The Audio Source Magazine Fall/Winter 2023

THE

AUDIO SOURCE MAGA Z INE Fall/Winter 2023

STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR An In-depth Conversation with Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab About their Massive Score

FEATURING Gordy Haab Stephen Barton

Tom Salta Stephanie Economou

Pat McMakin Antonio Teoli

Delu Duan Tyler Campbell

SFCM GameSoundCon

Proudly supporting the game audio industry since 2002 audiogang.org

TABLE OF

CONTENTS Savina Ciaramella 5 - Letter from the Editor Pat McMakin 6 - From Vinyl to Video Games Antonio Teoli 13 - Blazing Trails from the Amazon to the City of Angels and Beyond COVER STORY Star Wars Jedi: Survivor 16 - Interview with Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab G.A.N.G. Scholar Spotlight 26 - Catching up with Campbell G.A.N.G. Scholar to Skilled Producer Tom Salta 32 - Talks About Stems Stephanie Economou 36 - A Conversation with 2023 GRAMMY Award Winning Composer Wellness Corner 40 - Mental Resilience By Tom Salta Post Grad Spotlight 42 - Delu Duan GameSoundCon 46 - Photos from GSC 2023 San Francisco Conservatory of Music 52 - SFCM’s Film, Game, Media Scoring Program Celebrates Major Milestone 2 | www.audiogang.org

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OFFICERS President

ADVISORY BOARD

Brian Schmidt

Nassim Ait-Kaci

Vice President

CONTRIBUTORS

Sabrina Hutchinson Executive Director

Editor-In-Chief Savina Ciaramella Design Cindy Saavedra Contributors

Sean Beeson Elvira Bjorkman Bonnie Bogovich Channel Chen

Savina Ciaramella

Max Davidoff-Grey

Treasurer

Kole Hicks

Yitong Chen

Shiloh Hobel

Jesse Harlin

Ken Jacobsen Secretary

Richard Jacques

Atsushi Suganuma

Shauny Jang Penka Kouneva

Sabrina Hutchinson

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Miriam Claire

Becky Allen

Nick Hart

Anastasia Devana

Gordy Haab

Scott Gershin

Stephen Barton

Jason Hayes

Pat McMakin

Sabrina Hutchinson

Stephanie Economou

Leslie Ann Jones

Antonio Teoli

Sally-anne Kellaway

Tyler Campbell

Phil Kovats

Tom Salta

Paul Lipson

Delu Duan

Shannon Potter

Committee Co-Chair

Mark Taylor

Wilbert Roget, II

Phillip Klassen

Savina Ciaramella

Brian Schmidt Cover Photo by

Scott Selfon

David Childers

Guy Whitmore

GameSoundCon Photos by

STAFF

Keith Wilson Additional Photos by Savina Ciaramella

Communications Manager Nick Hart Events Producer Lucas Fehring

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Andrew Lipian Dren McDonald Lennie Moore Steve Payne Rachel Robison Richard Savery Austin Wintory Sean Zhao

G.A.N.G. SCHOLARS ALUMNI

Committee Co-Chair Jared Le Doux Committee Member Jack Weiss

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

By Savina Ciaramella Executive Director Season’s Greetings!

I’m filled with gratitude as I reflect on memorable events and experiences in 2023. It was an epic year, from gathering in-person for the first time in four years for the G.A.N.G. Awards in March, to having a plethora of conferences, screenings, and global events to explore and enjoy. As the world reopened post-pandemic, we had much to celebrate, including our incredible community with old friends, colleagues, and newcomers.

In this issue, we are delighted to feature award-winning composers Gordy Haab and Stephen Barton. They share the anatomy of the music for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and the massive undertaking of their eight-hour score recorded at Abbey Road and other studios. Stay tuned for more exciting news from these seasoned composers.

We honor Pat McMakin for his extraordinary career and outstanding work as the Director of Operations at Ocean Way Nashville. In addition to working with some of the most iconic artists, he helped facilitate hundreds of video game score recording sessions. He retired last year and has been enjoying a balanced life with a few special projects and treasured family time.

We had the pleasure of talking with Stephanie Economou, the recipient of the very first GRAMMY this year for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media. Her story is remarkable, and her success is hard-earned and well-deserved. We are excited to see who the next GRAMMY winner will be in February.

We met up with Antonio Teoli in São Paulo at BIG Festival where he gave a presentation on the main stage about game music production. He also delivered a heartfelt message at the BIG Awards about the challenges and rewards working in game audio, which was well received and sparked a round of enthusiastic applause and cheers. Antonio is known as The Brazilian Pioneer of game music, and his journey from the Amazon to L.A. is inspirational.

We caught up with Tyler Campbell, the recipient of the 2021 G.A.N.G./Pyramind full-tuition scholarship. Tyler applied what he learned from the Sound for Picture & Game Audio program

and has been building traction as a composer and producer. He has also been making the rounds networking at game conferences, which is one of the keys to success when starting out.

We launched a new Post-Grad Spotlight Series with Delu Duan.

He graduated last year from NYU with a master’s degree in music and has been hard at work making a mark in the industry. He has already garnered several awards and accolades, and has big plans for his future working across all screens.

We are pleased to recognize Roziht Edwards, the 100th graduate of the Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) Program at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is moving forward confidently with the knowledge and skills she gained from this unique program that prepared her with tools to succeed in the music industry.

And last but not least, renowned composer/songwriter/ producer Tom Salta launched Auto-Bounce, the world’s first and only tool that fully automates the process of running stems, multi-tracks, and mixes in Logic Pro. Tom also provided some essential tips on mental resilience for the Wellness Corner.

We hope you enjoy this issue of The Audio Source Magazine.

Please contact us at communications@audiogang.org if you have any suggestions for an article, webinar, or event.

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season, and we look forward to seeing you next year at the G.A.N.G. Awards!

Warm Wishes,

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PAT MCMAKIN:

From Vinyl to Video Games

By Savina Ciaramella

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TASM: You’ve made a significant impact in our industry, and your years of service and dedication are greatly appreciated. How did you get started in the music business and what was your first job?

Pat: I arrived when the music business was getting ready to explode with the invention of the CD, which allowed labels to resell their catalogs for major profits. It was a growth industry then and someone with a modicum of education could do well as an engineer back then. It was still a business of large format commercial studios so

employment opportunities could be found.

While still attending Belmont (College back then, University now) majoring in Music Business, I had a few odd jobs and landed at a small studio called Wild Tracks. This was 1977 and I used to say that our studio was the first stop after the bus station. Writers would come to record basic work tapes live to stereo 2 track. We even had a special of $6.00 per song. Next, I was hired as an engineer at Audio Media Recorders. AMR recorded anything with a heartbeat including soundalikes, commercials of all sorts,

radio ID packages (with lots of editing), and big band or orchestral projects for the likes of National Geographic. We did lots of major artist re-records for K-Tel records including Percy Sledge, Martha Reeves, Sam and Dave, Trini Lopez and many many others. It was a pleasure to learn how to make the sounds that made those records, and I learned the most important lessons about singers by working with iconic vocalists such as these. In the later days there (around 1980), we recorded Dolly’s 9 to 5 album, produced by Mike Post. That’s when I saw what next level looked like and wanted to get there asap.

TASM: You’ve worked with a lot of iconic artists on albums during your career. Would you please share some of your most memorable moments?

Pat: Among the earliest memories, I remember working with Percy Sledge because he had been one of my favorites, having been raised on Soul music. He told me about the basketball that hit the side of a studio while recording “When a Man Loves a Woman.”

He claimed if you know where it is, it still exists on the record. Working with Martha Reeves was incredible. We went out that night to hear John Sebastian www.audiogang.org | 7

who she knew pretty well. She told me all about the travails of bad managers and bad lawyers and how the music business could f--k you up if you let it.

Then of course working as a second engineer on Dolly’s 9 to 5 album was a highlight. She showed me that beneath the glamour and glitz, was an immensely talented singer, writer, and producer.

When Mike was trying to produce Bluegrass greats The Osborne Brothers’ vocal on one song, they spoke a very country accented version of “bluegrass speak” and Mike couldn’t understand what they were doing. Dolly asked Mike to move over, and she produced the vocals herself.

One day at Sony, I was working with Loretta Lynn’s daughters Patsy and Peggy. The control room door was behind me, but I heard it open and close a couple times during a vocal take. When the song ended, I looked back to see who had joined us and there was Loretta Lynn and Leon Russell sitting on the sofa listening to the playback. Sony Publishing (aka Tree) was like that in the 80s-2000s. You would run into tons of big names in the hallways etc going to and from song plugging meetings. It was a 8 | www.audiogang.org

blast to be there for those 25 years.

Over my 25 years at Sony, I had a chance to work with many talented songwriters such as Harlan Howard, Bobby Braddock, Hank Cochran and many others. I learned to how spot a hit song, or a great song (not always the same thing), which served me well in my production work. Harlan, the granddaddy of Music Row Songwriters, would hand over his song work tapes and have me produce the demo as a way to learn the craft. He once told me that I probably couldn’t screw up a great song and the others wouldn’t have made it anyway.

After joining Tree Publishing in 1982, I was promoted to manage SoundShop Studios as well as the studio at Tree in 1984. At age 28, I found myself running three studios, engineering, and producing. Talk about drinking from a firehose. I loved every minute of it.

I got to do projects separately with both George Jones and Tammy Wynette. With George, we did vocals for an album then later tracked an entire album, which is its own story. The summary of which is due to lack of iso booths and a large

band with background singers, I asked George to sing in an enclosed hallway adjacent to the control room. He refused. When I worked with him many years later with Brenda Lee, I asked if he remembered the sessions. All he remembered was that “some son of a bitch tried to put him in the G..D… hallway!”

For Tammy, I was asked to remix a project produced by Norro Wilson. I later worked with her on vocals on a song called “Justified and Ancient” by The KLF, alongside her producer husband George Richey. She could stack harmonies as fast as any background singer I knew. She was another country icon who was pretty down to earth in person.

Working with the group Exile was a highlight for sure. They had the original version of “Kiss You all Over,” then pivoted to country music. We did 4 albums together with multiple number 1s on each. This was mostly at Soundshop Studios, which I managed from 1984-89. They were and still remain one of the best rhythm sections anywhere. Plus, they were great songwriters and singers. We had more

fun than we probably should have but made some great records in the process.

When I moved over to Ocean Way in 2008, I had the opportunity to work on another project that was memorable, working on Steve Martin’s first Bluegrass album, The Crow. He brought Dolly and Vince Gill in to sing a duet and Earl Scruggs, the father of Bluegrass banjo, to play on the album. John McKuen of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band produced. We spent a couple days working on the vocals and banjo parts and some of Steve’s vocals.

Steve was very personable and serious about his music. He and Earl compared banjos for a while (Steve is an accomplished banjo player), with Steve being obviously a giant fan of Earl’s music and delighted in the chance to work with him.

clients that may have issues having known them and they me long enough to have some degree of trust in one another. I also had enough hours behind the console to know how sessions were supposed to go, and when things went wrong, usually I could understand the who, why etc.

Having worked at Sony for a wonderful woman named Donna Hilley (CEO of the Nashville office), I understood the primary importance of a great team of people. Also, having worked a lot in the song demo world, I learned how to make things sound great very quickly and how to keep a session on pace. When to stop and when to roll. How to deal with difficult people. And most importantly, how important preparation is to a successful session.

TASM: How did coming up on Nashville’s Music Row, the home of country music, influence you when you became the Director of Operations at Ocean Way?

TASM: Some of the most prominent video game scores have been recorded at Ocean Way since 2010. What was your approach in capturing the lion’s share of projects?

Pat: The first advantage that my background provided was that I knew a lot of folks involved in record making back then. It was easier to deal with

Pat: Sony PS came to Nashville after looking around for options to record score music outside of California due to union issues. There had been a change

of leadership around that time and the agreement governing video games was rescinded causing game companies to look elsewhere including London, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and Nashville. Tennessee is a “right to work” state meaning essentially that nonunion sessions are legal and supported by state law. A local contractor, Alan Umstead (Nashville Music Scoring), agreed to contract the sessions. Ocean www.audiogang.org | 9

Way was one of the few places east of California to record orchestral sessions, so we were the natural choice. Based upon those successful sessions, Sony’s Clint Bajakian, Marc Senasac and others began encouraging peers to give us a try.

Many individual composers supported us on social media and by referral, which helped immensely. It is the type of marketing that you can’t buy but have to earn. Business began to build slowly and soon Steve Schnur brought EA’s music to Nashville. By 2013 we were starting to do about 50% of our work on games and films. I imagine now it is even more. I am told that total musician wages went from $0 to $10m in a 10-year span, just in this new work. That was a few years ago, and with several contractors now bringing work, Ocean Way still stays fairly busy with scoring work. Being the in-demand studio that it is, Ocean Way spends the remainder of its time on top country, pop, blues, and rock records.

TASM: Belmont University bought Ocean Way in 2001. Please describe the relationship between Belmont, an academic institution, and Ocean Way, a commercial studio business.

Pat: Being a multi-room facility allows the type of flexibility we needed for academic use. Studio C was kind of an afterthought when the facility was converted from a church to the studio.

There were bleed problems from studio B above. A bit too noisy for clients, but very suitable for student mixing practice sessions and classes. For about a dozen or more years, Studio B has hosted a Recording Workshop class where students learned how to mic and record live instruments. Studio A has been consistently available for commercial bookings for the life of the faculty. I always thought of Belmont as our largest client and tried to make all accommodations for the needs of the school, and since we had good leadership there, they were considerate of Ocean Way’s commercial considerations.

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TASM: What advice would you give someone starting out in the music business?

Pat: Find a place to plug in and make yourself indispensable, whatever job you begin with. Initiative is usually recognized with promotion. Build your network by becoming (volunteering) involved with trade related organizations such as The Recording Academy, SCL, G.A.N.G., alumni groups, and fundraisers, where there is a connection. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Try to find your passion and aptitude (sometimes different things), and find your “lane” and stay in it the best you can. Develop multiple skills.

Understand the bigger picture of the music business and the media music business (also usually two different things).

TASM: You retired this past October after enjoying a very successful and fulfilling career. What have you been up to since?

Pat: I did consulting going back in the fall and would like to do more. In the first quarter of 2023, I got hired by Canadian National to create a video to help inspire change within the 26,000 employees and how they communicate. It was absolutely a blast to get to work with 14 CN employees, multi-Grammy winning artist Keb’ Mo’, and Nashville singer/ songwriter Lauren Lucas. We filmed at Addiction studios and primarily Ocean Way. That was my first exec producing gig and I really enjoyed it because it called upon much of what I’ve learned along the way, but in different ways.

I’m trying to do the self-care I always heard about but didn’t practice with the excuse of being too busy. I try to do a bit of yoga a few times a week, try to get to the pool each week and walk the dog daily. I enjoy watching my five grandkids grow up. Lately we’ve been fishing and canoeing, which we hope to do more of.

Anything to keep them off the screens.

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ANTONIO TEOLI:

Blazing Trails from the Amazon to the City of Angels and Beyond

By Savina Ciaramella We recently caught up with Antonio Teoli at BIG Festival in São Paulo, Brazil where he gave an illuminating presentation on the main stage about Game Music Production to a packed audience brimming with excitement and eager to ask questions.

Antonio grew up in São Paulo and studied music from a very early age. As a child, he was a big fan of games, and enrolled in the first class offered in Latin America for game design 20 years ago.

Since then, he has enjoyed a successful career writing music for almost 500

casual and mobile games globally.

Antonio celebrated his 5th year anniversary in the U.S. this past July. He resides in Hollywood with an amazing view of the fireworks from the Hollywood Bowl, which is poetic considering his humble beginnings.

Antonio’s journey as a composer is extraordinary and inspirational. He learned music composition at the age of seven, and in addition to playing piano he took up tuba. He enrolled in the music conservatory at age 15 and studied guitar for two years. After graduating, he moved to the south of Brazil where he learned jazz and www.audiogang.org | 13

orchestration. In 2018, he moved to L.A. and then quickly traveled back to Brazil to fulfill a yearning to produce a library with authentic sounds from the Amazon.

He recorded many indigenous people who collectively played 109 musical instruments, including water drums and floating coconuts. As an invited guest, he was able to record sacred tribal chants, instruments that recreate bird calls, and other unique sounds from this vast region which is rich in culture, history, and rituals.

Antonio released these exotic sounds from the Amazon in a library called The Amazonic. One of the core features aside from the great and unique sounds, was that the project was fully connected to social causes. This included giving back to the community by donating food, supplies, and medicine for the natives and rescued animals in the Amazon.

Because of the success of the project, and with the desire to record other native sounds around the world, Antonio created an entirely new company called Sounds of the Earth, which will continue to provide not just top-notch sounds to audio producers, composers and sound designers, but also continue the legacy to preserve these unique sounds and support local causes.

Said Antonio, “It is my desire to continue to capture these exotic and culturally unique sounds that are becoming more and more endangered as the world evolves. By giving an opportunity to local communities and cultures around the world, we hope to keep these sounds as well as the communities that create them alive for many years to come.”

For more information, please visit https://www.soundsoftheearth.com/ Head to the Perks Page at https:// www.audiogang.org/membership/ perks/ for an exclusive 40% discount for The Amazonic for members of G.A.N.G. 14 | www.audiogang.org

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STAR WARS JEDI:

SURVIVOR Interview with Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab

By G.A.N.G. Staff

The Game Audio Network Guild had the pleasure to sit down with the composers of the newly released Star Wars Jedi: Survivor™, Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab. The acclaimed action-adventure game from Respawn Entertainment, developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, picks up the exhilarating story of Cal Kestis, five years after the unforgettable events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order™.

With nearly eight hours of original score and a progressive new musical direction, the new score emphasizes the enormity of the composers’ talents and accomplishments.

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Welcome Stephen and Gordy! It’s wonderful to speak with you.

SB/GH: Thank you, it’s great to be here.

Thanks for having us.

TASM: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor™ is the continuation of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order™, your first musical collaboration. Can you tell us how this project differed for you in terms of your collaboration?

SB: I think the collaboration was broadly the same. Whenever you come to a sequel, especially to something successful, you always have that inevitable “tricky second album” thing.

One of the nice aspects for this game is that we had a very clear narrative, and we knew at the end of Fallen Order the outline of where the story was going to go. It was one of those projects where we didn’t really stop after the first game; we just carried on, and that was very helpful. We could very easily pick up and keep the rhythm of what we were doing going and start thinking of new sounds within what we had established already. The big challenge of this one was how we were going to evolve the palette. We knew we didn’t want to necessarily “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and make something that was radically different. But you also have that thing in games that you don’t always have in films, which is that you have to bring something new to the table on a sequel. More of the same isn’t good enough. So often in films when something is successful you might hear “well, can we just have that again, but slightly bigger”?

GH: I’d say there was also a level of comfort on the second one as far as the collaboration was concerned. The first game was our first collaboration, and while we both knew each other’s music, and we knew each other, you never know how it’s going to go when you dive into a collaboration. But it went so well that when we began the second one, we 18 | www.audiogang.org

already knew what to expect. We see eye to eye creatively and we complement each other musically.

TASM: Could you expand a bit on how it felt coming off the success of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor™?

GH: For me it gave us a boost of confidence to some level and drove the narrative that we had from the beginning on Survivor of trying to push the sound further. We had the opportunity to use the success of Fallen Order to our advantage and try some

surprised or even necessarily know it was Star Wars music. Just that it was creative and cool and unusual.

One early idea was to take one of the Cantina songs and weave elements of it into the score, in a way that we haven’t really done before in games. It’s something that happens in film quite a bit. We wanted to have a semblance of “what happens if we break down the barrier between diegetic and nondiegetic music in a game?”. It was one of those situations where, this being canon, you’re basically playing with live ammo. Everything one does is scrutinized, but I think we ended up with that trust where we could say “what if we do something really out of the ordinary here”.

TASM: We understand that for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor™ you spent more than 30 days recording at Abbey Road - among other studios. Can you talk about the herculean task of managing sessions that large?

SB: Good spreadsheets (laughs). At the end of the day it’s not just the quantity of music, it’s also that it moves.

Frequently we write a piece of music for one place in the game, only to need it to move to somewhere else, and for it to be called something different. With many hundreds of music cues, that gets complicated really fast. Full shout out here to our producer, Crystal Lau, who helped keep that potential Jenga tower in order, and on track. At the end of the day, it’s all about communication.

new things. It allowed us to push the boundaries a bit more.

SB: Totally. I think the main idea that we knew we wanted to play with was to look at the underlying ethos of how these scores are built; for instance, in the

Cantina, we knew from the outset we weren’t going to write that ourselves but rather bring in bands. We pitched the idea of a “KCRW-friendly” music playlist; basically, the Cantina album that you could hear on an alt radio station or another cool outlet, and not be

GH: Good communication is totally key.

We were dealing with eight hours of music, and our approach to recording was slightly different than what we had done on Fallen Order. This time we decided to stripe the orchestra in sections. We recorded the strings and winds by themselves as their own ensemble, the brass as its own ensemble, the percussion, and finally all the additional elements on top, which www.audiogang.org | 19

included pre-recorded, strange bespoke instruments, synthesizers, guitars, and multiple non-orchestral instruments from around the world. All of those things were pre-recorded and piped back into the studio through the speakers in the room at Abbey Road, and then we recorded the sound of those coming through the speakers, essentially re-amping them. There are so many moving parts when you’re dealing with that much music; you really need 30 days plus. Actually, it ended up being more than 30, between Abbey Road and Air and even at Synchron Stage in Vienna, it was really massive. Internally Stephen and I both had our teams helping us keep track of spreadsheets and they all had to sync back to the main spreadsheet, so we were constantly checking in with the team. In the end it all worked out quite well.

Coming up with a new Imperial theme was a really big undertaking, obviously knowing we were bypassing the iconic and well-known Imperial theme from the films for something new. We wanted something that would always be pounding in your chest and worming its way into your mind. The theme outlines the repetitive contour of a heartbeat’s sinus rhythm. The melody also cycles through all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale so it’s a bit of a serial pitch “row”.

But because of its shape, it feels familiar and recognizable, meaning we were able to create something memorable while still stretching the melodic and harmonic boundaries. That doesn’t even begin to dig into all of the additions we made - all of the synths, manipulation of recorded audio, etc. to truly underpin the darkness and omnipresence of the Empire.

TASM: We’d love to hear about your overall approach to the score and ultimately, how it all came together – macro to micro if you will. Can you walk us through some of the process and creative thinking that went into beginning the project?

SB: What I love about the Imperial theme is it conveys that idea of “you’ve lost, this is hopeless”. An early dialogue line in the script from an Imperial senator sums it up; he essentially asks Cal “why are you even bothering?” - and the score very much speaks to that. The feeling of “this is completely pointless, the Empire has won”, and then setting that up as a starting point. Basically, “if the odds are ridiculously overwhelming, isn’t it easier to give up?”

GH: We knew Survivor was quite different from Fallen Order; it was a much darker story. Cal is in a different place than he was in the last game, so we needed to approach the music accordingly. We needed some new, very important themes, including a new theme for the Empire. There is a very famous Empire theme of course, that most people already know from the films. But because of the setting of Survivor and the tone of it, we needed something different - something more ominous. Something that was always looming heavy. As though there is always an Imperial presence lurking around every corner. The theme lets you know that you don’t stand a chance, that you are already defeated, constantly on the run, and constantly frightened. It’s woven into the fabric of the game to remind you of the stakes.

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Answering that question is the core theme of the game, and we have two Jedi, Cal and Cere, who have very different views of life and the struggle - even three if you count Bode - and particularly how that difference of opinion relates to family; whether Cal should stop fighting and go and hide with Merrin, and just be happy, or keep fighting. It’s a very interesting question, and a typical hallmark of Respawn games is ambiguity. Musically, that was our starting point; how do you express this “pit of your stomach” feeling of dread, this real sense of …not even foreboding because it’s happened but more like “post-boding”, if you like.

TASM: It goes without saying that the Jedi: Survivor™score pushes the musical boundaries of Star Wars, both the production and musical choices.

Share with us how you arrived at this new creative direction and how you balanced the new sound with the iconic sound of the franchise.

SB: We knew we wanted to take an approach that honored the legacy, the classic way that the

Star Wars orchestral sound is put together, but we also wanted to take advantage of new advances in recording engineering. Can we be hyper-real with our orchestra? Can we do things that aren’t necessarily the standard way? Is there more that we can dig out from this that enhances the gaming experience?

Even in the first game, we were experimenting a lot at Abbey Road, re-amping synth sounds and even the recordings we were doing there. We had one element where we had a choir that we recorded in Studio 2, where we wanted to get a sort of “disembodied” sound for it, and there’s this technique that John Lennon used for Tomorrow Never Knows - we actually use the very same Leslie speaker that he used on his vocal. The idea was “What if we run our choir recordings through this? What would that sound like?” and the answer was very weird and very cool.

We were also playing with surround.

There’s a big difference between video games and film where we are dealing with nearfield. We’re always dealing with people with speakers very close to them.

Not many people are playing with speakers that are 30 feet apart in their living room, like in a massive theater. So one of the things we wanted to do with this closer surround image was to really wrap it around you. There’s very much a sense of that in the game sound already, so we were listening to the sound design that Nick von Kaenel and his team were doing, and it pulls right around you. So to have an orchestral image that is purely in front of you would actually not match up very well with that. And surround is really heard by more players now, especially now with the PlayStation 5 spatial audio profiles and similar, and music can really take advantage of that.

You really feel like you are immersed and

can lose yourself in the sound. And frankly, that fits with the ethos of the original Star Wars - those scores absolutely were on the cutting edge.

TASM: You did that with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order as well, correct?

SB: Both games, yes. We started it on the last game and then very much evolved it with Jedi: Survivor.

GH: I think the key word that Stephen mentioned is hyperrealism. That is our approach. What is great about the original Star Wars film scores is that in their time they were modern in their production values, but the musical content harkened back to neoromanticism and music from the turn of the 20th century. They were playing with techniques that have been around for a while orchestrally but produced in a www.audiogang.org | 21

modern way, and we took a similar approach. With every aspect, we tried to push the boundaries on production musical content itself and placed emphasis on the inclusion of non orchestral instruments. As an example, I built a new instrument out of 21 steel water bottles. It’s about 4 feet across and fully chromatic. You can change the pitches by how much water is in each bottle. It’s played with timpani mallets and it has an eerie ring to it, like chimes but deeper and with more overtones.

Also, it wasn’t just about writing an orchestral score and adding in layers of synth. That’s been done before. We felt a game in the Star Wars universe should have a much more sophisticated approach to the inclusion of synths. It wouldn’t be enough just to have stacked layers of synths on top of an orchestra.

The synths themselves needed to feel like one more section in the orchestra.

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very conscious of each other. There are moments where the synths are participating in the counterpoint within the orchestra. One more voice in a complex fugue, for example. It’s musically conversational. There’s a really important moment for Merrin and Cal where Merrin reveals she has a unique power to effectively control while helping Cal escape. To underscore this we wanted to feature an instrument with the capability to powerfully “move the air”. It was important to choose something that wouldn’t have a strong association with an Earthbound region or culture because that could take you out of the moment. So we combined various “wind-moving” instruments from regions of the world, including Alpenhorn, didgeridoo, rag-dung and vuvuzela into one sound that was then pitch-shifted and pumped through Abbey Road’s speakers and re-recorded.

We are always trying to think of creative approaches to accompany the narrative while also trying to advance the production values as much as possible.

TASM: Can you each share a personal key musical moment with this score, something that was particularly personal to each of you?

SB: There was something very personal to me actually, something I had been waiting for the perfect project for about 20 years. When I was a child, I was a professional singer in one of the best choirs in the world, and I was able to bring them in on this project - they don’t usually do session work. The school is in Winchester, England and the cathedral boy choristers from there came in to record. There’s a few moments in particular with their singing which have gotten a lot of attention online, particularly a very haunting use of the Force theme. It was something very personal to me.

GH: There is a concept regarding composing “memorable” themes that I’ve carried with me for pretty much my

entire composing career and I had the opportunity with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor to incorporate it. Oftentimes people think that in order for something to be memorable it needs to be completely “singable”. I don’t exclusively think that is the case. My concept is for a theme to be memorable, it’s more important for it to have a shape, a contour that is easy to recognize.

Example, if you look at the B section of the “Imperial March”, it’s actually quite difficult to sing. But the shape of it, the contour, is something very recognizable.

With Jedi Survivor’s Imperial Theme, we applied this concept by creating a theme that followed the contour of a heartbeat’s sinus rhythm. And while the pitches in the melody itself are quite angular, it feels instantly memorable because of its familiar and repetitive shape. Another spot in the game where I played around with this concept is when Vader fights Cere. We knew we needed to use Vader’s theme (AKA the “Imperial March”) - but I decided, rather than being literal with its use, to simply trace the outline of the melody itself and feature it in the basses, low brass and bending sub-bass synths. You don’t necessarily hear The Imperial March in its pure form, but rather, just the contour and edges of it. Just enough to remind you what’s at stake, the omnipresence of Darth Vader. The concept came to me because I have a poster of Darth Vader in my studio which is just the silhouette of the helmet. There’s no detail in it at all - just the black image of the shape of Vader’s helmet. But that shape is frightening all on its own. So, I asked myself, “could the melody be just as imposing and frightful if you just outline the shape of it?” And in the end, I believe it was arguably more intimidating!

TASM: Some of your score was performed at this year’s World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent, Belgium as part of the Press Play: Music in Games concert, and it was also performed by the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl in June as part of The www.audiogang.org | 23

Photo Credit: World Soundtrack Awards

Game Awards’ 10 Year Concert.

Describe the feeling of having your music performed live with an orchestra.

GH: The Hollywood Bowl concert was one of the greatest honors I’ve had in my career. When I first moved to LA 23 years ago for the USC scoring program, one of the first outings we had as a class was watching John Williams conduct the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra playing his greatest hits, including Star Wars. I just remember sitting there thinking, “Maybe one day, I’ll be sitting here listening to my own music being performed!” So, realizing that “full-circle moment” was such an important beat in my life.

I’m equally as excited about the concert at The World Soundtrack Awards. To be included alongside so many of my peers in media music is truly a gift.

SB: The World Soundtrack Awards was a fun one, because I hadn’t been for several years, but I have very fond memories from last time I was there, especially an awesome bar called Den Turk. There is a fun sense of camaraderie with the film, and now game music community. The game side was there for the first time. We’ve said for a long time “we make soundtracks too, and 24 | www.audiogang.org

sometimes they’re even bigger than film!” - and now we’re part of it too.

Also for live concerts, it’s really nice to reconnect with the practicality of it - you have to figure out what works with a live audience, what’s playable, with none of the cheating we do in the studio!

GH: For both of these concerts, this is the first time that either has featured video game music live which I think is historic and really important for our industry. Finally there is recognition for composers who work primarily in games. For years, music from films has been featured at the Bowl and World soundtrack Awards, but now game scores are being featured. I think that’s an important moment for the entire industry and says a lot about how far game music has come.

SB: Very much similar to the Grammys as well. There have been smatterings of game music concerts around over the years but recently the first era where it’s presented on an equal level, as opposed to a novelty. Also, we have a generation now that has grown up with games and don’t even remember a time where there wasn’t game music. You realize this is culturally important and a medium where you can do great things,

where you have a great responsibility, and where there is great potential. It’s nice that games have ceased to be a second or third-class citizen in the media scoring landscape.

GH: A small anecdote; I remember about five years ago, speaking with someone at

TASM: You also had a panel this year at Comic-Con. Can you talk a bit about that experience?

something like “the most interesting sound design work being done right now is being done in games” and I think that is unquestionably true. The sound design is now on a level that not only often rivals films but often surpasses them - plus you’re looking at such dense, non-linear soundscapes that the level of planning is vastly higher. There’s a generation of filmmakers that want to say “I want that level. I want my film to sound like that game sounds.” That’s something I think would have been unimaginable 20 years ago, or maybe even 10 years ago. So to be able to go to places like Comic-Con and talk about these things, meet fans, and see the reaction is just amazing.

SB: Again, these types of events are something we’ve done in film and television for a while now, and it speaks to that aspect of games now being on an “equal level”. A good example is that I recently had a television showrunner ask me who the sound designers were on a couple of games. Their exact quote was

The list of game scores at the World Soundtrack Awards is amazing; the standard is so high. I don’t know if people talked about the Golden Age of Hollywood whilst they were in it, but part of me looks at this era and thinks maybe 50 years from now people will say this was the Golden Age of gaming

a convention. A teenager came up to me and we were talking about Star Wars music, and I quickly gleaned from our conversation that this person’s first exposure to the music of Star Wars was not the music from the films. It was actually music from the games I had scored! I never imagined in a million years this would be the case. It was a strong indicator of the importance of game music to this next generation, and it’s great to see the Grammys and various concerts putting game music alongside film and television music.

and gamecraft. But I guess a lot of that depends on where things go from here.

It’s very exciting.

GH: That’s a really good point. I have spoken on panels at Comic-Con before, but they have all always been panels where I am one of many composers on the same panel, each speaking about their individual projects or contributions to a project. This is a milestone because it was the first time I’ve had a panel where it was simply to talk about the work I’ve done on one specific project so that was exciting. As Stephen was saying, it’s also an indicator that the mainstream is very interested in hearing more about music in games. It’s nice to see that crossover between games, TV and film, as well as the sci-fi and fantasy genres in general taking a front row seat in the public eye - and ear!

TASM: Thank you for talking with us today!

GH/SB: It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.

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G.A.N.G. SCHOLAR SPOTLIGHT

CATCHING UP WITH CAMPBELL G.A.N.G. Scholar to Skilled Producer Tyler Campbell is a composer and sound designer based in San Francisco. He earned an Associates Degree in Audio Production from the Milwaukee Area Technical College. He recently completed the Sound for Picture & Game program at Pyramind Music and Audio Production Institute in San Francisco where he also became Pro Tools Expert Certified. Tyler currently works as a freelancer and has produced songs in a variety of genres, his wheelhouse being a blend of heavy rock/metal and electronic music. Through his music and sound design, he strives to enhance the 26 | www.audiogang.org

complex emotions of the stories being told through games and film.

TASM: Please tell us about your background and fascination with music as a child.

Tyler: I began playing music at a young age trying a variety of wind and brass instruments throughout middle school before finding my love for the percussion ensemble and the marching band drumline in high school. I also was learning to play guitar on my own during that time as well. I joined a rock band

with some friends in high school playing guitar which later evolved into a metal band. Over the course of a decade, we released an EP and two albums. The second album I wrote, recorded, and mixed myself, before everyone eventually moved on to other endeavors.

My first video game console was the SNES. I was still new to learning music at that time but the many iconic soundtracks and sounds in those games always drew me in and really brought the games to life, even with just the

limited sounds they had to use. I think one of the most impactful soundtracks for me and many others was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for N64. It really showed me how important music is to games, especially with how it was incorporated into the gameplay. Since then, video game music has always been an influence in my own music, even if I was writing a completely different style or genre.

TASM: When did you develop a passion for game audio, and what types of games do you play?

Tyler: A few years ago it really dawned on me that I could pursue game audio in some form as a career. I’m not sure why it took me so long to come to that realization but I’m glad I finally did. After I got my associates degree in audio production back in 2016 I had been unsure where I wanted to go in the world of audio. It seemed at the time the main options were recording local bands or doing live sound. While both are interesting and have certain aspects I enjoyed, neither of those truly sparked a strong passion. All I knew was I enjoyed composing and being able to record and mix my own music. When I made that connection to composing for video games and game audio sound design, it only made sense to look into it more.

Game audio is definitely different than anything I had done at that point in time. The music for video games was also a different style of writing that I wasn’t used to, but as I began researching it, I immediately became intrigued and wanted to dive deeper and learn as much as I could.

incredible and inspirational sound design and soundtracks!

TASM: What steps did you take to get into the game audio industry?

Tyler: I’m still not in the game audio industry yet, but I continue to go to events and conferences such as GameSoundCon and the Game Developers Conference to network, learn and make friends. I’ve joined game audio Discord groups to stay connected.

I follow game developers, studios and recruiters on LinkedIn to keep an eye out for any job opportunities that match my skills. I also connect with fellow game audio folks and composers on Twitter and Instagram just to keep in touch and see what’s going on. Like everyone always says, it’s a who you know type of business.

TASM: How did you react when you were awarded a full scholarship for the program at Pyramind?

Tyler: I was honestly awestruck. When I started doing my research for game audio, I joined the G.A.N.G. Facebook page where I saw the post about the scholarship. I had been researching a few different game audio programs at the time and Pyramind’s was on my list. I almost didn’t apply at first thinking there would be so many applicants and my chances would be so slim but I figured why not, the worst that can happen is I don’t receive it. So when I was awarded the scholarship during the online G.A.N.G. awards in 2021 I was blown away and it was definitely a big reminder to myself in the future if there’s something I want or am interested in to just go for it!

TASM: What did you learn from the Sound for Picture and Game Program at Pyramind? What was unique about the program?

Tyler: I really learned a lot from their program. I had a solid base of knowledge

When it comes to the types of games I play, I’m typically drawn to action adventure RPGs but I do enjoy other types at times like first person shooters or platformers. Some of my favorites I’ve recently played are Spider-Man 2018 and Spider-Man Miles Morales, The Last of Us, Breath of the Wild and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, all of which have www.audiogang.org | 27

from my Associates Degree in Audio Production but they went into areas my degree didn’t. The sound design class was intense but super informative. It gave me knowledge on how to analyze a sound and the skills to better create and manipulate my own. The film audio class I found really interesting. It was great to learn all the different aspects of audio post production such as foley, dialogue editing, sound design, and film scoring. I was most excited for the game audio class. I had already done the Wwise 101 certification on my own prior to the program but we went over that again which was a nice refresher and we learned some basics in FMOD in conjunction with Unity. Music theory was covered and although I had some prior knowledge, having other teachers explain the same concepts but in different ways helped me gain a better understanding of theory and how to use it. Finally, the mixing and mastering class really helped increase the quality of my mixes and understanding of mastering. One of the best things about the program was the small class sizes that really allow you to participate more and have a more tailored experience. The instructors really care about your success and are always there to answer any questions you have, even if it’s unrelated to the current topic.

Pyramind as a whole really aims to create a community among all their students, past and present.

TASM: What have you been working on since you finished the program?

P R O F E S S I O N A L A U D I O H A R D W A R E A N D S O F T W A R E

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Tyler: Since finishing the program, I’ve completed a remote internship at an audio post studio based in Boston. It’s been great getting to learn and work on real world projects such as audio books, podcasts, and short films. I’ve done some freelance work writing a few original tracks for a couple clients.

I’m also writing music to add to my portfolio for games and film. I’m

interested in production music as well so I’m building up a catalog of tracks for that purpose. Sound design is something I’m fairly new to since going through the program, so I have lots of room to improve which is exciting. I’m very intrigued by both creating the sounds themselves and the whole process of implementation and making sure they work in context of the game while adding that immersive feeling that draws players in.

TASM: What are your short-term goals and future aspirations?

Tyler: My short-term goals would be to find a junior level sound design position with a game studio or an audio post position. I’d also love to get my first composing gig for an indie game in the next year or two. In the meantime, I’ll continue to build a catalog of production music and find a production music company to work with. A future aspiration would be composing a soundtrack for a AAA game, or at the very least contributing or collaborating on one.

TASM: What advice would you give someone looking to get into the business?

Tyler: Patience, a lot of it, and persistence. Go to networking events like GDC, GameSoundCon, and G.A.N.G. events including the annual G.A.N.G. Awards. Work on your craft as often as possible while job searching. Don’t doubt your abilities, which is easier said than done. Don’t rule yourself out before applying for positions if you don’t think you fully qualify. So long as you meet at least a few of the requirements, put your best work forward and let them decide.

The worst that can happen is you receive a no. These are also just great reminders for me while I find my way into the business. It’s not an overnight endeavor, but if you want it bad enough and continue to grow your skills, you’ll find your way in, so keep at it!

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TOM SALTA TALKS ABOUT STEMS “Can you send us wet and dry stems for all cues?” Composers never want to hear those dreaded words from a client, especially for a huge game score, but it’s often par for the course.

recent song I produced looked like this: Drum Kit, Xtra Snare, Hats, Bass, Rhythm Guitar, Pluwwtem, but then there would be no way to adjust their individual balance later.

Running stems is one of those unglorious jobs that all composers try to avoid spending time on. Depending on how you do it and what software you use, it can be tedious and take needlessly long. Some DAWS, like Reaper and Cubase, now have built-in ways to speed up the process. But other DAWS like Studio One, Live, and Logic Pro don’t currently offer native ways to automate or speed up the process.

SCENARIO #2: Alternate Mixes If the purpose of the stems is to allow someone else to create alternate mixes, then you need to think creatively as an arranger. The mix should already be done. The point of these stems would be to allow someone else to turn various parts on and off but leave the volumes all at “unity” (0 dB.). You don’t want someone adding EQ or compression…

These stems are only intended for creating alternate versions.

Preparation Strategy is Key Regardless of how you do it, the first question should always be, “Why?” For what purpose are you running stems?

Will it be for the client to have the ability to mute/unmute the stems to create alternate mixes easily? Are they for an engineer to do a final mix? Are they for implementation directly into the game as layered mixes?

SCENARIO #1: For an Engineer to Mix If you’re handing your stems off to a mixing engineer, then typically, you should separate your stems to make it as easy as possible to isolate the components that would need to be individually addressed. This scenario usually needs to contain a larger number of stems than other scenarios.

In fact, sometimes, a mixing engineer might want the full multi-track or DAW session. Typically, I will create approx. 20 stems for mix purposes.

For example, a stem breakdown on a

In this case, ask yourself, “What elements should I separate that will allow for useful alternate mixes simply by turning them off/on, combined in different ways?”

For game music, common examples of this would be a “Melody” stem, a “Choir” stem, an “All Percussion” stem, etc. The idea is to minimize the number of stems whenever possible and only separate what needs to be separated. The client will often specify what they need.

SCENARIO #3: Direct Game Implementation If the purpose is to export sub-mixes or layers to be implemented directly into a game, then it’s more accurate to consider this more of a sub-mix scenario than a “stem” scenario.

I recently scored a horror game called “The Outlast Trials,” and I only was asked to deliver complete mixes and sub-mixes intended to be used as

stand-alone layers. Sometimes it was a basic two-layer approach, and sometimes the implementation called for as many as six different layers.

In this case, I arranged my tracks and stems to reflect the way the stems (in this case, sub-mixes) would be exported.

Quite often, I will do a “Save As” right before running Stems, so I have a new Logic project that is specifically set up for running stems. This way, the original remains intact, just in case I need to go back for any reason.

Naming Conventions When it comes to file delivery, naming conventions can be very important, even critical, especially in-game audio. My method for naming conventions is simple. I will include everything and only what the recipient of the files needs to know, nothing more and nothing less.

The format depends on the needs of the recipient.

For example, a mixing engineer might want to know the tempo to make it easier to create timed delays and effects.

But an audio director implementing into Wwise so the music can transition on the downbeat of each bar would also need the time signature. Scoring engineers will often want the SMPTE start time.

Let’s take a look at this Audio File name from the horror game, “The Outlast Trials.” CHASE_1-91bpm_24bar-FULL_ Mix_v8.

Chase_1 identifies the cue. 91bpm is the tempo. 24Bar is the length of the looping portion. We kept the tails at the end of the files so this way, he knows where to retrigger it. Full_Mix identifies it as a Full Mix vs. a Layer. www.audiogang.org | 33

AUX Channel vs.

Track-Based Organizing What’s the “best way” to organize your tracks when you plan on running stems?

First, let’s start with the AUX ChannelBased way. It’s common for some composers to set up their DAW templates so that they have all their instruments and effects pre-routed to specific AUX channels. There are several downsides and limitations to this method, which I will address in the next section, but the Pros of this method is that the composer now can now select any of these AUX channels to create their stems, either by recording their outputs back into the same DAW or on another machine. It can be very fast, allowing for all the stems to be created at once in some cases. It can be a great solution when you use the same template for all your projects. But that’s about where the benefits end.

Now, let’s talk about Track-Based organization for your stems, which is my preferred way of doing it. Using a track-based organization method has numerous benefits and advantages over AUX-Based. For example: 1. You can share the same effect sends and even your prized hardware reverb unit across any tracks you want and be able to run your stems with those effects applied to each of your stems with no bleed from the other stems.

2. The same thing goes for any effects on your master-out channel. With the track-based method, all your tracks/ stems bounce through the Master Out fader. I love that advantage as I can have a CPU-intensive effect or Hardware unit that each stem is processed through.

You can’t do that with AUX-based stemming.

3. You can use copies of the same MIDI instrument fader on multiple stems. This can be very useful for multi-sampled instruments, like drum kits when you 34 | www.audiogang.org

want different tracks with different sounds in different stems. I did this all the time in the score to Deathloop. It allows me, for example, to play a hi-hat part on a separate track and move that to a different stem/submix group for the tension layer.

4. You can export your stems differently on a case-by-case basis and are not locked into static routing. I can easily run different kinds of stems without worrying about how things are routed.

For example, I can easily run off stems for an engineer, then a separate set for the “Alternative Mix” scenario and not have to touch my AUX channel routing whatsoever.

What’s the downside of track-based stemming? It can be slow and tedious since you must bounce one at a time.

But fortunately, some DAWS have upped their game and will allow for automating the process. Cubase recently introduced some ways to automate the exporting of stems. Reaper also has it built in. But Logic Pro users have been left out in the cold until now, thanks to a piece of dream software called “Auto-Bounce.”

I co-designed Auto-Bounce over the span of over 2 years. It is literally a dream come true for Logic users as it can do all the things that would take us countless hours to do. Every detail was painstakingly designed based on what busy working composers and producers need when they are exporting stems, multi-tracks, and mixes. Our latest version will even automatically adapt the size of each stem based on the content, saving even more time and disk space. It’s a game-changer.

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A Conversation with 2023 GRAMMY Award Winning Composer,

STEPHANIE ECONOMOU

By Miriam Claire Kudos to Stephanie for breaking the glass ceiling when she was presented with the 2023 GRAMMY Award in the new “Best Score for Video Games and Other Interactive Media” category, making her the first person in history to win the award. She earned this prestigious recognition for composing the expansion 36 | www.audiogang.org

of the epic music for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla “Dawn of Ragnarok.”

Originally from Long Island, New York, Stephanie Economou received her Bachelor’s degree in Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music and Master’s in Composition for Visual Media from University of California Los Angeles.

Stephanie’s bio demonstrates an extraordinary versatility as a composer for multi and interactive media. In 2015, she was chosen as one of six fellows for the Sundance Institute Composers Lab at Skywalker Ranch. Stephanie was also selected for the 2018 NBC/Universal Composers Initiative and is a resident board member for The Alliance for Women Film Composers. She won the

classical, experimental, folk, and rock as well as to experience composing for drama, action and comedy. As a classically trained violinist she has created a musical palette by synthesizing electronics and acoustic instruments.

worked with before, and me in particular, because I had no experience in composing for games! I have seen firsthand that Ubisoft is committed to taking chances on younger collaborators and I’m so grateful that they took a chance on me.

Stephanie has worked on many different shows, including the Lionsgate/Starz series “Step Up: High Water,” the second season of “Manhunt: Deadly Games,” as well as the Netflix series, “The Chair,” created by Amanda Peet and starring Sandra Oh. She scored two episodes of the Disney+ documentary series “Marvel’s 616,” directed by Gillian Jacobs and Alison Brie, and continued her collaboration with Jacobs on the Lucasfilm/Disney+ documentary feature “More Than Robots.” Stephanie also crafted the music for Hulu’s miniseries “Catch22” and the ABC/Warner Bros. TV series “Whiskey Cavalier.”

TASM: What went through your mind when you won the GRAMMY?

Currently, Stephanie is involved in scoring the DreamWorks animated feature “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken,” the Lionsgate feature film “About My Father,” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.”

inaugural David Raksin Award for Emerging Talent from the Society of Composers and Lyricists, a salute to the music she composed for the Netflix TV series “Jupiter’s Legacy” (based on the comic series by Mark Millar), and in 2021 she became a BAFTA Breakthrough Artist. Stephanie supports the empowerment of women in film and strives to make her voice, along with other female voices, heard in the industry.

She attributes her success at least in part to the exploration and study of widely varying musical styles, including

TASM: How did you get started composing for video games and how did the opportunity come about composing for such an iconic franchise as Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla “Dawn of Ragnarok” and what was your experience working on the project?

Stephanie: A relatively banal story, but Ubisoft called my agent to see if I was interested in composing a demo for a DLC (downloadable content) for “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: The Siege of Paris.” I really jumped at the chance because I’ve been a gamer since I was a kid and was hoping to pivot into composing for games at some point.

That’s where my collaboration with Ubisoft began. I give them a lot of credit for wanting to hire someone they hadn’t

Stephanie: Total panic and bewilderment, really. I was in shock because I’m still relatively new to scoring games and was up against some brilliant and renowned composers. I did have a lovely moment with my dad when I won. I stood up and, after we hugged, he stared me in the eye with a wry smirk and gave me this very proud nod of approval. I knew he was thinking “Well done, kid. Now get your ass on that stage.” I’ll never forget that moment and I’m so lucky to have shared it with my family.

TASM: What are the differences and similarities composing across all screen genres film, TV, and games?

Can you guide us through your creative process including how you get started and the choice of instrumentation?

Stephanie: In a movie, the music is quite specific: it comes in, it goes out. It’s a fixed narrative. In video games, the stories are nonlinear and interactive, so the music has to adapt to what the player is doing. For example, one piece of music for a battle scene might be three minutes long, but the player could be fighting in that battle for 30 minutes, so the music has to be able to loop to fill that time. It also needs to be written with layers which can be triggered depending on what is happening in the story. If that player is getting close to winning the battle, there’s a layer that comes in which increases the intensity or creates a sense of victory. It’s like having a bunch of puzzle pieces which need to coexist all at different times. It’s www.audiogang.org | 37

a really fun way of thinking. You’re designing the music as well as writing it.

TASM: From what or whom do you derive your inspiration as a composer for any given visual media project such as the story, the characters, the action, the narrative of the imagery, the director’s vision? Do you compose a recurring motif or theme for each character, or are your scores driven by the drama, mood and visual landscape?

Stephanie: I would say a combination of all of those things. I usually start by trying to find a theme (possibly for a character or the overarching story itself) while I begin building a sound/ instrument palette that I feel will bring the story to life. I also tend to do a lot of study and research when I start a new score. I have an eclectic taste in music, so my influences come from all over the place. I often hear things stylistically that I’m interested in trying out, which is usually influenced by the mood and visuals. For example, I recently scored the DreamWorks animated feature “Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken.” I was so inspired by the vivid imagery that I ended up deciding to write a lot of dream pop and cinematic synth pop for the score using a blend of guitars, synths, electroacoustic harp, vocals, and orchestra. I try to let my imagination run wild as much as I can. It’s what excites me about collaboration. The art form inspires me to make different musical choices every time.

TASM: How do you overcome the stress associated with time constraints, technical glitches, advances in technology and directors changing their minds about what they want, or rejecting what you have composed?

Stephanie: I feel I’ve always had a pretty thick skin, but it’s never easy to have your music rejected. I can get 38 | www.audiogang.org

down on myself when I don’t nail things right out of the gate, but I see it as an opportunity to get to the crux of what the music should be and I like the challenge of having to adjust my perspective to fit what the filmmaker or showrunner or game developer wants. Technical glitches: I tend to just yell into the void for a while (it helps to have a soundproofed studio) until I can collect myself and start troubleshooting. Time constraints and deadlines can be insane, but I tend to thrive in the chaos. I should probably talk to a therapist about that.

TASM: As a longtime collaborator of Golden Globe nominated composer, Harry Gregson Williams, can you describe the difference in the creative process when you collaborate with him, or other composers, as opposed to being the sole composer?

Stephanie: It’s obviously very different when you work for yourself. I’m free to make as many ill-advised and weird choices as I’d like on the timeline I choose. But ultimately, I’m the last stop

in line and there’s nothing to hide behind. My successes and failures are all my own. When you’re working for another composer, you have a safety net there in some ways. You’re not the top dog; your music still has to pass through the lead composer before it gets to the director, and there’s a back and forth that can happen internally to make the music as great as it can be. This proved to be the best way for me to learn. My first industry job was working with Harry as his composing assistant. He taught me so much about the inner workings of the industry. Above all, he taught me volumes about the art of composing and supported my individual growth as a musician. I’m very lucky to have been in that position as a young person coming into this professional world.

TASM: There are too few women composers. What recommendations do you have for women who want a successful career as a composer?

Stephanie: The issue is not that there are too few of us. In fact, there are thousands of women and women

identifying composers. (Check out the directory on the Alliance for Women Film Composers website). Women have been marginalized in this industry for many reasons, including systemic misogyny and historical lack of visibility. To be frank, the only recommendations I have for women who want to find success as a composer would be the same advice I give to a male composer.

You need to work hard, be tenacious, commit to the craft, be patient, and never stop bettering yourself as an artist and collaborator. I think we as an industry, and that includes executives at studios and anyone who has hiring power, have a collective responsibility to seek out and foster underrepresented talent. When there is more awareness and intentional, actionable moves to hire women, we will see many more of them achieving the recognition and success they deserve. Regardless of what we do in the entertainment industry, we have to carve space for marginalized voices. When we do so, we become a more unique, eclectic, and evolved artistic community, and that benefits us all. www.audiogang.org | 39

WELLNESS CORNER

MENTAL RESILIENCE

By Tom Salta I remember reading about a Navy SEAL writing on the topic of mental resilience who shared his strategy for confronting challenging situations with uncertain timelines. Instead of trying to mentally “endure” anticipating an end to the crisis, he chose to mentally prepare himself for the long haul.

When we accept that difficult times may linger and adapt our mindset 40 | www.audiogang.org

accordingly, it becomes much easier to coexist with challenges in our lives rather than “holding our breath” and waiting for them to pass.

Likewise, during an insightful interview, a Buddhist monk was asked how he responds to suffering in life. His profound response was simply, “Welcome.” Embracing the idea that suffering is an inherent aspect of existence allows us to release the

constant need for control, leading to a profound sense of liberation. This philosophy echoes Winston Churchill’s famous words, “If you are going through hell, keep going.” It’s akin to the Serenity Prayer, often attributed to Saint Francis but authored by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr in 1932. It says, “God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

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Post-Grad Spotlight

DELU DUAN Delu Duan is an acclaimed composer and skilled sound designer based in the vibrant metropolis of New York City.

Throughout 2022-2023, Delu played an instrumental role in catapulting numerous artists to success, securing over 30 festival selections and prestigious awards. His exceptional sound design work was notably featured in the Netflix-sponsored film, “Sunflower Girl,” while his recent composition and sound design contributions to “Dear Vanessa” took center stage at the NewFest Film Festival.

Delu earned his Master’s Degree in Music Theory and Composition at NYU, with a concentration in Scoring for Film and Multimedia. Delu holds a BA in Recording Arts with a concentration in Film Sound from the Communication University of China.

Presently, Delu is the founder and owner of ICING MEDIA, a creative agency providing full-production services, where he continues to bring artistic visions to life and create immersive experiences.

TASM: Tell us about your education, and what was your journey launching your career as a professional composer and sound designer?

Delu: My journey into professional composition and sound design began during my undergraduate years in China when I initially explored sound design. This unexpected path unfolded when I shared a dorm with students from game design programs, and my very first gig arose when my roommate asked if I could create sound and music for their games.

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I recognized the vital connection between sound and music in the creative process, inspiring me to further nurture my passion. To achieve this, I pursued a master’s degree in music through New York University’s screen scoring program. This transformative experience expanded my knowledge and included hands-on opportunities like orchestrating live orchestra recording sessions to build a solid portfolio.

Beyond enhancing my technical skills, the program provided essential guidance on various professional aspects, from establishing an online presence to effective communication with directors. During this time, I had the privilege of connecting with experienced industry composers and sound designers who generously served as mentors, offering invaluable insights to navigate the complex landscape. I can’t be grateful enough for all the support and advice they provided, and I’m committed to passing on their kindness to the next generation of composers and sound designers.

I also forged robust connections with talented directors, producers, and game developers during my university years, and these relationships have continued to thrive, with ongoing collaborations up to the present day.

With the program’s successful completion, I emerged with the skills and confidence to pursue my dream as a professional composer and sound designer.

TASM: Could you share your vision for crafting sound and music for various media, wearing both the hats of a sound designer and composer?

Delu: Sound and music, in my view, are inseparable entities. My background in both disciplines grants me the creative freedom to design audio experiences.

Sound effects, at times, can be abstract and emotionally resonant, while music has the potential to be both genuine and precise. I consider myself fortunate to have the opportunity to work with both sound and music for several projects.

When shaping a soundscape for a project, my goal is always to blur the line between sound and music. I thrive on experimentation, finding joy in deconstructing the elements of sound and music and then reassembling them in a cohesive manner that elevates the storytelling and provides the audience with the most immersive auditory experience possible. www.audiogang.org | 43

TASM: Have there been any artists who’ve significantly shaped your artistic style?

Delu: Martin Stig Andersen, the brilliant composer and sound designer behind renowned games like Limbo and Inside, has profoundly shaped my artistic path.

I can still vividly recall my high school days, playing Limbo, and being absolutely captivated by how he expertly utilized sound and music to create an immersive experience. It’s a game that continues to hold a special place in my heart. Andersen’s work serves as a constant source of inspiration, guiding my creative approach, and I aspire to incorporate similar strategies into my future projects.

Of course, there are numerous other accomplished artists who have left their mark on my style, and I think that analyzing and learning from these masters is not only fascinating but also crucial for enhancing my skills.

TASM: Could you describe a particularly memorable or challenging project that you’ve worked on, and how you overcame any obstacles during its production?

Delu: Certainly! I’ve had the privilege of working as a composer and sound designer on a science fiction fashion film titled “Immortal Mind.” The challenge here was to create a musical score that could effectively convey both the technological and human aspects of futuristic style, as per the collection designer’s vision.

TASM: In your opinion, how has the role of sound design and composition evolved in modern media, and what trends do you foresee for the future?

Delu: Sound and music are often regarded as “invisible design.” Instead of providing an immediate impact, they frequently work subtly, gradually building emotions and feelings unnoticed. In today’s landscape, I see it as an era of “sound color.”

Composers and sound designers are moving away from using conventional samples and instruments, opting to explore new palettes for their work, even going as far as inventing entirely new instruments. Personally, I find immense enjoyment in experimenting and crafting distinctive sounds. I also enjoy going outside for field recording, where I collect intriguing sounds from daily life to build my personal sound library for future projects.

To address this, I drew inspiration from the renowned glitch artist, Ryoji Ikeda.

His music served as a guiding light, and I decided to use pure noise to represent the cold and technological side of the narrative while incorporating warm synthesizers and vocals to convey the human aspect of the story. The juxtaposition of these elements resulted in a highly engaging and memorable outcome.

The success of the project was truly rewarding. “Immortal Mind” was selected by approximately 10 film festivals, and the recognition continues to grow.

TASM: What can you tell us about your forthcoming projects?

Delu: I’ve had the honor of working as the sound designer and re-recording mixer for the Netflix-sponsored short film, “Sunflower Girl.” This film has recently been featured at various film festivals, and I believe that it will soon be available for a wider audience to enjoy. “Sunflower Girl” is a story set in the vibrant backdrop of New York City, a place I consider my second home. This unique connection allowed me to capture the city’s dynamic essence and incorporate it into the sound elements to enrich the overall viewing experience.

Stay tuned for its release!

TASM: What advice do you have for composers and sound designers who want to break into the industry?

Delu: Here’s my advice for aspiring composers and sound designers looking to make their mark in the industry: Keep honing your skills, and commit to perpetual growth in your craft. Stay resilient, learning from setbacks rather than letting them discourage you, and don’t be afraid to turn down offers, especially early in your career—choose projects that align with your goals and values. Always stay open to new opportunities; sometimes the unexpected ones lead to the most exciting breakthroughs. Remember, building a strong network is key, so join professional organizations, and attend industry events and conferences because in this field, networking can be just as vital as your technical abilities.

The communities, especially the game community are incredibly supportive and friendly; you’ll always find people willing to help and learn from each other. Although breaking into the

industry may seem challenging, there’s a way forward if you persist in pursuing your passion. Best of luck on your journey!

TASM: During the pandemic, platforms like Zoom made it possible for composers and sound designers like you to work remotely with clients and vendors from all over the world. Now that people have returned to work, for the most part, do you find it’s beneficial to live in any particular city?

Delu: The industry has undoubtedly experienced a significant shift during the pandemic, prompting individuals to explore remote work possibilities.

The availability of more studios for remote or hybrid production offers increased opportunities and job flexibility. Nevertheless, residing in major cities like Los Angeles and New York comes with specific advantages.

TASM: What would you say are the benefits of living in N.Y. or L.A.?

Delu: Now that we’ve navigated through the pandemic, we see a return to more in-person events and conferences. While online events offer convenience from the comfort of one’s apartment, there’s something unique about meeting people face-to-face that strengthens connections. I recommend considering a move to a major city, not only for the increased opportunities it provides but also because many pivotal industry events and conferences take place in these hubs such as New York and Los Angeles. I recently attended the GameSoundCon in Burbank, Los Angeles, and it was a fantastic experience! I not only established valuable connections but also forged genuine friendships during the event.

TASM: Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, and we wish you continued success in all your future endeavors. www.audiogang.org | 45

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SFCM’s Film, Game, Media Scoring Program

CELEBRATES MAJOR MILESTONE

By Mark Taylor The groundbreaking Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music celebrated its 100th graduate.

Alumni include film and game scorers, television commercial composers, successful performing artists, and working media professionals at companies like Sony, Ubisoft, and Electronic Arts.

Writing the future of music is no easy task, but that’s what Roziht Edwards is ready to do.

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Edwards was one of 24 Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) students in the 2023 graduating class, which will mark its 100th graduate at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music “The TAC program is a place where you will learn how to build slow, solve fast, and play hard as a multitasking musician with a mind of precision,” Edwards said.

“We make magic happen with sounds for anything imaginable!”

First introduced in 2014, TAC is a first-of-its-kind course of study that

gives students a direct path into the worlds of film and game scoring, sound design, media composition and other rewarding musical avenues.

“The TAC program is very dear to me because there is no other program like it in the world,” said former Executive Director Taurin Barrera. “The composer is also the recording engineer, the sound designer, and the programmer. We provide our students with a variety of areas in which they can pursue studies, so they are well prepared to take on

any of the challenges that the music industry throws at them.”

Today the TAC program has one of the highest employment rates of any program at SFCM, with more than 90% of alumni employed full time in related fields. TAC graduates have composed music for Superbowl commercials, popular video games, and are employed by companies like Dropbox, Spitfire Audio, and Electronic Arts.

Recently, alumna Seira McCarthy ‘20, now a music designer at PlayStation, returned to SFCM to work with students as part of its recurring Sony Project, during which students compose individual scores for a fictional video game under the guidance of leaders from Sony Interactive Entertainment.

“TAC really helped me solidify,

understand, and expand my idea of what is possible with audio and music,” McCarthy said.

The intentionally small program is guided by teachers ready to lend a hand.

“Our amazing facilities provide every student with access to top-of-the-line equipment and resources, which contributes to the popularity of TAC among young musicians,” said TAC Professor Daria Novoliantceva. The program also lets students choose what they want to focus on. “This means that each student can choose classes that align with their main interests and passions,” she added.

The program’s facilities, held inside SFCM’s new Bowes Center, are known for their top-of-the-line technology (in 2021 members of the Recording

Academy even visited SFCM to utilize sound and studio equipment to help judge the 64th annual GRAMMY Awards).

Lab B is home to 21 workstations, each equipped with a dual-display Apple iMac, Nord Stage 3 hammer-action 88-key keyboard and Focusrite Red 4 Pre audio interface, as well as state-ofthe-art software, soft synths, and sample libraries.

“The facilities are nothing less than spectacular and I wish I had access to such facilities when I was younger.

The studio is on par with the best professional studios worldwide and the staff is extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and has a great bond with the students,” said Ricky Kej, a composer and three-time GRAMMY Award winner who recently visited SFCM’s TAC program. www.audiogang.org | 53

creating new works. “These studios contain everything a person needs to be successful in a wide variety of awesome music and audio careers,” she said. “There is no limit to what a person can explore.

The TAC program is for everyone.

Whatever your interest in music and sound, this is the place to learn it.”

As for Roziht Edwards, after graduating, she stayed in San Francisco to grow as a composer, musician, and performer. “The love of exploring life as a musician is so present in this program, and this experience will for sure continue to influence my daily life as a human, and as an artist.” she said.

Students are also given opportunities to explore performing through collaboration with other

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programs at SFCM. Graduate Kat Night uses the professional moniker 009 Night when performing or

Learn more about studying Technology and Applied Composition at SFCM.EDU.

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THE AUDIO SOURCE MAGAZINE

22ND ANNUAL GAME AUDIO NETWORK GUILD AWARDS THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2024 MOSCONE CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO

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