VGM Review #10: ‘Papo & Yo’ OST

Brian D’Oliveira’s soundtrack to Minority Media’s Papo & Yo is an instantly attractive one. In our modern age of “epic,” film-like orchestrated video game music being commonplace, D’Oliveira presents the listener with a sound that is as unique as the setting and themes of the game in which it is placed—there aren’t many soundtracks that gamers can point to that are based in Latin American tradition, especially not as authentically as D’Oliveira’s. Therefore, the listener, whether experiencing the soundtrack in-game or out, will likely be intrigued by what D’Oliveira offers him or her.

The soundtrack as a whole certainly doesn’t disappoint. D’Oliveira’s writing combines dense rhythmic layering with other sounds and instruments to create fulfilling grooves and environments in each track. If the listener engages the music appropriately, s/he will enjoy the nuances of the rhythmic pattern variations, the appropriate timing of unsuspected instrumental and electronic sound entrances, and the way in which the melodic instruments are used to create a thick musical atmosphere.

However, despite the soundtrack’s many favorable elements, it doesn’t captivate the listener in-game nearly as much as it does outside of it.

VGM Review #9: ‘Bioshock’ OST

Numbering only 12 tracks and totaling just 18 minutes, Garry Schyman’s compositions for 2K Games’ now-classic 2007 release BioShock, while not expansive in length, has an immense amount of originality and depth that shatters common video game music conventions and, by doing so, has allowed itself to be rooted within the memories of gamers.

Like a handful of other soundtracks that I have reviewed on my personal website, I have yet to play a significant amount of BioShock. However, the soundtrack is so strong that I feel like I have absorbed the essence of Rapture through Schyman’s compositions alone. As most of the greats tend to be, where the graphical environment and story may be water and syrup, it is the carbonation of each musical track that permeates this game and makes it fizz and pop.

Listeners need to look no further than the game’s main theme, “The Ocean on His Shoulders,” to know the quality and type of work that they are about to experience. Even the first few seconds makes an important impact, providing a dark foreshadowing that lingers in the ear as the premiere instruments of the soundtrack – the strings – bleed a hauntingly stunning and tragic melody that, at 1:10, is padded by a sinister atmospheric dissonance. It is that dissonance that allows the tune to come full circle as it consumes and dissolves the consonance of the strings, forcing the tune back into the obscurity highlighted in the beginning.

Though this tune prepares the listener for the world of Rapture and sets him or her up for the rest of the soundtrack, Schyman’s work is so dynamic that the listener continuously gains fresh perspective within his cohesive musical setting—each piece carries its own momentum and has its own identity within a soundtrack is decidedly BioShock. Take, for instance, the unconventional second track of OST, “Welcome to Rapture,” a tune that sounds as if were in a world dreamt up by Tim Burton. In possibly my favorite instance of the whole soundtrack, the violin that subtlety screams onto the scene on the first beat of this piece breaks apart from the main theme and from any other game soundtrack of which I’m aware. In literally two seconds the listener is fully engulfed by a new melodic direction, and then in the spirit of cohesiveness is starkly reminded nine seconds later that s/he is still playing the game that also features the devices of “The Ocean on His Shoulders.”

Pieces such as “Welcome to Rapture” also break the soundtrack from the ranks of the ever-popular “epic” sound that is so popular today. Sure, “Welcome to Rapture” has an instance of a bigger sound (0:35), but it quickly gives way to delicate melodic content that makes the listener shutter beneath its swirling emotional complexities (0:45 onwards). Even the pieces that sound like they may lean towards “epicness” are thankfully void of that quality’s soullessness. “The Dash” keeps listeners off balance by shifting meter (from 5/4 to 4/4 to 6/8), and “The Engine City,” while entrenching itself in a lumbering brassy romp, is accentuated by string parts that – while not all unmelodic – feel wholly erratic.

Carrying the soundtrack’s originality even further, at times the listener may feel as if s/he were actually doing something other than playing a game. That feature doesn’t stop with the opening measures of “Welcome to Rapture”—in fact, “Dancers of a String” and “Cohen’s Masterpiece” can make one feel as if s/he were doing some as discordant from gaming as watching a ballet. In the modern gaming world, oftentimes one may feel that a video game score is equivalent to a film score, therefore achieving an effect of removing the player’s senses from a direct association with a “game” (albeit that feeling has become a bit watered down now that so many try to achieve that film-like quality). However, Schyman’s works are unique in that they don’t come across as simply something that could be applied to a film. One would be hard pressed to transplant this music and stick it in another game, unlike those soundtracks that sound a bit too film-y. This music is that of BioShock and none other.

Even “Empty Houses,” a tune that one may feel simply sounds like a lamentation that may be found in a film, fits very well into the context of the soundtrack. The obvious factor is the emotional string element, but Schyman is crafty and once again uses subtlety to his advantage. The feeling of unease that one gets while listening to these pieces does not dissipate with the intake of this tune. For most of the piece, things feel fine, but at 1:25 the cello bends down out of tune and slides up with a high-pitched note from a violin, which continues to waver in and out of tune. Of course, the vibrato technique does this naturally; however, at the tail end of this piece, the note bends dip just a little too far. That extra bit of bend becomes extremely unsettling—almost maniacal. Though it’s easy to overlook specifically why things are still creepy while listening to that piece, the effect of the strings embeds itself into the subconscious, proving that Schyman’s execution is nothing short of masterful.

The pieces that rely on more atmospheric elements have instances like the one mentioned above, yet in more apparent fashion. In general, these pieces employ horrifying elements to churn the mind of the gamers as well as the melodies that accompany them. “The Docks” is an unpredictable work that makes use of indiscernible noises, random orchestral dissonances, and nautical sounds – such as the accordion melody and the ship bell – to keep the gamer on his or her toes; “This is Where They Sleep” takes a similar, yet more startling, approach, with the overlaying atop a bed of rising tones; and “Step Into My Gardens” has a beautiful cello feature that is surrounded by disturbing percussion, ghastly violin slides, and unearthly whale-like noises.

Schyman deserves all of the praise that he received for this soundtrack—it is truly one of great caliber. From the melodic arrangements to the psychological twists of the horrific atmospheric elements, its originality outdoes itself with each track that passes, shoving aside the stale conventionality that pervades many modern game soundtracks. Without any other context, listening to these pieces makes one want to play the game itself, and if a soundtrack can push that feeling, the listener knows that s/he is experiencing something extraordinary.

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This review is also featured on The Game Faces, a new collaborative video game review blog and podcast.

German Whale of Mystery

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I decided to participate in a month-long Game Jam sponsored by the Baltimore Indie Games group. The theme of this jam was “Random Name Generator,” and thus each group was tasked to click a button to receive a name, and if they liked the name, make a game out of what they were given. My group decided to generate about ten names we liked, which we voted down to three, which we voted down to one: “German Whale of Mystery.”

Before I get into the details of the game, my team consisted of my friends Stephen and Andrew, a group of three computer science students from American University, and me. Stephen was charge of the art, I did the music and sound, and the others worked on programming. Some of you may be thinking that a six-person group is quite large for a game jam, but it worked for us because our programmers didn’t have a ton of experience in game design. It ended up working well for us!

As for the game itself, German Whale of Mystery is a stealth platformer set in World War II, where a whale is infiltrating the Nazis’ base to defeat (who else but) Hitler. In order to successfully reach Hitler, the whale must avoid guards by hiding behind objects and donning costumes to move from level to level in the Nazi stronghold. If a guard catches you, you meet your end in gruesome fashion.

If you’d like to play our game, do so here! Be sure to read the description at the bottom of that page for the controls.

Focusing solely on the music, I ended up creating five tracks for this game:

1. The Duke of Whales

“The Duke” was my first track for the game both in concept and in creation. If you played the game, you probably thought it strange that the level theme had such a definite ending—there’s a reason for that strangeness. This tune was originally intended to serve as its title theme, but after seeing the animation of the whale moving, I swapped it with “Blubber Blues,” which you’ll hear next.

My original concept was that, since we were doing a game set in World War II, I should write a big band piece. In order to represent the whale, I decided to make the bari sax the featured instrument. Now, I wouldn’t say that the tune is a period piece by any means – it wasn’t done particularly in the style of big band tunes from the ‘40s – but it gets the point across.

This tune, like most of the others, was written in Finale and features no production edits. Not only did I want to keep the tunes sounding “lo-fi” due to the game’s art style, it was in my best interest in terms of time to keep the production value low.

2. Blubber Blues

Though the title suggests that it might be a traditional blues, it’s really just a blues-tinged piece. As I mentioned above, I wrote this one as a level theme, thinking it should be good sneaking music. It turned out, however, that the whale walked quickly and with confidence, so the tune no longer fit. Luckily, it went well with the art on the title screen.

3. Folk Whale

The first costume that the whale encounters is the lederhosen garb. I set out to write a polka and came up with this, which is more of a polka-esque romp that captures the utter silliness of the game.

4. Scotch and Ginger Whale

The second costume we came up with was a fancy suit, complete with top hat and monocle. I went with a harpsichord on this one as opposed to something more complex like a string quartet because I needed to bust something out relatively quickly. It wasn’t necessarily “fast” to write a solo piano piece, but it did save me some time. To extend the tune’s length without writing all new sections, I wrote an alternate left hand part and sandwiched it between two instances of my original idea.

5. Fin (Game Over)

This tune turned out to work well for both the “You Died” and the “You Win” screens. I had written some goofy lyrics for it and thought to record myself singing in four-part harmony, but didn’t have the time, unfortunately. I spruced this one up in Logic because the Finale vocal samples were just too horrible and the program’s mix wasn’t passable.

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There you have it! I’m going to work on cleaning up these tunes a little bit in Logic so that I can be prouder to have them up on my website, but otherwise, I’m happy with the way they – and the game – turned out. I can’t wait for my next game jam challenge!

Concert Review: Video Games Live! Bonus Round

A few weekends ago, Tommy Tallarico and his merry band of video game composers headed into Vienna, VA, to play Video Games Live! Bonus Round at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. Excitedly, Jen and I went with a couple of friends to see the show, which was performed by the National Symphony Orchestra.

Disclaimer: Jen’s camera ended up breaking so I don’t have pictures from the actual show [insert here your vision of a crying man]; the ones included are from the VGL press page.

If you have never been to the Wolf Trap, it’s a beautiful venue. Every time I’ve been I have opted to get a lawn ticket, which has been lovely simply because you can set yourself up a little picnic spot. Granted, your spot is going to be squished between all of the other picnic spots, especially if you want a good seat, but to be real, the spaces between you and your neighbors on the lawn are still larger than they would be if you sat next to them in the seated area.

Even though we were pretty far up on the lawn (which is a hill that leads down to the seating area, as you can tell from the picture), we still had a pretty great view of the symphony. Aside from experiencing this music played by a live orchestra, another main part of the VGL show is video, and while we were too high up to see the video behind the symphony itself, Wolf Trap had set up a second external screen that was large and very visible once it got a little darker outside. Deciding whether to focus on the orchestra or on the screens was a minor dilemma at times, but one that was certainly overcome by ability to bring and eat Triscuits and cheese.

As the show’s host, Tommy Tallarico, who looks and dresses like some people that I hung out with in high school, acts like a goofy, energetic kid—and I mean that in a good way. The show, though it is based around a serious concept – the one of symphony orchestras performing music from games, those things that are often seen by people as a horrible, mind-numbing alternative to going outside –, is extremely light-hearted to the point where it is almost like an old-school game itself. Tommy bounds around on stage, hyping up the audience and shredding on his guitar, reminding us that this music, while sometimes serious, is also serious fun.

VGM Review #8: ‘FTL: Faster Than Light’ OST

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (or irl) know that I have been playing a ton of FTL lately. I just bought it during the Steam Summer Sale for something absurd like $2.50 (<3) and it has maliciously taken over much of whatever free time I have to burn.

For those that don’t know, FTL is a real-time strategy game by Subset Games that was crowdfunded on Kickstarter to a release last fall (2012). While it is very fun and comes highly recommended – and not just by me, evidenced by its Metascore of 84 –, it is extremely unforgiving and has done nothing but pain me at great lengths. Still, I will on, determined to beat it someday…

But my excruciating experiences with the game are not why I write today. I come to speak of the soundtrack, of course—a soundtrack that has received high praise from a variety of sources. The accolades that composer Ben Prunty has listed on the front of his website are as follows:

• IGN: Best Overall Music and Best PC Sound of 2012 (nominee)
• Kotaku: Best Video Game Music of 2012
• The Game Scouts: Top Ten Video Game Soundtracks of 2012
• Complex: Top 25 Best Video Game Soundtracks on Bandcamp
• NeoGAF: Official Game Soundtracks of the Year 2012

That’s pretty great. Based on his webpage, Prunty has only composed for a few projects so far, so kudos to him for getting that kind of recognition so early on in his career

I will start out by saying that I was instantly attracted to Prunty’s music. The title theme, “Space Cruise” is easy to like. The beginning certainly screams “OUTER SPACE,” from the tone choice, to the chord that bends and fades, to the seemingly eternal amount of space between that first chord and the second. Hearing those elements from the very beginning immediately puts the gamer in the mood to play a space-themed game.

Another great thing about the open beginning is that it sets up the next section, which one can still consider spacey, but in a different, more light-hearted and fun way. Prunty introduces more electronic instruments with different tone colors that fill in the voids that are left between the first two chords. What you hear is a pretty typical layered build-up that is meant to lead into a climax at 0:57.

This climax features a swifter pace that comes about by way of new, swirling rhythmic sounds and notes with shorter durations. It doesn’t last too long, though, as it hits a breakdown at 1:16 that signals the beginning of a devolution back to the more open feel of the beginning. Essentially, the other two-and-half minutes are filled by a variety of melodies and rehashing of ideas from the beginning of the tune in that open feel.

While I enjoy the piece, I do have some criticism for it

Musings on “The Blitz”

Note: All of the pictures are of stuff I’ve been listening to recently–they have no real relevance to the actual content of the post.

Hitoshi Sakimoto & Masaharu Iwata – Final Fantasy Tactics OST

Since putting the finishing touches on my demo and constructing my new website, I’ve been on an “e-mail blitz,” cold-calling every game company whose contact information I can get my hands on to get myself out there and nail down a gig.

It’s been an interesting experience. Hopping from one website to another, you get to see many business types and practices. For instance, I thought it would be relatively easy to go on a company’s website to find contact information and the name of the person whom it would be best to contact. Most companies have either a contact page or an e-mail address listed, but some you really have to dig for. I’m not talking about just industry giants like Capcom or Rockstar Games, either, which is a bit strange.

What I find most surprising, maybe, is that lack of information about the developing team, especially with smaller companies. Though it’s certainly not a deal breaker, I am more inclined to feel good vibes about a company that enjoys putting their talented staff out in the open on their website, even if there’s just a list without any fancy pictures or silly profiles. Maybe it’s a bit old-fashioned or something, but I expected it, maybe due in part to my old employer having a full staff listing on its website. Now, having every staff person’s e-mail address and work number up *did* bring in its fair share of unsolicited, zany calls and e-mails, so maybe that website isn’t the best model to follow; however, there is a happy medium to be found.

Maria Schneider – Winter Morning Walks

There are two other types of websites that I really like. First, you have the websites that look effing awesome. My favorite one so far has been the website for Untold Entertainment (hover over “About” to see the best part). Even though some of the links don’t work, I’m willing to look past the site’s flaws and am happy to hunt for the information I need.

Second, you have the websites that link to other developers that they like. Having the want and will to publish those links of apparent competitors says a lot about the company to me; it says that they’re interested in being part of the larger game community and that they exist not only for themselves—those are the kind of companies that I really want to write for and help succeed.

On the other side of the coin, you have the companies that scream “avoid” right off the bat.

New website and official demo!

THE WEBSITE

If in the last few hours you scrambled to find out if there’ve been any goings ons on this blog by going directly to scorevgm.com, you may have found yourself in uncharted territory that looks exactly like the picture above.

I know it’s a little frightening, but please DON’T PANIC.

What you stumbled upon is my new website, which I created over the last two days using Squarespace. Before I go into details about the why, please note that if you follow my blog using WordPress, everything will be just fine.

Or, at least, it should be fine, heh. I’m going to continue to use WordPress as my main blogging tool, seeing as I can easily import my blog posts into my new site from here. Not to mention, I wouldn’t want to lose any of you, dear readers. Many of you have been following [Score.] since its beginnings, and I would certainly never want to alienate you from my stuff, or me from our interactions!

The idea for a new website for [Score.] came about after I finished up my demo late last week (more on that later). I thought, ‘Okay, I’m finally ready to send my content out to developers–let’s do this,’ but then came to the realization that my site was really just a blog and not an actual website, per se. To increase the professional look of my business, I needed the site to be focused around what my business is about and what I offer, not just around blog posts about constructing my compositions, reviewing other people’s work, and the like.

“Behemoth”

The work below is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License and ©2013 Gregory Weaver.

About a month or so ago I was thinking about what kinds of tunes I hadn’t yet written that I should write for my demo. The most obvious of the missing genres was a film-like tune—an epic tune fit for cinema in the ilk of Lord of the Rings or even the soundtrack to Skyrim.

Granted, my tune sounds absolutely nothing like the Skyrim tune above, haha, but I was certainly thinking in terms of having that BIG sound… a big, epic sound with a lot of brass and space and all that good stuff.

I’m sure that you’ll get that impression from the beginning of my tune, “Behemoth,” but it kind of devolves from sounding like a film piece into sounding more like a piece of game music. I committed to this transformation right after I wrote in a part that sounded game-y, especially because it opened up new possibilities and allowed me to put in ideas that wouldn’t have made sense if I wanted to continue to think in terms of film. Very early on you’ll hear the entrance of some pointy-sounding flutes, for instance—those came from the removal of the film restriction that I had put on myself.

So because the music started to sound more like a game I decided to think of it in the context of a game. The original sound was intended to be “epic battle;” thinking about games, some of the most epic battles take place when you’re fighting bosses. Thus, I started to imagine a giant beast – specifically that which looks like a behemoth from the Final Fantasy series – bursting into a room ready to chomp you in half.

And with that…

 “Behemoth” on SoundCloud

While the brass is more representative of the “epic beast boss battle,” I wrote the woodwinds as if they were harbingers of insanity or twistedness. They’re meant to put the player on edge or even scare him or her a little. This idea was almost assuredly influenced by a couple of different Final Fantasy tunes.

“Kefka’s Theme” from Final Fantasy VI will always come to mind when thinking of a tune that is supposed to represent someone truly evil and insane. On its own, one may not hear those villainous attributes, yet when the player hears the theme played as Kefka, for example, poisons Doma, it really gets under his or her skin. In affecting the player in such a way, the true genius of Uematsu ‘s writing comes out. Start the below video at 6:01 to see what I mean.

Adding to the ‘finished’ stack…

The works below are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License and ©2013 Gregory Weaver.

Hey! It’s been awhile. I’ve got two tunes for you to check out.
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Fanfare and Jubilee (Remastered)

This was actually completed about three weeks ago…

If you compare it to the original versions of the tune you’ll find some changes in the actual composition (as opposed to the sound), but nothing too significant. Mainly, I made the ending shorter so that the listener wouldn’t lose interest. I had thought before that the buildup to the large section that features all of the instruments playing together would be a good idea; however, even I as the composer was fatigued by hearing just one instrument come in at a time. Also, you’ll notice that the trombone starts off the buildup instead of the trumpet, and the percussion doesn’t take extra time to build up either. I think you’ll agree if you compare the two that it was in every listener’s best interest to shorten that section.

While this tune is technically final, having sought out some criticism of it I learned from other composers that they find the mix too dry. While I set out for a drier mix, I am going to run with the suggestions and see how I can improve the sound of the piece by altering the reverb to give it more depth.

(“Fanfare and Jubilee” on SoundCloud)
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A Binding Harmony

This next tune was written for the TIGSource Musical Challenge XXIII. You might recall that I entered one of the challenges a while back with my tune “Mr. AC (Keep Your Cool).” For that tune, the challenge was to make a thirty-second looping battle theme; for this, things were a bit less constricting. The challenge was, simply, to create a love theme.

Mid-April Status Update

The works below are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License and ©2013 Gregory Weaver.

Cat’s out of the bag: I don’t work 24/7 all the time.
Here Jen and I are enjoying the cherry blossoms in our nation’s capital.

Hey everyone,

I haven’t posted in about a week and a half, so I thought I’d better give you an update.

First, the music stuff: I am in the process of both remastering old tunes and writing new ones. In fact, I have a list of two tunes to remaster and nine tunes to finish writing, which is a lot of stuff. You might think that I may have spread myself too thin and to that I say you might be correct, haha.

The dilemma is one that isn’t old; namely, I’m caught between wanting to finish up tunes and churn out new ideas. Finishing is two-dimensional problem that I imagine many of us aspiring artists have: one, I always ask myself, ‘Is this even worth finishing?’, and two, I sometimes feel like I’m spending too much time on one idea rather than creating fresh ones, which makes me think of number one’s question again. The answer to that question, by the way, is ‘YES’ 95% of the time simply because I need to practice finishing writing as well as the whole production gig. I refuse to abandon these tunes even though I get scatterbrained and succumb to writing new ideas instead often. The answer to the second? Simply get better and faster, which is done by finishing tunes, and stay focused. And you may think that have a list of nine tunes to finish would warrant me saying enough is enough, leading me to blast through finishing one or two, but no… no, that doesn’t work; no urge to create new things is assuaged.

But hey, the remastered version of “Fanfare and Jubilee” is coming along. Check out what it sounds like at the end of today. Lots of work still needs to be done, of course, including adjusting dynamics, volume levels, articulations, and more, but I think you’ll like it:

Original: 

Remastered:
As for new stuff, one point of note is that I’m trying to write tunes that are a little longer, have more space, and are less dependent on being driven by one stand-out melody.