Listen, learn, make.

teaching and learning, game audio, sound effects and music. by jason rosenblum. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-35813476-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

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Alien Rescue Final video

Final video from Alien Rescue on Vimeo.

I also did the sound and music for the ending video to Alien Rescue. Students see this video once they've completed finding homes for the aliens

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Alien Rescue Introduction

Alien Rescue Introduction from Alien Rescue on Vimeo.

I thought I'd post a couple of example of my own musical work. Here's a link to the introductory video to Alien Rescue, a problem-based learning game developed at the University of Texas at Austin, where I've been going to grad school. I scored the music to this cool vid that setup the problem statement of the game. Props to the AR team: http://alienrescue.edb.utexas.edu/about.php

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Assignment #3 Game Soundscape

So, my students have finished their game soundscapes for their third assignment. A lot of great work this round. Here's an example of a 'horror' soundscape by Tyler Shaw:

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This is an example of student work from the first assignment. I gave them the monster and stomp sounds and found public domain battle sounds on Freesound.org. Great going, Jackie!

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The Fall 2013 Digital Audio & Music course is underway!

Once again, I'm very excited to have a new group of students in the game sound class. A lot of people here are game studies majors, and I look forward to their upcoming work. As was the case last term, the first assignment is all about getting familiar with Reaper. I put up another video to walk people through a new Reaper project.

Their assignment = assemble the sound effects needed to convey a "giant monster soundscape"! I furnished the monster and the battle sounds--they do the rest. Check out the overview. I'll be back with student examples.

IGST 2325 2013 - Assignment #1 overview from Jason Rosenblum on Vimeo.

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This next example is titled 'Bond Video Game Soundtrack'.  Laney created a soundtrack that could easily accompany an old-school style Bond shooter.  Take a listen!

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So, I know that we're now into the spring term, but I'd like to post a few really great examples of final project student work from the class.  I asked everyone to come up with a soundscape for a videogame.  They came up with the game idea and worked from a basic structure for the project.  The rest was completely up to them.

The first example comes from PonchTunes on Soundcloud.  It's a soundscape for a platformer.

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Student soundscape example - GTA style!

In the second of these examples I like to present a soundscape by Victor. Victor decided to do a soundscape that was in the spirit of something that you might hear in Grand Theft Auto. Seriously, I never expected anyone to do a soundscape of a carjacking – – but hey, it made me laugh – – repeatedly.

http://soundcloud.com/vcharles24/intro-to-digital-music-audio/s-EAe5n

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Student Soundscape - Industrial setting

In the first of these examples, I’d like to present a soundscape by Laney.  Laney put together a soundscape in a “game noir” type of setting, in which someone is being followed through a dark industrial scene. I really recommend listening to this with headphones, so that you can hear the heartbeat in the scene.

http://soundcloud.com/laney-santana/game-soundscape-assignment

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Student examples - Assignment #3

Last week, I promised to share with everybody examples from my student assignments in which they created soundscape’s. I asked people in class last week if they would mind if I shared some of these examples and a couple of people have sent me links to their published soundscapes.  And so, I’m very pleased to present the work of two students in class – – Victor and Laney. I really like both of these soundscape’s, and both of these examples reflect work by students who went way above and beyond the call of the assignment.  Nice work, y'all!

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Sweet words of music...

Well, I suppose it’s probably not going to come as too much of a surprise, but I actually spent a lot longer on this topic than I had originally planned. Like I said, big surprise. I had actually budgeted two classes for this, but I was hoping to get this in one class.  Well, let’s just say that didn’t happen. However, we wound up covering a lot of ground and over two classes discussed musical emphasis, musical form, exposition and development, and the idea of musical destiny.  Following the Connexions course, I introduced the idea musical emphasis through the perspective of duration, musical changes, musical extremes, and what’s known as rhetorical reinforcement (where music and visuals are purposely synced). 

We also talked about different musical forms (re: A vs A/B vs A/B/C, etc.) and we got into an animated discussion about exposition versus development. I actually really had a lot of fun with this concept, because we used the built-in examples on the website, which Prof. Brandt has displayed in a quiz like fashion. I played examples for the class and asked them which parts of the examples demonstrated use of exposition versus development. Then, we took it one step farther and I asked students to get into groups and come up with their own examples of game music and analyze that music from the perspective of exposition and development. That turned out to be an animated discussion. Frankly, I learned a lot in the process, because many of the examples that students brought up were not necessarily straightforward. I wish we had more time to spend talking about these ideas, but I did ask that students find a piece of music they could use in their next assignment and analyze that music from a sound reasoning perspective.  Their journal entries are due tomorrow—I’m looking forward to reading them, and I hope they got something from the process

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Sound Reasoning & Music Listening Connexions

So, I’d like to resume talking about introducing my class to sound reasoning, from the perspective of music listening. I wanted to get at the question of, “what is music?” And the way that I decided to approach this was to ask students to continue their music listening, but to use a vocabulary that was consistent with a music listening approach. I decided, since I did not furnish the text on this topic, to take them to the Connexions website.  

Connexions is a site that is sponsored by Rice University, and contains open-source educational content that is peer-reviewed. The site contains a module on “sound reasoning”, which is a Connexions music appreciation “course” created by Anthony Brandt a professor at Rice University. It is incredibly informative and I thought provided a really great introduction to the idea of using a specialized descriptive language to talk about music.   

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Daphne Oram -- innovative genius

So, I also decided to share some background on a genius, Daphne Oram--an innovative thinker who built what was called the "Oramics" machine--an optical synthesizer.  http://daphneoram.org/category/news/ .  This machine was the first--and only one of its kind.  Oram designed a process to make music by drawing on 35mm film--a technique that is now known as "oramics" : http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb09/articles/oramics.htm .  The machine itself is pictured below. 

So, you might be asking--why is this relevant?  My answer for my students--this device is an early progenitor of synthesizers that my class now has at their disposal.  We must understand the inspiration behind the tools that we use today, and develop an appreciation for the kind of innovative thinking that made machines like the oramics machine possible.  After all, you can only innovate by thinking outside the proverbial musical box. 

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“Well, that’s exactly like a game.”

Said one student after a discussion about the Pavillion.

I thought--Eureka! Someone else besides me has made this connection.

The reason I brought up the idea of music and space is that I though it had direct relevance to what students would have to think about as they went through the process of designing sound for games.  I was elated to hear one of the follow-up comments to the discussion, following an explanation about how someone’s experience of sound could change as they walked through a space like that.   

So, here it is.  Sound and physical spaces are connected.  And so, music and physical space can also be connected.  People sometimes describe this as spatialization of sound. So, why can’t the same be true for music and games? It’s certainly true for sound in a game – – when one designs a soundscape one has to design sound to fit a dynamic, changing environment. The same is true-- or can be true for music.  I just hope that I can help students to explore this concept.

It is utterly fascinating to me to think about music as something that is not just simply a “thing to put in the background” as you play. It should immerse you, and carry you along on a journey…

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Photo Source: Andrea Valle et al: http://smcnetwork.org/files/proceedings/2010/40.pdf

I mean, imagine it. This was an art installation in which this piece was designed to be played at the same time as the electronic poem by Edgard Varese.  Both pieces work to sound concurrently in the space.  As you walked through the space, the sound moved and changed around you.  So, what did all of this background has to do with the class whose focus was in designing sound for games?

Well, this was the question that I asked my students. I think that I realized in the middle of my talk and discussion, that the very idea of using music within a physical space was different. I realized then, that the more popular notion of the use of music in space had, of course, been the use of music in a theater. In fact, I got the question, “how is this different from surround sound in a theater?” I admit, I was at first a bit surprised until I realized that if you haven’t stepped foot into a museum exhibit in which you were surrounded by sound; in which you were engulfed physically by the experience of hearing music being shaped around you as you move through a space, this might not make any sense.  Valle, Tazelaar & Lombardo’s architectural schematic of the placement of loudspeakers within the space tell us that the sound is being directed from all places above around to the sides. The fact that the architects and artists of the Pavilion thought so deeply about the placement of the speakers and of the person’s experience as they moved through that space was to me very deeply compelling.

Thanks to: Valle, Tazelaar & Lombardo (2010). “IN A CONCRETE SPACE. RECONSTRUCTING THE SPATIALIZATION OF IANNIS XENAKIS’ CONCRET PH ON A MULTICHANNEL SETUP”.  Proceedings of the 2010 Sound and Music Computing Conference.

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Start with a sound made up of many particles, then see how you can make it change imperceptibly, growing and developing, until an entirely new sound results…

Iannis Xenakis on Granular Synthesis

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Why talk about Xenakis and Varese?

Glad you asked. Both of these composers wrote pieces that were played-- in fact, designed to be played for the 1958 world’s fair in Brussels Belgium.  The location was called the Philips Pavilion, and Concret Ph was “created to be diffused” throughout that space. 

The amazing thing about this piece, is that it served as the beginnings of what has been come to be known as granular synthesis – – a key technique that is used in samplers, such as the one used for my class, namely Kontakt by Native Instruments.  Granular synthesis is the process of manipulating individual “grains” of sound-- changing them, morphing them, etc.  Concret Ph was the first piece that used this technique, by manipulating tiny little samples of burning charcoal. Yes, that’s right--crackling, burning charcoal.  According to spatial sound researchers, Concret Ph was a…

“a textural composition…a cloud filled with splinters of sound” reminiscent of the Pavilion’s concrete floor”

Source: http://smcnetwork.org/files/proceedings/2010/40.pdf Valle, Tazelaar & Lombardo (2010). “IN A CONCRETE SPACE. RECONSTRUCTING THE SPATIALIZATION OF IANNIS XENAKIS’ CONCRET PH ON A MULTICHANNEL SETUP”.  Proceedings of the 2010 Sound and Music Computing Conference.