I'm new to the realm of game design but I've been producing my own music for 8 years. Normally you want to work to have your bass elements be strong and poke through the song when needed, is mixing bass any different when it comes to game design? I would imagine you wouldn't want your bass to be too heavy for the majority of gameplay. Is there a frequency cutoff or any methods used to make game music easier on the ears and allow for the rest of the sound to come through?

Great question!

It depends on what engine you're using for your game. Many commercial ones (Unity, Unreal, etc) will have built in audio features that act much like a DAW would. This helps manage and balance your game, especially when you consider the dynamic nature of games and the fact that you can have sound design, music and dialog happening all at once in some situations. Often you can get even more options if you select an Audio middleware like FMOD or Wwise.

If it's a custom engine, then it really depends on what feature(s) that custom engine supports. I've worked with engines that had EQ, compression and even side-chaining to help manage all of the various signals.

Hope that helps!

Nate

All what i can say is, the music cant capture the attention too much from the game itself, but must help the player to flow into the mood of the level regardless. This limits the genres. For example i wouldnt allow dubstep, hardbass and other similar manure into my games, because those are distubring. But it also cant be jazz and other type of low effort fake music, because thats totally worthless and fails to create any mood. But i dont think it has anything to do on how you are mixing the bass itself. Obviously no vocals.

Geri said:

All what i can say is, the music cant capture the attention too much from the game itself, but must help the player to flow into the mood of the level regardless. This limits the genres. For example i wouldnt allow dubstep, hardbass and other similar manure into my games, because those are distubring. But it also cant be jazz and other type of low effort fake music, because thats totally worthless and fails to create any mood. But i dont think it has anything to do on how you are mixing the bass itself. Obviously no vocals.

This is totally wrong on multiple levels.

A bit more context: Geri you're stating your opinion. And it's a quite jaded one at that. Something like dubstep or hardbass would present some factors when mixing the game's final audio experience, for sure! But it's not a deal breaker. Nor is having jazz or what you label as “low effort fake music” or even having a track with vocals.

Perhaps you're trolling or maybe you sincerely believe this. But there are plenty of games that have done the very things you mention above and did so very well.

nsmadsen said:
Geri you're stating your opinion

Of course i am. Thats why i was clearly writing: i wouldnt allow this/that in MY games :D
A bit more context: other people cant organize a vote about what type of music i use in my games, its up to me only.

Fair enough.

But surely you can express your opinion without labeling in such negative, extreme ways. Last I checked, no one is trying to organize a vote about what type of music you use in your games. ? You do you.

nsmadsen said:
without labeling in such negative, extreme ways.

Sorry, no hard feelings…. But if you would know what type of “music” are the typical “musicians” in the gamedev communities are usually trying to shove at us each day, you wouldnt consider my oppinion extreme or radical. It was the opposite. The forum-complaint version. Because if i would really open my mouth on this, that wouldnt be thanked by a lot of people.

It's all good.

I've been in the industry since 2005 and have basically seen (and heard) it all. I know there are some out there that want to only push certain styles of music just like some only want to push certain art styles or game play mechanics. My focus is more about “is it effective?” or “does it help the story and/or player's experience.”

If it does, great! If it doesn't, keep working on it.

But I've seen ridiculous posts in the past like “why is orchestral music the best option for video game music?” To which I just gave a two word reply: “It isn't.”

I don't like it when folks place limitations on game dev because, IMO, one of the strongest things about good, effective game dev is that we have the freedom and power to do almost anything. Combine art styles, tell stories in new and interesting ways, combine genres and mechanics, flip things on their heads. All as long as as the story and the player's experience are enhanced by it.