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Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

blog.gingerbeardman.com

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Re: Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

#11

Post by msephton »

devmunchies wrote: post #6

> I mostly use royalty free music of Japanese origin Like what? I’d like to hear what royalty free Japanese music sounds like.

Here's the music that I used in my most recent game (which I call: Fore! Track): https://twitter.com/gingerbeardman/status/173255553386375169...

This track is by an amazing, long-standing musician that goes by the name watson and I listened to their entire catalogue and made a playlist of my favourites to be able to easily select a piece that fits any game I'm working on. Their umbrella website MusMus is https://musmus.main.jp and whilst you'll need to run browser translation on the site you will see all their music sorted across many categories. That said, it is definitely easier to listen to their music through the albums they've released on streaming platforms: Spotify and Apple Music for certain, and probably others. They're also on YouTube.

Of course, there are many more Japanese services and people writing great royalty free music. Another of my games used royalty free music by a young Japanese musician named YuyakeMonster, again picked specifically to fit a particular game: https://soundcloud.com/mac-vogelsang/sets/sparrow-solitaire

Re: Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

#13

Post by mortenjorck »

While not as procedurally advanced as some of the techniques explored here, in my opinion the absolute pinnacle of dynamic music in video games is the soundtrack to Mount Wario in Mario Kart 8.

While the level itself (an unusual point-to-point, highly vertical course) is its own masterclass in terms of game design, the music, comprising three separate movements, each with its own clever way of masking the transition to the next, is unparalleled in ramping up the excitement and drama in concert with the gameplay.

A short video on the music of Mount Wario: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8TBS75U1p8

A longer deep-dive into the music theory of the score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6K4NiDP04I

Re: Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

#15

Post by msephton »

mortenjorck wrote: post #13

While not as procedurally advanced as some of the techniques explored here, in my opinion the absolute pinnacle of dynamic music in video games is the soundtrack to Mount Wario in Mario Kart 8. While the level itself (an unusual point-to-point, highly vertical course) is its own masterclass in terms of game design, the music, comprising three separate movements, each with its own clever way of masking the transition…

Fantastic, Mount Wario is the greatest!

Re: Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

#16

Post by jader201 »

I just recently played Nier Automata for the first time, and was amazed by not only the soundtrack, but the way it handle dynamically changing as you interact with other characters, or when certain story elements are triggered.

There’s even an in-game jukebox that lets you explore the music, and it’s crazy to see how nested it gets based on different environments.

Definitely recommend checking out if you, like me, are elevated by games with great music.

Re: Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

#18

Post by msephton »

palemoonale wrote: post #12

I thought about for long how SFX in f.e. airsims are done nowadays: different engine characteristics are just one thing. Are there still samples / recordings involved? Same with racing or train sims.

I expect so, but it would depend on the game. I know they still use engine samples (and probably hugely advanced systems for playing them back) in car racing games like Gran Turismo.

Re: Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

#19

Post by pengaru »

palemoonale wrote: post #12

I thought about for long how SFX in f.e. airsims are done nowadays: different engine characteristics are just one thing. Are there still samples / recordings involved? Same with racing or train sims.

You might find this software interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKT-sKtR970

I don't know if any of the state of the art flight/driving simulators are doing this kind of engine noise synthesis already, but they should be.

Re: Dynamic music and sound techniques for video games

#20

Post by thom »

Razengan wrote: post #2

Nothing will beat IMUSE from Monkey Island 2. Maybe because of the way MIDI worked versus the "pre-rendered" audio used today? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjtxK_WT784

Yeah there was a big push towards this in the 90s, I seem to remember the Wing Commander games and Ultima Underworld trying it. It's a similar tragedy to voiceovers in games - RPGs had increasingly interesting dialogue systems, Wizardry and Ultima would let you talk to NPCs using keywords or whole sentences. Voice acting killed that entirely. One can only hope that the era of LLMs brings back some of this interactivity.
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