UPDATE: 16th July 2010 - Music & Sounds of The Old Republic
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Lunarwolf Chief Operative
Number of posts : 6401 Age : 44 Location : Southampton, UK Registration date : 2009-02-23
Subject: UPDATE: 16th July 2010 - Music & Sounds of The Old Republic Fri Jul 16, 2010 11:21 am
Music of the Old Republic
The emotional experience of Star Wars™ comes to life in new music created exclusively for The Old Republic™. From soft melodies that ring in the forest of Alderaan to the magnificent booming of a battle scene on Ord Mantell, a talented team of composers, musicians and developers came together to create a magical score for the game.
Watch Developer Dispatch: Music of The Old Republic to see what goes into weaving the familiar Star Wars riffs with a new original score. And learn how music impacts the thrilling moments in video games as well as movies.
Sounds of the Old Republic
George Lucas wrote:
"Sound is 50 percent of the moviegoing experience, and I've always believed audiences are moved and excited by what they hear in my movies at least as much as by what they see.”
When you consider the legacy of Star Wars™, what you hear has indeed moved and excited its fans: the orchestral score, the Cantina music, Chewie’s roar, and the pew-pew of a blaster rifle instantly take us to a galaxy far, far away. Developing sound for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ requires that we bring together the talents of dialogue writers, cinematic designers, voice-over actors, musicians, engineers, and production teams at both LucasArts and BioWare. It’s our job to create an audio experience that enhances the emotional experience of the game and reaches the quality level expected of the Star Wars franchise. As fans and as game makers, we’re excited and privileged to breathe life into every planet, every weapon, and every creature that beeps, squawks, or just plain talks…and it’s not as easy as it, er, sounds. Voice
Audio in The Old Republic, just as with the rest of the game, begins with the storytelling. As you all know by now, for the first time ever in an MMO, every quest and character will come to life fully voiced. This is a Star Wars saga that gives new meaning to the word ‘epic’: eight unique class storylines, thousands of hours of gameplay, and hundreds of thousands of dialogue lines. It is likely the largest voiceover project in entertainment history. BioWare’s Senior Director of Development Operations, Shauna Perry, remarked last year that it takes an army of people to pull this effort together, and we’ve only grown since then.
As you would imagine, all dialogue in the game begins with the writing team. They brainstorm storylines, characters, and quests, and then they hammer out the script. But that’s only the beginning. Every outline and every line of dialogue is reviewed and revised many times. Each piece has to deliver in terms of character, cinematics, storytelling, and Star Wars tone. It’s a long and thorough process, but that’s how we get to the quality level that LucasArts and BioWare are known for.
Then, after we’ve got all the dialogue nailed down, we’ve got to cast the actors, book the studios, and direct the voiceover recording. Fortunately, we benefit from some incredible experience on this, including Darragh O’Farrell, LucasArts’ Director of Audio and the voice director responsible for the both of the ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ (KOTOR) games. We also benefit greatly from LucasArts Voice Director Will Beckman—who has to date helmed over six hundred voice sessions on this project alone. They’ll tell you—this is an incredibly delicate process. These aren’t just lines of dialogue but vibrant characters that will become your friends, your enemies, and even your own alter ego as you live out your adventures. To cast the characters, we’ve scoured film, television, theater, and beyond to make these characters feel as unique and interesting as they deserve to be. We’ve also secured some of the best talent in the industry and fan favorites from previous BioWare and Star Wars titles. I’m excited every time I hear a clever companion character or assassin droid come to life for the first time. Once written, cast, recorded, edited, mastered, creatively processed (think about the electronic voice of C-3PO or Darth Vader), vetted for quality, implemented, and breathed to life by the animators, these characters will pass over a dozen desks, multiple state and country lines, and diligent play-testing. And that’s just in English…
Aliens
All this dialogue is dizzying, but some of the most memorable characters in Star Wars are known for more… unorthodox… speaking patterns. Part of the fun of a fully voiced Star Wars game is bringing life to the countless aliens that inhabit the galaxy: the Mos Eisley Cantina wouldn’t have been very fun if everyone had been from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Some of these species “speak” for themselves—we have a fair idea what Jawas sounds like, though it takes a skilled designer to craft conversational Wookiee roars—while others we’ve hardly heard. How do you negotiate in Ithorian? How about Drallish, Pak-Pak, or through the gas-bladder wheeze of a Gand? I’ve had the chance to help Will Beckman write out and conceptualize entire languages—coolest job ever—and for less-spoken languages, we’ve had talented improvisational actors “feel out” the bovine stylings of the Gran. With tens of thousands of lines of alien dialogue and over fifty different species pouring into the game, we’ve paid special attention to varying and hand-placing these exotic encounters and we’re confident this will be an experience that fans of Cantina flavor will appreciate.
Music
Speaking of the Cantina, as memorable as its customers are, there’s also the entertainment. There are few original songs in movie history as memorable as John Williams’ “Cantina Band” and we’re happy to say there is original Cantina music in The Old Republic. Star Wars veteran Peter McConnell has worked crafted songs that will sound familiar to fans of the original trilogy while playing with the idea that we’ve got three thousand years before A New Hope and the Modal Nodes. My particular favorites are vocalized cabaret songs that you might hear in dim Imperial bars on worlds like Dromund Kaas: imagine an off-duty Imperial officer kicking up his feet with a Corellian Brandy, watching his troops whoop it up to a Twi’lek Dietrich, one wary eye on the Mandalorian sitting in the back. That’s the iconic atmosphere we want to create.
No Star Wars game would be complete without orchestral music, of course, and LucasArts Music Supervisor Jesse Harlin has pulled together an impressive score, the largest we’ve ever done. He, Mark Griskey, and our team of composers have written five hours of new fully orchestrated score for the game. Recorded with a full 80-piece symphony orchestra at Skywalker Ranch, all of the music in the game combined is enough content to fill an entire new trilogy of Star Wars films. Observant fans will note that some of our recent materials—like the “Hope” cinematic trailer—benefit from the inclusion of some of these new pieces and we’re so far thrilled with the results. It’s not all about quantity, though. Guided by BioWare’s Director of Audio, Todd Davies, one of the coolest things we’ve developed for the game is a music system that ensures every scene is dramatically—but tastefully—scored. Our audio designers work together to decide when a moment needs musical emphasis or even simply a beat of silence to let a scene breathe. We’ve also been careful on both sides to ensure that each class has their own distinct themes to accompany their stories—you won’t hear Han and Leia’s theme in an Old Republic class story, but you will hear a new Bounty Hunter theme that brings your adventures its own flair and subtly introduce your presence to group mates.
Sound
Understanding that combat is really the bread and butter of any MMO, we’ve been focusing on bringing choreographed, action-packed Star Wars combat to The Old Republic. All eight of our character classes allow players to fill the boots of a different Star Wars archetype and, as such, there are hundreds of weapons in the game ranging from lightsabers to blaster rifles to cannons, even flamethrowers. As rewards and character progression are tied so closely to the gear that you’re picking up, it’s vital that an early-level weapon sound substantially different from a punchier later-level version of the same. The sheer volume of different items and the player demand for weapons that will stand out from the pack has also given us the creative freedom to augment our traditional “pew pew” blaster rifles with more outside-the box variants that will surprise players and intimidate their foes. Lightsabers in particular are a great chance for exploration with every flavor of traditional “vwooooms” combining with truly unique and bass-heavy sabers that will give a terrifying Sith Warrior a rush of power. We’re taking traditional sound effects and then tweaking them in dozens of different ways, pulling the most out of the source material provided by KOTOR veteran Julian Kwasneski and taking the sound variety to a new level. As these weapons combine with sizzling Force powers like Force Lightning and crunching specials like Stock Strike, the resulting sound combinations are as dynamic and varied as any weapon system I’ve heard in an MMO.
To that end, the worlds you’ll be exploring are wild and dangerous places, filled with creatures both fierce and friendly. Every creature type is being individually scored to ensure that you’re not hearing the same Tuk’ata snarl over and over again. You’ll hear gundarks come to life, feel yourself tense as a nexu catches your scent, and wince as an acklay lays into you with a vicious critical hit. It’s important that we be smart about not only what player does hear, but also what the player doesn’t: you’ll hear lightning in the distant skies of Dromund Kaas and the squish of swamp beneath your feet, but the audio will never drown out ambience or tension. Conclusion
Whether you’re smuggling for a vile Hutt, addressing your Jedi or Sith Masters, plotting your next bounty over a drink in a Cantina, or dodging the jaws of a snarling rancor, the teams at BioWare and LucasArts have worked to bring you a world that feels and sounds like Star Wars. The Old Republic will be exciting and immersive, filled with places you’ll be thrilled to explore for the first time…and excited to return to again and again.
Orion Kellogg Audio Producer, LucasArts
UPDATE: 16th July 2010 - Music & Sounds of The Old Republic
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