Video game Scores and Soundtracks - Portfolio

Hey MGSA

Yet another audio monkey here. Can pretty much do anything and everything from Sound design, scoring, recording and implementation.

Looking for professional experience so I'm just leaving my music portfolio here in case someone really connects with my work.

http://jeandreviljoen.com/
https://soundcloud.com/jeandreviljoenza

Regards.

Comments

  • Love this video and your breakdown of how it all ties back into the game engine! Brilliant!


    Could I get your thoughts on creating a score for this game?
    Thanked by 1Wolfbeard
  • @JeandreViljoen I really dig your work on the Nazi Zombie score. I particularly like how it centers around tension and doesn't seem to wander off like a lot of compositions tend do and the ruggedness of it whilst staying clean and balanced. What software do you use? Any prefered plugins/ vst's?
    Thanked by 1Moga
  • edited
    Moga said:

    Could I get your thoughts on creating a score for this game?
    Hey @Moga ! Thanks for the compliments.
    I'm a huge fan of Wwise and all its capabilities! Not to mention how little of the programmers time you have to waste to implement ALL the audio for a project.

    I looked at Orbital Dogfight. From the forumpost you sent me, I can Get an idea of the look and feel of the game but not quite the goal yet.
    Because of the title I'm assuming its basically a 3D Space shooter foussed on VR control and randomly generated worlds.

    An intense Sci-Fi synthy theme would probably go really well this but thats the obvious answer, I suspect youre looking for my thoughts on an adaptive/interactive score.

    In which case, because I dont REALLY know all the ins and outs and mechanics of the game, I cant get creative with ideas,

    based on what I mentioned above that I know of the game, you could ramp up music intensity pretty seamlessly for intense battles. E.g. More enemies = More intense music.
    But these are basic concepts, as demonstrated in my breakdown video.

    The only other really cool/unique idea I can think of, (I've never worked in VR but I'm pretty sure you would be able to do this)
    Is linking different musical layers to different objects in the game world.

    Put your heavy synth basses coming from the planet youre flying around.
    Link your "drama" musical layer (like a lead analogue synth) to your enemies. So as they come closer and further, the synth will increase and decrease in volume. Signalling "drama/danger" to a player.
    Same as the planet, the closer you are to the planets surface, the louder the heavy basses will be. letting the player know not to smash into the planet,
    and when the player wanders too far away from the planet, the basses will fade out softer and sfoter or perhaps just filter out the high end so youre left with this quiet space environment.

    You can link your percussion/drums layer to your guns and sync up the tempos. (Obviously not so much that your weapons lose impact.)

    Whats cool with an idea like this is that as you fly though the "arena" the music constantly changes around you, not only do layers fade in and out depending on your position and your enemies position.
    but you COULD also make it all directional. so if the enemy flies past your head,
    synth will follow his position in the world. This can also help identify where danger is coming from in the 3D environment.
    Also, lets say youre flying on your side, (which could be disorientating to the player in a VR headset), the "bass music" coming from the planet will shift to your one year. and that further gives the message across to which orientation your ship is in and helps the disorientation effect.

    Thats about as detailed analysis I can give with the amount of information I have on the project.

    Hope this sparks some ideas ;)
  • @JeandreViljoen I really dig your work on the Nazi Zombie score. I particularly like how it centers around tension and doesn't seem to wander off like a lot of compositions tend do and the ruggedness of it whilst staying clean and balanced. What software do you use? Any prefered plugins/ vst's?
    Thanks @Edward_van_der_Merwe

    Thanks for the compliments on the track, I really appreciate it. Was one of the tracks I really wasn't so sure about but for some reason most people tend to like this one the most haha.

    If you've ever played Nazi Zombies youll know that theres no break there, its just intense from start to finish, even the round ends arent even a break because your running trying to find the ray gun in the random chest haha

    So yeah, the music had to kinda capture that feeling without taking away from gameplay. So Had to keep it tense at all times haha.


    As for getting the composition clean and balanced. I'm a sound engineer as well so arrangements and mixing comes second nature to me. I think in terms of frequency headroom. E.g. "BASS needs something, then MIDRANGE needs something else and then HIGH FREQUENCIES needs something etc." Each frequency provides a different message and i work according to what the message is or the emotion I'm trying to provoke.

    For instance Drama and Intensity comes from BASS and fast percussion. etc.

    I used Cubase, (Cuz Protools is handicapped when it comes to MIDI)
    For this track (and many others) I very often use the HEAVYOCITY stuff. Their libraries generally tend to the more sci-fi and over the top dramatic. but that works well for me because its the type of music I generally compose.

    Quick Tip though. A LOT of composers use heavyocity and spitfire and so on. They are amazing libraries, just be careful not to ALWAYS just chuck on stock patches/presets and role with it. It becomes very obvious very quickly which library you used. You can do that obviously, but I'd suggest tweaking the sounds so its not so blatant. YOU might think it sounds awesome but to most seasoned composers theyll just think "Aggghhhh, ANOTHER kid using stock shit that everyone else uses, nothing new and unique there"

    Which COULD potentially cause your music to just be lost in the sea of millions of other tracks. If you REALLY want to stand out. make something that hasn't been heard before.
    Thanked by 1[Deleted User]
  • @JeandreViljoen this is really useful and very insightful information, thank you for taking the time to type it out!

    I used Fruity Loops and Reason in the past and eventually landed on Cubase as well. I will have a look at heavyocity! I love Spitfire! I would love to acquire all their stuff.

    It is true what you say regarding using the same plugins repeatedly or using them with the default/ factory presets. Quite a bit of composers preach about the importance of designing and sampling your own sounds and having your own unique library which will allow you to project your own unique voice through your work. Hans Zimmer once judged a bunch of compositions during some music event (fuzzy on the details) and he said that, even though there were some good compositions, they all sounded similar and none stood out. And a big reason for that is that they didn't create their very own sounds for their template/ palette.
    If you REALLY want to stand out. make something that hasn't been heard before.
    This should be engraved on a plaque!
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