Delighted you’re here! I’m video game composer Winifred Phillips, and earlier this month, I was honored to be interviewed for the BBC Radio 3 program Sound of Gaming, hosted by Louise Blain. BBC Radio 3 specializes in classical music, which means that the Sound of Gaming program is especially unique among that network’s program line-up. Focusing on exceptional musical compositions from the awesome world of video games, the Sound of Gaming show has been airing regularly since 2019, bringing classical music listeners into a whole new world of musical expression.
The show’s host Louise Blain is a top video game journalist, and the co-author of the popular book Guinness World Records 2014 Gamer’s Edition. In addition, she co-hosted the BBC Proms 2022 concert “Gaming Music at the Proms” from the famous Royal Albert Hall in London. In each of her Sound of Gaming programs, she also includes an interview segment called “The Cutscene,” during which she interviews a game music composer whose work fits into the overall theme of the program. Whether it’s a composer for moody stealth missions, or one who specializes in light-hearted mishaps, the conversation throws light on the musical style that’s explored in the rest of the program. In the June 3 2023 episode, the theme was “The Extraordinary,” and focused on games that ignite the fires of the imagination. During my interview for this program, I was delighted to discuss my music for three of my video game projects: Assassin’s Creed Liberation, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Jurassic World Primal Ops.
So happy you’ve joined us! Each year, the Library of Congress adds a list of top recordings to its National Recording Registry, and The Sounds Of America radio series devotes an episode to each of the recordings selected for preservation that year. Recently I was interviewed for an episode of The Sounds Of America radio series on National Public Radio, in order to provide some background and musical context to one of the latest additions to the National Recording Registry – the famous theme to the Super Mario Bros. video game! This is awesome news for game composers and game music fans. The Super Mario Bros. theme music is now the first game music composition preserved for posterity in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. Each year, the National Recording Registry selects twenty five recordings that represent “the richness of the nation’s audio legacy.” The expert preservationists at the National Recording Registry works to ensure “the long-term preservation of that legacy for future generations.”
As the author of the book A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, I was able to discuss the historical significance of the Super Mario Bros. theme music as a seminal work in the field of game music composition. I had previously given a lecture at the Library of Congress about the nature of video game music (that lecture is recorded and preserved in the Library’s Films & Videos Collection) and this experience gave me further insight to the importance of the preservation efforts undertaken by the Library of Congress. I could also discuss the Super Mario Bros. theme music from the perspective of a musician who had recorded one of the many cover versions of this world-famous tune. I recorded my version for the tribute album, “Best of the Best: A Tribute to Game Music.” All of this gave me a unique perspective on this historically-significant musical composition, and I was honored to discuss it during the interview with The Sounds Of America radio show. In addition to my own interview, the show includes interviews with author Jeff Ryan (How Nintendo Conquered America), Super Mario Bros. actor Charles Martinet, and the Super Mario Bros. composer himself, Koji Kondo! You can listen to the entire show here:
I thought it might be useful to include the transcript of my entire interview in this article. The transcript also includes my own cover version of the track (which you’ll find in the section discussing the popularity of cover versions). But first, let’s listen to the original Super Mario Bros. Theme, and then dive into the transcript!
I’m excited to share that I’ve been interviewed about my career as a game music composer and my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, for the newest episode of The Note Show!
The Note Show is a terrific podcast that focuses on interviews with professionals in creative fields. I’m very proud to have been included! Famous guests on The Note Show have included Hugo and Nebula award-winning sci-fi author David Brin, actress Kristina Anapau of the HBO series True Blood, video game designer Al Lowe (Leisure Suit Larry), actress Lisa Jakub (Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day), and Steven Long Mitchell and Craig Van Sickle, creators of the NBC series The Pretender.
This is my second time being interviewed on The Note Show, and I’m so glad to have been invited back!
In this interview, I talk about my work on the LittleBigPlanet and Assassin’s Creed franchises, my latest project (Total War Battles: Kingdom), how composing music for a mobile game differs from composing for consoles or PC, and how my life has changed with the publication of my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music.
In the podcast, we also talk about the National Indie Excellence Book Award that my book recently won, as well as the importance of optimism for an aspiring game composer.
You can listen to the entire interview here:
Here’s some official info from the creators of The Note Show:
The Creative Professional Podcast – Music & Arts Interviews
The Note Show is a creative journey where host Joshua Note returns to chat life and art with creative people across the world. We interview musicians, artists, comic book creators, novelists, directors, actors and anyone creative and bring you new people and experiences every week! The Note Show is a Podcast for and featuring Creative Professionals from all walks of life. As long as it’s creative, it’s here on The Note Show.
The show’s host, Joshua Note, is a terrific interviewer who is also the author of a children’s book due for release in 2015. In addition, Joshua studied classical composition and orchestration at Leeds College of Music and Leeds University, and in 2012 he produced a for-television animated series and worked on several projects for television and cinema.
Joshua Note, host of The Note Show
In his role as the host of The Note Show, Joshua asks intelligent questions about what it means to be a creative person in modern times, and his interviews are always fascinating! My thanks to Joshua and the staff of The Note Show – I had a great time!
At this year’s Game Developers Conference, voice director Michael Csurics presented a terrific talk called “VO Session Live: Ensemble Edition.” By soliciting the audience for volunteer voice actors, Csurics staged a live voice-over recording session that included both solo actor/performers and multiple actors running dialogue in a traditionally theatrical way. The demonstration served to reveal the ins-and-outs of recording voice dialogue, both from an artistic and technical standpoint. One of the portions of Csurics’ talk that I found particularly interesting was his exploration of the process of multiple takes in recording voice dialogue, and I thought his method might have some bearing on the process of recording multiple takes of a musician’s performance. In this blog, I’ll be going over the basics of his methodology, as he described it during his talk, and I’ll also be sharing some of my thoughts regarding how his working method intersects with my experiences recording session performances with live musicians.
Michael Csurics giving his talk, “VO Session Live: Ensemble Edition”
For typical voice-over recording sessions, Csurics begins by having his voice performers record a short piece of dialogue at least two or three times. This process “gets them comfortable, gets them past the cold read and into an actual read.” During these voice sessions he will be assisted by an audio engineer running the Pro Tools session. Csurics will usually pause after the first two or three readings, sometimes giving direction and asking for additional takes. Once satisfied, he will then tell the audio engineer which take he liked, and the audio engineer will “pull down” this take. In other words, the engineer will select the portion of the recorded waveform that represents the final take and copy/paste it into a blank audio track directly below the track that is currently recording the vocal session. In this way, Csurics is able to save post-production time by making his final selections on-the-fly.
Michael Csurics’ isolation booth for vocal recording
When I’m recording live musicians (either my own performances or those of others), my own workflow resembles Csurics’ process in some respects. I’ll have the backing music mix loaded into its own audio tracks in Pro Tools, and then I’ll set up a collection of blank audio tracks below the rest of the music mix. The number of blank tracks will largely depend on how many takes I expect will be required. For especially difficult parts in which a large number of takes are anticipated, I may set up anywhere from four to fifteen blank tracks. The musician (or myself, if that’s the case) will record a short section of the music, repeating that section for as many takes as may seem warranted. Each take will be recorded into one of the separate audio tracks that I’d set up prior to the recording session. Once recorded, I’ll mute that audio track, record-enable the next one and then record the next take. Once complete, I’ll have a fairly large assortment of takes that I can audition during post-production in order to edit together a version that will be used in the final recording. During post, I employ the same “pull down” method that Csurics described during his talk – i.e. copy/pasting the best version of each performance into a blank audio track at the bottom of my Pro Tools edit window.
I admire Csurics’ on-the-fly method of selecting the best take, but personally I’m only comfortable with making an instant decision if it pertains to simply discarding a take completely and trying again. In this case, I’ll delete the recording from the edit window, ensuring that I avoid any possibility of confusion later. Using this method for recording live instrumental performances gives me a large amount of flexibility in post, allowing me to assemble the most ideal musical performance possible. I can listen critically to every phrase in every take, selecting only the very best execution of every musical element for inclusion in the final recording. I talk more about some of the technical aspects of my workflow in my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music.
The Bleeps ‘n’ Bloops game audio podcast
There were lots more details regarding voice dialogue tracking and editing in Csurics’ talk, which is available in the GDC Vault. If you don’t have access to the Vault, you can hear a lot of those same ideas in this great podcast interview with Csurics, recorded by the Bleeps ‘n’ Bloops podcast during last year’s GameSoundCon. The interview includes some interesting details about workflow, track naming, post editing and processing. I’ve embedded the SoundCloud recording of that podcast interview below. The section regarding voice-over session logistics starts at 11:40:
There’s also an earlier interview with Csurics posted on the Game Audio Network Guild site, which reflects on some of Csurics’ experiences as the Dialogue Supervisor for 2K Marin:
Since leaving 2K Games in 2012, Michael Csurics has worked as an independent contractor and now runs a game audio production services company called The Brightskull Entertainment Group (he can be reached on Twitter at @mcsurics). If you’d like to see and hear the great work going on at Brightskull, here’s a video demonstration from one of their latest projects, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter:
I’m very pleased to report that I was invited to be interviewed on the celebrated Top Score Podcast, and the interview was just released today! You can listen to the entire interview here:
I was interviewed by Emily Reese, a formidable presence in the game music industry. As a host at Classical Minnesota Public Radio, Reese has produced and hosted this special podcast dedicated to the field of game music since April of 2011. The podcast specializes in interviews with game music composers, and has produced over 129 episodes so far. In this capacity, Reese is a champion of game music and the people who make it. She has predicted that game music will one day join the playlists of classical radio stations, right alongside the music of Vaughan Williams, Bernstein or Mozart. “There are some scores where absolutely that will happen,” Reese says. “Some of these composers should be remembered in 100, 200 or 300 years. They’re that good.”
I was interviewed by