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[Ark-AMN]

http://blogs.ign.com/silicon-knights
IGN's latest SK blog entry talks to composer Steve Henifin and how he's going about making the Too Human music.

Steve's Studio

Too Human is unique in that it blends ancient with the futuristic. This brings up many possibilities when creating the music. When first conceptualizing the music for Too Human, I wanted to feature the human element and make vocals as a large part of the score.

The soundtrack for Too Human itself is centered on ancient sounding instruments and Nordic themes, and for the choral parts I wanted a choir to sing actual Norse words and phrases.

In an effort to keep the authenticity of the Nordic language, much research was done into both male and female vocalists from Finland, Norway, and Scandinavia to provide the sound we were looking for.

Before enlisting an actual choir and record their vocals, we first used samplers and sequencers to give us a good sense of where the music and vocals were going and how the entire track would ultimately sound in the end. This was done by taking Norse words and converting them to individual phonemes (the building blocks of sounds that make up the sound of speech) then sequencing the phonemes to form word parts.

When combining these elements together with other choral samples, the synthetic choir takes on a more lifelike quality, as heard in this very first concept recording of the opening intro track- “Titan” (link to track below)

The vocal arrangements throughout the soundtrack range from serene backdrops to fierce battle chants and through the use of technology we can emulate this in very convincing ways while a live choir can produce a wider range of expression, energy, and unique articulations that can only be captured at that very moment of recording.

Pretty cool that even the music gets the utmost detailed treatment from SK, going so far as to study the languages and so on to make it more authentic.

Here's the short sample (and conceptual apparently) opening intro track which was made using the synthetic vocals. Though it seems that the real deal will use an actual choir.

http://xbox360movies.ign.com/xbox360/audio/article/715/715437/Titan.mp3

Even synthetic, it sounds pretty neat.

 

[Lee N]

vocalists from Finland, Norway, and Scandinavia

Norway is a part of Scandinavia. That's like saying "California and the United States".

Retards.

 

[loosus]

Not trying to troll, but when I read stuff like this from Silicon Knights, I get the feeling that they are SO concerned about the stupid shit that nobody cares about that they don't end up spending enough time on how fun the game is, if Eternal Darkness is any indicator.

 

[Ninja Scooter]

PERTHRO PERTHRO PARGON MANTAROK!

 

[Striek]

(sample) Reminded me of Halo's music for some reason. Pretty good.

 

[Y2Kev]

CHATTURGAH XELOTATH XELOTATH PARGON

Is it really necessary they look up the language?

 

[SnakeXs]

PERTHRO PERTHRO PARGON MANTAROK!

:lol

 

[Syb]

Ahhh, they're including the Runes.

 

[GhaleonEB]

I'm still waiting for the update on, "creating a stable framerate".

 

[schism]

I'm still waiting for the update on, "creating a stable framerate, enjoyable game, non shitty camera and something that actually delivers on the hype".

Fixed

 

[SnakeXs]

Fixed

Camera? Check.

The rest, not so much.

 

[sprsk]

hey look another epic soundtrack with chanting in some foriegn language.

totally generic on all fronts

 

[Ark-AMN]

Glad to see old GAF is still a hangout for the completely bitter folk :lol

 

[loosus]

Glad to see old GAF is still a hangout for the completely bitter folk :lol

Come on, man. This really is all forms of generic and -- in my opinion -- unnecessary.

 

[DreamMachine]

wow, gaf really hates to human better not to post anything too human related again...

 

[Danthrax]

wow, gaf really hates to human better not to post anything too human related again...

It's more like GAF has made SK its whipping boy. Best not to post any SK news whatsoever.

 

[meltpotato]

has SK put you on the payroll yet?

 

[beelzebozo]

i worship at the shrine of eternal darkness

keeping the faith baby, keeping the faith.

if this game fails, we crucify dyack

 

[thetrin]

CHATTURGAH XELOTATH XELOTATH PARGON

Is it really necessary they look up the language?

HAHAH, Eternal Darkness owns.

 

[Chris Remo]

Great, every single game soundtrack ever uses mysterious foreign words that nobody can understand, apparently in an attempt to seem sophisticated.

Before enlisting an actual choir and record their vocals, we first used samplers and sequencers to give us a good sense of where the music and vocals were going and how the entire track would ultimately sound in the end. This was done by taking Norse words and converting them to individual phonemes (the building blocks of sounds that make up the sound of speech) then sequencing the phonemes to form word parts

Why? Geez, how much time and money did it take to do that? The composer couldn't just sort of sing them to himself to get an idea for how the words flow with the music before he writes it down? As a composer, that's what you have to do, it's how operas and choral works were created before we had sequencers. Honestly, stuff like this seems like it exists more because it seems like it would be cool than because it has any tangible impact on the game.

I don't mean to sound overly cynical, but as a trained musician and composer I get really frustrated when I see shit like this all the time and yet the vast majority of game music is still derivative and bland. It kills me.

 

[Ghengis Cohen]

apparently in an attempt to seem sophisticated.

Not too familiar with Silicon Knights are you?

 

[sharukins]

ill come back to post here when the framerate and animation is better than last to last gen

 

[ronito]

Am I the only one that thinks that keeping a blog like this is a stupid idea? I mean, sure it's nice to see what the devs are working on and how they conceptualize things, however it seems like they're either 1: over hyping the game (I know, Silicon Knights would never do that)that will only lead to dissappointment, or 2: convince people that you're making a crappy game. Seems from a marketing stand point perhaps Kojima was right in his "media black outs" concerning his games. Keeps things mysterious, exciting and unknown. Really the only people that will read such a blog regularly seem to me to be the people that had already decided they were going to buy it anyway. Sure you may sway some people, but you could do that easier through interviews and clever marketing. Of course I might be wrong about this, but too me it just seems dumb.

Also, stop writing in freaking blogs and code.