I was recently featured in a great article about Adaptive Audio on Games Career Guide. The article covers a variety of subjects related to adaptive audio ranging from production proces, layering, sound design and aspects of my own production methodology: “micro-scoring“. Hope you will enjoy.
It is my great pleasure to present a recent interview between my dear friend Colin O’ Malley and myself. The interview goes in-depth on our collaboration on Tomb Raider Underworld and the general process between audio director and composers.
You can download by clicking here:
Source and courtesy: http://www.tracksounds.com/
British Academy winner, Troels B. Folmann, has written music for a great variety of games including the critically acclaimed Tomb Raider: Legend. In this interview, he talks to us about composing for games, the interactivity of game audio and his overall perspective on the gaming industry.
Hi Troels, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. First of all, tell us about yourself. How did you get started in the video game music business?
Thanks for spending time with me. It is my intention to bring an honest portrait of what I do and to provide the readers with applicable knowledge they can use in their own career.
My “career” in video game music started when my mother got really concerned about how many hours I spend playing on the infamous ZX Spectrum 48K and its counterpart C64. I was obsessed with games from a very young age and it still shines through to this very date. I remember recording C64 music of other game composers (ex. Hubbard, Galway) and imagining how amazing it would be to score it myself. Eventually I started using small music applications on the Spectrum and C64 and got more serious when I got my first 8bit sampler for my Amiga 512. This is how it started and I somehow think it will end this way too. Composition is a life long trade and fortunately it gets better with time. It’s like wine and cheese … gets better with time.
My enthusiasm for games eventually brought me closer to the video games music business. I started out by scoring for a variety of MODs and most of them never made it publicly. However some of the MOD creators are now having studios of their own and some of them are still great friends. This was my first step into the industry and something I would highly encourage new composers to pursue.
You’ve also worked on Defender of the Crown. How would you describe the score and what aspect of it are you most proud of?
Defender of the Crown (DOTC) was the first game I ever played on my AMIGA back in the 80s. It was one of the greatest leaps I have ever seen in games and truly stood out at its time. The maker of the game was called “Cinemaware” and had a great history of doing games with a movie thematic quality. DOTC was the first game they made and was followed up by other great games like Wings, King of Chicago, It Came From The Desert, SDI, Rocket Ranger and a variety of other games. The company got revived in 2002 and this is where my story begins. I was thrilled when I saw the game was in the making and kept on sending them fan scores, since I was eager to get involved. Eventually the persistency paid off and I got to score the game, which was truly one of the most amazing collaborations I have ever been involved in. The DOTC soundtrack was roughly 60 minutes long and was one big bundle catchy swashbuckling themes, which still bring joy to me these days – though I can hear an innocent sense of musical naivety in the scores.
Before we get to Tomb Raider, let’s talk about your earlier work. In 2005, you scored the action game Project Snowblind. How did you get involved in that project?
I initially got involved in Project Snowblind as a part of my Ph.D. studies in game music. I was conducting academic studies in game music and was invited to score the game in order to conduct further analysis of the media. These studies eventually lead me to Tomb Raider as well. Project Snowblind was an award-winning futuristic FPS shooter based on the Deux-Ex franchise released for PS2, Xbox and PC. I had the good fortune of scoring the game, which was an interesting diversion from DOTC. Snowblind takes place in a near future and the directors wanted an epic orchestral score with eastern/ethnic elements. I do believe I carried some of this into my later Tomb Raider scores.
What were your specific goals with the score? Are there any musical moments in the score that stand out for you?
The goal was to create an epic orchestral score with eastern world elements. I was particularly focused on Chinese instruments on top of the orchestral score. I generally like using world/ethnic instruments on top of the orchestra to bring new colours and inspiration to the score. I remember one piece in particular that stands out. It didn’t take me more then 2-3 hours to score it, but it’s a sad requiem scored with a boy-choir. Snowblind was also a great experience of terms of understanding how I could mix elements. Whether it was adjusting the balance between orchestral groups or mixing things like world instruments and/or sound design into the score. I generally think many composers tend to neglect mixing as a part of their main tool. I find mixing highly important and the old saying: “fix in the mix” still holds true to me. Mixing is a part of my compositional process. It brings colours and tension to the score – just like the instruments themselves. My journey into mixing became more extreme when I started on the Tomb Raider soundtracks.
When we’re talking about Tomb Raider, we’re of course talking about a huge phenomenon and a great legacy of games and soundtracks. Over the years, many composers have contributed to the franchise. How daunting is it to start working on something like Tomb Raider: Legend?
I fully enjoyed it and I am generally too naive to fear things like legacy. I had some very specific ideas about how I wanted to score the game, but those ideas needed to be merged with the director and producers of the game. I wanted to respect the previous Tomb Raider scores, but I also wanted to bring it to the next level, especially towards a more motion picture oriented type of sound. I am generally not a big fan of traditional game music and think there is a great deal to be learned from motion picture in terms of overall compositional quality and its ability to create emotional bonds.
The emotional bond was extremely important to me. I wanted to make a score that made me feel. How often do we feel anything in games? How often do we have truly memorable experiences? I wanted the music to be the emotional glue between the player and the game. Whether I succeeded or not will remain a mystery, but I knew it was an objective that kept on motivating me throughout the production. The game took aprox. 8 months to score and had over 4 and half hours of music.
What were your first steps when you started out writing music for TR: Legend?
Tomb Raider Legend was a significant part of my Ph.D. studies in advanced type of game scoring. I had developed the first ideas for a methodology called: “Micro-scoring”, which I will go into later in this interview. I started out by listening to the scores from all the previous games and collect thematic material – and generally get an understanding of what I liked in the scores. I then moved on to the two Tomb Raider movies and analyzed their soundtracks. I then wrote a very lengthy document that would describe how I would approach each level in the game and what type of instruments I would need. This was a very academic process to scoring and not something I always do. But it gave me a great sense of consistency and a perfect overview of what I would need to do to complete the score.
TR: Legend features an elaborate mix of orchestral and electronic elements. How difficult was it to combine the two?
Essentially my life as a composer has always been focused on versatility. I don’t believe that focusing in one particular direction is the right way for me, so I pretty much score freely in whatever genre I want to. It is a constant journey exploring new tools, techniques and compositional styles, but I think it pays off in the end, since I can satisfy more clients. So it wasn’t really difficult to combine the orchestral type of scoring with electronica and world elements. The most obvious thing would have been a classical orchestral score for the game, which I did for later instalments (ex. Tomb Raider Anniversary), however I wanted to do something special with Tomb Raider Legend, so I took this very world-oriented approach to the score and pre-defined a specific set of instruments I wanted for each level in the game.
The game features many different locations, from Peru to Kazakhstan and England. How much work went into finding the right musical style for each region? Did you use any exotic instruments?
This is the demanding wonder of Tomb Raider. It is a world game, so it takes a lot from your compositional palette. I initially started investigating music from all the different cultural regions that the game takes place in, whether it was Peruvian flutes, Himalayan folk singers or English boy choirs. The investigation brought me to a wonderful website called: “Lark in the Morning”, which sells a variety of exotic instruments like the Armenian Duduk, Turkish Kaval, Peruvian Pan flutes, Japanese Shakuhachi and so forth. I then started learning how to play them, which became an integral part of the way I score today. While I am absolutely fanatical about samples – I am increasingly becoming fanatical about custom sampling too. Speaking of exotic instruments I had the good fortune of buying the PanArt Hang Drum last year, which is the best percussion instruments I have ever tried. I am still contemplating whether I should sell it on Ebay, since they go for over 8K now. But you don’t sell the things you love… right?
You dealt with the interactive side of the gaming experience with a musical system called “micro-scoring”. Could you tell us more about that?
So a part of my Ph.D. studies in game music related to developing new methodologies for advanced types of application of music in the game. One of my main focal points was – and still is – the development of something I call: “Micro-scoring”. Micro-scoring is essentially about breaking the score into a variety of small components that are assembled in real-time according to player action and/or interaction. The micro-scores are made in such a way that they adapt to player action or interaction. You have to imagine that there are thousands of things going on in the game environment — the idea behind micro-scoring is to support the major elements in the environment. An example can be a 3-second score for breaking pillars or falling stones, which is scored in the same key as the main ambient background score. We also have more detailed types of micro-scores which are based on slices samples like REX and other sliced sample formats. This allows us to fully adjust pitch- and timing based on player interaction with the game. An example of this is adjusting beat to footsteps and increasing tempo when she starts running. A good example of micro-scoring application relates to chopping up a score in multiple components. So essentially composing a score in 15 different steps and cutting each step up, so it can seemingly integrate into any of the other 15 steps. The system then blends the steps in real-time and you have a much more varied and versatile score – made from micro-scores. This allows you to adjust mood in music with using basic cross-fades, but actually have adaptive types of compositions. Needless to say it’s a fairly complicated effort.
After TR: Legend you also worked on the remake of the very first Tomb Raider called Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Fans have noticed the strong musical references to Nathan McCree’s original score. Did you enjoy adapting and expanding McCree’s material? What new musical elements did incorporate into the score?
It was important to be faithful to the original title while scoring Tomb Raider Anniversary (TRA), however I also wanted to elevate the compositions, since they had a very simple compositional structure that didn’t quite matched the advanced fidelity of today’s systems. The original game was made in 1996 and music – just like graphics – does evolve over time, so essentially I made an evolved score of the original. But I also added a variety of new themes and textures in the score. One of the main highlights is the usage of an epic choir, which I sampled for my custom library. I essentially recorded a full symphonic choir and had them sing in a specific way that allowed me to reproduce a choir. The score was very different from Legend. Legend was a world-score and TRA was a more typical classic score using symphonic elements only.
Are you pleased that your scores are being discussed / compared with film scores? For many years the direction for “crossing over” has been from game scores to movie scores (e.g., Giacchino), but more recently movie composers have gone the other way (e.g., Schifrin, Elfman & Shore). Any thoughts as to why this latter flow is happening?
The main difference between film scores and games scores is one of quality. My opinion is quite subjective in this matter, but I personally think the majority (90%) of game music is in the trashcan category and we have a long way to go. I certainly don’t mind being compared with movie composers, but I am only starting to get close to their sound and overall compositional quality. There is also a serious budgetary issue related to this discussion. The majority of game scores, including my own, are made with samples. The majority of feature scores are made with live orchestra, which makes a huge difference. This is one of the reasons I have been sampling two full symphonic orchestras myself, which allowed me to get closer to their sound.
Where do you see game music in five to ten years from now?
It depends on whether studios are willing to commit to investing properly into game music. The commitment involves a variety of factors, including prioritizing audio in the production planning and a willingness to invest properly in the scoring. I doubt we will see a huge leap within the next ten years, but we will see more adaptive types of music based on principles similar to the micro-scoring methodology I described. We will also see some real-time DX/VST-based FX plugins like the integration of Waves plugins in Halo 3.
We will not see true adaptive music, since the next-next generation consoles won’t have the processing power to play a 50 GB orchestral sample library playing in real-time with 5 high-end convolution reverbs and an advanced AI that translate player action into music.
We will see more ties between motion picture, television and games – and most likely a larger degree of score usage between the media. But we also see a billion mediocre game scores and they will retain game music in a space it doesn’t need to be. Bleep, Bleep. Blob.
What is, in your opinion, the most difficult / challenging / enjoyable task when composing for a video game?
I believe there are many answers to this question. The most difficult exercise for me is to create a score that truly complements player action- and/or interaction. This challenge relates both to the quality and mood of a score, but it also related to the technology and implementation of the score. It also relates to how to the score ties in with the rest of the ambient audio, whether it is voice-over, ambient backgrounds, UI or whatever audio component relates to the score. The most enjoyable task – for me – is actually to hear the music in the game and note the change it creates. An example of this is action sequences. You can have the best looking action sequence in the world, if the audio doesn’t match it – it doesn’t breath. Watching it come alive is what truly motivates me.
What other composers / musical styles have had the greatest influences on you? What is in your CD-player right now?
The CD-player is a pre-century tool I gave up on many years ago. But I will tell you what is in my iPod. Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Pat Metheny, Thomas Newman, Gabriel Yared, David Arnold, Herbie Hancock, Boomjinx, BT, Jerry Goldsmith, Gorecki, Hans Gregory Williams, Don Davis, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, John Williams, James Newton Howard, Edward Shearmur, St. Germain, ES Posthumus, Gustav Holst, Bill Brown, James Horner, John Barry, Trever Rabin, John Adams, Bernard Hermann, Alex North, Jeff Rona, Bobby McFerrin, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Sly and Robbie, Enya, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Bergersen, Colin Malley, Bach, Mozart, a million others and my own stuff.
What is, so far, your favourite project you’ve worked on?
The making of my baby girl.
What would be your dream project?
I would love to work with a group of extraordinary talented and collaborative individuals. It doesn’t matter whether it is games, features or television. The end-product should be a highly emotive experience that would transcend the media and provide a profound experience for its users and makers.
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working as audio director and composer on some different projects. They haven’t been announced yet, but all of them contain epic orchestral and modern electronic elements.
Do you play PC or console games yourself?
Oh yes. I am currently playing Orange Box (TF2/Portal), Halo 3, BF2, Skate, Fight Night 3, RB6 Vegas, Civ4, COD3/COD04, Assasins Creed and Mass Effect.
Is there anything you’d like to say that I didn’t cover?
I have this pseudo-narcissistic BLOG that nobody ever reads. Feel free to pass by and check my ramblings at www.troelsfolmann.com/blog/ or write me a mail at troels.folmann@gmail.com
Thanks again and good luck on your future endeavours.
Feel free to read this lengthy interview I did for VI Magazine, which is the leading magazine for Virtual Instruments and new music technologies.
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Composer Troels Folmann is a multi-award winning composer specializing in epic orchestration and modern electronica. Troels received world wide recognition when he won the english BAFTA award for his soundtrack Tomb Raider Legend. This title was subsequently awarded game music of the year at the Game Developers Conference (2007) in San Francisco, and Troels later received the highly prestigious TEC award in New York for his work as the composer and audio director for the series.
Can you tell us something about your background and influences?
I don’t really have a traditional musical background. But I am convinced that there is a genetic quality to my trade. I did not learn to speak before the age of six, which lead my granddad to conclude I was born retard, which is still a topic debated in the family. Ironically my granddad was the only person in my family with interest in music. He had the unfortunately hobby of building and playing violins … both very poorly. So I had all the premises of a great start.
So anyway … eventually I became autistically obsessed with video games. I would play games all day and not care for school, people or the two day old pizzas that became a substantial part of my daily nutrition. It was just about me, Spyhunter, chips and cola. I also fell in love with the music in the games. The majestic Commodore 64 composer, Rob Hubbard, was one of the leading sources of inspirations and I still clearly remember his themes for Commandos, Last V8, Knuckle Busters and Crazy Comet and over 50 of other his scores.
My obsession with game music did expand over time and started including film soundtracks too. I had a hard time understanding the cover letter of records, so I would sometimes get things that were non-intentional. One of them was Herbie Hancock’s Future-Shock album, which had these crazy laser things going on the cover, so I thought it was a motion picture score and then things just took off. This album redefined me together with E.T, Vangelis, Jan Hammer, Lee Ritenour, Trouble Funk, Chaka Khan, Sly and Robbie and Shostakovich.
Scrolling forward to the last five years my influences have changed dramatically. I still listen to a variety of composers, including Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Pat Metheny, Thomas Newman, Gabriel Yared, David Arnold, Herbie Hancock, BT, Jerry Goldsmith, Gorecki, Hans Gregory Williams, Don Davis, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, John Williams, James Newton Howard, Edward Shearmur, St. Germain, ES Posthumus, Gustav Holst, Bill Brown, James Horner, John Barry, Trever Rabin, John Adams, Bernard Hermann, Alex North, Jeff Rona, Richard Bona, Bobby McFerrin, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Sly and Robbie, Enya, Ennio Morricone, Bach, Mozart and others.
But the far majority of influences is actually coming from people in the established VI-community, including well-trimmed puddles such as Thomas Bergersen, Boomjinx aka Oistein, Tobias Marberger, Nick Phoenix, Alex Pfeffer, Gabe Shadid, Craig Sharmat, Aaron Sapp, Alex Towering, Colin Malley, Big Bob and a few friends at Remote Control. The VI-community is really where it happens and there are so many talented people out there. I wish I could mention you all, but … anybody reading this magazine is probably within this category, unless you hang out at NS…
But there is another side to it that people often neglect, which is related to business and networking. I personally think that these are crucial skill sets to become a successful composer and value on par with the ability to compose, which reminds me about the brilliant quote:
“Just because nobody understands you – doesn’t mean you are an artist”.
Tell us about the tools in your arsenal (sequencer, computers, monitoring, plugins, etc) and what else do you have in your rig?
Thank you for asking the ultimate über geek DAW question. I am quite fanatical about setups, but I have also learned that the amount of computers and plugins really don’t matter at the end of the day. The best tracks I have done are less then 20 tracks and the worst have over 600.
My setup is a 10 PC based rack-server solution essentially broken down into instrumental sections (3 strings, 2 brass, 1 wood, 2 percussion, 1 choir and 1 ethnic/solo vocals) The main machine is a Quad-core, which is the biggest leap I have ever tried in terms of raw-processing power. I did some initial tests and loaded over 30 high-end convolution reverbs and still didn’t see it chuck over 50% and currently running a +600 track template. I am still running 32-bit, since a variety of applications are not running in 64-bit yet, unfortunately. I believe I am going to make the shift sometime in late 2008 depending on quality of support. I am still contemplating on whether to convert to MAC, but a variety of the plugins I use are not MAC-based. I use Genelec speakers for stereo monitoring and Yamaha speakers for 5.1.
Regarding plugins I could talk all day long. But I want to mention two plugins that caught my attention recently. The first one is Dblue Glitch (PC), which is the ultimate BT killer plugin and one of the greatest plugin innovations ever done. The plugin also happens to be free, which is a great sign of the non-commercial sample world making significant progress. Glitch allows you to do real-time “glitching” of anything you want by either controlling glitch-FX via midi-keyboard or just have the program do random glitches in your music. The second plugin is Time freezer (PC/MAC), which is this insane program allowing you to sculpt ambient drones out of anything. It essentially takes a small part of a .wav file and freezes it by using different time-stretching and cross-fading techniques. The greatness about this plugin is that it truly allows you to carve drones out of any music material and make it your own. So if you have a certain piece of music you like – you simply freeze it, render out different time-chops and make it your own. It is a must have for anybody interested in ambient scoring. I also use UAD and POCO cards that help on processing- and mastering side.
Regarding other gear I have been trying to cut down. The majority of my gear is really based on my interest in custom sampling. The first one is my beloved Zoom H4, which is the ultimate stun-gun looking field recorder. I use it every day and it is truly amazing at what it does. It’s essentially a $299 field-recorder with condensed microphones on it. You can also plug XLR into it, so I normally do custom recording by plugin a set of Neumann mics into it. I believe Zoom recently came out with a 5.1 version of it called H2, which is currently listed at $199 or something and essentially allows you to record 5.1 on the spot with on-board mics, however it doesn’t have XLR.
Analog gear counts: 5-string Schecter, 7-string Ibanez, 6-string semi-acoustic Ibanez, POD XT, 50 ethnic flutes from Lark in the Morning and the mighty Hang Drum, which I am still considering to sell on Ebay, since the last one went for 8K. But there is a karma quality to the hang drum, which is difficult to explain. The drum is extremely pressure sensitive and virtually impossible to translate fully into the sample realm due to its complex resonance chamber and metal composition.
Oh and my beloved Virus TI, which is a crazy beautiful and somehow haunted piece of synth hardware.
You’re also a Ph.D scholar in Game Music? Tell us about that.
I have always had interest in the academic side of things, so while living as a composer I also took a few master degrees in different subjects and eventually decided to combine my passion for music with my passion for academia. Game music is a challenging subject from a scientific point of view, since it has never been studied before. So I had to translate some of the more established theories from other auditory sciences to my studies. There is a great deal of cognitive studies on auditory perception and a variety of studies in the field of motion picture music and how it affects the listener. However one of the new challenges with game music is its dynamic/adaptive potential, which is unlike other types of music for static media. The interactive nature of game music is absolutely breaking new ground.
A significant part of my Ph.D. studies in game music related to developing new methodologies for advanced types of application of music in the game. One of my main focal points was – and still is – the development of something I call: “Micro-scoring”. Micro-scoring is essentially about breaking the score into a variety of small components that are assembled in real-time according to player action and/or interaction. The micro-scores are made in such a way that they adapt to player action or interaction. You have to imagine that there are thousands of things going on in the game environment — the idea behind micro-scoring is to support the major elements in the environment. An example can be a 3-second score for breaking pillars or falling stones, which is scored in the same key as the main ambient background score. We also have more detailed types of micro-scores which are based on both real-time time stretching and slice based samples. This allows us to fully adjust pitch- and timing based on player interaction with the game. An example of this is adjusting beat to footsteps and increasing tempo when she starts running. A good example of micro-scoring application relates to chopping up a score in multiple components. So essentially composing a score in 15 different steps and cutting each step up, so it can seemingly integrate into any of the other 15 steps. The system then blends the steps in real-time and you have a much more varied and versatile score – made from micro-scores. This allows you to adjust mood in music with using basic cross-fades, but actually have adaptive types of compositions. Needless to say it’s a fairly complicated effort.
When we first met, I remember getting a lot of different cues that at the time were very good, but lately your stuff has gotten so much better. What are you doing differently now?
There is talent (10%) and exercise (90%). I don’t have a particular talent for music, but I have a desire for learning and being open-minded towards emotions and influences. I speak of this as a “free mind”, which is my mushroom philosophy of an unbiased, naïve, mental condition where you just do what feels right. I know it sounds strange, but allowing myself to work un-constricted helped me a lot. I believe all composers battle their own compositional patterns and realizing that I don’t have to battle them anymore was a great step forward. However it is hard to speak of a free mind without a framework. My framework has been 20 years of having fun with music, which is my way of exercising. You have to know the rules before you can bend them.
I personally believe music is all about generating emotions. It doesn’t have to be complex. It doesn’t have to be a John William. It doesn’t have use the best technology in the world. But it must have the nerve. A beating heart. A pulse. A breath. Otherwise it ends up being a midi-based saxophone solo in an elevator or a “Strangers in the night” pan-flute mockup in your local supermarket.
So back to your question. What am I doing differently now? The best answer I can give is one word: “Listen”. I listen to music and learn from it. I ask when there is something I don’t understand and the VI-community is priceless in this context. The combination between the “free mind” and the ability to listen are the two main things I do differently.
I always different listening periods where I focus on different types of listening exercises. I remember from 2005-2006 I was mainly focused on understand mix- and balance between instruments, which helped me significantly moving forward. These days I am mainly listen for counter point melodies and trying to understand their purpose in compositions. I constantly listen for any counter points and investigate their technique in the composition.
But it also important to recognize what did not help me move forward. I believe one of the most frequent composer illusions is that technology or software will make them better composers. I personally don’t believe in this philosophy – just like running shoes don’t run by themselves. But this is obviously a subjective observation. It is my fault I cannot make a masterpiece with my $299 Zoom H4 field recorder.
You’re part of custom sample libraries (groups of composers who pool finances and editing time to develop private libraries). Why bother when there are so many great ones out already?
All libraries have their advantages and disadvantages – and different philosophies on recording techniques, performance techniques and programming techniques. One of the frequent complaints is that libraries somehow restrict compositions, since you compose for the library more then you compose for yourself. The custom sample libraries provide you the opportunity of recording libraries the way you want them. I personally do it for the following reasons:
* Natural, hall based, verb in samples (No reverb can match natural reflection)
* Emotionally invested- and dedicated performances (Uninspired performance is one of the main reasons that sustained samples don’t work in the sample realm, IMHO)
* Effects (Conventional libraries go light-hearted on effects, which is one of the major components used in soundtrack scoring)
* No noise reduction of acoustic samples (Noise reduction hurts the samples and tends to remove the natural reflection and properties in the audio)
* Wrong samples (Conventional libraries tends to cut out the “wrong” samples that may have a slight off pitch or chaotic aspect to them. I keep them for the same reason, since “mistakes” are unavoidable in any acoustic context and helps bring life into the samples).
* I made it (The feeling of recording your own samples or being a part of sample project can be deeply satisfying. The performance and sampling is fun. Editing … not so much).
* Playability (We all know how certain patches just work for us – both sounding good and being great to play. I refer to this as the playability of the samples, which is one of the most important things. It doesn’t really matter whether you recorded a 192khz string library, if it doesn’t play well or was made from uninspired performers and un-dynamic programming.)
There is a variety of other components that goes into the custom philosophy. One of the last major custom sessions I was involved with was the sampling of a symphonic choir. We realized that none of the current libraries could sing extremely fast phrases and none of them had true legato features, which eventually became our motivation for recording it. We all learned a great deal from the session and it is now a part of my template together with the other great commercial choir libraries.
People have different philosophies on the subject of sample libraries, but I try to have an open mind about all libraries whether they are commercial or custom. It really comes down to what you like and what sounds good to you. As the great Doctor Phil says: “There is no reality. Only perception”.
Please describe your MIDI approach. Are you playing in these parts live, scoring them in, or using a MIDI event editor of some kind? What type of MIDI edits do you do generally?
I am not really technical with MIDI and my MIDI approach is different based on the style of music I compose, whether it is super polished and tight electronica or more lively orchestral scores. So I cannot really say I have a one-trick Pony in this regard, since I like to experiment most of the time. The orchestral scores generally have a more structuralized approach, since they build on my +600 track orchestral template, which mainly consists of custom libraries and commercial libraries such as QLSO XP and TS1/TS2. I sometimes use quantization on orchestral scores depending on need and application, however the general rule of thumb is to play things without it, since it tends to create a more vivid sound. I do use quantization in orchestral scores, especially when it comes to more tight layering of rhythms, but I normally have a 2-4% randomization of the note placement. I also have dedicated percussive templates, which I sometimes use afterwards to boost up the percussive sections. I generally use percussion a lot, so that’s why I build custom templates for this group in particular.
It gets a bit more complicated when we start discussing MIDI approach in the electronic realm, since it is often based on what sounds cool or feels good – and highly related to the “free mind” I was rambling about earlier on. I like putting sounds together, so sometimes I will sit with my Virus and combine different arps – then add some beats and lead synths – run it all through glitch – render all the tracks and rerun them through glitch again. Other times I will just play a drone and play live instruments over it with plenty of verb/delay – then render the track and play it through timefreezer and then start scoring on whatever soundscape I created. Timefreezer will create the most beautiful ambiences and a single verbed piano on top of that can do it for me.
Do you find yourself using a lot of samples from your Custom Library sessions?
I have been using more and more custom samples as the years have progressed due to some of the reasons I mentioned earlier, whether it is custom orchestral, vocal, choir, percussion or ethnic instruments. However custom samples do have the same issue as commercial samples, since they will define what you can compose and what you cannot compose. The real frontier for me is live instruments, which is why I spend the majority of my time practicing on electric- and acoustic bass and guitars, percussion/drums and violin, which is crucial for understanding and improving custom string samples. I would advice anybody to practice on the instrument they intend to sample, since it provides a much better understanding of the instrument and its capabilities, especially in relation to all the details we often miss in both custom- and commercial libraries.
I also find it more inspiring and fun to play live elements. It gives another sense of soulful purpose to the process of scoring – at least for me. However samples can do so many things that I cannot in the live realm, so I just feel privileged having so many amazing options.
Congratulations on your Tec Award. That is a huge achievement!?
Thank you. The TEC award means a great deal to me, since it is the first time it was ever given to interactive productions. The previous winners count Frank Zappa, Quincy Jones, Bob Moog, Bruce Swedien, George Lucas, Bruce Springsteen, Janet Jackson, Ferrell, Les Paul, Chaka Khan, Laurie Anderson, Will Lee, TODD AO, Ocean Studio and a lot of other myths that I don’t deserve any comparison to.
Was recently interview for the Virtual Instruments Magazine, which is the leading magazine within the world of computer based music. The interview is rather extensive and goes in-depth on a variety of the techniques and methodologies used in my compositions, including descriptions of setup/rig/gear, composition of micro-scores, how to evolve as a composer, orchestrating with midi and making 100% convincing mock-ups using custom sampling, which is one of my big darlings. I am gonna go way more into custom sampling on GDC, since it is one of the most powerful tools that a modern composer can add to her/his array of tools.
Here is a recent interview with M4G.
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Biography:
2006 BAFTA award winning composer Troels Folmann is the man behind the next-generation Tomb Raider soundtracks. Troels has extensive background in scoring commercials, video game soundtracks and Hollywood blockbuster trailers. His recent game credits include: Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Anniversary Edition, Project Snowblind, Defender of the Crown, Sabotage, and Metronome. Additionally, Troels Folmann has a background as a Ph.D. scholar in interactive game music with focus on “micro-scoring”, which is an advanced methodology for the creation of true adaptive scores. M4G caught up with the composer to find out more about scoring next-gen Tomb Raider.
M4G: First of all congratulations with your recent BAFTA nomination and award. How does it feel?
Troels Folmann: Thank you very much. It was quite an honor receiving the nomination and literally a shock to receive the BAFTA award. The award is super heavy by the way. It is 18 mighty pounds, but I guess it is to keep the speeches short.
M4G: Can you tell us about your musical background and how you got into scoring music for games?
Troels Folmann: I don’t really have a traditional musical background. The only person in my family who ever played music was my granddad – who had the unfortunate hobby of building AND playing violins. I did not speak before the age of six, which left me with a lot time to screw around. I had a passion for smashing things, so I inherently learned drumming that way. I firmly believe that the sense of rhythm should come before the sense of tonality. The understanding of rhythm is essentially for learning human movement and dexterity. So I kept on drumming for many years and started playing piano too, so eventually I developed some proficiency in music.
However I also had a side passion which was games and game music. I started composing music on my ZX Spectrum 48k and Commodore 64. I always enjoyed game music and I still recall the many wonderful C64 tunes by Rob Hubbard, Galway, Daglish and others. The SID chip on the 64 had an amazing potential, but things really got wild when I got my Amiga 512, which had stereo capabilities and so forth. I eventually got a sampler for the Amiga and I don’t know how many complaints we got from our neighbors.
My favorite game on the C64 and the Amiga was Defender of the Crown, which was a multi-genre type of game in medieval England. Ironically this would also become the first larger commercial game I scored. Cinemaware made a version of Defender of the Crown for PS2/PC/Xbox and I had the pleasure of scoring it. But the real entrance to game scoring came through MODs. I did many scores for different MODs and I would highly advice aspiring composers to do the same. The MOD communities are amazing now and I still try to support them occasionally. I personally some of the greatest games came out of the MOD communities. Think Counter Strike, BF Desert Combat and so forth.
M4G: How and when did you start working with Crystal Dynamics?
Troels Folmann: I originally came to Crystal Dynamics as a Ph.D. scholar related to my research in game music. I was amongst the first people in the world to conduct deeper academic research into the media. However I tend to have a pragmatic view on things, so it was important for me to conduct studies together with the industry, which is one of the reasons I synced with Crystal. One of my prime research subjects is something I call: “Micro-scoring”, which we ended up using extensively in Tomb Raider: Legend.
Micro-scoring is essentially about breaking the game score into a variety of small components that are assembled in real-time according to player action and/or interaction. The micro-scores are made in such a way that they adapt to player action or interaction. You have to imagine that there are thousands of things going on in the game environment – the idea behind micro-scoring is to support the major elements in the environment. An example can be a 5-second score for breaking pillars or rolling stones. While motion picture scoring would typically have a musical element to support such an action, it would normally be dismissed in the game world. However the micro scoring techniques allows us to do just that.
M4G: How long did you spend writing and implementing the music on Tomb Raider: Legend?
Troels Folmann: I worked 2 months of developing music documentation on Legend. The majority of composers normally get started right away, however I conducted pretty extensive research into the game before I started scoring it. I studied the different locations in the game and their original music styles. I then bought some of the cultural signature instruments like Peruvian Pan Flutes, African Whale drums, Armenian Duduks, Tibetan Horns and learned how to play them in a decent fashion. I bought all the instruments at a great ethnic music shop called Lark in the Morning.
I then compiled all the information into a 100 page soundtrack document, which allowed me to know exactly what I was going for in the individual levels. I then started scoring the game, which took aprox. 8 months and the final result were over four hours of orchestral- and electronic music.
Tomb Raider is a very difficult game to score, since the game consists of so many known world locations. Lara is a world traveler and to a certain degree I am a world composer. I don’t lock down on one particular style, but I try to learn and understand all music styles. I am particularly interested in contemporary music, so anything on the motion picture soundtrack scene or the electronic charts will get my attention.
M4G: How does the experience of scoring Tomb Raider: Legend compare with your previous game projects? Given the popularity of the original music, was composing for such an established and recognizable franchise a daunting task?
Troels Folmann: Tomb Raider: Legend was very different from most other projects I have been working on. I had just completed the cinematic score for the award winning Project Snowblind before Legend. Snowblind was an original title, so it was more open in terms of creative expectations, which allowed me to pursue new directions. However Tomb Raider is one of the most well established franchises in the game industry, so it is naturally succeeded by many levels of expectations. The fans have expectations. The team and producers have expectations. The publisher and marketing groups have expectations. It is my job to funnel all the expectations into a soundtrack that got mass consumer appeal. I believe this was my biggest task on Tomb Raider Legend and it was a major professional accomplishment for me to succeed in this.
The original game had many beautiful scores my Nathan McCree, so it was about finding a careful balance between the original material and yet provide innovation at the same time. The original Tomb Raider got this great four note them, which I also use in the beginning of the Legend theme.
M4G: Where was the score recorded and how many minutes of music were recorded live? Is there any electronic/synth material featured in the soundtrack? If so, how do the two styles complement each other?
Troels Folmann: The Tomb Raider: Legend score seems to surprise many people, since none of the music was ever recorded live. All the music was recorded on my 9 PC 20Ghz / 20GB / 10TB render farm, which is custom build for orchestral scores. The symphonic mockups are starting to sound so real that the majority of people cannot hear the difference any longer. I actually found quotes noting that the score was recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. Unfortunately I can dismiss that rumor.
I added a variety of more contemporary electronic elements to the Legend score, whether it was mixing the orchestra with synths, breakbeats or solo voices. I also had the pleasure of beta testing some great technology, while we were in production. One of the great tools was a great symphonic choir library (EastWest Quantum Leap Symphonic Choirs), which essentially allows the user to type in any text and have the choir sing it. I used this extensively for one of the levels in Legend, where the choir would subtly provide the player with hints.
I personally believe that orchestral scores goes well together with electronica. It naturally depends on the context, but the two really work great together for the most part. One thing I really enjoy is epic scoring, which is the large, Hollywood type of scores. There is a common misconception that these are most symphonic by nature. While the certainly incorporate the whole orchestra – they also contain many electronic elements. Whether it is double stacking strings, applying drones to support and phatten the basses or adding a variety of percussion to get that off-the-wall type of sound.
M4G: Did you include any musical references to the original Tomb Raider soundtracks? What kind of instrumentation did you use for the main Lara theme(s)?
Troels Folmann: I philosophically believe that all music is referencial in nature. The Legend main theme is a really good example, since it starts out by playing the original theme on the Duduk – then followed my the new theme played on a middle eastern violin – then followed by a solo female voice singing verses from an old Gaelic folk song – then followed by an epic choir singing the new theme. The main theme ends in an explosion of orchestral elements, choirs and solo voices – slowly fading out with the Gaelic folk song. The main theme also includes a variety of layered percussions, guitars, drones, sound effects and plenty of reverb.
M4G: You’ve referred to your Tomb Raider: Legend game score as “feature film music.” Some argue that a lot of orchestral music in games is generic and too much like other film soundtracks – were there any specific music styles or film soundtracks that inspired the original score for next-gen Tomb Raider?
Troels Folmann: One of my prime targets for the Legend score was to make it sound similar to a feature film soundtrack in terms of compositional and technical quality. One of the problems with conventional “game music” is simply related to the compositional quality. Motion picture tends to invest way more on music and the results are obviously different from games. Why should game music not sound good? Why shouldn’t we compete with the many amazing motion picture scores? The argument is typically that we are different, which is true. Games are different from movies, but I don’t think that means that we should have weaker sounding music in the games. Another argument is that game music should be ground-breaking, creative and innovative.
I think that’s great, but the music still needs to sound good. So either way…it all comes down to the quality of the music, so when I mention “feature film music” I refer to the compositional and technical quality of the music. Innovation is great, but it’s got to have that hook into commonly accepted consumer expectations and conventions.
In other words, I am a commercial artist doing commercial art, which means that I have to embrace and innovate conventions and stereotypes. I know many artists that follow their heart and gut feeling, which I highly respect. But dealing with mass consumer scoring is about professionalism and scoring for the masses. I call it “embracing the cliché”, which is easier said then done.
Another reason why I am interesting in feature film scores is related to the emotional experience. Ask yourself this question “How often do I have an emotional experience in a movie?” Now ask yourself “How often do I have an emotional experience in a games?”
M4G: What are the main differences between scoring for film and games? Are there any similarities? Does a composer need to play games in order to create a great game soundtrack?
Troels Folmann: Great questions. First of all there is a difference between the predictable and static aspects of movies compared to the unpredictable and dynamical aspects of an interactive experience. Secondly there is a difference in terms of the emotional experience. Movie scores tend to provide a deeper emotional experience, which is partially related to the fact you fully control the story in a movie, but also to the compositional qualities of a motion picture score.
I essentially believe music has the same role in games, which is to be the emotional glue between the player and the game. But it is more difficult to do an emotional game score, since you need to compose in a way that be triggered in real time. This is one of the main reasons why I invented my micro-scoring methodology. Micro-scoring allows scores triggered in real-time as the player progress through the environments.
The next games we are making are going to bring this even further. We now have technologies that allow us to trigger music based on what the player is looking at, which is a huge step forward for us in terms of recreating a real-time generated musical experience. There is no doubt in my mind that game composers should have a deep understanding of the media and play games. This demand is going to increase as we get more demanding in terms of creating custom scores in the game. I’m currently working full-time with sound designers, audio engineers and programmers to make this happen.
M4G: What are the main challenges of next-generation game music?
Troels Folmann: First of all we have to increase the overall quality of game music. I still hear a lot of bleeps and bloops and it hurts my heart every time. The quality of music is also related to the level of emotional content in the music. It is great to have these big, banging, epic tunes. But music can do so much more and we sometimes aim for the lowest co-nominator in game music. However there is also a huge challenge in terms of creating more complex interactive experiences. I personally believe we need to dissect the music into myriads of small pieces that are assembled in real-time in order to recreate a believable interactive experience for the player, but it needs to go hand in hand with the emotional experience, which is extremely difficult.
M4G: Why do you think it has taken developers so long to realize the potential of truly adaptive audio? Is it a lack of commitment and innovation from composers and producers or just a reflection of limited audio engines?
Troels Folmann: What is true adaptive audio? Essentially I believe it is real-time generated music and we are many console generations away from this. There used to be real-time generated midi based music, but the midi sounds were terrible and it just didn’t work right, which is another great argument for the quality of music in games. I would personally prefer to have a great sounding music experience than a bad sounding adaptive midi score. But the real hurdle is the technical constraints. You would need hardcore DSP capabilities beyond anything we have now and many terabytes of source data you could use. Additionally you would need AI music systems that would adapt to player action, interaction and player preference. The next-generation of consoles is not going to bring this to the table.
Essentially we get more bandwidth for triggering and pre-buffering audio, but its nothing like a real-time generating system. We have some of the best audio engineers in the world at Crystal Dynamics and the way we overcame the hurdle was to program custom technologies for micro-scoring. We can essentially trigger scores anytime in the game and it is an extremely complex journey that takes composer, audio engineer and audio programmers to collaborate on daily basis.
Essentially the ability to collaborate, communicate, negotiate are such important tools for any professional composer.
M4G: What’s next for Troels Folmann? Any franchise/titles you’d like to score in the future?
Troels Folmann: I am currently working on some unannounced projects, which includes mixtures of full symphonic orchestras and choirs, massive percussion ensembles and electronica. I love scoring Tomb Raider, since it is extremely diverse and compositionally demanding. I would also enjoy scoring a game with highly emotional content, but I am not exactly sure when that game will be out.
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Source: Music4Games.net
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I recently did an interview for CDM (Create Digital Music). Feel free to read the interview here or from the original source.
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CDM Interview: Tomb Raider: Legend Composer Troels Brun Folmann on Adaptive “Micro-Scoring”
The latest installment in the famed Tomb Raider series has done very well under its new developer, Crystal Dynamics. Tomb Raider: Legend debuted at No. 1 on the UK sales charts and has sold nearly 3 million units since release. Composer Troels Brun Folmann, Ph. D. scholar in Adaptive Game Audio from IT-Universitetet i København, was recently awarded a BAFTA award for Best Original Score for Tomb Raider: Legend. We had the opportunity to talk with him about composing for games, adaptive music, and more.
Create Digital Music: Troels, first of all, congratulations on your recent BAFTA award for your Tomb Raider: Legend score!
Troels Brun Folmann: Thanks. I’m still having problems sleeping!
CDM: So this is something I struggle with on a daily basis (with my own surname) — can you tell us how to correctly pronounce your name?
TBF: Haha! I don’t know to be honest. When I order something at Starbucks, they always ask for my name twice. First I go, “Troels.” Then they go, “Charles?” Then I go, “Ehm…Troels.” and get a cup of coffee named “Charles”. The solution was to change my name to “Troy”, so I use that all the time now at Starbucks. But the most common English pronunciation is “Trolls”.
CDM: Tell us a little bit about your background, for those who may not have read your blog, etc.
TBF: The majority of composers always have these cool stories about how they played at the age of 2 and so forth. Unfortunately my story is a little less sexy. I couldn’t speak before I reached the age of 6 and I was generally regarded as a loss for humanity. Nobody in my family played music except of my grand-dad, who was a terrible hobby musician. When I was about 10 years old I decided to follow his majestic path. I eventually became a Ph.D. Scholar in Dynamic/Adaptive music for games and tried building bridges between the academic world and the games industry. But enough about me, please. You can find my narcissistic weblog at www.deffmute.com if anybody should care to drop me a line.
CDM: Adaptive music for games is a fairly new concept, what made you decide to pursue that field for your Ph. D. work?
TBF: Good question. I would not say that adaptive music is a new concept, but the problem is that it’s never really been working. One of the main limitations is the fact that current generation of consoles like the PS2 and Xbox have very little RAM allocated for audio. Typically, sound designers have a mighty 2MB to play around with. True adaptive music needs be generated in real-time, and even the next-generation consoles like Xbox 360 and PS3 will not have resources enough to do this on a larger scale.
However, there are ways to work around the limitations. This usually involves the creation of custom technologies. I invented a methodology known as “micro-scoring”. It’s basically the idea of chopping your score down to very small components and triggering them in a way that compliments the game experience.
CDM: For those who may be considering such an academic pursuit, do you feel that your post-graduate studies have helped you as a working composer?
TBF: This is a very difficult question. Did academia help me become a better composer? No. Did academia help me get a better understanding of communication, clients and business? Absolutely. I would advise aspiring composers and musicians to pursue conservatory degrees or just experiment on their own, since classic academia is far away from the game business. However, I would advise all professional composers to take communication, client relationships, networking, promotion, sales and business seriously. You may be the greatest composer in the world, however you need more than your music to get by, in my opinion. A talent is a person that excels under a given set of circumstances. Professional music composition is bread and butter. Communication is key.
Anyway, let’s get back to your question regarding academia. I do think there is a potential in academia to support this, but the current research on interactive music is highly sparse and I had a hard time finding serious research material to support scientifically valid statements, while I was a scholar.
CDM: Let’s talk a little more in detail about Tomb Raider: Legend. First off, this was the first TR title for Crystal Dynamics, but you had been working with them for some time. Can you tell us how you came to work with them, and how you eventually came to be the composer for TRL?
TBF: Tomb Raider has sold over 30 million units through its 10 year lifespan. Crystal Dynamics has a long history in action-adventure games and Tomb Raider: Legend was a unique opportunity for the studio to embrace the brand and renew it at the same time. I originally came to Crystal Dynamics as a Ph.D. scholar, while conducting field studies into the game business. I have always had a very pragmatic approach to things, since I don’t believe in dry and boring academia. I had previously worked with Crystal on their award-winning FPS “Project: Snowblind” and we had a very inspiring collaboration. Crystal Dynamics invited me over to conduct field studies and invent new methodologies for interactive scoring in Tomb Raider: Legend. The collaboration grew and I had an extremely high ambition for the score. My ambition was to do a consecutive, non-repetitive score for the game, while ensuring “Hollywood-quality” music at the same time. Game music has a nasty tendency to become repetitious and loop-like in its nature, so I invented the “micro-scoring” methodology to avoid this.
Micro-scoring is essentially about breaking the score into a variety of small components that are assembled in real-time according to player action and/or interaction. I scored over 4 hours of orchestral/electronic music for the game and it took me about 8 months to finalize the whole project. All the music was scored on my 9 PC renderfarm (which comprises approximately 20GHz of CPU, 20GB GB, and 10TB of storage).
CDM: TRL is obviously a very different project from Project: Snowblind, with an installed fan-base, a legacy of games and films – what was your initial approach for keeping true to the history Tomb Raider, while imparting your own distinct qualities?
TBF: It’s very delicate work, handling a highly known brand such as Tomb Raider; everyone has different expectations. The role of a commercial composer is to unify the expectations and channel them into something that will please most of the involved parties. It is my job to understand the needs of the client/publisher, the in-house team and producers, marketing and sales, fans and gamers – and compile all these expectations into the score. I am a commercial artist doing commercial art, which means that I have to embrace and innovate conventions and stereotypes. I know many artists that follow their heart and gut feeling, which I highly respect. But dealing with mass consumer scoring is about professionalism and scoring for the masses. I call it: ” embracing the cliche”, which is easier said then done.
CDM: In other interviews and articles, you’ve touched upon the music system for TRL. Can you tell us how the adaptive music system for TRL differs from other music systems?
TBF: Allow me to go into detail on micro-scoring. One of the ways that games differ from motion pictures is in the interactive nature of the media and the fact we can never fully predict player behavior. The micro-scores are made in such a way that they adapt to player action or interaction. You have to imagine that there are thousands of things going on in the game environment — the idea behind micro-scoring is to support the major elements in the environment. An example can be a 5-second score for breaking pillars or rolling stones. While motion picture scoring would typically have a musical element to support such an action, it would normally be dismissed in the game world.
However, micro-scores allow us to support that action. For Tomb Raider: Legend, we spent a long time creating a highly advanced proprietary streaming system that allows us to trigger micro-scores all over the game world. So, essentially, I can place scores for any change in the game, which is naturally a complex and time consuming process. The trend of games – particularly next-generation 360 and PS3 – is one of complexity. Everything is getting more detailed, whether its multiple translucent layers of textures, real-time generated light and shadow maps, massive streaming game worlds and so forth. Audio and music is no exception. The need for dissecting music into smaller fractions is becoming increasingly important in order to support the decisions and experiences of the player.
However, there is one component more important than any of the technical features, and that is one of emotion. I personally believe music is the emotional glue between the player and the game. Now the second question would be, “How often do we become emotional by playing games (aside from slamming our mouse or controller after being fragged)?” I believe the answer to this question describes how much we still have to face as composers in interactive media.
CDM: We are hearing more and more adaptive soundtracks in current and next-generation titles. Being able to stream multiple music stems at will based on any number of variables – player interaction, geometry, scripted events, etc. – not only changes the way we experience the game from a purely musical perspective, but can also draw the player into the action more, providing a more cinematic, and possibly emotional, feel to the experience. With that in mind, how has working with adaptive systems affected your composing methods? Put another way, how has working with an adaptive music system altered your composing style as opposed to composing for linear media (such as film)?
TBF: The ability to understand game technologies and mechanics is becoming increasingly important for the composer. The amount of complexity and micro-scoring will increase in order to ensure a smooth and complimentary game experience. There is no doubt that adaptive mechanisms do change the way I compose and approach scoring.
Let me provide you a little insight into some of complexities we faced on Tomb Raider: Legend. First of all any game level is made of smaller “units”. So whenever a player moves around in the level, she/he will cross multiple units and unit boundaries. Whenever this happened, I placed a score, so you have to imagine a variety of subsequent scores for each level in the game. We basically used our streaming engine to support this and a variety of cross fade and mixing techniques to have seamless transitions the score.
However, we also placed a variety of small micro-scores that support scripted events, cinematics and so forth. All these elements mean you have to keep a consistent approach to your scoring. You have to ensure music is in similar keys, so the score transitions don’t stand out. You have to ensure that rhythmic transitions are smooth, which can be really difficult with different measures and BPM. I sometimes had to create micro-scores that worked as transitions, so essentially scoring a bridge between the different scores. The hardest thing is to ensure that all this can work at anytime in the game. You never know when the player decides to do something, move forward or backward in the game. The score needs to follow every possible action, which is quite complicated.
CDM: As you compose more music for games, have you found any tools that are particularly useful or valuable?
TBF: One of the most important things to me is instant access to my music, which is why I had to custom build a 9-PC renderfarm for my composition. Orchestration is particularly demanding and I never liked bouncing much. The way I built my render farm is pretty simple actually. I have 2 PCs for strings, 2 PCs for brass, 1 PC for woodwinds, 1 PC for percussion, 1 PC for choirs, 1 PC for ethnic instruments and my main computer. I use a variety of commercial and custom sample libraries. My favorite orchestral library is East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Library (particularly the XP edition). The guys also released an amazing choir library, which allows you to type in any text and have the choir sing it. (Ed: See our episodic review of EWQL Symphonic Choirs.) They also have a fantastic percussion library called Stormdrum and soon coming out with Stormdrum 2, which is going to be even wilder. I also enjoy many of the open-source VST instruments and effects, but my main source for basic effects is my trustworthy UAD.
I am gradually moving more and more into custom recordings and sample design. I bought a variety of ethnic instruments from ethnic instrument online-store, Lark in the Morning, and used them all over the Tomb Raider score. I like musical sound effects a lot and these are hard to come by in the commercial library world. I bought anything from the Armenian Duduk to the Japanese Shakuhachi – from Bolivian Pan flutes to African Whale drums. My audio engineer bought a saw and I would highly recommend you … not do the same! We have also done custom sample recordings of two orchestras, which is something I would advise all professional composers to do at some point. The amount and quality of the content is absolutely amazing and allows you to shape your templates in a much more advanced and personal way.
CDM: Can you tell us a little bit about your ‘typical’ approach to composing a piece of music for a game? I realize your process may differ based any number of factors, but maybe you have one or two methods that you normally start out with?
TBF: It depends on what type of music I’m composing. When I orchestrate I normally flesh out the whole score as a piano composition. I used to have a more impressionistic approach and compose on the fly; however, I realized I got more consistent results when I sketched in advance. As far as tips and tricks, there are a few things I rely on when composing. First of all, I never use quantization on orchestration. A real orchestra never plays completely synchronously and this is an important element to keep in mind. It’s basically about invoking life into your composition and your samples. Sometimes I try to think as the conductor. Whether it is a slight change in tempi or trying to create more dynamic movements with crossfades and volume adjustments. Another trick is to apply individual reverbs to different orchestral sections. Strings, Brass, Woods, Percussion and Choir react very differently to reverb, so applying individual convolution reverb to each section is quite beneficial. And make sure you have at least one convolution in the master output section as well. It’s really about recreating the beautiful, complex reflections you hear in a concert hall room and you can do this by combining multiple reverbs.
When I do electronica it’s different. I have no consistent methodology for electronica. It can be anything from laying down a nasty groove to routing an arpegiated synth through a glitch module. Anything from putting down a deep drone and placing a super reverbed female voice or tuning down my drums 24 semitones, distort them and see where it goes.
So long story shortÖ I compose differently for each individual style of music.
CDM: Aside from the previous Tomb Raider scores, what other music influenced you during this particular project?
TBF: Oh dear … You ready? Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Pat Metheny, Thomas Newman, Gabriel Yared, David Arnold, Herbie Hancock, Boomjinx, BT, Jerry Goldsmith, Gorecki, Hans Gregory Williams, Don Davis, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, John Williams, James Newton Howard, Edward Shearmur, St. Germain, ES Posthumus, Gustav Holst, Bill Brown, James Horner, John Barry, Trever Rabin, John Adams, Bernard Hermann, Alex North, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Sly and Robbie, Enya, Ennio Morricone, Thomas Bergersen and many, many others.
CDM: Anything new and exciting on the horizon for you?
TBF: I am currently working on some unannounced projects, which are stretching my compositional palette further than ever. Imagine something between epic orchestral, glitch based electronica, large percussion ensembles and full symphonic choirs.
CDM: Thanks for spending time with us!”
TBF: The pleasure has all been mine. If anybody wants to know more, feel free to contact me through my weblog at www.deffmute.com.
Source: Create Digital Music, October 11th, 2006.
from www.tombraiderfans.com/revista (in Spanish).
This month we had the pleasure to interview Tomb Raider: Legend music composer, Troels Brun Folmann. And, as most of you do not understand Spanish, here is the original, English version of the interview:
Tomb Raider Fans Magazine: Is there anything you can tell us about your earlier work? How were you chosen to compose the music for Tomb Raider: Legend?
Troels Brun Folmann: I originally came to Crystal Dynamics in order to conduct Ph.D. studies on dynamic and adaptive music for video games. I had previously done the cinematic score for their award-winning FPS, Project: Snowblind, which was a great and innovative project. The people at Crystal Dynamics were really happy with my music on Project: Snowblind, so we started debating potential options for scoring Tomb Raider Legend. I don’t really have words to describe this, but I would believe it’s the same feeling people have when they win the national lottery or something. I can tell you that there is not one single day (even after production) where I don’t feel honored being a part of this great and intensive project. In the past I did a variety of indie movies, trailers and commercials, corporate sound design, sound logos and games.
TRFM: What feelings did you want to transfer with the Tomb Raider: Legend soundtrack?
TBF: Very good question. I basically try to envision the emotions that Lara explores during the game and think about how players would experience things from an emotional point of view. An example is the Croft Mansion. I wanted to make people feel relaxed, laid-back, safe and home. The music is extremely ambient and soft with a grand piano playing the main theme very gently. Another example when Lara is chased by the Sea Serpent in Arthur’s Grave. I wanted a huge epic orchestral score to describe the majestic beast and Lara’s confrontation.
I essentially believe that music is about conveying some level of emotion and the best games always provide some emotional experience to the players. Tomb Raider covers the whole spectrum of emotions from childhood dreams to hardcore combat, from exploration of old Tombs to the realization of your parent’s death. What more could you ask for … as a composer?
TRFM: Composing a soundtrack for a videogame like the Tomb Raider series is always a challenge. What method do you use to lift the pressure and create a nice piece of music?
TBF: It was a major challenge scoring Tomb Raider because everybody had different expectations for it. I have learned one valuable lesson in life and that’s never to debate music with other people. The reason is that everybody hears it different and everybody has their own preference. I personally believe there is value in all types of music from country to hip-hop, classical to jazz, rock to pop, electronica to bad street musicians. Music is for everybody and it was very important for me to make a soundtrack that was epic, emotional, soft and wild – yet agreeing with popular music conventions. I personally try to learn from all musical genres, which I think comes with the trade of being a professional composer. You generally know what the majority of people like and do not like. Additionally there are plenty of scientific studies on how we perceive music and there are some established conventions about music harmony, instruments and choice of melodies that will have an impact. Naturally you also have to make the music contemporary. So it’s a mixture of compositional skills, knowledge, gutt-feeling, conventions and most importantly… your ability to convey emotion as a composer.
I also have an interest in the more analytical dimensions of auditory perception, which is the science of how we perceive audio.
TRFM: It has been mentioned that the classic Tomb Raider theme is in Tomb Raider: Legend, however the fans have not been able to find it. Is it actually in the game, and if so, where can we hear it? What was your thought process behind composing the new theme, rather than remaking the original theme?
TBF: I have read a lot of people discussing this one topic and rest assure … the game is loaded with the old theme. If you listen carefully to the main theme … you will hear the old Tomb Raider theme played in the beginning on an ancient Duduk flute. Another example is the reward music that plays once you have completed a level. The reward music also uses the distinct 4-note theme from the first Tomb Raider games. It was important for me to show respect for the old games and themes, however I also wanted to bring something new to the table, since the game is complete new in so many ways.
TRFM: Are you familiar with Nathan McCree’s work on earlier Tomb Raider games? If so, which elements would you highlight, or try to keep in Tomb Raider: Legend?
TBF: Nathan did a wonderful job on the first Tomb Raider games and I still adore his thematic works. The famous 4-note signature theme of the old Tomb Raider games will never faint away. I listened to all Nathan’s works before starting on the Tomb Raider Legend score and found great inspiration in them.
TRFM: Based on the opinions from the fans, is there anything that you would change if you were to work on a future Tomb Raider project?
TBF: I read the forums every day and have learned a great deal from the fans. The fans are the most knowledgeable people when it comes to Tomb Raider and I treasure their ideas very highly.
TRFM: Do you play any instruments? If so, which one(s)?
TBF: I know a lot of instruments, which is important as a composer, especially when you are dealing with symphonic music. I started out playing piano when I was a kid and then moved to percussion. However during Tomb Raider Legend I also learned to play a variety of different ethnic flutes ranging from the Armenian Duduk to Bolivian Pan Flutes, from Irish flute to Japanese Shakuhachi. I also know the majority of instruments in a symphonic orchestra, but I am not nearly as good as the players in the orchestra.
TRFM: How familiar were you with the Tomb Raider franchise before you started to work on Tomb Raider: Legend? Has your opinion of the franchise changed now that you have composed the music for the game?
TBF: I played the first Tomb Raider game extensively. I remember I had just gotten my Voodoo card for my PC and I thought the world was about to end when I first saw Lara. It is absolutely one of the biggest leaps – if not the biggest – in the history of games. It entirely redefined my perspective on games and had a profound impact on me … both visually and musically. I don’t really think my perception of the franchise has changed, but I think I have a better understanding of powerful it is and how many fans are actually following its progress on daily basis. I am certainly one of the fans and there is something about Lara that will never go away.
To me… She represents a next-generation hero… with flaws and beauty… with cynical remarks and emotion… with a dark past and a darker future… a true adventurer in the modern sense… Ok… I am getting way too philosophical now!
: )
TRFM: Thank you very much for your time, Troels. We wish you the best luck for the future.
TBF: Thank you very for letting me to this interview! Amo el croft del lara!
*HUGS* Troels
Copyright © 2006 by http://www.tombraiderfans.com/
I recently did an interview for the tombraider forums. I received some really great questions from the fans and wanted to share it here too. Feel free to post any follow-up questions you might have.
Interview
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1. What previous games have you composed music for and what was your reaction when asked to compose for Tomb Raider?
My journey to Crystal Dynamics began when I was conducting Ph.D. studies in dynamic and adaptive music for video games. I had the privilege of doing the cinematic score for their award-winning FPS, Project: Snowblind. The collaboration on Snowblind was really great and intensive, so I decided to take an abroad semester at Crystal in order to conduct field studies in dynamic music and my micro-scoring techniques.
The people at Crystal Dynamics really liked my previous works, so we started talking about the prospects of scoring Tomb Raider Legend and so the story goes.But I really don’t have any comprehendible form of language to express what joy went through my body as we discussed scoring Tomb Raider Legend. It’s one of the greatest opportunities I have ever had and I still feel honored by the fact they picked me.
2. In this new game, how have you created a piece of music and combined it with each level? How did you relate the music to each level?
All the levels in Tomb Raider Legend are made from small building blocks called units. So you have to imagine that every level consists of many small levels. You don’t notice it when you play the game, since our graphical engine will stream everything in real time. However I basically scored every unit in the game, which ended up being a really challenging and time consuming job, but I wanted the music to change whenever there was a change in the environment. So I ended up micro-scoring all the individual units in the game and believe me there are many. All the micro-scores are connected in a seamless way, so it just feels like one big, fluent experience.
All levels were scored differently. When I began the soundtrack I took a long time investigating the different levels, environments and cultures. I wanted to have a specific musical timbre for every level, so I had to understand the musical influences of each individual part of the game. When you are in Tokyo you will hear roaring Taiko drums and the beautiful Japaneese Shakuhachi flute (which is insanely hard to play btw). When you are in Bolivia you will hear pan flutes. When you are in Africa you will hear a variety of African percussions and so forth. However the real trick was to make the whole thing work as a consistent unity.
One of the ways I did that was to score all the cinematics with a symphonic orchestra in a more classical fashion.If I had to pick out a favourite level it would be Arthurs Grave. Many people never noticed it. But there is actually a choir singing: “Once a king was born – in a kingdom torn” and so forth. The choir is subconsciously providing hints to the player. The score for Arthurs Grave was a journey down the history of music. The music starts by being contemporary in the top part of the level, however as the player progress down the music gets more classical and ancient.
3. What was your favorite song to compose on the Tomb Raider: Legend soundtrack?
I have a few ones. I am proud of the main theme and the end-level theme, since they both incorporate the new and the old Tomb Raider theme. I also enjoy the music from the first vehicle section, the mansion music and the sad voices of Nepal. However the Arthurs Grave level is the stuff I am most proud of. The micro-scores are very fluently connected and I love the way the music gets darker, and darker… and darker… as you dive down.
4. When inspiration is gone and you’ve got a deadline to make, how do you continue composing your music?
Inspiration is motivation in my world. I am always motivated by deadlines and some of my best tunes are done under pressure. I cannot say it’s a good or valid working practice, but it’s the sad and unfortunate truth. I used to do a lot of contractual work and I have literally done scores in a matter of hours. It’s a part of being professional. However the best trick for me to stay motivated is reading you guyz. I read the forum every day and I think you would be surprised how much we learn from you.
5. How much does the music from the Tomb Raider Legend soundtrack contribute to the overall feeling and atmosphere of the game?
This is a really good question, but my answer is biased. I believe music is the emotional glue in the game. The music connects the player to the game and makes the game seem more real and present. However music is also a transparent media, which can fulfill many roles. Sometimes you just want the music in the background. Sometimes you want the music to suggest something. Sometimes you want it big, epic and roaring. Sometimes you don’t want it at all. The best way to test this is to turn off the music in the game. Normally people feel the game experience becomes less interesting and feel some sort of emotional detachment. Music is about creating emotion and emotion is key in any experience.But also keep in mind that half of the audio is non-musical.
I have some great colleagues in the audio group who does the sound design and the scripting and implementation. Mike Peaslee is our sound designer and he skillfully created all the ambiences and background sounds. The borderline between music and ambience is really narrow sometimes. Additionally we have a gifted sound engineer, Karl Gallagher, who does all the implementation and scripting. Lara is a great example of perfect sound design and scripting.
There are literally hundreds of sounds on Lara. All the sounds of her cloth, breaths, footsteps, weapons, fingers and feet touching surfaces and so forth. All these sounds were carefully scripted, so the player never experiences any repetitive sounds. This took a long time to do, but is a major accomplishment in terms of creating a believable sound environment on Lara. A really funny example is grenades. Mike Peaslee went out and bought several grenades, so we could get the subtle recording of grenades touching each other when she moves around. The attention to sound detail is quite amazing on Tomb Raider Legend, if I may say so myself.
6. What is the order of creating composition (for example, main theme score)? Do you at first appraise concepts, read game scripts and story itself, or even played some older Alfa demo version to feel the atmosphere?
I did not compose for the first 2 months on Tomb Raider Legend. I read all the conceptual documents, story scripts and played the game. I also looked into all the previous Tomb Raider games in order to understand what they did right- and what they did wrong on a musical level. Additionally I watched the two Tomb Raider movies and virtually listened to hundreds of motion picture soundtracks.
All this information was compiled into a rather lengthy “soundscape bible”, which described how I wanted to do the score and my ambition level with it. It was really important for me to get a motion picture feel in the score. There is quite a lot of blip-blobbish game music out there and I wanted to get far away from that. Games are certainly different from motion pictures, but I still believe we have a lot to learn in terms of quality and fidelity – both in audio and visuals.
7. What are the components/characteristics that make a musical theme suitable for a Tomb Raider game, what should it express, and what shouldn’t it express in your opinion?
The Tomb Raider theme was absolutely the hardest part to score in the game. I wanted the theme to be recognizable. I wanted it to be epic. I wanted it to be emotional. I wanted it to be for everybody. I wanted it to be classic. I wanted it to be modern. I wanted it to be sad. I wanted it to be happy and celebrating. I wanted the old Tomb Raider theme. I wanted the new Tomb Raider theme. I pretty much wanted everything.
So… I ended up doing over 30 different versions of it. I kept on rescoring it, since there was always something wrong with it. However in the end I realized I was trying too hard, so I decided to leave it for a while. One day I came back to it and scored it in a day. I knew it was the right theme – because it had all the components I was looking for. It starts out by playing the old Tomb Raider theme on an ancient ethnic flute called Duduk, which is followed up by a middle-eastern violin playing the new main theme. A beautiful Celtic female voice sings about love and the main theme kicks in with full choir and orchestra and a variety of different percussions. The theme ends with the female voice praising life.
8. What music do you listen to? Has it somehow influenced “Tomb Raider: Legend” soundtrack?
I listen to everything, literally anything. Naturally I listened to all the previous Tomb Raider games and the two movies. But I also listened to Hans Zimmer, Howard Shore, Pat Metheny, Thomas Newman, Gabriel Yared, David Arnold, Herbie Hancock, Boomjinx, BT, Jerry Goldsmith, Gorecki, Hans Gregory Williams, Don Davis, Danny Elfman, Alan Silvestri, John Williams, James Newton Howard, Edward Shearmur, St. Germain, ES Posthumus, Gustav Holst, Bill Brown, James Horner, John Barry, Trever Rabin, John Adams, Bernard Hermann, Alex North, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Sly and Robbie, Ennio Morricone and to a variety of random streaming radio channels on the internet (winamp rules).
9. What was your most difficult challenge when composing the score for Tomb Raider Legend? Are you planning on working on the music for the next Tomb Raider Game? (if possible)
The most difficult thing about the Tomb Raider Legend score was to make it accessible for every type of person playing the game. On one hand you have to make something distinct and unique. On the other side you also need to follow conventions of motion picture and so forth. Tomb Raider is not an art experiment and it was important for me to do music that everybody can relate to. Some people think is kind of trivial, but it’s really the hardest thing to do, which is why very few people got success with it. Naturally you cannot please everybody, but I think the score did a pretty good job on covering a variety of musical styles, while still retaining one, unique feel. Now in terms of the next Tomb Raider project … my lips are sealed … though my eyes are sparkling.
10. From which culture have you been inspired by to write this music?
Japaneese, Bolivian, Peruvian, European (Celtic), Armenian, African (Ghana), Russian, Himalayan and the great culture of Crystal Dynamics!
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