Music + visuals (found.dig.med)

Question 1

Music for visual media

Answer 1

Music for games = very similar to music for film. - It has visual imagery + sound.
However, the difference between music for games vs. Movies is: music for games can be a simple recording, or it can be interactive and triggered.

MIDDLEWARE = A connection between a game engine and the audio/sound engine. They can be separate, and are often put together in one single bit of software, but sometimes they’re separate when being generated.
So, middleware = the interpretation between what’s going on in the game and also what’s being generated with the sound.

So these things can be put together, or they can be put separately.
Middleware can affect how composers work.

Question 2

ELIAS - (a DAW)

Answer 2

The software looks a bit like Ableton live since it is compartmentalised into little sections.
But it’s different to Ableton – It’s adaptive and adjusts the music that’s being generated based on the parameters that are put into it.
So, with ableton, if you’re doing a live performance you might trigger things with a launch pad. Take the pad away and interface it to your music software and all the triggers that come in will then adapt the music to suit what is going on.
How does this compare to music for film?:- Often it is pre-composed, fixed. Music in a game might play for a minute 50 secs and then loop again, from a traditional gaming point of view. But in this context, we’re saying that it’s not going to be the same twice.
If there’s something that differs in the game, it will actually differ the sound of the music.

Question 3

What is adaptive music?

Answer 3

Something which can adjust to suit the context.
Background music whose volume, rhythm, or tune changes in response to specific events in the game.

Question 4

What is EastWest Sounds?

Answer 4

A type of adaptive audio.
Recordings of real instruments, but they’ve adapted them so that they’re cut up into segments and stitched together seamlessly.
A useful tool for advertising and backing tracks.

It can generate instruments such as choirs, marimba, strings, and glockenspiel.