week 5

In week 5, we discussed composing for interactive media, covering video games and instillations. We discussed how this can create a greater challenge for musicians, as it removes a layer of control that’s given to potential non musicians. This came to conclusions such as removing some freedom from the participant, thus ensuring the result would be inherently musical. For example, in an interactive sound arts instillation, quantising to a scale or having a pre chosen rhythm that everything plays to. While I like the idea of total freedom within these installations, it does make sense. If the sound the participant creates is more pleasing they will probably be more likely to enjoy the experience.

We then discussed video game music, and the concept of immersion. Immersion is the idea of being completely lost in the game, no longer perceiving it as a game but an experience, and sound plays a crucial roll in this. We discussed two examples, space invader and silent hill, and how their respective sound affects the gameplay. Space invader is a space game, so uses mostly harsh synth based sounds. On the other hand silent hill is a slow eerie horror game who’s soundtrack while very industrial, has many acoustic samples thrown in (such as footsteps or metallic sounds) which ground the soundtrack in a more natural and earthy sound. I think these two examples are great when discussing immersion as I feel you would never be able to be fully immersed in space invader due to its harsh and obvious sound, while silent hill is acoustic, slower and eerier in a way that doesn’t jump out at you.

On the topic of sound not being too obvious and thus breaking immersion, the concept of looping was bought up. A games sound will often be made up by loops of musical motifs. The struggle is repeating them as much as possible without it becoming repetitive, obvious and annoying to the player and thus breaking immersion. One method touched upon was a degree of randomisation using tools such as LFOs to alter peramaters. I started creating a theme for a game we were looking at called ‘cocoon’, a whimsical game about a bug collecting treasure in a fantastical world. I decided to hit on something short repetitive and jaunty, with a 3/4 waltz feel. While its not finished, i’m trying to make sure it doesn’t become too repetitive by changing the layers of instruments and rhythms, and using a degree of randomisation in tones and notes within the piece.