Project Eternity Composer: In-house or External

[Justin Bell]

I think you'll enjoy

Especially the later parts.

 

Wow! That singer has quite an impressive range! I can see why you like this piece. It's gorgeous.

[Sistergoldring]

Thanks Justin, that was a lovely way to spend time over breakfast.

 

I thought your piece 'long winter' was beautiful and very atmospheric and I also really liked 'Assault', it felt like a pulse was racing all the through it. Strangely enough, I seem to spend an awful lot of time going through game music these days because I've got 2 figure skaters in the family and they're always on the look out for short snippets of orchestral music to skate to and not many people utilise game music in this way, which is a shame because often it is ideal for the purpose. Anyway, I'm adding you to my list of composers to look for.

 

Thanks again.

[Justin Bell]

Thanks Justin, that was a lovely way to spend time over breakfast.

 

Thank you for listening!

[Karranthain]

I think you'll enjoy

Especially the later parts.

 

Wow! That singer has quite an impressive range! I can see why you like this piece. It's gorgeous.

 

Glad you enjoyed it.

 

Personally, I'm hoping for some cello parts in the game's soundtrack, particularly some arco playing.

One can dream right?

[Justin Bell]

Solo cello...

 

Celli are incredibly expressive, much like the human voice. I don't think it's too far fetched to hear something with them in PE... But who knows right? To quote myself "April 2013 is a long way away"

[Darkpriest]

Well at this rate we will link half of the internet music to this thread

 

To me it gives some look at some music styles I have not been exposed to before (like that last Karratshian's link). The top thread on my list

[diablo169]

Thank you very much Justin, will have a listen. Myself and this is just a personal opinion I like what was done in Torment and Baldurs Gate. Theres a melody from the main theme and or battle music that features in various pieces in different ways. Thats not to say there arent unique pieces in those sound tracks as well, but I like the idea of a tune being threaded through the entire game.

[Karranthain]

Solo cello...

 

Celli are incredibly expressive, much like the human voice. I don't think it's too far fetched to hear something with them in PE... But who knows right? To quote myself "April 2013 is a long way away"

 

Fingers crossed!

 

That said, I'm sure you'll soon amaze us all, Justin! With or without celli

 

Edit : No pressure, haha

Edited September 30, 2012 by Karranthain

[Freddo]

Thanks for your curiosity everyone, I know you all have questions about the music for PE.

 

As for examples of my music, ask and you shall recieve! http://soundcloud.co...tin-bell-music/

 

This material spans about 6 years of writing. Some of the tracks there are from popular TV shows and award winning Films that I can't really discuss publically unfortunately For those you'll find cryptic names such as "a tv show" etc. Check it out if you're interested!

I liked Dawn and especially Agua Azul, nice stuff Also liked the first minute of "A TV Show - Mystery" and 0:13 - 0:25 of "Another TV Show - SWAT", they could probably be turned into great songs, although not necessarily fit into Project Eternity!

 

I hope we don't only hear movie-like songs in the game though, that fits nicely in the background of the game, but have some melody friendly songs too that players happily hum on afterwards ^_^ (especially various character themes if there are any, they should really jump out of the depth and grab the player).

 

A little rant here, sorry, but I think it's a bit unfortunate that video game soundtracks gotten more and more movie-like for about a decade. Less focus is put on melodies and instead the ambience get more focus. I think the original Deus Ex and the sequel Invisible War are somewhat the prime example of this. Same composer for both games, but very different soundtracks. The original Deus Ex had a somewhat classic video game soundtrack, lots of melodies. The second game is much more like a movie soundtrack, lots of ambience and chords and not many melodies at all. I think this is a somewhat unfortunate development. And now, a decade later, people still talk about the original Deus Ex soundtrack being excellent while Invisible War barely gets a nod.

 

And now I'm just gonna end this with a song that I think is absolutely wonderful, and have a great hum friendly melody, a piano remake of a song from HeroQuest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmuKGghzxeA

[hideo kuze]

Justin do you have any other music or samples of your work we can listen to though? I cant find any on the interwebs.

 

Thanks for your curiosity everyone, I know you all have questions about the music for PE.

 

As for examples of my music, ask and you shall recieve! http://soundcloud.co...tin-bell-music/

 

This material spans about 6 years of writing. Some of the tracks there are from popular TV shows and award winning Films that I can't really discuss publically unfortunately For those you'll find cryptic names such as "a tv show" etc. Check it out if you're interested!

 

For those of you who are wondering about my background, I can definitely get into that in more depth. I've been studying and playing music for 22 years (I'm 35). I graduated from Los Angeles Valley Community College in 2003 with a AA degree in Music. There I studied music theory, classical guitar performance and recording arts. I was part of the LAVCC Classical Guitar Quartet for four semesters. In 2007 I graduated from UCLA with a BA Degree in Music Composition. There I studied music theory, music history, composition, orchestration and classical guitar performance. I was one of 6 students accepted in my class.

 

Since graduating I've written (and am writting) music for a couple recent primetime television shows and an award winning documentary as a ghost writer. I've also written music for several smaller video games on Wiiware, Wii, and Playstation Network. I also made some minor contributions to music for Fallout: New Vegas and Dead Money. For those games I composed all the intro and outro musical transitions that lead into and out of battle music. I also composed the Pimp-Boy theme song, Ede's theme, the Wild Wasteland stinger, the 'Gassed' stinger at the beginning of Dead Money, and wrote the music and set the text for the song Begin Again, also in Dead Money.

 

Most of the music I write now is as a hired gun. In other words, I usually have aggressive deadlines and very specific instructions, so there's not a whole lot of time to think too deeply, or tap into my "inner artist". PE's trailer music was the first time I've been able to do that in a while...

 

As a sound designer, I've worked about seven game projects including The Sabotuer, Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Money, Dungeon Siege 3, Treasures of the Sun, Project North Carolina, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and a bunch of smaller things. Oh, and I like watching sunsets and taking long walks on the beach...

 

 

Major thumbs up for the soundclound.

(IMO you should put the soundcloud link as your sig, or a link to it from your website, otherwise the link will get lost with time)

 

Any chance for you to upload the PE music in the pitch video there?

Edited September 30, 2012 by hideo kuze

[Superdeluxe]

Mark Morgan/ inon zaur/ hoenigs pls

[Elerond]

I would love see some track inspired by traditional/world/folk music.

 

Loreena McKennitt's Incatation from An Ancient Muse album is good example what kind music I would like to hear.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxhUp-IO9bo

[Sensuki]

Vas - A Feast of Silence (will link later) would be a good fit for the above comment

 

Whoever mentioned Lisa Gerrard. Great live voice, not quite as good recorded. And she's EXPENSIVE. She declined the offer to sing on the Gladiator soundtrack at first, and only accepted when they offered her more money.

 

That said, seeing her live in 2007 was the best musical experience I've ever had, and I can't wait to see Dead Can Dance next year

[Halberd]

It makes sense that Justin Bell would be doing the soundtrack. I think he'll do a good job.

 

But if not him then Mark Morgan would be great. Planescape: Torment and Fallout 1 & 2's soundtracks are amazing.

 

People say Mark Morgan is old school but that isn't true, during an interview he said he was fully capable of making a more modern soundtrack for Fallout 3 (although Inon Zur got that job in the end.)

 

Also he did Planescape: Torment's soundtrack in just a few weeks and he didn't have the technology sound designers and video game composers use in games today

[Kenishi]

First of all I glad to see so many people passionate about the in game music and the level of better immersion it brings to a game, and I must say most of the links are absolutely amazing.

Second I've voted for in house composer Justin Bell, loved the music for the pitch video and hope that was just a taste for things to come.

Now since most people shared a bit of the soft spot in the music department i wish to mention Anouar Brahem - Le Voyage De Sahar, for me is very good example of music creating emotions and almost painting a scene in this case the desert with sound alone, and another example of great example of music that can take you and evoke emotions is

, or

and

not saying that they fit this particular project but are good examples of music for the right moment that enhances the image/game scene.

 

P.S. Almost all of Vangelis music is a great listen and in the film industries are some of the more memorable ones (Chariots of Fire, 1492, Blade Runner)

[Starwars]

I would also recommend the soundtrack for newly released Torchlight 2. Matt Uelman is an excellent composer with a pretty unique style, and the Torchlight 2 soundtrack is fantastic.

 

I haven't played the game but they graciously released the soundtrack for free.

[Caranir]

@ Justin Bell: thanks heaps for the link and the info, very inspiring!

 

BTW I just have to grab the chance to say how much I loved almost all of the NWN2 soundtracks. I loved these games so much for their storyline and atmospherical intensity! Something like...

still gives me the shivers.

Cheers

Edited October 1, 2012 by Caranir

[hideo kuze]

I would also recommend the soundtrack for newly released Torchlight 2. Matt Uelman is an excellent composer with a pretty unique style, and the Torchlight 2 soundtrack is fantastic.

 

I haven't played the game but they graciously released the soundtrack for free.

 

D1, D2 and ToB... all of these have amazing soundtracks. Really good.

 

However I listed to some Torchlight musics at youtube and I didn't really enjoyed them.

A possible reason could be the fact that I haven't played the game, so I really don't associate it with the feelings of playing the game, which I'm guessing we usually do.

If only the game didn't look as disney-esque as it does (well, as today games do), I'd give it a go.

 

 

Justin, once again, please upload the PE music in the pitch video to your soundcloud if you can.

[Jaesun]

Justin do you have any other music or samples of your work we can listen to though? I cant find any on the interwebs.

 

Thanks for your curiosity everyone, I know you all have questions about the music for PE.

 

As for examples of my music, ask and you shall recieve! http://soundcloud.co...tin-bell-music/

 

This material spans about 6 years of writing. Some of the tracks there are from popular TV shows and award winning Films that I can't really discuss publically unfortunately For those you'll find cryptic names such as "a tv show" etc. Check it out if you're interested!

 

This was really fantastic. Thank you for sharing this!

[Sensuki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V4hGTFQCtY

[Cantousent]

I've been avoiding reading much in this forum now that the project is advancing for fear of spoiling something in the game, so I apologize in advance if this question has been asked and answered, but here goes:

 

Feargus responded to a question about music and samples of the Project Eternity score last week by saying that you were going to give an update this week. He specifically mentioned your name, Justin. I looked at the update page on the Kickstarter but no dice. Is one coming? I listened to the music that you linked and I thought it was good, but there wasn't really a central theme. I enjoyed the music and you had good snippets of various projects, which was great, but the only ones that developed a theme in any substantial way were the Mecanika samples, but those were all really short. I think most games that become 'classics' have great music and I'd like to get some sort of word on how you're going to approach it. I think it will be just as important to the finished product as art-work and graphics. We have some great concept art already in the updates, but hardly anything about the music that I can easily find.

 

I'm not a music expert. I don't have anything other than my personal tastes and a lifetime of listening to guide me, but I am excited about the music and I'd like to know more.

[C2B]

Justin's is today. Mentioned in Yesterday's update.

[Cantousent]

Ah, many thanks, C2B. I just don't read the updates as carefully as I should, I see. :Cant's sheepish grin icon:

[Justin Bell]

I listened to the music that you linked and I thought it was good, but there wasn't really a central theme.

 

Great question. Themes are incredibly important to me, and the fact that Mecanika is the only one with strong themes insn't a coincidence. Much of the music I write professionally is underscore. Meaning, it is meant to blend into the background. Mecanika on the other hand was one of those opportunities where theme was important for the developers, and I took advantage of that. The music is short just because its a flash game and everything needed to be compact in terms of filesize.

 

BTW if you want to play Mecanika, you can do so free here: http://www.gameforscience.com/physica/ Just click on "Try the Demo!"

[theseez]

[awesome questions]

 

Q. Will there be (a) signature tune(s) for the game (e.g. Maybe, A Kiss To Build A Dream On for FO1 and 2, Baba Yetu for Civ4, Suteki Da Ne for FFX)? To have a particular strong piece deeply associated with and conjuring up images of the game is I think one of the most powerful things music can do.

 

A. That's a great idea, but I would need to think about that a bit more. It would have to be done right, and wouldn't be worth doing at all if it didn't fit or wasn't great.

 

Q. Will there be usage of leitmotifs for characters and/or locations? PS:T did that very well, not to mention the obvious power it had in Star Wars.

 

A. Yes indeed! That's how you build memorability into music, and that's very important for us here.

 

Many thanks for your kind reply, Mr Bell. Can't wait to see what magic you'll come up with for the game (yes I voted for you!)