Teacher: Josh Rai
Morten Holland
Unit 73
Task 1 + 2 Understanding the use of music within games and the methodology of recording and production.
Compare and contrast the following game soundtracks:
The Last of Us
Set in the post-apocalyptic United States, the game tells the story of survivors Joe and Ellie as they work together to survive their westward journey across what remains of the country to find a possible cure for the modern fungal plague that has nearly decimated the entire human race.
I would say that the main theme for 'The Last of Us' suits the game very well, due to the fact that very few instruments are used. This creates a very emotional and bare feeling to the soundtrack, which compliments the game very well because the game is set in an apocalyptic environment and many scenes are very emotional. The use of spanish guitar creates a hollow and depressed feeling, in my opinion. It sounds very similar to a spaghetti western piece of music which helps the game out a lot because the characters come across many western themed moments in the game. I also think that the song portrays the characters' feelings too, which may be depressed, desolated and lost. The song also uses Foley sounds such as someone walking on grass at 0:38. I think the creator of this song/piece of music tried very hard to create the post apocalyptic atmosphere that is in the song, and i think its the most emotional song I've ever heard. The creator really wanted us to have an experience playing this game and his soundtrack really helped it do so. I think this song used a few digital sounds to add greater depth.
"Less is more. Strip all that away. Then when a sound hits, it's really impactful."
-http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/23/4457258/naughty-dog-discusses-sound-and-music-in-the-last-of-us
Halo 2
Fun Fact: The Halo 2 Mjolnir Mix was a playable song on Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock.
The beginning of the Halo 2 Mjolnir Mix gave me feelings of Skyrim, due to the choir singing at the start. At this point, the song is slow paced, calm and not so intense. I would describe it as ancient and holy, but when the electric guitar and drums came into play, it gave the song a theme of war, in my opinion. This goes well with the game too because the game is about alien races in an ongoing war against humanity. The song then descends into a metal rock song, which is a huge change of pace and rhythm. The song's intensity also dramatically changes. This all happens when the electric guitar and the drums enter the song. The electric guitar in the song made me think of a 'Drangonforce' (a heavy metal band) song called "Through the Fire and the Flames". I think this song may have used some digital sounds to accompany the instruments.
I think that the 2 songs are wildly different. The Halo 2 song will have released on an older console so it will be more compressed so it can fit better on the console, whereas The Last Of Us released on a very recent console, which means it will be a lot more detailed and and won't be as compressed and will have a higher bit depth than the Halo 2 song. The Last of Us will also have been on a Blu-ray disk and i think it would be categorized as surround sound. It will also have took up a lot more RAM and a higher file size because of the amount of detail in the song, compared to the Halo 2 song. I think that The Last of Us's song will be a PCM file type due to its high quality, and the Halo 2 song will be a WAV file type due to it coming out on an outdated console.
Both songs or pieces will be copywritten or trade marked by Microsoft (Halo 2) and Sony (The Last of Us) and the music won't be legally usable on anything other than the game, unless the companies give permission to do so.
The beginning of the Halo 2 Mjolnir Mix gave me feelings of Skyrim, due to the choir singing at the start. At this point, the song is slow paced, calm and not so intense. I would describe it as ancient and holy, but when the electric guitar and drums came into play, it gave the song a theme of war, in my opinion. This goes well with the game too because the game is about alien races in an ongoing war against humanity. The song then descends into a metal rock song, which is a huge change of pace and rhythm. The song's intensity also dramatically changes. This all happens when the electric guitar and the drums enter the song. The electric guitar in the song made me think of a 'Drangonforce' (a heavy metal band) song called "Through the Fire and the Flames". I think this song may have used some digital sounds to accompany the instruments.
I think that the 2 songs are wildly different. The Halo 2 song will have released on an older console so it will be more compressed so it can fit better on the console, whereas The Last Of Us released on a very recent console, which means it will be a lot more detailed and and won't be as compressed and will have a higher bit depth than the Halo 2 song. The Last of Us will also have been on a Blu-ray disk and i think it would be categorized as surround sound. It will also have took up a lot more RAM and a higher file size because of the amount of detail in the song, compared to the Halo 2 song. I think that The Last of Us's song will be a PCM file type due to its high quality, and the Halo 2 song will be a WAV file type due to it coming out on an outdated console.
Both songs or pieces will be copywritten or trade marked by Microsoft (Halo 2) and Sony (The Last of Us) and the music won't be legally usable on anything other than the game, unless the companies give permission to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment