beckett007

Just finished this one up and submitted it. Personally I think it's my best remix to date... what do you guys think? Much like all of my other remixes here at OCR, this one was updated, reorchestrated, and made to sound like an epic film score... enjoy! http://www.richdouglas.net/ocr/RushNAttack_Invasion_RichDouglas.mp3 Rich

I hate to sound condescending as well... but.. um... yeah, like Meteo I wonder how the hell you even managed to score this gig without any experience, much less no experience with digital music production. So what systems will this be released on? Are you using someones proprietary audio engine or something pre-existing like Wwise? Or, is this just a Mod or XNA game? You're not going to like the advice I have to give, but I'm fairly seasoned so here goes. Honestly, you're gonna have to find someone to collaborate with in order to do this correctly and not make a fool out of yourself... there's no way you can possibly learn the ins and outs of digital music composition, proper mastering, much less the techniques for making a proper dynamic score (which all next gen games have and require these days) in a matter of 6 months. Impossible. I've been a composer / sound designer in this biz for the better part of 4 years and it's taken me 6 years to learn enough about digital music production to consider myself somewhat marketable as a freelancer in this industry. Ugh, I'm sorry... but this just frustrates the hell out of me that someone with no experience can find such a job.... regardless, here's some tidbits off the top of my head. Garage band ain't gonna cut it. In order to be competitive you'll need to at least upgrade to East West Quantum Leap Orchestra Silver, or even better, Gold. Thats a VST plugin and requires a host sequencer such as Sonar 8 to run in. From there, you'll need to learn midi programming and such (if you don't already know that), and find a good set of mastering tools to make it sound somewhat pro. I would suggest Wizoo Verb as a cost effective convolution reverb solution and Izotope for a decently priced all in one EQ package. Depending on the score you're doing you might also look into Stylus RMX for beats (it's just loops so it's easy to use and sequence), and Atmosphere for your synth work. Speaking of which, would you mind letting all of us know how much you're willing to spend to prepare? Some of these VSTs can get a bit pricey. Without knowing the vibe of the game and where you want to take the score.. none of us will be able to really help suggest VSTs and techniques to you. Give us some details... at least all the details you can without breaking the NDA. Good luck! Rich

Thanks for your support everyone!! Please spread the word! Overall, I've been getting extremely positive feedback and everyone seems to really dig it. If you're a fan of downtempo mixed with film score elements... you'll love it, give it a shot! Thanks again! Rich

It's been a while since I've posted any new remixes or posted at all for that matter as I've been extremely busy working on several things. One of which is a new downtempo, big beat, ambient album called The Vegas Chronicles which is now available to purchase via cdbaby. Please help me spread the word about this album! Remixes of mine that have been posted here at OCR include the Flashback Memory Leak Suite, the Super Metroid Mother Brain Suite, and my take on the Splatterhouse 3 menu music. If you're a fan of my remixes or downtempo / big beat artists such as Portishead, AIR, Propellorheads crossed with orchestral elements that sound similar to that heard in John Barry / Jerry Goldsmith film scores... YOU'LL LOVE THIS ALBUM! The whole thing has got a very James Bondish vibe going on. Please visit the cdbaby.com page here to hear clips of all of the tracks and to purchase the album! http://cdbaby.com/cd/agentsmythe I've gone ahead and put the first two tracks of the album up on a special page on my website so you can hear them in their complete form to help you to decide if the album is for you, check the first two tracks out here: http://www.richdouglas.net/projects/vegas.php Thanks for your support! Rich

First and foremost... RPG maker doesn't mean shit to us devs! Learn a substantial piece of software like Hammer, Radiant, or uEdit if you want to get into the game industry as a level designer. I do have a masters degree from the Guildhall at SMU (http://guildhall.smu.edu/) so I'm a bit biased, but it definitely helped to jump start my career for sure. First things first.. GET A COLLEGE DEGREE NO MATTER WHAT! Doesnt matter what your degree is in, mine was in public administration (LOL!), and I'm the lead audio guy for a THQ company and about to go freelance as a composer. THQ would not have hired me without that degree though... gotta love workplace politics. Most game devs wont take you seriously without one. If you do go to a trade school after you graduate college... go somewhere that has a decent rep such as The Guildhall or Full Sail... "schools" like ITT and DeVry are sort of a joke. Going to the Guildhall helped me out immensely. It helped me learn level editors, meet and talk with people in the game industry, gain experience, and most importantly... helped me get my foot in the door which is the main reason you would want to go to one of these schools... to meet contacts. To be blunt, it WAS NOT a worthless endeavor for me and without the guildhall I wouldn't have made it into the industry. Those who said a company will take experience over a kid with a masters degree are in fact correct. Ironically you have to have experience to get more experience or get work in the game industry. However, thats not to say that a gaming degree wont help, cause it most certainly will. Now to crush all of your hopes and dreams if you want to be a full time music or sound guy for a game company. Game companies rarely (read: never) have a full time composing position so forget about that one. If you want to be a sound designer.. a degree from a trade school will help with that but you'll also need experience be it from Mod work or working on Indie projects. That, or you'll have to just get insanely lucky which does happen from time to time. If I was looking to hire another sound designer and I had two candidates.. one with an audio engineering degree from full sail and one with experience working on Far Cry 2 and/or Battlefield Bad Company with an undergraduate degree in knitting... I'd take the guy with experience. Sound jobs are the most rare and hardest to get in the game industry... everyone and their grandma wants to be a game composer or a sound designer. Honestly it ain't all that glamorous and you've got to not mind being behind the scenes, I've been working on GDDs and excel spreadsheets for the last month . If its fame, booze, and babes you want.. become a rock star and not a game composer / sound guy. Rich

Proto - Morricone is an absolute genius in every respect... agree 100%. Ecstacy is my favorite piece of film music ever written I think. Also, I second that if any of you have not seen or heard the man with no name trilogy... just buy em... breathtaking. Also agree with you about film goers and gamers. Why do you think brian tylers score for Rambo melted down into guitar powerchords with the strings playing open fifths? To please the audience even though some of us would prefer the late Jerry Goldsmiths more emotional and subtle action writing. If you really want into this industry... keep swinging and never give up. If a hack like me can make it, you can to... just dont get scared away because of the constant barriage of rejection that happens to us all. Also don't be scared to sound like the other guy if you're paid well enough to do so. Sil - Music is unfortunately not unique for the most part when it comes to game music, we're largely paid to immitate. Can't tell you how many times I've had a producer tell me, "listen to this soundtrack, this is what we want". If you stray too far from that formula they want to hear you're replaced. Hell, this happens all the time in film too... a director will temp track something into the film and asks the composer to follow it so closely its tough to tell the difference. Just listen to Chris Youngs Hard Rain score (great score by the way), and you'll hear hints of Die Hard and Aliens all over the place that are remenants of the temp track. Same goes for Tremors, that composer almost utilized Kamens "Snowmobile Chase" cue from Die Hard 2 note for note in a couple of scenes. Now there are exceptions to this... Jesper Kyd comes to mind but even is signature electronic sound doesnt always fit a project. But listen to the top composers such as Inon Zur and Jeremy Soule... yeah their music definitely kicks more than a little ass, but it has the same vibe at times that other composers already laid the groundwork for and those guys are paid exceptionally well. If a composer wants to attempt to lay the groundwork for a new type of sound.. he might be replaced. Could this change? Sure, and it might now that games have surpassed how much money movies make. Games are being pushed more towards art everyday and if they eventually are accepted as art.. the music can and will have to change, we'll have to see. But for now it's the producers way... or the highway... end of story. Rich

"You should hear the symphobia users talk about their demos on the forums I frequent: "I smashed this out in about an hour" Hmmm....any composer with a good business minded head on his/her shoulders would think that this is a good thing. Well, a bad thing for you since your competition will be producing music far more epic and realistic than yours in a fraction of the time. Being able to produce a very thematic and cinematic piece of music in under an hour is a godsend in my opinion... and all of the demos Ive heard from users on other boards have been pretty stellar and far more than "piano pounding" noise. Those composers by the way are for the most part far more established than you or I... you might want to be a little more mindful of your peers and what they're doing otherwise you wont be able to compete at all. You should know that time is money in our line of work and that more importantly... that you can't judge how good a piece of music is based on the time it took to create it. If thats how you judge music... I feel sorry for you. Some amazing film scores with great hummable themes, POTC included, were done in well under a month (with samples for the most part in the case of Pirates). Not every piece of music has to be a thematic masterpiece that takes hours to compose.... subtle underscore is a very important part of building tension in games and films. Saying that a piece of software like this is going to make your competition suck is just ridiculous... it's quite the opposite actually and it still requires (the 5 or 6 trailer risers excluded) plenty of creativity and orchestration chops to use, especially if you're doing adaptive music structures like I am for audio engines like Wwise. Jesus, do you think I just hit a c# to produce the themes in the pieces I posted? If only it were that easy. lol, if you'd give it a shot rather than bash it I'm 100% certain you'd change your tune. "all of these sample libraries are simply tools that have their positives and negatives that change from person to person. whats important in music is the thought and emotion thats put into it. whatever tools help us there, i'm all for." Amen. Exactly! Even more importantly, the music has got to suit the project otherwise it throws the player out... doesn't matter what tools are utilized to do this as long as this is achieved. Alright my rant is over, sorry to sort of pick on you Dan... meant nothing hostile by it. Rich

Exactly what this thread needed... a little humor . Nice! Glad you dug my music, thanks. I own the new play version of Gold Complete and while I think it sounds alright (damn the iLok though!)... everyone is using it these days and the samples just arent as powerful as those found in Symphobia. Also, maybe it's just me, but I HATE HATE HATE the play engine for an onslaught of reasons, though the Gold samples do sound better than ever within it. It should be said too that Symphobia does play well with other libraries... here's a new horror piece I did a couple of days ago mixing Gold with Symph: Vampire Hunting: http://www.richdouglas.net/rifts/Rifts3_VampireHunting_RD.mp3 All of the percussion came from Gold, and everything else is Symph.... There's no way in hell, in my opinion, the samples in Gold or Platinum can even come close to this sort of raw realistic power. On my dell inspiron laptop with 2 gigs of ram, I had both play and symph running on a total of 20 tracks... with absolutely no memory issues. A memory whore it's not. Also, the way the library was recorded far surpasses EWQL in every respect. The instruments have verb, but arent overpowered by it... they also sound much better placed in the hall than the EWQL instruments. So the result is a very nicely spaced out virtual orchestra. It's a very subtle thing thats hard to explain, but listen to these cues I've done on headphones and you'll hear what I mean. Yes, some of the FX like the trailer risers will be overused for years to come.. but isnt that the case with the loops in stylus RMX, Stormdrum, or the patches in Gold? I hear gold and RMX all over the place in commercials, games, and trailers all the time... thats just how all sample libraries are, over used. Though if said FX patches are used sparingly to back up orchestration rather than on their own... the result is simply amazing... if your orchestration chops are there...you have a very realistic lush horror score sound on par with the likes of Jerry Goldsmith, Chris Young, James Newton Howard, or Marco Beltrami. Rich

Nope... no solo patches. It is expensive.. but thats to weed out the hobbyists... the sound of symphobia is unrivaled by any library currently out there. As you probably know, you get what you pay for when it comes to sample libraries and with this one you're paying for the amazing sound quality, the extensive FX patches, and a library that is very epic in nature. Just because it's not an all in one sort of thing like EWQL Gold or Platinum certainly shouldn't scare you off... it's worth the price. You can see a complete program list here: http://www.projectsam.com/files/documents/ProjectSAM_Symphobia_Program_List.pdf Here's another one I did and mixed in a stylus rmx patch.. everything else is from Symphobia. The drone and the duduk are from the additional patches within the library. Did it in well under an hour and it definitely needs some mixing / mastering love but it's not too bad. http://www.richdouglas.net/rifts/Rifts2_TrackingBillyUnfal_RD.mp3 Rich

Zircon - I utilized the combined string / brass staccatos for the fight cue, then layered an extra set of string staccatos to fatten up the mix a bit. The library has a section in which the string and brass section were recorded together rather than layered in post. So everything sounds very real and natural. Then to add more realism I added in some of the FX patches... which are very extensive. The FX patches are worth the price of admission alone and really add a lot of credibility to compositions if used properly. Also, they have some fantastic low range sections such as low string and brass staccatos, low string sustains, and low string sustains with a bass synth added in for extra punch. I used those patches throughout the fight cue as well. It should be said too that Symphobia is not a memory hog like EWQL. I had close to 14 instruments loaded on my laptop with 2 gigs of ram... and had tons of memory to spare. Prototype - Thanks! The library is divided up into sections and has a brass / string combined section I mentioned above. So you have your tuba, bones, horns, and trumpets in one set of articulations laid out tutti style. You have your basses, celli, violas, violins in one set of articulations laid out tutti style, and you have the woodwinds laid out tutti style. Also, there are string and horn patches with pre played open fiths, minor / major chords which totally rock and are very usable for extremely lush cues. On top of that there are full blown orchestral risers, hits, stabs, clusters, FX, etc etc that really help to add tons of weight and fight the synthy sound most libraries fall victim to. There are a few violin only patches, and a couple of horn marcato patches but for the most part it is an ensemble library. Honestly, most of us are layering instruments in such a way to fatten up our orchestrations anyhow... so this library is a godsend and makes things go much quicker. It is "hans zimmer in a box" without a doubt, but a ton of other film composers such as Christopher Young and the late Jerry Goldsmith layer ensembles like this. There's a pdf on the project sam site that lists out all of the articulations if you're curious. Can't say this enough. It's well worth the money and has some of the most realistic strings ever heard. Rich

Fair enough, to each their own. In my opinion... and in the opinion of every other pro composer I've talked to about it, this blows every other library completely away. The sound quality is far more vibrant, epic, and realistic than any patch in EWQL. On top of that the playability is far superior. Symphobia is totally made for that huge epic summer blockbuster / horror film sound, which is what most game producers want anyhow. So if you're looking for something more intimate... definitely pass. Personally I compose using ensembles quite a bit when under a time crunch so this was a godsend, especially since the sound quality is unlike anything else I've ever heard sample wise.

A while back there was a thread going around about the new Project Sam library Symphobia.... it's far more than what some thought it was. It's NOT just a sketch pad, if used properly it is more than capable of producing production quality work for film, tv, and games. That said, if you can afford it and are hoping to be more than a hobbyist... GET IT! It's worth every penny! Here are a couple of pieces I've done with it over the last 24 hours: EVERYTHING you hear is from symphobia, Nightmare was done in 1 hour, and Handy Fight was done in 3. Nightmare: http://www.richdouglas.net/rifts/Nightmare.mp3 Handy Fight: http://www.richdouglas.net/rifts/Rifts1_HandyFight_RD.mp3 Handy Fight - with no editing or processing, this is how it sounds right out of the box. http://www.richdouglas.net/rifts/HandyFight_RD_NOPROCESS.mp3 Admitedly it can take quite a bit of effort to make it sound really good, you have to have some decent mastering chops. But it does sound good right out of the box. Another thing to note, this set IS NOT for beginners. If you dont know how to properly orchestrate and use the effects with the orchestra properly it will sound like noise rather than music. If you're thinking about going pro, I can't reccomend this lib enough, good stuff. Rich

Already sent this one to Jill, but thought I'd go ahead and post it here. Like my remixes here at OCR, it's extremely cinematic in nature. Red July - In Pursuit Mix http://www.richdouglas.net/audio/RedJuly_InPursuitMix.mp3 Red July - In Pursuit Mix - Orchestra Only http://www.richdouglas.net/audio/RedJuly_InPursuitMix_JustOrchestra.mp3 I call it "In Pursuit Mix" because I envisioned this mix being utilzed for a hypothetical scene in a film in which a man is in pursuit of his missing love... more or less like the final scene in Last of the Mohicans. Enjoy! Rich

Nice! Damn, hate it when that happens... sometimes you get a great theme going and realize half way through it's from x film score or y song. Suck. Nice arrangement. Rich

Not if I have anything to say about it. Good luck everybody! Rich

I submitted this one last week, but figured I'd go ahead and release it here as I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. Just like my past remixes, I've taken a piece of music and reorchestrated it so that it feels more like a movie theme and is more epic in sound. I replaced the bell / synth lead descending line with a mysterious cello crescendo / decrescendo line and added in more orchestration to beef up the mix as a whole. Also added is a bass swell synth to give it more of that B-Movie feel. The granular synthesis that open and close the cue represent the mask itself, are completely original and not found in any sample library. Enjoy! Here's the original from the genesis chiptune: http://www.richdouglas.net/audio/SplatterHouse3_MainTheme.mp3 My version - "Call of the Mask" http://www.richdouglas.net/audio/CallOfTheMask_RD.mp3 Rich

Hmmm... Gold is definitely capable of sounding better than this. Try playing some of the instruments by hand as the piece sounds far too sequenced and mechanical to me. Also, I agree that you may be using some of these patches incorrectly.. it sounds like you're using legato patches for some of the staccato motifs and some of the string patches are too slow for such fast attacks. Gold has a nice arsenal of fast / short articulations that would be far more suited for that fast type of writing. Lastly, be sure to utilize the timpani and Gold's stage mic'd wagner bass drum to accent the hits towards the end of the cue, it's too tinny at the moment and needs more bass. If memory is an issue, don't be afraid to do the song in sections or layers. It takes some time to do, as does freezing, but it will give you more of a realistic sound and allow you to utilize Gold to its fullest extent. Solid arrangement though, nice work. Rich

That does sound familiar though I can't quite place it. Its got hints of Moby's Porcelain for sure. Sounds cool regardless. Rich

Just bit the bullet and ordered it. Personally.. I feel that like it's far more than just a sketchbook and will get lots of playtime from the likes of me. Then again, it really fits my composing style... and I usually work under very tight schedules so being able to load up one patch that covers my entire brass section will be fantastic for action / suspense writing that will no doubt make the producers happy. Hell, the effects alone make this worth the price of admission IMO. On top of that, it's the first library I've heard that gives Zimmers / Media Ventures personal sample lib a run for its money sound wise.. good stuff. As stated before.. this is a great supplement to an already established pallete of sounds and not an all in one kinda thing. Just ran across this video from NAMM which helps to explain it a bit more: http://www.chrishein.net/musikmesse08/musikmesse08_seiten/vid_projectsam.htm Rich

In my spare time aside from remixes I also do podcast music for http://www.commanderbond.net as I'm an avid bond fan. The last couple of cues I did, which are posted below, were concepts for Quantum of Solace and utilize the minimal electronics / orchestra / rythym section style David Arnold had going on in Casino Royale. Enjoy! QoS - Hypothetical Gunbarrel http://www.richdouglas.net/bond/Gunbarrel_QoS_RD.mp3 QoS - The Exchange http://www.richdouglas.net/bond/TheExchange_QoS_RD.mp3 Rich

Thought I'd start a thread dedicated to the 21st conceptual music competition so all of us who are participating can post our pieces for all to hear for fun or feedback until the competition wraps up. Here's what I came up with CMC21: Determination Submission Title: The Final Play Submission Location: http://www.richdouglas.net/audio/Ric...Play_CMC21.mp3 Description / Story: It was the final 15 seconds of the game, time enough for one more play and all they needed was one touchdown to win. All of the stadium lights glared brightly down on the players as the coach called a timeout, this one play would change the lives of many of these kids as a handful of recruitment people from colleges all over the country were watching. The coach walks to the center of the huddle: "Alright boys, this is it... I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass here, you know what to do. You need to have pure, solid determination to win here and to succeed at life. No matter what kind of shit you're in, always follow your dreams! Lets go win this thing." Definitely hints of Jerry Goldsmith and Basil Poledouris in there. Anyone else have anything done yet? Rich

It's not a very easy process truthfully and has taken me close to 5 years to accomplish. The main things you need are as follows: -Talent -Luck -Experience (be it big name mods or game titles... I scored large Half Life 2 mods like Insurgency and Eclipse both of which helped me immensely) -A kick ass / pro website that sells you very well -the ability to market yourself like a champ -Extensive knowledge of all genres of music (namely orchestral) and how to properly sequence / master said music -Extensive knowledge of sample libs and sample programming -A competitive set of samples... soundfonts WILL NOT WORK and will impress no one. You've got to sound pro in order to be pro. When it comes to sample libraries.. you get what you pay for. -Luck -And... did i mention LUCK!?! It's tough to get your foot in the door, but once you do it gets a bit easier to find work. Everyone and their grandmother wants to do music for games these days... and unfortunately everyone is utilizing the same sample libraries (EWQL Gold anyone?). So you have got to find a way to master your music to make it sound better and more realistic and set yourself apart by using lesser known sample libs or more pro libs like Project SAMs new Symphobia. Good luck! Rich

Am I serious? lol... yes, very. I charge around $1100 per completed minute of music and am working on getting representation which will up that rate a bit more. Ive got 5 shipped titles and 3 years of game music / sound experience... currently not an issue getting a gig at those rates. If you have the right connections, your music is good enough, and some luck... its not hard at all to have people accept such rates. You're just not working on large enough titles yet, which is just fine... everyone has got to start somewhere! Once you get up to doing music for AAA titles those rates are nothing to respectable game companies with decent budgets. It's not unheard of to be put on a project for a month and make 30K! Somone who has no experience orshipped titles under their belt should NOT be asking for those higher rates... you'll be laughed off the phone. If you have 3+ shipped titles under your belt.. then yes, you can ask for that rate and its not an issue. Not to blow my own horn here.. but listen to my remixes... they're both on par with or better than music heard in current gen titles and part of the reason Im able to ask for such a rate. Composing music can be a very lucrative business. Check around and you might be surprised... the likes of Jeremy Soule, Inon Zur, Jesper Kid, etc etc are pulling in between $300k and 1 million a year, do the math. However, that doesnt mean you will be pulling that kind of cash in if you become a game composer... it takes patience, the ability to sell yourself, talent, and as stated before... loads of luck! 80% of the time your selling yourself to other people so they pay for your services rather than composing music, so If you're not willing to ask more for your music cause you dont think it's good enough, get better! Hear what the competition is doing musically and make sure your music is on par with that samples / sound wise and orchestration wise. Rich

Hmmmmm... I've been in the game industry for 4 years, and after being ripped off once before several years ago I can safely say this does indeed sound rather fishy. Loveable, since you're having technical difficulties with drawings and such how about giving some info about your company and what system specifically your title is going to be released on. What other titles have you done? What systems were they on? Hell, whats the name of your company? Where in the dev cycle are you in this game? Can you send interested musicians your GDD, ADD, or LDDs so they have any idea as for what sort of vibe the game is going to be? (if you know what those even are). "But honestly, be creative. It can have any feel to it. This is just the into theme song. I would kind of like it a little action packed and exciting, but as long as I enjoy the song, I'm happy with it." Have any feel to it? Come on, thats not a very professional approach... as the creative director of your "studio" you'd think you would have a better idea as to what the vibe of the music has got to be. On top of that, it isn't about what sounds good to you.. its what works the best with your game and will help to engross the player in your games story. You make a game for the gamers... not for yourself. 4 people on 7 titles? Impossible... and utterly rediculous. I work at a company with 60 people and takes us no less than two years to create an Xbox 360 title thats fully fleshed out. Also, another word to all of you up and coming musicians interested in this... even a low end "green" composer in the biz should be making no less than $500 to $700 per completed minute of music. Technically speaking you should be getting around $1500 to do 3 minutes.. and thats really low balling you, this is a rip off and an insult. Chances are you wont be seeing any part of this cash as once your music is posted they can simply steal it.. though there are ways to take legal action against it. Always be cautious! Rich

Agreed. Its never in any way too late to get into music! Hell, I was almost through college 7 years ago, picked up an Alesis QS 6.1 synthesizer and found out I had an ear for it. Never had one bit of training... learned all of my music theory from collecting / listening to film scores and ended up scoring short films in film school with that synth. Eventually I got into software sampling and now I compose music and do audio professionally for games. NEVER TOO LATE. Pick up an instrument and start playing... you might surprise yourself. The hardest part is learning the software, programming, and mastering skills to make your music sound pro. Rich