winifredphillips
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Posts posted by winifredphillips
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I'm the author of the book A Composer's Guide to Game Music and I made a 4-part video series to go with my book. I thought it might interest the folks here at Overclocked Remix.
Here's the first video. It focuses on interactive music composition in a technique known as "Vertical Layering," with examples from one of my projects as a video game composer -- The Maw (Twisted Pixel Games).
Also, if you'd like to see the trailer for my book, A Composer's Guide to Game Music, check out the video below:
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Copying and pasting the description from Amazon in a tasteful way would make your approach here much better and more interesting to the type of musicians we are at OCR.
Done.
Thanks, Meteo Xavier! -
Hello! I thought the Overclocked Remix forum might be interested that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press just published my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music. I wrote the book in order to help music makers better understand the art and craft of game music composition.
The Amazon.com page describes the book as follows: “Music in video games is often a sophisticated, complex composition that serves to engage the player, set the pace of play, and aid interactivity. Composers of video game music must master an array of specialized skills not taught in the conservatory, including the creation of linear loops, music chunks for horizontal resequencing, and compositional fragments for use within a generative framework. In A Composer's Guide to Game Music, Winifred Phillips -- herself an award-winning composer of video game music -- provides a comprehensive, practical guide that leads an aspiring video game composer from acquiring the necessary creative skills to understanding the function of music in games to finding work in the field. Musicians and composers may be drawn to game music composition because the game industry is a multibillion-dollar, employment-generating economic powerhouse, but, Phillips writes, the most important qualification for a musician who wants to become a game music composer is a love of video games. Phillips offers detailed coverage of essential topics, including musicianship and composition experience; immersion; musical themes; music and game genres; workflow; working with a development team; linear music; interactive music, both rendered and generative; audio technology, from mixers and preamps to software; and running a business. A Composer's Guide to Game Music offers indispensable guidance for musicians and composers who want to deploy their creativity in a dynamic and growing industry, protect their musical identities while working in a highly technical field, and create great music within the constraints of a new medium.”
Endorsements for my book have included the well-known film and game composer Harry Gregson-Williams (the composer of the Shrek and Narnia movies), who said that the book is “not just compulsory bedside reading for budding games composers, but a fine achievement in itself. Bravo!”
David Jaffe, the video game director of God of War and the Twisted Metal games, called A Composer’s Guide to Game Music “an important, deep, and rare exploration of video game music by one of the medium’s smartest and most talented voices.”
You can order the book from this page on Amazon: http://amzn.com/0262026643
In the next few weeks, I’ll be uploading a bunch of free educational videos that elaborate on content in my book. If you follow me on Twitter (@winphillips) or on my blog (winifredphillips.wordpress.com), you’ll get notified when those videos become available. Thanks!
-Winifred Phillips
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I spoke at the Montreal International Game Summit a few days ago about the music I composed for Assassin's Creed Liberation, and I thought you guys might like to see it. My session was called Assassin's Creed Liberation: The Power of Musical Themes, and a video of my talk was posted to YouTube. You'll find that video here:
Hope you like it.
-Winifred Phillips
Author of the book, A COMPOSER'S GUIDE TO GAME MUSIC
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (The MIT Press)
Hardcover available in bookstores everywhere, February 14th, 2014
To receive updates about this book, subscribe here:
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I know you're asking for technical things like what samples to use and such, but for a "realistic" sound, performance technique is huge. You can make cheap samples sound decent by playing well. Conversely, you can make expensive samples with lots of articulations sound crappy by playing poorly. What I do is I picture my orchestra in my head as they play the piece, focusing on one section at a time (or a single instrumentalist if I'm working on a solo). A lot of the time I'm a dork and I actually "play" my air violin. I think of what emotion I'm trying to get across in that particular section of the piece. It's amazing what you can do with a bit of natural off-timing and velocity flow, as well as MIDI CC like Rozovian mentioned. Of course, having the more advanced articulation patches is nice as well.
Personally, I use EWQLSO. It's pretty loaded with a ton of sampled articulations as well as decent goodies like Portamento, Round Robin repetition, etc. Some criticisms that others have brought up though is that vibrato is built-in and the samples all come wet.
I'd second everything that Neifion said. Watching musicians perform on the actual instruments can provide a ton of insight into how best to apply the articulations that come in a sample library. Particularly, if you come across an instructional video that's teaching an instrumental technique, you can get a lot of insight from that. Then, when you go back to your sample library and explore your articulation options, it becomes much easier to make decisions regarding how to best use the samples to create a realistic and organic sound.
Ludo 2014 Conference Video: Game Music
in Music Composition & Production
Posted
Wanted to let you guys know that the Ludo 2014 Conference interviewed me for an hour session on how to compose game music, and the video of that session just went online. I thought you might like to see it, so here’s the link:
Ludo 2014 Conference Video - Winifred Phillips
BTW, I’ll be speaking on a panel of film, broadway, tv & game composers at a Society of Composers and Lyricists event in New York City on May 14th. It’s free to attend, so if you’re in the NYC area, please come! Here’s the link to the announcement where you can RSVP for the free event: SCL Announcement. Also, if you’re reading my book, A Composer’s Guide to Game Music, bring it along and I’ll sign it after the event.