A little while ago I completed the music for Starlitsky’s new game ‘Strikeforce PSI’, a 2D side scrolling shooter for XBox and PC, soon to be released. I thought I should put together a little snippet of the music to show what styles are used in the different levels.
Listen to Strikeforce PSI Music
Since the levels were ‘Harbor’, ‘Arctic’, ‘Desert’, and ‘Jungle’, I relied on instrumentation and stylized composition to achieve the feeling of being in these locations.
I have recently been working with StarlitSkyGames on their new game called StrikeForce Psi, a 2D side scrolling shooter for XBox and PC, soon to be released.
The music has been created through a combination of programming and re-sampling, with changes in style to suit four levels; a harbor scene, an arctic scene, a desert scene, and a jungle scene. All tracks have an orchestral element, with individual tracks having instrumentation, composition and samples to suit the theme; skinned drums for the jungle, modal scale base for the desert, and woodwinds for the arctic scene.
I have just decided to do a re-edit of the Super 8 film “Friends” for Damn English in a Chinese version, since most of the visitors to the site are reading the content in Chinese.
Since I still had all the same project files, I simply pasted the new Chinese translations into the previous title files and then exported the movie. I also added a title at the end of the movie to link back to the Damn English site.
I have recently been editing together a piece for Damn English about ‘Friends’ for use in English study. It is a piece based on super 8 footage, together with titles, in the style of a silent film. That is, one title, one shot of video, one title, one shot of video, and so on.
This idea has taken many steps to come to the end result. Firstly, I filmed the footage on a super 8mm film camera, in both China and Melbourne, and then sent the films away to be processed. When they arrived back, I projected the films on the wall and used a Canon Powershot S80 to film the projections off the wall. Then I had the raw footage to edit digitally.
I used a looping section of the footage as the backdrop for the titles.
And then added the titles onto the backdrop. I used motion graphics on the titles to help replicate a projector style, ’stuttering’ the position of the titles. Lowering the opacity of the title as well as placing on top another duplicate layer of the backdrop (at a much lower opacity), enabled the text to blend better into the backdrop.
I’ve just finished editing the footage I filmed, together with the audio I recorded, of last nights Chinese New Year fireworks celebrations in Beijing.
Simply filmed on a digital camera, the audio has been recorded with a Takstar SGC578 Shotgun microphone, through a MOTU Ultralite. I added some basic introduction titles, and here is the final result.
Last night was Chinese New Year, and around midnight I was busy in Beijing, filming and recording audio of the fireworks. Currently I am editing together a piece, combining the footage from a Canon digital camera, and the audio, which was recorded into a PC through a MOTU Ultralite.
Recently, I tried a new technique I hadn’t used before, to make new sounds and achieve new textures. I first created some compositions using a combination of live instruments and electronic sounds and mastered them as if they were completed tracks. But then I re-cut them, rearranged their order, pitch shifted and time-stretched different elements, so that the compositions began to take a new form. Before long, I had a whole new array of textures.
A quick note on musical choice for games: basically this is an example of one compositional device. It seems every new game I work on requires an investigation into new techniques for creating interesting and unique sounds. This compositional device could be used on any style of music, and is simply a way of developing deeper textures.
Listen to Example One
Example One is a re-sampled piece of banjo playing together with some brush snare drum. You can hear several different tracks of banjo, panned to different locations and at different levels, giving the banjo a richer texture.
Listen to Example Two
Example Two is governed by a very deeply pitch shifted element, that adds a fun industrial feeling, suitable for a ‘construction’ style game play. It is supported by some light back beat drumming and several tracks of hi hats.
Listen to Example Three
Example Three is a much busier composition, having more instrumentation and perhaps more suited for a faster paced game play. The re-sampling comes from rearranging the elements of the previous composition, with a fair amount of pitch shifting in the percussion track.
Here are some examples of music for during game play and game over segments. They were sequenced on a Roland XP-60 and then recorded into Samplitude Studio for mixing, and mastered in Steinberg Wavelab.
Listen to Example One
Example One simply consists of a drum loop, bass loop, and one synth sound. It is fairly slow paced and unobtrusive, making it suitable for in-game play.
Listen to Example Two
Example Two is a short piece centered around a slap bass sound melody, supported by conga drums and a sustained string sound. There is also a high synth string sound added at the very end to help signify the ending.
When writing electronic music for games it is quite common that a game developer will give you genre specific requirements for the music. Here are some pieces I created that are in the style of funk. All tracks have been made with sounds from the Roland XP-60. I do think some games benefit from having a more ‘midi’ sound compared to a live performance sound, but that is really dependent on the game.
Listen to Example One
Example One is governed by its bass line, a very simple line that uses a ’slap’ sound, combined with a filtered drum loop to provide the funk feel.
Listen to Example Two
Again, Example Two is governed by its bass line, but is more suitable for game play as it has some additional instrumentation and parts. Supported by more percussion than Example One, it utilizes another midi sound as a lead and a more varied structure.
Listen to Example Three
Here is a very midi sounding ending, using a slap sound, combined with a midi distorted guitar sound, with the melody moving downwards to signify the ending. This could be used as a game over sample.
Here are some more examples of computer game music in the style of war. Suitable for use in games that are in the time era of World War II.
Listen to Example Seven
Example Seven is a piece that is attempting to create tension, so is suitable for an action sequence. By having two melodies that are countering each other, combined with snare drum, bass drum, and tambourine hits, this piece could be used to cause tension in the player.
Listen to Example Eight
Example Eight is another piece for an action sequence, creating tension by having sharp string strikes, combined with fast tom drum hits. In the background are long french horn notes to give a thicker texture.
Listen to Example Nine
Example Nine is the last example and another for creating tension, suitable for an action sequence. Thick in texture, with many instruments countering each other. Woodwinds are playing a repeating arpeggio, strings are playing fast agitato strikes, with added snare drums hits.
Conclusion
I found that a fully orchestrated piece, with traditional instruments, provided the most effective and emotive results. This included writing separate lines for bass, cello, and several violin parts, as well as some flute and other woodwinds as accompaniment. I chose to use french horn, snare drum, and bass drum as a feature, as this helped to elicit the WWII feel I was looking for.
All of my compositions for the war music genre had plenty of short, sharp strikes, to help provide tension as well as support movement in the game. Snare drum rolls and big metallic hits were also used to counter the more fixed rhythm of the string and woodwind parts.
