Week 4: 5/29/2012
This week was a lite week for me. Most of the work as writing the last pieces of music for the Captain Heart game. I edited some sound effects and and the voice overs too this week.
I basically edited the Captain Heart charter to give a deeper voice that we all wanted for the character, which was done with a pitch shifter plug in in Pro Tools. Then did a little EQing to the voice for balance.
The voice overs I only did one of them this week, because I wanted to spend the rest of the week writing remaining music for the game. I worked on the Narrator on editing out the breathing parts, picking out the best part, and EQing. I might work some more on this character again.
The biggest part I worked on this week was writing. I worked on some of the music with my friend Jami from College of DuPage to writing out the pieces for the Storyline, Pipe Dream mini game, and the Arteries Maze mini game. The Arteries Maze game music piece so far is a slower pace tempo, smooth, pop song. The Pipe Dream game music is a light, flowing like sound, jazz waltz. The Storyline is still a work in progress. Most likely it won't really come together until the recording session. Right now it a happier, upbeat, major chords playing simple song. The instruments that are written down may or may not be used, won't know the feel of it until the recording session.
I continue to write the remainder of the pieces through week 5 and will be in the recording session on June 3. I will be also writing music for the remainder of Rhythm Pump game for the levels, Title page, ending, and working out the parts for Storyline music until June 3.
That is it for this week until next week...
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Music and Captain Heart sound effects
Week 3: 5/17/2012
This week was to work on more of the music of the Captain Heart game. This is getting harder and harder for me to do. With my Mid-Term project I only had to write 6 songs, with the Senior Project I will have to write a between a total of 14 to 16 songs for this game. The reason for this is because the Captain Heart has all these mini games with in it and all my team mates want their own songs for each particular game. That is not including the menu, title, ending, and storyline of the game. This more then I ever written in my life.
I've been trying to step put of the box more on video game music, because when I went to the GDC this year I talked to a couple companies that liked my music but sounded too much like music that has been done before in games. In this games I'm really trying to go beyond the typical sound that you hear in Mario Bros, Zelda, and so many game music we have heard time and again. I'm also trying to appeal to the generation of today and what would be exciting in this game as well to the client and players of the future of this game.
This week I only thought I would do another 3 songs in the studio, but it became a writing session too. I ended up with actually 5 songs for the session. It turn out to be a real good session.
My friend and co-writer Chris was in on the session, Mike co-writer and studio owner was in the session, and myself. We wrote for the mini-games Red Blood Runner, Red Blood Cell Maze, Food Mix & Match, Brick Game, and another piece for another level in Blood Pump Rhythm Game.
The Red Blood Runner is a platform game that the blood cell has to collect oxygen and kill of the cholesterol. This was up beat, medium tempo, pop sound music. It really works well with the game. This was done with Reason and a keyboard and layered with different sounds in ProTools.
The Red Blood Cell Maze is a game that the player has to move the red blood cell from the heart down to the toe, through a maze in the body. This was a jazz piece. Has that "Pink Panther" kinda groove to it. The instruments was used was, drums, shakers, guitar, and bass.
The Food Mix & Match game is where the player has to drag good or bad food to Captain Heart to a response from Captain Heart, in order to win the player must make Captain Heart health at all times. This sound that was composed was more of a rock beat. It was up beat with a bass line, guitar, and keyboard.
The Brick Game is a game with a paddle and ball to brake the foods down on screen, eventually when the player wins it will show picture of Captain Heart. This was a Dub Step kind of piece. This sound was created by using Reason and a keyboard. No other instruments was used. It is heart pounding, fast tempo, with four layers of sounds that created the piece for this game.
The last mini game is the Blood Pump Rhythm game. My team mate Geoff who created this game wanted a different piece for each level. I did not know this until last week. I started working on more music for this game. Since the first piece I did was a hard rock piece, I wanted to make sure that I did something completely different. This piece is a medium medium fast tempo, with more of a pop, sound, and more settle sound. It used mostly Reason for a couple sounds and a tambourine with a skin head, to play out the rhythm on the tambourine's head while the cymbals on the side shakes out.
For recording I used the AKG 414 to mic the guitar amp with (cardioid pattern) and the tambourine too. For the drums I used a Shure 57 on the snare, AKG 112 for the bass drum, and two rodes NT 1000 over the the cymbals and hi toms. The bass was patch right into the console into ProTools. The Keyboard was a controller used into Reason then recorded into ProTools.
AKG 112 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/media/powerslave,id,261,pid,261.pdf
Shure 57 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/media/us_pro_sm57_specsheet.pdf
AKG 414 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/C414XLII/
Rode NT 1000 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NT1000
This songs where done in about a little over eight hours (writing, recording, editing, and mixing) for these mini games. This session went a lot more smoothly then the last one that I had to do for music. That one only three songs where done in almost the same amount. We where just rocking it in the studio that day.
The step in the music area for this game will be with a writing session with my friend Jami next week Friday to finish up the writing of the music of the game. That is all for this week. Until next week.......
This week was to work on more of the music of the Captain Heart game. This is getting harder and harder for me to do. With my Mid-Term project I only had to write 6 songs, with the Senior Project I will have to write a between a total of 14 to 16 songs for this game. The reason for this is because the Captain Heart has all these mini games with in it and all my team mates want their own songs for each particular game. That is not including the menu, title, ending, and storyline of the game. This more then I ever written in my life.
I've been trying to step put of the box more on video game music, because when I went to the GDC this year I talked to a couple companies that liked my music but sounded too much like music that has been done before in games. In this games I'm really trying to go beyond the typical sound that you hear in Mario Bros, Zelda, and so many game music we have heard time and again. I'm also trying to appeal to the generation of today and what would be exciting in this game as well to the client and players of the future of this game.
This week I only thought I would do another 3 songs in the studio, but it became a writing session too. I ended up with actually 5 songs for the session. It turn out to be a real good session.
My friend and co-writer Chris was in on the session, Mike co-writer and studio owner was in the session, and myself. We wrote for the mini-games Red Blood Runner, Red Blood Cell Maze, Food Mix & Match, Brick Game, and another piece for another level in Blood Pump Rhythm Game.
The Red Blood Runner is a platform game that the blood cell has to collect oxygen and kill of the cholesterol. This was up beat, medium tempo, pop sound music. It really works well with the game. This was done with Reason and a keyboard and layered with different sounds in ProTools.
The Red Blood Cell Maze is a game that the player has to move the red blood cell from the heart down to the toe, through a maze in the body. This was a jazz piece. Has that "Pink Panther" kinda groove to it. The instruments was used was, drums, shakers, guitar, and bass.
The Food Mix & Match game is where the player has to drag good or bad food to Captain Heart to a response from Captain Heart, in order to win the player must make Captain Heart health at all times. This sound that was composed was more of a rock beat. It was up beat with a bass line, guitar, and keyboard.
The Brick Game is a game with a paddle and ball to brake the foods down on screen, eventually when the player wins it will show picture of Captain Heart. This was a Dub Step kind of piece. This sound was created by using Reason and a keyboard. No other instruments was used. It is heart pounding, fast tempo, with four layers of sounds that created the piece for this game.
The last mini game is the Blood Pump Rhythm game. My team mate Geoff who created this game wanted a different piece for each level. I did not know this until last week. I started working on more music for this game. Since the first piece I did was a hard rock piece, I wanted to make sure that I did something completely different. This piece is a medium medium fast tempo, with more of a pop, sound, and more settle sound. It used mostly Reason for a couple sounds and a tambourine with a skin head, to play out the rhythm on the tambourine's head while the cymbals on the side shakes out.
For recording I used the AKG 414 to mic the guitar amp with (cardioid pattern) and the tambourine too. For the drums I used a Shure 57 on the snare, AKG 112 for the bass drum, and two rodes NT 1000 over the the cymbals and hi toms. The bass was patch right into the console into ProTools. The Keyboard was a controller used into Reason then recorded into ProTools.
AKG 112 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/media/powerslave,id,261,pid,261.pdf
Shure 57 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/media/us_pro_sm57_specsheet.pdf
AKG 414 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/C414XLII/
Rode NT 1000 specs info: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NT1000
This songs where done in about a little over eight hours (writing, recording, editing, and mixing) for these mini games. This session went a lot more smoothly then the last one that I had to do for music. That one only three songs where done in almost the same amount. We where just rocking it in the studio that day.
The step in the music area for this game will be with a writing session with my friend Jami next week Friday to finish up the writing of the music of the game. That is all for this week. Until next week.......
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Voice-Overs
Week 2 : 5/11/2012
This week my accomplishments where to work on any sound effects that needed to be recorded or changed and voice-overs for the storyline. This ended up to be a light week for studio work.
I redid some sound effects that needed more gain to them, by EQ and adding gain. I don't want to put just gain on the sound effects and have them distort, so EQ the effect and putting little gain normal does the trick in doing audio sound effects. I only needed to redo 5 of these sound effect out of 42 sound effects. There where no other sound effects to record since my team did need any at this time.
I went into recording studio to work on the voice-overs for the characters for the storyline. There are only a couple characters in the story (Billy, Captain Heart, Blood Cell, doctor, and the Narrator). I was going to use a few people for these parts, but once again that fell through. In order to get these area done and move on with the project the studio owner and myself played these parts. I look it this way if I get these actors to come in to do these parts I could always redo, it not that hard to do.
I ended up doing Billy and the Doctor, while the studio owner did Narrator, Captain Heart and the Blood Cell. I don't think I sounded like a 10 year old boy and I feel like sound that great compare if a real ten year old boy did it. Plus I hate the sound of my voice! Mike the studio owner did a fantastic job on Captain Heart and the Blood Cell, him being a Narrator I'm not so sure of. I don't think he had the right voice for the Narrator part. At least we got the job done and like I said I can always go back and redo this area.
This week my accomplishments where to work on any sound effects that needed to be recorded or changed and voice-overs for the storyline. This ended up to be a light week for studio work.
I redid some sound effects that needed more gain to them, by EQ and adding gain. I don't want to put just gain on the sound effects and have them distort, so EQ the effect and putting little gain normal does the trick in doing audio sound effects. I only needed to redo 5 of these sound effect out of 42 sound effects. There where no other sound effects to record since my team did need any at this time.
I went into recording studio to work on the voice-overs for the characters for the storyline. There are only a couple characters in the story (Billy, Captain Heart, Blood Cell, doctor, and the Narrator). I was going to use a few people for these parts, but once again that fell through. In order to get these area done and move on with the project the studio owner and myself played these parts. I look it this way if I get these actors to come in to do these parts I could always redo, it not that hard to do.
I ended up doing Billy and the Doctor, while the studio owner did Narrator, Captain Heart and the Blood Cell. I don't think I sounded like a 10 year old boy and I feel like sound that great compare if a real ten year old boy did it. Plus I hate the sound of my voice! Mike the studio owner did a fantastic job on Captain Heart and the Blood Cell, him being a Narrator I'm not so sure of. I don't think he had the right voice for the Narrator part. At least we got the job done and like I said I can always go back and redo this area.
VNote Studio - Mike recording with AKG 414 cardioid mic pattern; reading for Captain Heart
Mike read for Narrator - using same mic and using a screen pop (to avoid pops in the mic) the silver cover around the mic acts like a ISO booth with out having one. Helps vocals and voice overs to have a cleans sound when recording.
Myself behind the console, recording at Vnote.
I recorded all my character voice-overs into ProTools using an AKG 414 cardioid mic pattern. Used a Pop screen and cover on the mic to give the best voice overs for recording. We went down the list of characters and recorded each character in a session, by myself and Mike. We read off the story of the storyline that Tanner put together in Flash and used it like a teleprompter to read for the characters.
The voice-over characters is all that was done for the day. I was in and out of the studio within 3 hours. I marked where I like my takes for each character in ProTools, so that I can edit and mix each character to my liking. That should take another 3 to 6 hours to do. I will be working on that next week. I will probably use a pitch shifter on the Billy character to get move of a boy sound. Might have to mix the Narrator sound using plug ins to get the sound where I feel is doable. All the other characters will just work on the breathing parts by editing them and maybe EQ a little otherwise sound pretty good.
Well that is it for this week. Until next week........
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Team re-gathering
Our team came back from our Spring break and re-gathered to discuss our next steps in our game process. What was needed was a new Statement of Work for this session, if we where going to give all of our attention to just Captain Heart or start getting into Super Brain, and areas that we needed to fix from the last session.
What was needed from me was to redo some sound tracks for the team that I did in last session. Just a few sound effects were a little quite so I EQ them and put a little gain to them. also, to get the team started again on their sections of the project. Plus once again I took upon myself to make sure that the paper work was done and done right, our Statement of Work. When I started putting our Statement of Work a couple of our team members where already not looking to do work. Only two members of our group are once again not real wanting to work on the project.
Our one team member Jon complains a lot about his area of the project, doing work, how he can't real meet the team more then once a week, or when the client wants something (like professional pictures of the group) he doesn't want to do it. Are other team member Chris who is suppose to do the art of the project does very little or none at all of the art and is not looking to do more of the project as he told me. I hope our teach Prof. Santello can help steer these member into doing work, where I could not. Right now they are the two slowing this project down. We should been starting on Super Brain without a question, but we are still working on Captain Heart.
Santello says everyone in Senior Project is behind and I don't like hearing that, especially since my Mid-Term group was so on top of things. We need to be doing better for Senior Project. Hopefully when we meet later today we will get on top of what is needed and when it needs to be completed and make this one awesome educational video game.
Well that is it for now. Until next time.....
What was needed from me was to redo some sound tracks for the team that I did in last session. Just a few sound effects were a little quite so I EQ them and put a little gain to them. also, to get the team started again on their sections of the project. Plus once again I took upon myself to make sure that the paper work was done and done right, our Statement of Work. When I started putting our Statement of Work a couple of our team members where already not looking to do work. Only two members of our group are once again not real wanting to work on the project.
Our one team member Jon complains a lot about his area of the project, doing work, how he can't real meet the team more then once a week, or when the client wants something (like professional pictures of the group) he doesn't want to do it. Are other team member Chris who is suppose to do the art of the project does very little or none at all of the art and is not looking to do more of the project as he told me. I hope our teach Prof. Santello can help steer these member into doing work, where I could not. Right now they are the two slowing this project down. We should been starting on Super Brain without a question, but we are still working on Captain Heart.
Santello says everyone in Senior Project is behind and I don't like hearing that, especially since my Mid-Term group was so on top of things. We need to be doing better for Senior Project. Hopefully when we meet later today we will get on top of what is needed and when it needs to be completed and make this one awesome educational video game.
Well that is it for now. Until next time.....
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