Composing for computer games
Composing for computer games
01 August 2008Chris horkan asks if video games are killing off the film music stars – and creating opportunities in the process
'There are over 2,500 games that come out each year and I personally know over 600 composers who just do this for a living,' says Tommy Tallarico. The California-based 40-year-old is one the of the leading lights of the video game music industry, having composed music for over 270 games and scooped nearly 50 awards.
Tallarico's 19-year career spans the history of console games - from Prince of Persia and Cool Spot through to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and SpongeBob SquarePants. Back in the 1980s, he says, 'the idea was to get the music into a tiny amount of space'. He had four monophonic voices at his disposal, one of which only made white noise, meaning at most he could produce a triad at a time.
The Sega Mega Drive later offered six voices, while the advent of the CD-Rom in the mid-1990s meant multiple recorded instruments could feature. 'It went from computer programmers doing audio to opening the door for musicians,' says Tallarico.
'If Beethoven was alive today, he'd be a video game composer'
Since the turn of the century, technology has meant that
primative beeps and buzzes are confined to the retro gaming
community. Now, video game music is a burgeoning industry, with
Tallarico claiming that some developers invest up to £500,00
in their audio. It has its own dedicated organisation, the Game
Audio Network Guild, which Tallarico co-founded in 2001, and
several books dedicated to composing for video games.
Video game music draws inevitable comparisons with film music, with
Tallarico noting that plenty of screen composers are now crossing
over. But, despite both setting music to images, he says that the
processes do differ: 'Film is a linear medium so that restricts
the composer. Even the great John Williams had to sit down with
George Lucas and George said "Ok John, the music has to do
this at a minute and three seconds because Darth Vader walks
through the door."
'In video games, what we do is foreground music because action
drives our medium, not dialogue,' he adds. 'If Beethoven
was alive today, he'd be a video game composer. He wouldn't
be a film composer;
he wouldn't want people talking over his music.'
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