Assignment 1 Unit 73: Understanding the use of music within games and the methodology of recording and production.

Level 3 Btec Extended Diploma in Games Development

Unit 73: Sound for Computer Games

Assignment 1 - Understanding the use of music within games and the methodology of recording and production.

Task 1:Compare and contrast the following Console game music. You can consider other pieces of music/FX from the same game

Task 2: Using the clips above discuss the methods which could have been used to record and produce the music and why.

The Last of Us:

I have merged the two tasks together as I have found it easier this way to talk about the music tracks emotionally and technically. The Last of Us main theme song was originally composed by Gustavo Santaolalla and his instruments. One of the instruments which was used was a ronroco. This video shows evidence of the songs created for The Last Of Us were original developed made from instruments in a recording studio. I believe that what audio recording system they used is multi-track recordings. The reason behind why I believe that this song was created by multi-track recordings was so that Gustavo Santaolalla could listen to the orchestra separately from his guitar tune to create the perfect sound and then added his guitar to the orchestra track. Furthermore, with the orchestra, it is most likely that they would of recording the groups of instruments separately, for example; percussion, string, woodwind, brass etc. In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejdjcun2Jo4 around 1:10 - 1:30, this is where we see Gustavo Santaolalla taking control of how he wants the orchestra to play their instruments to gain the desired result.

When the music shifts into a softer tone, it creates a relaxed atmosphere and I feel this is where the perspective of the world around these characters has changed. It almost as if we see the beautiful side of this world, where nature has taken over the buildings. For example, where Joel and Ellie find the giraffe at the edge of a building and Ellie strokes its head. Furthermore, it gives a sense of hope as if they will see the end to this apocalyptic plague. Both of these images link in with my idea of the relaxed atmosphere the song creates.

When the bridge part of the song is over, it's almost as if we have been pulled back into the harsh reality of the world the characters live in, the post-apocalyptic world. The end of the track becomes very loud and harsh. The amplitude here would be large. The reason for this is because amplitude is the size of vibrations and the larger the vibration the louder the sound, this also meaning the decibel level would be very high. The wavelength of  the higher pitch parts would a have shorter wavelengths than deeper pitch parts, when it comes to louder and quieter sounds, the wavelength stays the same but the amplitude changes. The image below shows the difference in wavelengths and amplitude, dependent on the sound. This supports my idea of what the wavelength and amplitude would be like in certain parts of the track.

The Last Of Us main theme contrasts against the genre of the game. The genre of the game is survival horror and this song pushes away from the typical high pitch sounds and fast paced tune which is used for a horror games sound track. This track symbolises how the characters perceive the current world they live in. It symbolises a wasteland which carries on beyond the horizon in which the characters are exploring. The image to the right is an in game image showing the two main characters stood in an abandoned street. A lot of the areas which are explored are deserted. I think that what is most relative between this image and song is the warm tones from the sunset/dawn used to illuminate the abandoned streets. These warm tones from the sun illuminating the wasteland of the world tie in with the western theme, the theme of deserted lands and a rustic theme. Additionally, this particular scene fits in well with a mexican showdown as they are usually taken place at dawn in which fits in with the western theme. The finger plucked sounds created by using a guitar at a high pitch gives the song its western theme and contrasts against the deep pitched strums of guitar which create the song. This track is made for surround sound as the game was made for the PS4 (and PS3 but remastered for the PS4) and the disc used would be Blu-ray. As the format of the disc is Blu-ray, that means the sound file would actually be uncompressed due to the amount of space a Blu-ray contains. Blu-rays are made with 96KHz/192KHz sample rate and 24-bit-depth. So if this song had 96KHz sample rate and 24-bit-depth, then the file size of this would be 2.025GB taken up already on the Blu-ray disc. It is likely that they used a .WAV file format for the music as this is the most commonly used uncompressed file type. They most likely would of used PCM to determine what the bit-depth and sample rate is. Working this out is very helpful if they wanted to save some space. Having a song with double the sample rate can effectively double the overall size of a sound, due to the fact that there is now double the amount of samples to store, meaning that the file size is going to be bigger. When they were making this song, it is most likely that they used up more RAM compared to what Halo 2 composers did. For example, to create and edit the Halo 2 music overall, they may have had 4-8GB of RAM in their computers whereas, The Last of Us music may have had 8-16GB of RAM.

Halo 2:

The beginning of the song (when wearing headphones) really emphasis's on this song being made for stereo sound. The gospel voices which are used creates an atmosphere of the player entering sacred ground. Then, the increasing sound of the beat and the instruments in which are being added at the beginning of the song, create an atmosphere of a triumphant battle which is about to begin, as if you, the player, is approaching the battle ground. The increasing tone of the guitar and beat builds up a lot of tension and pressure on the player, but also, it makes the player feel dauntless and heroic. The added violin which plays with the guitar really adds emphasis on the guitar and pushes forth the atmosphere of this tense final battle. The rush of how quickly the instruments are put together beautifully and the speed of which the instruments are played at adds chaos to the atmosphere. This image is an in-game image of a battle in Halo 2 and I think it shows the chaotic battlefield which fits in with the music. The end of the main theme song almost replicates the beginning of the song, however with the fading sound of the guitar emphasis's the end of the battle. When the music shifts massively at the end of the track, the amplitude would be very low at this point, creating that quieter, softer tone. Same with the beginning of the track, with the voices. From 0:47 - 1;10, this video clips shows tense moments in Halo 2 where the player is in battle against another player, you can see that he finds it difficult to kill the other player and switches his weapon and jumps about.This image below is a screenshot of the Halo 2 gameplay in which I believe fits in well with the music.                                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQRPH0PT4JA

It sounds as if, to create this track they used the audio recording system, multi-track recording. The reason behind why I think this is because it sounds like they have recorded the orchestra separate from the guitar. Also, it sounds like they recorded the violin separately away from the guitar and orchestra and then used multi-track recording to line up the tracks for the desired result. As they have used real instruments, this pushes away from them using software plug-ins and everything was originally developed.  This game was made for the original Xbox which means the disc they used to store all of the games data and such, was a dual-layer DVD disc meaning it has smaller capacity.The image above displaying CD, DVD and Blu-ray shows the different sized data they can all withstand and what the data layers look like.  A lot less compared to the size of a Blu-ray disc which was used for "The Last of Us". Its most likely that they would have compressed the sound files due to the amount of storage on the disc. The sound file they could have used is .WAV, a raw .WAV sound file has the sample rate of 44,100 kHz and 16-bit-depth. WAV files can be compressed, however when the WAV file is compressed, the only thing that is most likely to bit reduced is the bit depth. With the example above, the sample rate would still be 44,100 kHz and the bit depth would be reduced down to 4.  The audio limitation of this sound file would be that it had to be compressed due to the size of the DVD disc. As the sound file is compressed this means that the quality of music will be reduced from its original state. Furthermore, WAV files must be decompressed if compressed to listen to them. It is most likely they might have chosen a different file format due to wanting to save space such as MP3 or AAC. MP3 files is the most common file format and is the most compatible, however it is said that it is not efficient. An AAC file has the same the same quality as an MP3 file and is more efficient. This image below displays the file size and compatibility comparison between MP3 and AAC.

When it comes to comparing both pieces of music, they have a few things in common. What they have in common is that they are both main music themes for that particular game. They both give the game an overall feeling of what it is about. Another similarity is that both pieces of game music use similar techniques, using analogue and using computers and programs to process their music through.
The differences is that both games are on different platforms and the time around when they were made. When Halo 2 was released, it was made for the original Xbox. This gaming console used regular DVD disc for their games due to the specifications of the original Xbox. When The Last of Us was made, it was originally made for PS3. Technology had moved on since then dramatically, the PS3 had near enough the same specifications as the newer Xbox 360's. The PS3 and PS4 used blu-ray discs, this allowing them to use uncompressed file formats for the sound track. This kept the quality of the original soundtrack.

Composers can sell their music to a game company. When composers do this, they still have property rights. When a composers music has been put into a game, they receive "royalties". However, game company royalties are different to the music industry royalties. Music industry royalties often give the composers money in quarterly instalments, however with game companies, they decide to do something different. What game companies do is they work out a percentage which is a payment that have been calculated from net profits and they pay the composer.
If the game the composer has worked on has now been chosen to be developed for other platforms, the composer then receives extra money for their work.
When it comes to copyrighting the music in a games company, the developer will almost always demand to own the music. The reason for this is so that the developer can then use the same music or sound FX in the sequel of that game or they can re-use it on different platforms. Its most likely that with both games, the composers have agreed to the copyright regulations and agreed to the format of the royalties. In which is very different form from what Gustavo Santaolalla is used to.
If the game company believes that buying you out-right (meaning paying your wished amount is too high), you may offer a license to them. This license allows them to use your music in their game. With your music only being licensed, this means that you still have full ownership of your music and you able to re-sell it if you wanted to. However, game companies usually have a license agreement where the song that they have licensed to used, is only allowed to be used for that game in particular until a certain amount of time has passed and then your music can be used for another game.
It is most likely that all the composers involved within both games have accepted these terms and legal rights in order to start creating the music.