Tag Archives: Composition

Fight Camp Musical Stingers

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Here is a collection of musical “stingers” from Fight Camp by Electrolab Games. I acted as the Audio Director, Sound Designer, Composer and Implementer for this title.  This video gathers all of the stingers that I created and plays them along with their associated image so you get an idea of what the context is. I used about a 50/50 mix of musical elements and sound design to fit the tone of the cue for what its intended message was supposed to be, very crucial for UI to tell you the right information in the right way.

Fight Camp – Gameplay captures

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Here are some in-game video captures from Fight Camp by Electrolab Games. I acted as the Audio Director, Sound Designer, Composer and Implementer for this title.  The tone of the game is sort of a quirky, cartoonish treatment of a very slickly produced and aggressive subject. I took elements from both worlds and created an audio treatment that fits right in there. Musical SFX along with campy library materiel, with a few 8-bit sources served well for the comic/cartoony nature. In-your-face musical stingers, drawing a little from hip-hop, a little from nu-metal, and a little from who-knows-what blended with the soundtrack to give this game its musical style that’s kinda hard but kinda silly.

This first video is a straight capture from the game:

This next two videos have the music turned off to highlight the SFX:

Classic Remake

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This is one of only two cutscenes from ED:R that is a remake of scenes from the original Evil Dead II movie. Since I’m a big fan of the movies, I really wanted to do this scene justice. I tried to ride the edge of campy and creepy, much as Raimi and Campbell did. Each of the possessed items had their own voice (acted by me and others in the studio) that joined in the chorus of laughter/madness. I used plastic bottle crunches and packing tape screeches to re-create the oddly harsh ratcheting sound of the deer head’s movement. The ending boom was from a series of percussive recordings I made at Fort Wordon, a retired military gun emplacement on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. The music was an edit of some sections from an orchestral library, since at this point we didn’t have room in the budget or schedule for a real musical treatment.

Sound Design, character acting, composition, 5.1 mix encoded into Dolby PLII.

Sam and Ash

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This is a more subtle mix and sound design example. The graveyard night ambiance is a composite of some field recordings that I did in Eastern Washington. One of the layers is significantly pitched down and the frogs take on a nightmare cow kinda feel.  The music is typical of my eerie mood compositions, with the obligatory church bell to connote ‘graveyard’.

Sound design, composition, 5.1 mix encoded into Dolby PLII

Erie ambient music

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This is another ambient piece of music that I wrote for Evil Dead: Regeneration. This is what is playing in the background as you wander around an insane asylum. Traditional instrumentation of reverbed piano, strings, synth pad with filter and pitch modulations. There’s also some manipulated field recordings in there, including a down pitched laundromat.

Composition, stereo mix

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Cranky Pants Logo

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This is the Evil Dead themed logo movie I did for Cranky Pants Games. I wanted to reinforce the slapstick nature of the scene so I ‘Mickey Moused’ the music to act as the main sound design element. Classic piano scale run up to the impact, and then a vari-pitched synthetic gong patch to mimic the dizzy hand crawling into the hole. Imagine me with paper-clips taped to my fingers to Foley the hand’s movements.  The dangling ‘y’ was another collaborative riff that happened between me and the animator. It is always refreshing when I can contribute not only accompaniment but actually help shape the overall creative direction.

Sound design, Foley, composition, 5.1 mix encoded into Dolby PLII

Wacky Midget Possesion Music

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This is an excerpt from an original composition that I did for a gameplay mode where the player posses a midget Deadite. Go figure. I was given “Stand Together ” by the Beastie Boys as inspiration (or rip-off). The original song has a comedic sax loop that sounds more like a clucking chicken, but then it gets more funky and rockin’. I kept the goofy feel but used some funky industrial loops and added a bit of reversed voices and sfx to keep it in the supernatural comedy vibe.

Composition, sound design, 5.1 mix encoded into Dolby PLII

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More Ambient Spookiness

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This is some typical creepy texture undertone composition that I did for Evil Dead: Regeneration. I wrote about ten pieces for various levels, all very moody and dark. Classic horror movie instrumentation: tremolo strings, ominous kettle drum, flanged background texture, and a little bowed glass patch instead of the traditional waterphone.

Composition, 5.1 mix encoded into Dolby PLII

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Liquored Water

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Cat Compilation

This is an excerpt from Liquored Water, a track that appeared on the Control-Alt-Delete Cat Compilation II. This was one of those songs that was born overnight. I literally stayed up all night writing it because I didn’t want to lose any momentum. It started off with the original guitar loop that I recorded through a couple of pedals. The rhythm was slow and had a wave-like quality to it that I reinforced with the offset cycles in the percussion and other instrument layers. There are only a few places in the song where the different cycles all align, so that adds to the feeling like the song is being washed over you.

While I enjoyed the song as an instrumental, I felt like it needed a little more for inclusion on the CD so I had an acquaintance of mine (Zoe aka Betty X) add some lyrics and vocals. Heavy chorus and overdubbing was in order to make the vocals sit inside the music instead of bobbing on top.

Composition, production, engineering, stereo mix

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Epic

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This is an excerpt from a piece that I wrote a few years ago with one of my favorite colaborators, Daniel Blackmoore. This was one of those songs that was inspired by a couple of samples but I needed some initiative to flesh it out. Daniel provided me with motivation and a fresh perspective, but most importantly is that he did this all in a non musical way. He didn’t suggest chord progressions or notes, instead he would say things like “try going up instead of down” or “let’s try it with a totally different instrument”. He was like a real life Oblique Stratagies deck.

Composition, production, engineering, stereo mix

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Taekwondo Action

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This is an excerpt from the main title sequence of Equal Impact, an independent film shot and produced in Seattle. They wanted a very percussive and rhythmic track, and they also had some existing edits that needed to be synced to the music for dramatic effect. This was an all MIDI and sampler based track and I used a bass mute patch and a tom set to provide the bulk of the rhythmic melody. The cheesy orch hits and twinkly synth lead fit right in with the aesthetics of the film. I did it on purpose. Really.

Composition, production, engineering, stereo mix

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