as well as help order the resources needed to perform and record music. Some music directors can work with the Voice Maker game to create dynamic scores. Notable Exceptions include the Koji Kondo composer, who remains an employee at Nintendo, and Martin O'Donnell, who works at Bungie until early 2014.
The growth of casual, mobile and social games has greatly increased the chances for game music composers, with job growth in the US market rising by more than 150% over five years. Self-developed games are a frequent place where novice game composers gain experience writing for video games. Game composers, especially for smaller games, tend to provide other services such as sound design (76% of game composers also do some voice design), integration (47% of game composers also integrate their music into audio middleware), or even computers coding or scripting (15%).
With the increasing use of licensed popular music in video games, job opportunities in gaming music have also come to include the role of a music superintendent. Music supervisors work on behalf of game developers or game publishers to get an existing music source from artists and music publishers. These supervisors can be hired on a per project basis or can work at home, such as the Music for Electronic Arts (EA) Group which has a music supervisory team. A music superintendent is required to not only help choose the music that will fit the game but also ensure the music is fully licensed to avoid lawsuits or conflicts. Music supervisors can also help negotiate payments, which for artists and songwriters is often a one-time purchase cost, as the game does not generate musical royalties when they are sold. A growing trend is to hire artists to write original songs for the game, to add value and exclusivity to them, and once again the supervisor can be part of the process.
Awards
Since the mid-2000s, video game music has been recognized in a number of awards events, although some categories have been short-lived. The MTV Video Music Awards for Best Soundtrack Video Games lasted from 2004 to 2006. In addition, for one year in 2006, MTV offered the award for Best Video Game Score.
In 2003, Game Audio Network Guild launched G.A.N.G. Awards to recognize video game and sound design, held annually at the Game Developers Conference.
From 2010 to 2011, Ivor Novello Awards have included categories for the Best Original Video Game Score. The 2010 award winners are Killzone 2 (Compiled by Joris de Man), and in 2011, Napoleon: Total War (Compiled by Richard Beddow, Richard Birdsall, Ian Livingstone).
In 2011, the first music video game appeared at the Grammy Awards when "Baba Yetu", a song from Civilization IV , won the 53rd annual music awards' Best Instrumental Arrangement Compompanying Vocalists, making it the first musical video games to be nominated for (or won) a Grammy. The song won because of his placement on Christopher Tin's Calling All Dawns album, but has been used in the game six years earlier.
In 2012, the Grammy Awards incorporates video game music as part of the Visual Media Awards, expanding categories to include Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media. The four Visual Media awards are Best Music for Visual Media, Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, Best Screen Soundtrack for Visual Media, and Best Songs Written for Visual Media.
Since 2004, BAFTA has hosted the British Academy Games Awards with categories for Original Music.
In 2014, Hollywood Music In Media introduced their own award show celebrating three categories of video games - Original Score, Songs, and Songs/Scores for Mobile Video Games.
Other video game awards include the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) award for Best Original Score for Interactive Media and Gaming Awards In Machinima.com for Best Original Score and Best Sound Design. Previous winners include Olivier Deriviere for Remember Me and James Hannigan for Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince.
The expansion of the video game industry leads to the creation of video game awards events, which include several categories in music. From 2003 to 2014, Spike Video Game Awards celebrates gaming music with awards for Best Soundtrack, Best Songs in the Game, and Best Original Score. When the Spike Video Game Awards were canceled, they were replaced by The Game Awards, which offered awards for Best Score/Soundtrack.
In addition to recognizing original score composers, Guild of Music Supervisors offers GMS Award to music inspectors who choose and coordinate licensed music for video games. Previous winners include Brandon Young and Katie Byam for Guitar Hero Live and Laura Katz and Gregory J. Gordon for Sunset Overdrive. Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments