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Composing for TL's latest BW tournament
It's been a little too long since I last blogged. Previously I was talking about pitching for projects as part of the business, and I actually had an interesting experience since my last post which highlights one of the points which I was making, but I'll leave that for next time.
This is about one of my recent projects which was to compose the music to a hype video for the TeamLiquid Legacy Starleague- a BroodWar tournament. Have a look here for that tournament thread and go sign up, play, they're happening every week for 6 months so there's plenty of time to get some good practice in! Even if you don't think you'll win just challenge yourself, and you may be capable of more than you think.
This blog does, joyfully, come with a video which shows you inside the project and in which I talk about various different aspects. Check it out:
I really enjoyed this project because I love gaming in general, and have played and watched BW for a very long time. As a fan it's great to be directly involved and it was very rewarding to give my particular expertise and to feel that I was capable of raising the overall standard of this tournament series, even in a small way. Like with everything I do, I had a concept in mind and was not willing to compromise it, and my concept pushed me to challenge myself and widen the scope for what I can create.
Challenging myself technically
One element which jumped to mind first when I watched a draft of the video was the electronic circuit and spaceship sounds which are heard throughout the first 30 seconds of the video or so. Those of you who haven't watched the video above can hear that by itself here. Rather than trying to source some kind of engine sounds, I wanted to create my own. There were a few important reasons for this.
Firstly, a drop-in sound never, ever gives you the versatility which you need to make something really fit as you imagine it. If you can create all the elements of what you want, understand how they work and then play them like an instrument, you can make this virtual spaceship behave exactly as you like. I had a very clear sound and concept in my head which I really wasn't prepared to compromise. I know from experience that things go wrong when I ignore my concept, sometimes to the point where the music has to be binned and I have to start again.
Secondly, any sounds which I could have found would most likely have been downloaded and used plenty of times already, detracting from the originality of the soundtrack. It's a big turn-off to hear recycled sounds in what is supposed to be original work to a professional standard.
Thirdly, I am an absolute nerd when it comes to creating my own sounds. I think it's fascinating and exciting to learn more about the technology and possibilities, and time spent becoming more versatile and self-reliant is always worthwhile. I hate trying to source something premade which exactly matches what I imagine. It's impossible, leads to disappointment and wastes a lot of time. The technology and information is all there if you're determined enough, to create any sound for any purpose so that it can be completely malleable to your needs. You then not only have exactly what you wanted but you've also contributed more knowledge and skills to your own bank of abilities, which you can call on any time in the future. If I ever want to create engine and space sounds again I have a great starting point and a foundation to work from. If I'd have downloaded some free sounds off the internet, I'd be stuck with that same one-shot uninspiring set of stuff to work with.
So, I set about creating my own spaceship take-off using synths. Genuinely this was a challenge for me because it was a first. I have only been familiar with working with synths for a year or two now, and they've always been for musical purposes. To create the sounds I imagined not just what an engine sounds like, but what it looks like and what it does. From there I broke it down and created air rushing, turning fans, low/mid vibrations and included electrical noises since this would be a heavily computerised machine.
Then I had to think about the space which it occupies. A lot of the electrical sounds were very immediate as if being heard from within the cockpit, whilst the engine sounds are designed as if being heard up-close but within a larger space. However, as the logo lands it goes into a new phase where the ship blasts off. This now sounds as if it is from some distance, with a low engine boom followed by the burning of the engines heard here. This coincides with a change of perspective to the whole logo, gives the logo some sense of size, space and impact. It's literally the sound of the tournament taking off.
Fanservice
What would be the point in having a bespoke soundtrack if it didn't contain something that would only work for this video? The countdown sounds, logo landing, "Championship" text whoosh and epic speech (that's an archon by the way), are all taken from within the game directly and then manipulated to fit the project, which helps it to feel BroodWar-y even in this very modern setting. A part of me wanted to do a spiced up adaptation of one of the Terran themes for this, but the desire to make something original was too strong. However, the piece does take cues from the BW music throughout.
The choir is there because the Protoss soundtrack is choir heavy. The same goes for the orchestra elements, which feature strongly in both Terran and Protoss soundtracks. The guitar and the style of the guitar line is also in reference to the Terran and Zerg soundtracks. Nothing is referenced too directly, but I wanted the sound to feel like it was spawned from StarCraft 17 years down the line. When I'm composing for a project, I have to give some very good reason why I'm there, taking longer and costing more than simply a licensed track. A finely tailored sonic identity is a huge part of the product, since any half decent composer should be able to throw together some sort of "epic" trailer style track and there's already a huge number of those out there ready to be licensed and dropped into the video.
The Final Result
This is something I talked about in the video already, so I won't harp on. It really sticks out to me though that in the official video the music is quiet, and somehow all squashed together. This is very disappointing to me since a lot of effort went into the creation of this music to make it perfect for its purpose. The final version which people are hearing on the video loses quite a lot of the detail and impact in my opinion. Compare it with the version in my video, and with the WAV from Dropbox if you like, and tell me what you think.
Original
Version directly recorded from within Cubase
Original WAV file
As always, let's talk! Get commenting, and if you like what you hear then have a look and a listen to everything linked below. Lots of music, lots of ways to get in touch and to follow what I'm up to.
Next time, details on my latest short film project and all the fun stuff that went with it including working with the director, the dubbing mixer, and a cellist, and completing the whole project all within a one week deadline.
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/motekeatinge
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoteKeatinge
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mote-Keatinge-Composer-for-Film-Game
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcOF4f_FVJzmiiYz29nGjUg
Website for more music: www.motekeatinge.co.uk
imo it would've been better to have kept it recognisable.
. It's quite funny that you enjoyed the sound design more than the musical content, given that my strengths are usually very much the other way round.
