https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_gdgYDzA9gEZ1UySHdSQk1xWGs/view
http://www.giantbomb.com/platforms/
Friday, 13 March 2015
Thursday, 5 March 2015
Unit 73 - Sound for Computer Games Assignment 1
http://moodle.slcollege.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/29884/mod_resource/content/1/Assignment%201.pdf
Task 1 a)
Compare and contrast the following sound clips:
The Last of Us Main Theme - Starts as depressing and hopeless, slowly builds up to happiness and hope. Eerie and suspenseful. Fits the game perfectly. "Western"
The Last of Us is a survival horror game, and this is the official theme song to the game.The song fits the game perfectly because the beginning of the theme is played with an acoustic guitar, with a high pitch strum, which gives a depressing and hopeless mood/atmosphere. As the theme continues, more instruments are introduced, slowly building the song up to a happy mood, giving the listener some hope.
The theme fits the game perfectly, because, without wanting to give too much away about the game, the progression of the music matches that of the story, starting depressingly, with no hope, but as more characters (and instruments) join, there is some hope for the characters.
The ronroco and the flute mix together so well to produce this eerie and suspenseful piece, and gives a 'Western' feel to the music, which fits the game, as when the characters travel by horseback adds to the Western vibe.
Having played through the story, hearing this theme again resurrects all the sad/depressing/happy feeling I felt when I played the game.
Instruments:
Flute
African Drum
Mouth Harp
Kazoo
The main theme to The Last of Us is memorable, so anyone who has played or heard the theme might be able to recognise it easily.
A contract would have been signed by Naughty Dog and Gustavo, outlining that he must produce music for use in the game, and he would be compensated for his work. There may have also been a section stating that credit must be given to Gustavo.
Little Big Planet 3 (Dead Heat) - Suspenseful. Mission: Impossible, stealth. Similar to Enter The Dragon.
As with The Last of Us, this music piece feels very suspenseful, and reminds me of the theme to Mission: Impossible, and gives a stealthy feel to the game.
I think this music would be played at a key point in the game, where the player has to complete an important task, with the suspense of the music implying the player has to sneak past enemies to complete the task, or fight others to get past them.
I believe the purpose of the music in the game is to give the player a reaction to the scenario, such as increase the heart rate in a suspenseful/tense situation.
The piece was produced by Barry Adamson, for his 'A Negro Inside Me' album.
In order for it yo have been used in the game, the developers would have had to gain permission from the Adamson, as it is protected by copyright laws.
The developers might have paid Adamson, or the record label company that holds the rights of the music in order to be allowed to use it for their game. A contract would have been drawn up and signed by both the owner of the music piece, and the developers, which would outline where the music would be used (Little Big Planet 3 game).
By signing a contract, the developers are protected against any plagiarism claims and law suits against the developers.
--
Due to the budget and success of both of these games, it's highly likely that the music was recorded in a recording studio, with musicians playing each instrument involved, and all sound was recorded in a recording studio, rather than taken from sound libraries or recorded in a less professional environment. Because the Dead Heat was recorded in the 1990's, the quality of the recording is lower than that of TLOU theme, due to technological advances.
By creating all the sounds themselves in a recording studio, the developers avoid any copyright/plagiarism issues, because they own the rights. Because TLOU theme was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, who they hired and paid, they credited him by publicly releasing his name with the theme. The rights to Dead Heat were brought, as it was not recorded with the primary use for the Little Big Planet 3 video game. If the developers had used the music, without permission or rights, they would have risked a law suit for plagiarism and breaching copyright protection laws.
The gaps in the sound have lower Hz. When the drums and other instruments kick in, the Hertz is higher.
The pitch to TLOU intro sequence is low, with the waveform being long, with spaces between the waves. In Dead Heat, the pitch is higher, and the waves are narrower, but are more frequent. The Hertz of Dead Heat is larger than the TLOU, because there are more waves passing in the same time.
dB level increases towards the end in TLOU theme, as more instruments play. The Dead Heat dB sounds fairly consistent throughout the clip, but decreases towards the end, as instruments drop off.
I have been unsuccessful to detect any timbre in either of the clips. Timbre is when two, or more, instruments play the same note(s), but sound different because the different instruments have different pitch/tone.
Task 1 b) Choose at least one of the sounds clips above and describe the methods and principles which may have been used and why.
You must consider, Sound Design Methodology, Sound File Formats, Audio Limitations.
You can re-visit all of your exercises for P2.
You can complete this in the form of a video/audio recording or any other form of presentation such as word report/ppt presentation.
Chosen sound clip: The Last of Us Main Theme
All the music recorded for the clip is original development, by musicians and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, meaning none of the sounds came from sound libraries, such as SoundCloud, or Freesound.org, or added in later using the Foley artistry process.
Sound file is most likely a .WAV or an .AIFF, due to the budget of the game indicating the creators could invest more money into the sound, for higher quality. Because both of these file types are uncompressed, they have not lost any data, therefore, the quality has not changed from when recorded.
Likely recorded in 24-bit audio file, for the best quality. Drawback to the high quality is the size of the file would be huge; almost twice the size it would be if it was recorded in a 16-bit depth.
The music was probably recorded using at least 5:1 surround sound, with maybe 7:1 surround. The 5 and 7 are how many speakers the sound can play from. Sound from 5 or 7 speakers, placed around the room to give an immersive sound experience. Sounds will play through certain speakers, depending on where on screen the sound is coming from. For example, a plane taking off. The plane starts of the left of the screen, so sound will play from the left. As the plane moves across the screen, the sound will move with it, playing from the center speakers, followed by the right as the plane leaves the screen.
When recording sound, RAM (Random Access Memory) will limit the recording. The more RAM the computer has, the better the quality the sound will be.
The sounds that were played from the instruments are analogue sounds, but when they are recorded, they are converted into a digital signal. This is done by taking millions of samples of the sound every second, and manipulates them from analogue to digital signals. The samples are called the Sample Rate, and for a high quality digital sound, it can take up to 10 million samples every second. This process is called Digital Signal Processor.
Task 1 a)
Compare and contrast the following sound clips:
The Last of Us Main Theme - Starts as depressing and hopeless, slowly builds up to happiness and hope. Eerie and suspenseful. Fits the game perfectly. "Western"
The Last of Us is a survival horror game, and this is the official theme song to the game.The song fits the game perfectly because the beginning of the theme is played with an acoustic guitar, with a high pitch strum, which gives a depressing and hopeless mood/atmosphere. As the theme continues, more instruments are introduced, slowly building the song up to a happy mood, giving the listener some hope.
The theme fits the game perfectly, because, without wanting to give too much away about the game, the progression of the music matches that of the story, starting depressingly, with no hope, but as more characters (and instruments) join, there is some hope for the characters.
The ronroco and the flute mix together so well to produce this eerie and suspenseful piece, and gives a 'Western' feel to the music, which fits the game, as when the characters travel by horseback adds to the Western vibe.
Having played through the story, hearing this theme again resurrects all the sad/depressing/happy feeling I felt when I played the game.
Instruments:
Guitar (Ronroco)
CelloFlute
African Drum
Mouth Harp
Kazoo
The main theme to The Last of Us is memorable, so anyone who has played or heard the theme might be able to recognise it easily.
A contract would have been signed by Naughty Dog and Gustavo, outlining that he must produce music for use in the game, and he would be compensated for his work. There may have also been a section stating that credit must be given to Gustavo.
Little Big Planet 3 (Dead Heat) - Suspenseful. Mission: Impossible, stealth. Similar to Enter The Dragon.
As with The Last of Us, this music piece feels very suspenseful, and reminds me of the theme to Mission: Impossible, and gives a stealthy feel to the game.
I think this music would be played at a key point in the game, where the player has to complete an important task, with the suspense of the music implying the player has to sneak past enemies to complete the task, or fight others to get past them.
I believe the purpose of the music in the game is to give the player a reaction to the scenario, such as increase the heart rate in a suspenseful/tense situation.
The piece was produced by Barry Adamson, for his 'A Negro Inside Me' album.
In order for it yo have been used in the game, the developers would have had to gain permission from the Adamson, as it is protected by copyright laws.
The developers might have paid Adamson, or the record label company that holds the rights of the music in order to be allowed to use it for their game. A contract would have been drawn up and signed by both the owner of the music piece, and the developers, which would outline where the music would be used (Little Big Planet 3 game).
By signing a contract, the developers are protected against any plagiarism claims and law suits against the developers.
--
Due to the budget and success of both of these games, it's highly likely that the music was recorded in a recording studio, with musicians playing each instrument involved, and all sound was recorded in a recording studio, rather than taken from sound libraries or recorded in a less professional environment. Because the Dead Heat was recorded in the 1990's, the quality of the recording is lower than that of TLOU theme, due to technological advances.
By creating all the sounds themselves in a recording studio, the developers avoid any copyright/plagiarism issues, because they own the rights. Because TLOU theme was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, who they hired and paid, they credited him by publicly releasing his name with the theme. The rights to Dead Heat were brought, as it was not recorded with the primary use for the Little Big Planet 3 video game. If the developers had used the music, without permission or rights, they would have risked a law suit for plagiarism and breaching copyright protection laws.
The gaps in the sound have lower Hz. When the drums and other instruments kick in, the Hertz is higher.
The pitch to TLOU intro sequence is low, with the waveform being long, with spaces between the waves. In Dead Heat, the pitch is higher, and the waves are narrower, but are more frequent. The Hertz of Dead Heat is larger than the TLOU, because there are more waves passing in the same time.
dB level increases towards the end in TLOU theme, as more instruments play. The Dead Heat dB sounds fairly consistent throughout the clip, but decreases towards the end, as instruments drop off.
I have been unsuccessful to detect any timbre in either of the clips. Timbre is when two, or more, instruments play the same note(s), but sound different because the different instruments have different pitch/tone.
Task 1 b) Choose at least one of the sounds clips above and describe the methods and principles which may have been used and why.
You must consider, Sound Design Methodology, Sound File Formats, Audio Limitations.
You can re-visit all of your exercises for P2.
You can complete this in the form of a video/audio recording or any other form of presentation such as word report/ppt presentation.
Chosen sound clip: The Last of Us Main Theme
All the music recorded for the clip is original development, by musicians and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, meaning none of the sounds came from sound libraries, such as SoundCloud, or Freesound.org, or added in later using the Foley artistry process.
Sound file is most likely a .WAV or an .AIFF, due to the budget of the game indicating the creators could invest more money into the sound, for higher quality. Because both of these file types are uncompressed, they have not lost any data, therefore, the quality has not changed from when recorded.Likely recorded in 24-bit audio file, for the best quality. Drawback to the high quality is the size of the file would be huge; almost twice the size it would be if it was recorded in a 16-bit depth.
The music was probably recorded using at least 5:1 surround sound, with maybe 7:1 surround. The 5 and 7 are how many speakers the sound can play from. Sound from 5 or 7 speakers, placed around the room to give an immersive sound experience. Sounds will play through certain speakers, depending on where on screen the sound is coming from. For example, a plane taking off. The plane starts of the left of the screen, so sound will play from the left. As the plane moves across the screen, the sound will move with it, playing from the center speakers, followed by the right as the plane leaves the screen.
When recording sound, RAM (Random Access Memory) will limit the recording. The more RAM the computer has, the better the quality the sound will be.
Once sound has been recorded, the sound has to be altered and mixed on computers, such as Adobe Audition or other sound editing software. This is done by professional sound editors, who have experience in the chosen program(s). Sometimes, the program doesn't have a tool or an option which is needed to edit the sounds, in which case, you can download plug-ins, which add addition content to the existing software.
The sounds that were played from the instruments are analogue sounds, but when they are recorded, they are converted into a digital signal. This is done by taking millions of samples of the sound every second, and manipulates them from analogue to digital signals. The samples are called the Sample Rate, and for a high quality digital sound, it can take up to 10 million samples every second. This process is called Digital Signal Processor.
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