Musician with small studio wants to produce music/sounds for games...

I'm a musician with a small studio (a rack of hardware, two keyboards and a
computer running Cubase).
I'm toying with the idea of branching out into producing music (and perhaps
some sound effects) for games.

I know I should get a portfolio of demos together to send off and publish
online, but what I want to know is:

How should a Game Musician present a portfolio - or, What do you look for
when seeing/hearing a musicians portfolio when contracting them to write
your game music or sounds?

What is the preferred format? Whole scores, or collections of seemless
loops for incidental musical changes throughout the game?

If you can answer these questions or direct me to suitable online resources
for more information I would be most grateful!

Best wishes


Kudos

>Whole scores, or collections of seemless
> loops for incidental musical changes
> throughout the game?

I can't offer much assistance, just my opinion. Some games have actual
songs ie tony hawk pro skater, however others have just midi type files, I
prefer the midi files, there are some songs on tony hawk that gave me a
headache and made me dislike the game, the music should blend in, not be the
main sound your hearing, and changes in songs should be minimal, have like
songs next to eachother in tracks, or simly loop one 2min file. conversly
if you are doing a game with minimal sounds ie pong... doot... doot...
doot... you may want some more involved music...?

> I can't offer much assistance, just my opinion. Some games have actual
> songs ie tony hawk pro skater, however others have just midi type files, I
> prefer the midi files, there are some songs on tony hawk that gave me a
> headache and made me dislike the game, the music should blend in, not be
the
> main sound your hearing, and changes in songs should be minimal, have like
> songs next to eachother in tracks, or simly loop one 2min file. conversly
> if you are doing a game with minimal sounds ie pong... doot... doot...
> doot... you may want some more involved music...?

This is horrible advice.

First of all, Tony Hawk is a game about skateboarding. Skateboarders often
listen to punk rock, so hence, the game had a punk rock soundtrack. I LOVED
the soundtrack to all of the Tony Hawks Pro Skateboarding games. This is an
example of perfectly appropriate music.

Second, Midi sucks. You cannot guarantee how it will sound (since the
samples are not stored with midi files), so you're game will sound different
on every different sound card. Only the crappiest craptacular games of today
and REALLY OLD games use MIDI. Use MP3, or a mod type format.

In fact, I think a musician should use whatever instruments and technology's
he is best with when writing music, the format is secondary to the quality
of the music itself.

Tony

hello.
Is that your email "Kudos" <k_u_d_o_s@ntl-world(withoutthe-).com> ???
I can't send an email to you.


Greetings

U¿ytkownik "Kudos" <k_u_d_o_s@ntl-world(withoutthe-).com> napisa³ w
wiadomo¶ci news:ykfYa.6365$Kx1.89862@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net...
> I'm a musician with a small studio (a rack of hardware, two keyboards and
a
> computer running Cubase).
> I'm toying with the idea of branching out into producing music (and
perhaps
> some sound effects) for games.
>
> I know I should get a portfolio of demos together to send off and publish
> online, but what I want to know is:
>
> How should a Game Musician present a portfolio - or, What do you look for
> when seeing/hearing a musicians portfolio when contracting them to write
> your game music or sounds?
>
> What is the preferred format? Whole scores, or collections of seemless
> loops for incidental musical changes throughout the game?
>
> If you can answer these questions or direct me to suitable online
resources
> for more information I would be most grateful!
>
> Best wishes
>
>
> Kudos
>
>

> Is that your email "Kudos" <k_u_d_o_s@ntl-world(withoutthe-).com> ???
> I can't send an email to you.

No, you just need to knock out the '-' between 'ntl' and 'world' and take
out the '(withoutthe-)'. Just don't want to get my address harvested by
spammers.

One person figured it out...but simultaneously sent it to a another 'guess'
of the real address (wrong), so maybe I should change it...

K

I hope that's better...

Nope, hopefully better this time..

> One person figured it out...but simultaneously sent it to a another
'guess'
> of the real address (wrong), so maybe I should change it...
>
> K
>
>

I just thought I'd cover the bases of possibility...

Tony