RayMabry
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Posts posted by RayMabry
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gamedev.net
indiegamer.com
Thankyou
I've been looking ofr more sites like this. -
Also.. a few issues with that statement. First of all, there is no reason at all for actually moving unless you are looking to work INHOUSE somewhere. There are almost no inhouse video game audio positions, and you tend to need a lot of experience (ie. shipped titles) to even bother, not to mention they get a million applications for each. So, the other option is a freelance contractor, in which case you could work from anywhere - don't feel like you have to move just to be in "the industry". Dan is in Boulder, I'm in Philly, Sean Beeson is in Ohio, Jeff Ball is in the middle of nowhere, etc. You get the idea
Another thing is that you shouldn't be thinking in terms of "perfecting your skills", THEN looking for work. Your skills will never be perfect, and even if YOU think they are, I can guarantee they won't be at the level of the big gun VGM composers out there. I'm not saying don't keep striving to improve - not at all, in fact you should be working tirelessly to improve your skills. However, you need as much actual experience as possible, which means working on real projects, even if they're just indie gigs. You can't compose and produce in a vacuum (I've tried), and you need to get credits somehow, no matter how small they are.
I had an assumption based on absolutely nothing that perhaps I could do stuff from home but I wasn't quite sure so that's good to know. I probably will end up moving regardless anyways cause I just need to be in REAL a city again.I know there aren't any in house positions. Kinda like with Disney and it's artists but I had heard that some people get hired by production studios that send out artists so I figured eventually I'd wanna do that.
As far as perfecting my skills I know I'll never get them to be "perfect". I was more speaking of Perfecting them on a personal level. Learning how to mix, Learning how to use a few DAW's and having a clearer understanding of composing music for other genres of video games aside from Fighting Games, and learning other things that might be expected of me are what I meant by "Perfecting my skills". I understand as a composer you'll never be "perfect" It's too music is always changing and it's far too subjective. I just have an idea of where I wanna be before I start trying to get jobs. I can't roll just be like "Hey I know how to compose on Sibelius, and I've mostly only done Fighting Game Music. Hire me!"
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One question that I should have asked a while ago was how did everyone get their first composing job in the industry? I was wondering because eventually once I perfect my skills (and probably move cause I doubt I'll find a company in Delaware to compose for) I pretty much need to know where to turn and i've heard different things. Some people have said that you get hired by music production companies and then get sent out but others do indie stuff, which I'd probably have to start out doing so how do you go about getting into the business?
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I mostly wonder about the workload. Just doing the music alone is a full-time, 30-40 hour a week job, what does the rest of that add on to it?
I don't think he meant all at once though. If your sequencing existing music or arranging existing music then i'm sure that means you'll be writing less songs for whatever project your on at the time (hopefully). But you are right it is alot. Just writing the song (before you mix it and add effects or whatever else) is a tough enough job. But i'd imagine that all of that took place over the course of time. I wouldn't mind it as long as the money is right and I learn how to do those things properly.
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That list makes me want to quit.
It doesn't seem too bad to me. Some of the tasks seem closely related and if your a composer you need to know some anyways. A few seem like they require grasping new technology which seems to always be a constant when your working with video game music. The only ones that seem difficult are the management ones although I'm going to college for management thank goodness.
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Well thankyou very much Dan. I really appreciate you taking the time to write all of that out. I'm definitely going to try to learn as much as I can. I hope to someday be one of the best so i'll learn all that I have to learn and more. You seem to have alto of experience have you worked on any notable games?
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You'd be shocked to learn some of the things you're expected to do on even the smallest music job.
I still am.
Really?...geez...well i'm somewhat okay with my composing I just need to learn how to mix and produce songs better and I guess now I have to learn all this other stuff. I always thought that the programmers or sound people would just tell you how they wanted your songs and then when you finished the song they'd do the rest. I'm glad though that I found out now. I'm glad everyone here is so knowledgeable and helpful.
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So i'm still a bit confused. I mean now i'm intrigued and i'll probably look into the other stuff as well. But do I NEED to learn it? Is not just enough to compose the songs they ask of you?
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GREAT QUESTION!
Unfortunately, the tech is as such that any really good book is probably going to be outdated pretty darn quick.
Best thing for the moment is to actually google these technologies, to go to the websites for them, and actually download the program (most are free for academic use) and read their tutorials and documentation.
If there is a school teaching FMOD and Wwise, great, if there is a school teaching UDK, great! Go, if you can, but if you can't, you have to take it upon yourself to go to the next step--and honestly, game companies KNOW this.
They know how hard it is to get into this cutting-edge technology and they respect people who can sit there and teach themselves something without anyone else making themselves.
It means it's going to be easier to train you on existing engines or even on proprietary engines. It means that you are intelligent, a self-starter, a fast-learner, etc, etc, etc. All the things you want to put on your resume when you're going for a job, learning this stuff SHOWS you mean it.
So is it fair to say that not only do you have to learn how to make music for games but you have to learn programming to some extent too?
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lol, "hardsynth"? Softsynth means software synth, it's got nothing to do with the sound.
(eg, I've been playing with FreeAlpha for a few days now, made a few cool sounds mostly as synth patch making practice. Organ, gliding lead, reso bass, comping saw, warm pad, synth brass... All of which you could do as well.MTV music generator 2 catagorizes them that way. Hardsynth has synthesizer sounds that that have a harder sort of grinding quality to the sound of each sample. Softsynth sounds have a softer tone such as string synths and bells stuff like that. I suppose outside of that it means something different but thats how I always understood it.
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I need a library with pretty much all your standard instruments but i'd also like a library full of really amazing softsynth and hardsynth sounds. Does anyone know of any like that?
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http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/kontakt-4/?content=936
should go without saying that you can't expect to have it sound that way without knowing the library well and careful sequencing. still, trust me, it's decent content. not everything in there is awesome, but that's pretty much never the case with all rounder packages.
That actually sounds pretty solid.I really wasn't aware that most libraries had bad instruments.
Oh well. Thanx though. You've changed my mind as far as Kontakt goes. I'm definately gonna put that on my list of stuff to get. -
Sibelius uses the Kontakt player and I think some virtual instruments from Kontakt and I hate it so far. Are there any demos for the Kontakt samples so I can get an idea of what they sound like?
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I definately have to check sampletank out because if FL Studio 9 comes with JUST the samples that are in the demo i'm definately gonna need more asap. I like to experiment alot.
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Yes I did get it from the official website and thanx for the answer! I didn't know it didn't save because I just typically put the midi file of songs I wrote into it and then just mess around with them but I never try to save it cause i'm usually not serious about the final product. Thanx alot though for answer my question. I appreciate it
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Does the FL Studio 9 demo expire and if so when. I installed it and it says nothing about anything like that and if not then what's "demo" about it i've been fooling around with it for a short while and I can't figure out what it is about it that makes it a demo especially if it's fully functional like everyone says. I'd like to know so I don't start doing stuff on it and then it randomly expires or something.
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Yeah my current instruments blow. I have sibelius 5 and they use Kontakt player the instruments that come with it are crap. Everyone thinks I use midi at times...ugh. The plus side is that I can replace them with other vst instruments but i'll still need something better. But i'm planning on getting FL Studio and then upgrading sibelius cause I can still use that to write my songs in. I'd rather just write them using standard notation because then i'll have them in notation form and I can just export it as midi, upload it to FL and then do all the production and tweaking there.
I dunno too many audio engineers though. Damn...i'll try to find someone around that knows alot about that sort of stuff. I wish I could go to school for it or that my school at least had that type of stuff. Hopefully I can find someone. Thanx for the advice though guys!
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Where would one go (besides google) to research and learn about these things?
That's a very good question cause it's not like there are too many places for learning it. I believe there are video game music books on amazon but they all look old. So to those more experienced...where do you learn how to make video game music. All the techniques and stuff aside from just composing.
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LMAO. It's not that I don't have time i'm just never home. I always end up just kinda being with my friends and I could easily work on my music there cause were all pretty laid back and typically we don't do anything. I was thinking about starting off with a laptop that has about 8 gigs of RAM 2. (something) Processor speed and then I was gonna upgrade my sibelius (for notation purposes) and start by making songs through FL Studio for a while. If I needed to get a desktop in the future then it wouldn't really be a big issue cause i'm good at saving and don't really have alot of obligations yet. I'm probably gonna spend like 2500 for everything (i've kinda given myself extra room just in case I need extra for something so it won't be exact) and I probably won't be recording real instruments anytime soon. I just really wanna do work using a DAW and virtual instruments or samples or something for a while til I become used to everything and then work my way up to recording actual instruments. I thought that was a fairly good plan but maybe not?
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Yeah that's kinda my issue. Like I can't really get a desktop because I barely stay home anymore and even if I did I currently don't have the space for it but I desperately wanna start making higher quality game music. I'll figure it out though. Thanx for all the advice everyone I really appreciate you guys taking the time to advise me. And thankyou Arcana for giving me a clearer list of cons for why I shouldn't get a laptop. I'm probably gonna have no choice but to get one though. But i'm definately gonna make sure I choose a good one.
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My question is though. What if i'm not recording anything. What if i'm just using virtual instruments and samples to make my songs? No recording at all cause thats kinda what I wanna experiment with for a while. I don't wanna record i'm trying to figure out if a laptop might be powerful enough for that. I'd never record music using just a laptop. It'd be foolish.
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I'm not interested in hardware instruments though. I just kinda wanted to use virtual instruments and sequencers and what not that was kinda my whole thing. I'm kinda disinterested in recording real instruments and going through the whole hassle.
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Thankyou all so much for your comments. I really appreciate you guys taking your time out to really try to give me some insight into the whole thing. You've definately given me alot to think about so thankyou all very much for your comments.
I pretty much am forced to get a laptop because my desktop (which isn't really mine anyways haha) isn't always accessible and I don't have enough space in my room for a desktop so i'm opting for a laptop (Preferrably Hp or Sony or maybe Toshiba). (and I know what they say about sony's and being overpriced but I love Sony. I've always been able to rely on them for high quality stuff and i've fallen in love with my friends laptop and desktop (both sonys) although hp has been pretty good as well).
My music usually has a few patterns in it and honestly i'd be using sibelius to write my scores and then i'd upload the midi file into FL Studio (which I have used for a short time and it looks like it'll be easy to understand seeing as i've used something similar in the past) so i'm really thinking of getting it.
I was hoping to be able to get a laptop and produce video game music for fun and for pay on the side and I ultimately was wondering if that was possible. To do it all from a laptop. I've got some theory knowledge and some production knowledge but i'm pretty much just working it all out by just writing and letting people hear it. You guys have given me alot to consider though. Again thankyou for your responses I really, really do appreciate it ~Ray~
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I'd like to do original music for new games pretty much. I'm not into remixing too much. I guess my end goals would basically to continue to learn how to produce professional sounding video game music and to be able to make a career out of composing songs for video games...
"NightLife" Theme written for Ken Masters of Street Fighter
in Post Your Original Music!
Posted
Hello everyone. I've written a theme for Ken that I was hoping to get some feedback on "NightLife (