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RIP Soundelux DMG

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

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The news broke last week that Soundelux (a leading Hollywood postproduction sound studio) had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  This is a harsh blow to the entertainment industry as a whole.  Soundelux is best known as the postproduction sound studio responsible for the audio in such movie hits as The Hunger Games, Skyfall, Django Unchained and Pacific Rim, but they’re also a huge force in the world of video game audio too (under their Soundelux Design Music Group/DMG subsidiary).  With this in mind, I’m dedicating this blog post to the contribution Soundelux DMG made to the field of video game sound.

Soundelux DMG was formed in 1992 by Scott Gershin, Wylie Stateman and Lon Bender in order to address the audio needs of interactive entertainment, theme parks, music videos and commercials.  One of their first video game projects involved providing music and audio for Activision’s Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure for PC, released in 1994. Here’s a sample of the music from that project:

As the years went by, Soundelux DMG continued its significant contributions to the video game industry in the areas of sound design, music and voice dialogue. Here’s a sampling of their work in 2003 on the voices of Viewtiful Joe:

Here’s some of the music of Electronic Arts’s The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth II, composed in 2006 by Soundelux DMG’s Jamie Christopherson:

The sound design in Dead Space was a highlight of the gameplay experience.  Soundelux DMG was a part of the team that created this sound design in 2008 for Electronic Arts.  Here’s a sample of why the sound design excelled:

Soundelux DMG provided all the sound design for the cinematics of Disney’s Epic Mickey (Disney Interactive), released in 2010.  Here’s a sample of their work on that project:

And here’s a behind-the-scenes video of their dialogue recording sessions for God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment America, 2010):

Finally, here’s their highlight showreel from 2012, including brief clips from such great game projects as Gears of War Judgment, God of War Ascension, Skylanders Giants, Twisted Metal and Call of Duty Black Ops II: Zombies.

If you’d like to read more about Soundelux DMG, you can read an excellent interview from 2007 with Soundelux DMG’s founder Scott Gershin.

Here’s wishing good luck to all those impacted by this backruptcy, including the game audio wizards at Soundelux DMG.

 

Ludo 2014: The International Ludomusicology Conference

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

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I was honored to be invited to speak at Ludo 2014, the Ludomusicology Conference, last month.  I had a great time talking with a wonderful audience of video game music scholars and game composers.

Ludomusicology.org is a scholarly research group in the UK that applies the principles of musicology to videogame music.  Researchers from Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol Universities participate in their ongoing research, as well as their annual international conferences on game music. This year’s conference took place at the University of Chichester from April 10th through the 12th.  While I couldn’t attend in person, I was very pleased to be interviewed via Skype by event organizer and distinguished musicologist Dr. Tim Summers.  The video below shows Dr. Summers and the audience at the University of Chichester in the UK, and myself in my music studio in the US.  The discussion ranged from interactive music structure and implementation, to career skills and workflow, to creative strategies for game music composition. The talk also included several topics from my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music.

I’m very grateful for the fantastic questions from the audience, and for the gracious kindness of Dr. Summers and the Ludo 2014 conference!

GameSoundCon: Melodic Composition, Part One

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

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A few months ago I spoke at GameSoundCon — a terrific conference that explored all aspect of audio creation for video games.  My own speech focused on melodic composition for games, with a particular emphasis on the music I created for the LittleBigPlanet franchise.  Since that speech touched upon a lot of issues that are explored in depth in my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, I thought I’d post some of that speech here as a video presentation, complete with the PowerPoint visuals and video demonstration excerpts that I used at GameSoundCon. Here is the first installment of this two-part video presentation: “GameSoundCon: Melodic Composition, Part One.”

Fascinating Games of E3

Posted by Winifred Phillips on

ImageEvery year, I head to the Electronic Entertainment Expo with the hope that my creative energies will be stimulated by some incredibly unique game that I’ll see on the show floor. While my primary mission at E3 is to meet with other developers and talk about future projects, I’m always keeping an eye out for what’s happening in the two major expo halls.  Because of that, I tend to view my E3 experience as a series of hunting trips. Each time, I hope that my expo floor excursion will be interrupted by a moment of surprise and inspiration, as I discover a game I hadn’t seen before. In previous years I’ve had my attention arrested by the fantastical world of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron, the visual artistry of Trine, the hypnotically unique game-play of From Dust, and many others.

Last year, I couldn’t attend E3 because I was working on the music of Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation. Because of that, I was doubly eager to see what games would be on display this year, and what would capture my attention. There’s something about the way in which games are gathered together at E3… wandering through this collection of game exhibits never fails to fills me with creative fuel, helping me to stay energized throughout the year.

At this E3, the two games I remember most are Rain and Dragon’s Prophet.

Rain is a poetic game in which you play as an invisible little boy, searching for a mysterious girl through a dilapidated and inexplicably empty city soaked by an eternal rainfall. The boy is only visible in the rain, which reveals him to the creatures that hunt him. The visual presentation of the game blends realism with a stark stylized lighting and texture. The game makes use of licensed music well, particularly Debussy’s Clair de Lune. I must admit that, since Debussy is one of my favorite composers, my immediate affection for this game might have been influenced by its musical accompaniment.

Dragon’s Prophet, on the other hand, is a free-to-play MMORPG that focuses on obtaining, training and riding dragons. The appeal of the game, for me, rested almost completely in the lush details in the landscape and the opportunities for exploration. Flying on the back of a dragon over a glittering waterfall is a deeply enjoyable experience in Dragon’s Prophet, enhanced by a very effective orchestral score written by Alexander Roeder, Mindy Lo and Rmoney Chen. The soundtrack is not available for sale, but it can be heard in a playlist on the developer’s YouTube Channel. The track I remember hearing during my playtime at E3 was “Auratia” – a grandly thematic musical backdrop for gliding on the back of a dragon.