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Original post by Kylotan
Musicians mustn't fool themselves into thinking they are as important to the game as the designers or programmers, just as a programmer who made a VST instrument mustn't fool himself into thinking that he's as important as the musician who used it to record a track.
I don't think most are thinking this. Most are just reacting to this author's stance that there has been practically no music with a decent melody in any American video game over the last two generations. Not that we have to be viewed as the most important.
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Original post by Kylotan
Another interesting pseudo-paradox is that the more important audio is to a game, the more likely that a player is going to turn the in-game music off, to avoid it interfering with gameplay by masking sound effects. Heavily audio-based games like the Thief series get around this by having very subtle ambient sound that barely qualifies as music, but that would not suit most composers.
I have no issue with this. In fact, I addressed this earlier saying that as more and more sound technology and techniques make it into video games the less music has to be ever presenting, looping continuously into infinity. Music, itself, has changed roles from a constant to a more cue approach. I think this is a good thing.
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Original post by Kylotan
In any popular creative area you will always get a pyramid of practitioners with far more amateurs at the bottom than experts at the top. And in all cases, the people at the very top command the big money and the people at the bottom are often working for free to prove themselves. Artists put stuff on DeviantArt or similar sites, programmers work on mods, directors put fan-films on YouTube, models do time-for-prints deals with photographers, prospective journalists are writing blogs, etc. This is a natural phenomenon of the wish to break into a competitive area.
Completely agree. While I hate to see folks offering up their talents and services for free, I know that it is a common occurrence in many creative industries.
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Original post by Kylotan
If the presence of free music is driving down prices for the better music, then the better music obviously isn't offering enough perceived added value. That's not abuse, it's market forces. If someone can write music that is 75% as good as yours but charges 1/10th of the price, that's your problem, not the industry's. Getting snobby about it and wishing amateurs would play by your rules in order to inflate the wages of professionals is foolish at best. Composers like to think they've earned the right to be paid properly for their work. But the process of earning that right involves starting at that same point and attempting to build your skills and your brand. That's what these people are doing and it's no sign whatsoever of things being 'bad'.
People can charge whatever they wish. While it does impact me to some degree, I don't worry about it too much. Basically the only thing I worry about is when people work for free. This is more due to designers only scoping out free work instead of good work. The issue is when you see development teams spending X on other assets and 1/10th of that on audio. Audio also usually gets the least amount of time and has the fewest people working on it. I think most composers-sound designer-audio nerds are just trying to say something like
"give us a bit more resources, a bit more flexibility and freedom and you'll be surprised with what we can do!"Quote:
Original post by Kylotan
The people who are really good at what they do are having little trouble with funding. I have a singer friend who was flown out from DC to California, all expenses paid, to record for a single day at Skywalker Sound for a forthcoming computer game. That doesn't sound like a low audio budget to me.
That's also Skywalker Sound. To use Skywalker Sound as an indication or comparison to how the rest of the audio industry is doing is really unbalanced. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that my audio budget is a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what Skywalker Sound has. I also have less resources and fewer clients. But I'm working on it! :P
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Original post by Kylotan
Ultimately the value of music to a game is only partly down to the quality of the music - it's also down to the kind of game it has to work with. The nature of the medium can deflate the importance of music to a point where it is lower than an equivalent composition in film. If a composer doesn't like that then they have the option of writing for a different medium.
Hmmm, I disagree. I've never felt like my music, or it's importance has been deflated by working in games. If anything I feel that I can take a stronger role than in film because it can be interactive. You're telling a story that the player actively takes part in. I don't feel that the nature of games (or films) deflate the importance of my music whatsoever. But maybe that's because I realize I'm writing music that has a role or function. It's true that some composers (or listeners for that matter) want the music to take certain stage during a film or game.
(I had a discussion kinda like this on another forum about The Dark Knight score.) I strongly disagree. That's why I talked about balance so much. Sometimes the music needs to take a stronger role, like during an awesome cinematic, while other times it needs to step back and just support and enhance.
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Original post by Kylotan
Finally, the idea that composers will dwindle if the cash supply reduces is laughable. These multitudes of people offering 'cut-price' deals aren't doing it in the hopes of getting rich. They're doing it in the hopes of getting a job doing something that they love. They already love it even though breaking into the industry is very difficult and making a living more difficult still.
They're also doing it at cut-price deals because they lack the credentials of others. Take me for example: I charge more than most but less than some serious names. Why? Because I've achieved a degree of success and have established myself somewhat. I've also invested a good deal of money into my studio with pro gear. So should I not charge more than the guy that put down $2,000 on a computer system and audio software and has no credits? Should he charge as much as me? Should I charge as much as Tommy Tallarico, Aaron Marks or John Williams? Of course not. Experience and credentials matter.
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Original post by Kylotan
CD sales are down too but there are still millions of bands writing and recording all the time.
True, CD sales are down but iTunes and other mediums like it are up. So a band has to record the album in some manner, no? Then they take tours which is where the band can really profit from their work. Besides, if they don't record their albums how would any of their fans listen to their music outside of performances? How would they get radio play? This doesn't seem like a very good point.
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Original post by Kylotan
It's not like physics or electrical engineering where you can't do much without a rigorous education and expensive laboratories and workshops, where a lack of funds would have a terminal effect on development. Creation of art is not dependent on wages, it's dependent on cost, and the cost of making music is dropping. I appreciate some professionals may not like this but the trend is not going to reverse, so they will have to get used to it.
Okay, that's a bit offensive to be honest. Clearly you don't know how much pro audio gear costs. A Pro Tools HD 3 audio set up (which only consists of the audio card and interface) costs $32,000. A Pro Tools HD 1 audio set up costs roughly $10,000. Keep in mind this is only the audio card and the interface for it. Pro samples like East West Platinum costs about $900. The top of the line VSL sample package costs about $20,000. Sound FX libraries can cost in the hundreds or thousands of dollars as well. Then you have audio plug-ins that can cost a great deal. The top of the line Waves audio suite is about 7-8,000. To have a Dolby certified room can be very costly because you have to build the room to a certain spec, buy acoustic treatments which can be VERY costly. I haven't even gotten to the education part. I have a masters degree in music. That's 6.5 years of my life spent learning, analyzing and practicing music. Now, do you have to have a degree to do music? Certainly not. But there are many composers who do. They also have to know how to work all of this gear and how to manage audio. Your stance seems to be one of: "Hey, anyone can do music. It's not hard and the tools needed for it are cheap." Well, in a way yes. Just like I can spend about $100, put down some plastic and start painting. Doesn't mean I'll be very good. Doesn't mean that my work will gain any recognition. Finally, you get to the technical side of things. I know how to script audio, work with middle ware (such as Fmod and Xact), program MIDI, how to create looping and specialized samples, work with Action Script and work with specialized systems such as the Nintendo DS's method for music playback. Does the average person know all about this? Does the average bedroom composer know this? Maybe, maybe not. But it feels like you're simplifying and/or dismissing the composer's job quite a bit. At least at the pro level of expectations and responsibilities.
So getting back to the main point of this article: The author feels that there hasn't been good music, with an iconic melody in the last two generations. I disagree. Many others do as well. This wasn't meant to turn into a discussion of is music important. This wasn't meant to turn into a debate about how easy and/or cheap is it to make music for video games.
Thanks!
Nathan
