Justin Bell

Sorry to hear you're having trouble with the site... For some reason videos on it take a very long time to buffer. I've uploaded it (and another one) to youtube. The first video is the stinger one, the second one is mostly sound design with some music starting at around 1:45. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8WD-J88uCQ&feature=youtu.be

Sure thing! It hasn't always been feasible for me to be involved with music at Obsidian, but when it has, I would always jump at the opportunity... If you visit my website www.benaturalmusic.com, click on Fallout New Vegas, and then click on Stingers so you can check everything out. That should give you a good idea of what I did for that particular project. Outside of Obsidian, I keep busy with small music writing gigs here and there. Much of that work is as a ghost writer for TV and Film. High profile stuff too! (though part of the deal with that sort of gig is that you're sworn to secrecy about your involvment... I might be killed if I say something ) I've also done some stuff for smaller profile games as well, all fun stuff.

That was Avellone's idea. He came to Andrew Dearing (lead sound designer on FNV) and asked if we could write music simliar to the movie 'the good the bad and the ugly'. Andrew asked me if I would be interested in doing that and the rest, as they say, is history...

Good question. The best analogy I can think of would be to liken music to painting. Painters use colors (or lack of color) to evoke specific feelings or emotions. To give a very basic example, red might be an intense sort of emotion, whereas blue might be a deeper, more introverted one. Each of these colors is part of the painter's expressive toolset. Now lets say, for example, that you go to an art gallery showing where all the paintings are red. After a while it might be difficult to tell one painting apart from another. The risk is that the viewer might become disinterested. Whereas if a painter contrasts two or more colors in the same gallery or painting, the viewer will more likely be engaged by what they are seeing because there's more to think about. The same concepts apply to music. CRPGS tend to be long, and as with any longform of art, variety and contrast are essential to hold the gamer's interest and keep them engaged. Here's another analogy, one from a slightly different angle. Tom Waits gave an interview on NPR a few years back where he talked about his film scoring career. The interviewer asked about how he approaches choosing the right music for any given scene. His response was pretty interesting, and has been pretty influential to my creative process. He gave the example of a scene where children are playing happily in a playground. So, the obvious choice would be to choose music that is happy and child-like, right? Well, instead of going the obvious route, he chose to score the scene with music that was melancholy and nostalgic. When asked why, Tom Waits likened a scene and its music to a conversation between two people. When two people are in complete agreement during a conversation, its almost as if one of them isn't necessary. But when there are two perspectives that differ in some significant way, then you have something interesting and engaging. So by introducing music into the scene that's as seemingly unexpected as sad music over children happily playing, you inject a bit of thought provoking emotional complexity that compels the viewer to be intellectually engaged with what they are witnessing. Here is a great example of this. Remember that first Dead Island trailer that came out a while back that everyone was talking about? Just to recap, the teaser showed a family (mom, dad, and young daughter) struggling against a horde of vicious zombies. The teaser ends in tragedy with the daughter becoming infected and ultimately dying at her fathers hands. The visuals present the viewer with two distinct stories: a predominant one that is action packed, horrifying, and intense, and one that is of tragedy, loss, and is more of a subtext. The the most obvious choice for music would be to compliment the action packed visuals and score it with driving and bombastic action music heard in just about every AAA game an blockbuster summer movie. The Dead Island team did something rather brilliant instead. They deliberately chose music that supports the less dominant narrative thread of tragedy and loss, making what would normally seem frightening into something that was deeply poignant. It was a risky move by more commercial standards, but was responded to by nearly universal acclaim. Like the trailer or not, it resonated with people, got them talking and kept them engaged. That same technique of supporting the less obvious narrative subtext with complimetnary music is how you get around using bombastic music for every scene in a game. For reference here is that video: Imagine how generic and bland that trailer would be with your typical action packed horror score? But don't just take my word for it, go ahead and see for yourself! Find any driving action score, mute the sound on the Dead Island trailer, and see how it feels to you. My bet is that it won't be as good. So, to sum up, the reason why it isn't generic and bland is because the visuals and the music tell two sides of the same story. A cognitive dissonance occurs there, and it forces the viewer to think more deeply and actively to decode the emotional messages they are receiving. That's how you engage an audience...

Personally, I like accents too. When we were working on the vertical slice for Dungeon Siege 3 we hired an actress with a very interesting Icelandic accent for Anjali. It was great, though she didn't make it into the final game (don't ask why, it's complicated)... Why not start a poll about this? Seems like it would be a useful one!

What's up Bobby! Right back at you bud. ( I'll have your 50 bucks waiting for you first thing tomorrow, I swear)

That piece is exceptional. Really beautiful and inspiring. Thanks for sharing it Karranthain! (though I'd expect the budget to be serious enough that they'd have to think about it twice, but I'm not an expert). Orchestras are amazing things aren't they? There really is no substitute to having real musicians play good music together as a group. That example from Gothic 3 is a testament to that I think. So yes, without question, it would be incredible to have access to one. The thing is they are very, very expensive... Prohibitively so in many cases, which is why many composers use multi-sample libraries for their projects instead. It's cheaper to spend a couple grand on a good orchestral library that you can use over and over than it is to hire an orchestra for a single session. So while I said there's no substitute for a real orchestra, you can still get very convincing results with samples. Here are a couple examples of that (be sure to watch them at their highest quality level if you so that you get better audio): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB3njyDW8SY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoZdaHs887g Not that these pieces of music are appropriate for PE. I just think that those examples do a good job of illustrating the point that a high quality emotive score can be achieved both with, and without, real musicians.

I hope I don't sound too overconfident when I say that, I can guarantee you won't be disappointed here. Those of us in the audio department are relentless in our pursuit of creating living breathing worlds through sound. We rarely settle for second best. PE is one of those dream projects that just begs for a rich, lush, and immersive soundscape. We can't wait to dig in... I couldn't agree with this statement more, Syraxis!

String quartet is amazing, and it's not something a lot of composers are asked to do nowadays. But yeah, I'm a huge fan of that intimate chamber music sound. You know, anything is really possible as long as: a. It fits the over all musical style of the game b. It suites the specific narrative moment of the game c. Doesn't sound jarringly out of place. I think for the right moment in the game, it can work great. Above all, the narrative drive's the music first and foremost. As long as music obey's the narrative, you can use pretty much any musical style. The trick is to keep things interesting, and this is one of those things that could shake things up a bit in a good way at the right moment. Good observation here! I'm a big believer of having music ebb and flow, and more importantly, that it be interesting and emotionally engaging to listen to. When music is all big all the time, you tend to get tired of listening to it after extended periods. That's what we in audio call "listener fatigue", and I'm pretty sensitive to that. The problem with listener fatigue is that when you reach the climax of musical intensity and you keep it there for stustained periods of time, where can you go next if the narrative calls for things to get kicked up another notch? You have to leave yourself a "vertical buffer" to ensure those moments have meaning and impact. So, to answer your question, there should definitely be moments of moody ambience when its appropriate, just as there should be big grandoise moments when it's called for. But ultimately, everything depends on the narrative...

Great examples! Like the second one best of all personally.

But of course! That's the beauty of Kickstarter rihgt? It's just as much our opportunity to make the game we really want to make as it is your opporunity to tell us what kind of game you really want to play.

Awesome poll, and not just because I'm one of the choices. Bottom line is, it's really great to see how many of you are passionate about the music that'll eventually get written for Project Etertnity. Music is super important for these kinds of games, and our project is no exception. Rest assured that everyone here at Obsidian wants to get it right. That's a great idea Darkpriest. I'm a big believer in using a model when trying to express what the musical vision for a project should be. It helps when you can point to something and say "Like this, but with a little bit of that!" It gives people something to discuss and debate, and ultimiately, something to work toward. We'll probably have more to say on this at some point down the line, though I don't know when exactly that will be. I took about four days to write the music for the video, giving myself plenty of time to try things out. I find its a good idea to allow yourself room to fail, since often those moments are the ones that show you what is necessary to ultimately succeed. In all I wrote about four or five longish pieces of music that got cut up and stiched together, and the end result is a "medly" of all select sections from each one.

Keyboard cat is an entirely legitimate choice Longknife, I can't blame you for following your gut instincts there.

Thread? Poll? What is this sorcery you speak of?

Finally got my dev tag! It's about time I got around to that, haha. Thanks forum admins! You know what I like about all of the music mentioned in this thread so far? They have a couple important things in common: They've left an impression on each of you, one that's lasted long after you stopped playing the game. They fit the game's story and setting, and because of that, drew you deeper into the experience. They are memorable because they have with strong, emotive, and recognizable musical qualities. I have to admit, that's what I look for when I play a game. Music can make a break a game imo.

Haha, you know, I've worked at Obsidian for almost three years, and I still have now idea how I could get one of those tags! Now now, I didn't say that I just said it's my favorite game soundtrack of all time. April 2014 is a long way away...

Sort of jumping on this thread late. This is my first post on our forums, so here goes... @C2B, Solivagant, Bos_hybrid, and dlux... Thank you for that, it means a lot! The past two days have been amazing, truly. The support and loyalty the community has shown everyone at Obsidian is incredible. @Nonek, good call there. Josh referenced Gotterdammerung a few times, and it was one of the references used while writing the music for one specific part the Kickstarter pitch video. @Casey, great orchestration chops, your music sounds fantastic. Thank you for sharing it. I couldn't agree more with your assessment on the importance of thematic development, especially in fantasy games. Its' one of the most important ways a composer can communicate with the listener. @Everyone, you guys have great musical instincts. We should have more to announce about the music and sound for Project Eternity at some point. So stay tuned! Completely off topic... but my favorite video game score of all time is the one from T:ES III Morrowind. Haunting, mystical, ancient, and memorable. Can't get enough of it.