For many, mobile technology and developing for the iPhone and the iPod touch is a fad and a Gold Rush. Good designers, though, take a longer view of how interaction can be expressive. And there are few people with a better sense of the big picture of small devices than Dr. Ge Wang. The co-founder, CTO, and Chief Creative Officer of Smule has a background that goes well beyond the latest Apple platform. Along with Perry Cook at Princeton, Ge Wang is the co-originator of ChucK, a real-time programming language for synthesis so efficient some people use it live onstage. (ChucK, as an open source project, now has a terrific team of people behind it.) ChucK is the sonic engine that powers Smule’s projects. Ge Wang also teaches at Stanford, working with students and fellow researchers to explore new ways of interacting with music technology.

Ge Wang joined me for a lengthy phone conversation recently. He really contextualized why the iPhone is important in the grand scheme of things, but also how the people at Smule and Stanford (and Princeton) can approach technology for musical interaction, focusing on what devices are rather than what they’re not.

(The audio here, believe it or not, is extensively edited – Ge Wang is that easy to talk to. I hope the next time it’s over beers rather than Skype.)

The full interview can be played below, or downloaded directly.

Download MP3 of the interview

Thanks to KORG and the Nano Series for their support of programming on createdigitalmusic.com.

Lastly: a video of the Smule team headquarters and playing around with Leaf Trombone for a Zelda duet!

More information:
The Mule Chronicles [Smule Blog]
http://smule.com/
Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), Stanford University

Previously, for more on Ge Wang and CCRMA:
Make:TV Meets Stanford Musical Inventors, Feedback Piano

Video + Audio Subscriptions, iTunes Podcast

CDM is now launching regular audio content on the artists and inventors we cover as part of our series CDM Sounds. You can subscribe (and review the podcast) via iTunes, where you’ll also find our new video series:

cdm Sounds Podcast [audio]
cdm TV [video]

Or using your software of choice, subscribe directly to RSS. (I like to follow podcasts with Banshee and Winamp this way.)

We’ve fixed some transcoding issues for iPod touch/iPhone on the video podcast. Please do test this and let us know if you have any issues on your software/hardware.

Kongregate is a bit like public access, only on steroids and for games. The idea is this: get indie game makers in one place contributing games, then get lots of people playing those games, then support the system with ad revenue shared with the game makers. The model has grown rapidly, with millions of users and over 15,000 original games.

The newest project from Kongregate looks to connect artistic talent on projects, including musicians, composers, and sound designers wanting to work on game projects. The Collabs section will see artists and sound and music creators uploading their work to find collaborators. Initially, there’s a contest on, with competition for attention, cash, and studio prizes.

http://www.kongregate.com/collabs

The competition aside, this could be the beginning of a successful community for collaboration in the indie Flash gaming world. Assets are often uploaded under a Creative Commons license, and I see one of the top sounds draws on samples from Freesound.org. While career success is an obvious goal, the contributors so far appear to see sharing as a way to get there – in stark contrast to the model in the mainstream, big-business game industry. Quality is, of course, variable, but ask anyone in the game industry how to become successful and the answer is always make as much as you can. Getting work out there, even primitive, can be part of a learning process. So I’m eager to see what transpires as these kinds of communities grow.

There is an invariable comparison to Deviant Art – and you’ll see they’ve already begun to invade.

Oh yeah, and I quite like these glassy tendrils, rendered in Cinema 4D. Image (CC) Chaodeath. Now, make that run real-time. Or, erm, imagine those are virtual renderings of artists … collaborating.

Wired has a great mini-documentary on the score for the videogame Infamous. It’s chock full of sound design ear candy, not only served by the chops of composer Amon Tobin but the team at Sony Music and Sony’s entertainment division, as well. Curiously, Jonathan Mayer, Music Manager at SCEA, says explicitly that he doesn’t want composers writing interactive music. He’d prefer to have them write a conventional score and then adapt it to the interactive engine. Now, of course, around these parts we like the idea of composers finding ways to write genuinely generative and interactive scores. But in this case, Mayer is acting as a kind of remix artist for the game realm, sampling Tobin’s compositions and reconceiving them in the game world. That kind of collaboration could be powerful.

Chuck Doug, SCEA music director, overstates things a bit by claiming this game has a unique aesthetic. The visuals are a burnt-out, post apocalyptic city – yeah, been there quite a few times. The music involves lots of ethnic percussion-y instruments and bowed metal and deep booming sounds. (Let me get this straight: we’ll hear a plucky stringy thing, then a bowedy metally thing, then there will be a big boom!) So, generally, not some radical new departure from game and motion soundtracks. But regardless of its novelty, I’d be an utter killjoy to complain: it sounds utterly gorgeous.

Previously:

I got to listen in on a lot of gems regarding sound design from composer Troels Folmann. He doesn’t just bow metal instruments – he boils them.

GDC: Boiling Waterphones and Other Sonic Inspirations from Composer Troels Folmann

And on the subject of getting composers to write interactively, Matt Ganucheau has been teaching that way:

Teaching Adaptive Music with Games: Unity + Max/MSP, Meet Space Invaders!

Award-winning composer Troels Folmann has made a name as a video game composer on the likes of the Tomb Raider series, as well as espousing new ideas about adaptive music for games like his “micro-scoring” methodology. But speaking to a roomful of composers and sound designers at the recent Game Developer Conference, he turned to the topic of reinvention. Even having perfected signature sounds that keep him in demand on jobs like blockbuster feature trailer soundtracks, Troels challenged attendees to get out of their usual habits and comfort zones.

And that means torturing some instruments. No, really torturing them: breaking sticks, destroying drums, warping instruments, and boiling waterphones (putting the whole instrument on a stove).

Human beings, of course, shouldn’t be tortured – to get the best sound of them, you want to get them drunk. (I want the Drunken Eastern European Choir sample library, Troels!)

Speaking excitedly in run-on sentences that clipped one another – a bit like sample in and out points were set wrong – Troels revealed some of his latest sampling explorations and sonic secrets. It was, truly, one of the best talks I saw at GDC – and unquestionably the highest idea and inspiration – to – time ratio, even if you weren’t into sound. Here are some of the gems from that conversation, along with some of the lists of bizarrely-combined sampled instruments in recent compositions.

I was looking over my notes and wondering if I should polish them. But then, I realized that I had transcribed all the things Troels said that interested me. If I put them all in a jar, I could take any one idea out on a day when my musical reserves were dry and be inspired. So I’ll share them with you in exactly that form.

The Right Wrong

Pipe organ, kalimba, baby toys, didgeridoo, conga, claps, IKEA stopwatch, church bell, vocals, ambience

One of the things I’m playing with is trying to do the right thing wrong — I call it the right wrong.

Some of these instruments [I sample] suffered through [the sampling process]. When you sample, you have to take it one step further. When it gets into the computer, it dies a bit. I don’t know what it is, there’s a translation issue. You have to push it further.

tonehammer_lakeside_organ_demo_4_dressed.mp3

Naked Ear

Kalimba, hang-drum, IKEA flower vase, Coke Bottle, public domain vocals – girl’s choir

We have certain ways we get stuck as composers — certain harmonic progressions and so forth. What I’m trying to do is more of a naked ear. I disregard any kind of theory. If it sounds right, it is right.

It’s an awesome practice, because it allows you to step out of theory.

This is a $19 kalimba. I don’t buy the most expensive instrument — I get 90% out of this instrument. And I can torture it through sampling. IKEA is the best music store; I don’t know if you know that.

Sometimes we get super caught in [the idea that ] it needs to be pristine, it needs to be high quality — it doesn’t matter. You get it in the mix, you can totally make something wonderful out of it.

I never have anything 24-bit …. It doesn’t really matter.

tonehammer_kalimba_demo_1.mp3

No Fear

Propane drum, flower vase, Coke bottle, kalimba, monkey balls, harmonica, vocals

[On eBay], I found this wonderful drum. I have a hang drum, this super-expensive crazy drum. This one was way better, and it’s like $300.

tonehammer_propanium_demo_1_dressed.mp3

Twist and Tweak

Didgeridoo, soda tabs, water cooler ensemble, hang drum

[On working with a Dr. Pepper soda.] You can … tap it to become percussion, you can also talk into it, sing into it … I multisampled [the taps] into an entire instrument.

tonehammer_didge_demo_1_dressed.mp3

It Doesn’t Matter

Things don’t matter so much. I was playing a 7-string guitar, and it wasn’t nasty enough. I took all the strings and drop tuned them to the same note … so it didn’t make a sound any more. I got this nasty sound to it. I’m starting more and more to let go of these conventions …how it should be.

I took a 5 string bass and again I couldn’t get it nasty enough — I’m not a great musician by any means. Put it down on the table, let the surgery begin. I put towels down to mute the sound. I played it with drumsticks, and got this tight sound that I was looking for.

Especially in the low frequencies of instruments, you get these … amazing, fat sounds. There’s so much you can do.

Sampling a Restroom

One of the best songs — I went to a restroom. I always use the handicapped restroom because there’s more space and you can be alone. I hate American restrooms – European restrooms are closed, you can’t see in to see what people are doing.

[On the result -- multi-sampling the metal bar next to the toilet in a handicapped restroom.] You expand your palette when you do that. There are so many sounds out there.

Boiled [and timestretched) Waterphone

There's so much you can do in terms of torture to get more out of it. Of course you can strum it, you can play it sort of percussively. But then you can boil it.

It was totally ruined in the end. But at least someone has boiled a waterphone.

We recorded it at different temperatures. It started spinning, as well, as you got to higher temperatures.

[In a separate experiment, timestretching:] As you know, the waterphone is impossible to control tonally. [I tried] timestretching a single note — [Native Instruments’ sampler] Kontakt has a harmonizer — putting some other notes on top of it to make a more strange, otherworldly sound to it.

Hybrid [Stacked] Orchestras

Unfortunately game composers are asked to do epic scores all the time. The main elements in it — it’s really about stacking. It needs several different libraries; you can’t stack the same library or it starts phasing. I like to stack until it starts phasing. You can also stack until it starts clipping.

There is no less — there’s only more.

I have synths for the bases, I have drones that line underneath the basses. Arpeggiators are almost mandatory for strings, so when you have stacatto notes — which is also stacked, at least two or three libraries — you also have arpeggiators under that.

It’s the art of adding, epic music.

tbf_epic_orchestral_demo_2009.mp3

The Future of Music

i think the future of music is partly all of us exploring more textures. We all want to do epic music and trailers …. and everyone is sounding a lot alike now. Especially in games; I never hear things that sound all that unique. We have to find ways to differentiate ourselves.

I’m a super commercial composer … I force myself to step out of that.

There are many many ways that we can stand apart. The best thing ever is the Zoom [H4 portable digital] recorder. I use it for everything, for the handicapped recording. There are sounds all over. You can break the convention, break the theory.

Successfully Sampling Choirs

The sampling is incredibly demoralizing. So you have to actually have them play a melody. If you get a performance that is not emotional, it totally dies.

We got an entire Eastern European orchestra drunk. It was a huge help. …They were half drunk, so they could still play.

Successfully Sampling Drums

Percussion is its own science. It’s important when you do recording sessions to dent the drums. If you don’t dent the drum …it won’t work. A mistake a lot of people make is …they only use one stick. Always use two sticks. The sound may flange .. it doesn’t matter. And those sticks need to break, if you want “triple-X” percussion.

Favorite Tools

Timefreezer is just incredible — you have to sculpt it in realtime, don’t just make a drone. Put it in multisamplers, map to velocity and really sculpt that tone. Put them in a sampler and assign it to a mod wheel — anything you have to do to get more control.

LA Scoring Strings is coming out — it’s the first library that’s really nailed legato. [with legato for different tempi] …solo instruments, divisi, full section.

The Wizoo W2 reverb plug-in…[now distributed through M-Audio / part of the Advanced Instruments Research group at Digidesign]

Compositional Process

Daily Exercises:

1. Watch YouTube

2. Chat and forums

3. Listen

4. Network

5. Talent = time = fun

I listen more than I compose these days. I listen two or three hours a day consciously. For me the process of listening is as important as composing.

Troels also listed some of his own inspirations, which included YouTube videos seen on this site:

Video Mashed Kutiman Funk: What if All of YouTube Played a Song?

Depressing Project of the Day: Stock Market, Set to Music with Microsoft Songsmith

What’s interesting about this is that he took these not simply as worktime distractions but inspiration for his own work – to try to analyze the thought process behind the videos and do something similar in his own work.

Here’s an example of his own: what’s the sound of one hand clapping? Well, here’s one hand clapping, made into an entire composition:

One sound composition

For more on Troels’ own sample house:

tonehammer

And everything on Troels himself:

http://www.troelsfolmann.com/

Previously, right here on CDM:

Weekend Inspiration: Coke Bottle as Tribal Percussion, and the Future of Adaptive Music

CDM Interview: Tomb Raider: Legend Composer Troels Brun Folmann on Adaptive “Micro-Scoring”

There’s plenty to process here, so I hope we’ll talk to Troels again soon.

Game Audio: Selected Student Works from Matt Ganucheau on Vimeo.

In the early days of game sound, musical soundtracks were all largely adaptive and interactive, fused with the sound effects of the game and the logic of gameplay. Scores were less Alfred Newman or John Williams, more Spike Jones. Today, game music has the potential to reinvent composition itself, to help us reimagine what makes a musical score as on-screen user action drives musical ideas. But with a few, notable exceptions, most modern titles have opted for big, Hollywood-style soundtracks – and the linear composition that goes with them, as though someone just took a film score CD and hit play.

It’s one thing to talk about that in theory. Better yet: give it a shot yourself. So why not teach game music as its own discipline?

Matt Ganucheau, a composer, sound designer, and interactive developer/artist, is teaching just that, working with students at Expression College in Emeryville, California. The accelerated course works with the elegant Unity game engine and a clone of the legendary Space Invaders arcade game, adding music built in Max/MSP. If Max seems an unlikely choice, its open source cousin Pure Data (Pd) is actually integrated with the game engine for Electronic Arts’ Spore, with music by Brian Eno working with EA’s Kent Jolly and contributor Aaron McLeran. So, this could be the wave of the future. The first problem: figuring out how to actually compose.

The results are astonishing, given that the students were just learning Max and had extremely limited amounts of time. I asked Matt to write up for CDM how the coursework evolved; he shares his process and what he learned as a teacher. We’re also working on open sourcing the coursework content and the patches, which we’ll soon provide both for Pd and Max/MSP. I’m doing some work on the game side so that you can play with game mechanics in Processing. Stay tuned for more on that.

We spoke a bit about this process – and interactive music in general – with Xeni Jardin and Boing Boing in their Game Developer Conference livecast a week ago Friday. Edited video of that coming soon.

Here’s Matt on the coursework itself:

When faced with the challenge of updating our Game Audio course at Expression College, we wanted to create a course that reflected the increase of interest in adaptive and interactive audio in the current game industry. To do this successfully, we had to make sure our students had an understanding of how audio engines have evolved in the past eight years. Since our terms are only five weeks and our student body is comprised of non-programmers, this seemed like quite a daunting task. But having carefully fine-tuned the details, we feel we have a good recipe.

First, we begin by having the students build simple environments and place audio emitters inside the Unreal 2k environment. This shows them the restrictions of audio functionality in a proprietary engine. After a few labs with Unreal, the students are then introduced to the concepts of a middleware platform, using Audiokinetic’s WWise connected to the game Cube. Here, they are able to explore more interactive audio such as real-time control parameters and dynamic music changes. Finally, the students are introduced to Max/MSP. Lead through labs comprised of synthesis, sampling, basic programming concepts and sound design, we are able to arm the students will all of the information needed to create their own generative audio engine inside Max/MSP. By hacking away at a recreation of Space Invaders posted to the Unity3d forums (thank you, Eric Haines), we are able to pipe all of the real-time game data to Max/MSP via the UDP transport (with help from Bjerre).

Inside Max/MSP, the game data is received in our Unity2Max patch. With this initial infrastructure in place, the students are able to use the real-time events to remix the classic arcade game with their own audio engine. Piece by piece, we recreate the original audio engine through tasks such as creating the alternating pitched footsteps for the invaders, and a UFO spaceship noise with a flanger and a sine-wave, as well as mapping invader’s proximity to the music’s speed. For their final project, the students are allowed to use these tools to go in any stylistic direction they wish, as long as the music is adaptive.

We did not give students access to all of the game events because we didn’t want them to become overwhelmed with options. To our surprise, these restrictions created the opposite reaction. Students were frustrated by not having a message saying that the “UFO was destroyed”, so they hacked their own ways to find this out by deducing the change in points. In another example a student wanted the missile explosion to sound when the bunker was hit, so he placed a threshold on the missile flight time to be able to see if a bunker was hit. Hacks like these began to appear all over the students projects. This may seem like basic programming techniques to some, but to see this development come from a class of audio engineers is quite amazing.

Although this new course design has only been active for 4 months, we have seen a dramatic increase of interest from our students. Once a cultural standard like Space Invaders is deconstructed, the students become extremely excited to explore a new direction for the classic game. It still amazes me just how far students can go with only 3 weeks of Max/MSP instruction.

Unity Game Engine (recently updated to 2.5, and now both on Mac and Windows)

Cycling ‘74, Makers of Max/MSP

Expression College for Digital Arts

And the bits for this game, specifically:

Unity Invaders on the Unity Community Forum (the Space Invaders game used in the class)
Unity Invaders Site with downloadable, playable versions of the game
Discussion of UDP communication between Max and Unity, with the patch solution by Bjerre

Also, don’t miss the fantastic Pd-based book Designing Sound (well worth a read for Max users, as well). It’s an entire textbook built on the idea of doing interactive sound design in Pd, useful for games but other live and interactive sound, too – and while the emphasis is sound design rather than music per se, it remains a great reference on learning to patch and learning about audio synthesis.

Andy Farnell

One chip to rule them all: over a quarter century later, the sounds of this chip are reborn in the newest mobile devices. Photo (CC) Dejdżer / Digga.

Take a look at the long view of history, and the Commodore 64 fares nicely. It remains the most popular computer of all time. And this newfangled iPhone thing? Well, it now just catches up to the C64, giving people what they really want – a C64-like music player in their pocket.

How else to explain my inbox packed with tips about the new SID Player for iPod Touch and iPhone? Who needs MP3 when there’s SID. A tiny download yields over 33,000 tracks, and the player application itself is open source. Rounding out this (unplanned) day of game music, this seems the appropriate coda.

Now, it’d be easy enough to let a wave of nostalgia wash over you – or, Scrooge-like naysayers, to dismiss yet another novelty download for iPhone. But consider if you will some of the underlying reasons a SID Player works:

• Composition: The compositions aren’t just nostalgia pieces – even classic game tunes like Commando and Arkanoid. The point is, composers like Rob Hubbard were inventive and ingeniously compact. Strip away the instrumentation, and they still work – something that can’t be said of a lot of modern game music (but can be said of hits like “Still Alive,” as it happens).
• Storing scores, not sound: We continue to be force-fed the idea that recorded music is superior to sequenced racks that are synthesized – but no one can say why. Sure, for simulating an orchestra, that makes some sense, even with increasingly sophisticated samplers. But for electronic compositions, it’s nonsense. You can pack more music and more musical structure into a score. If MIDI scores are underwhelming, it’s because the synths playing them, or the limitations of the file format, or both killed the idea.
• SID forever: The SID remains one of the great synth designs of all time, again, because of its economy and its personality. There’s no reason that success can’t be replicated in 2009 by DIY electronics builders on one hand, or smart synth programmers working on mobile and embedded devices on the other.

I have nothing against nostalgia on the one hand, and nothing against healthy skepticism on the other. But if you look at something like a 2009 SID player on the iPhone, there really is something to it – even when history washes both the SID and the iPhone into a forgotten past.

SID Player Project Page, iTunes link (US$2.99; further evidence that you can have a for-fee open source mobile app, folks)

Via Synthtopia and James Lewin’s Twitter and a few of you, as well.

The only way to top this iPhone app? Why, someone needs to build a SID-based pocket music player that does nothing else. There are a few DIY projects that might get you started.

The Nintendo mobile is a solo instrument no more. Lovers of the Korg DS-10 cartridge for the Nintendo DS handheld are making their own ensembles. And one such trio is a selection of who’s who in Japanese game music.

The Korg DS Trio performed a celebrity concert after the Tokyo Game Show. GameSetWatch has an extensive interview with the three. Nobuyoshi Sano (composer, Ridge Racer series) and Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger) are two familiar names, joined by Michio Okamiya of Final Fantasy hard rock cover band The Black Mages. All three had input into the creation of the DS-10; two connected over drinks. (That’s one of my favorite places to have product meetings, coincidentally.) As a trio, they have the unique opportunity to cover their own music.

It’s interesting me, this aesthetic interest in miniaturizing and making the DS into this sort of musical device. It’s an interest that has been particularly strong traditionally in Japan, it seems. They have a lot to say about DS-10 and game music:

GameSetInterview: Korg DS Trio Talk App Creation, EXTRA Concert

Of course, part of the vision of DS-10 was to create a democratic tool for music creation, not just a toy for some of Japan’s leading game composers. (Hey, they do need to unwind, too!)

ThisIsNot shares his own DS-10 jam, this one a four-way jam in Melbourne, above. (Thanks for sending us the tip! You may have seen the jam blogged elsewhere, but I think some of the sites missed the video, which gives you some idea what they were up to.) He writes:

I was invited by Jed to join a korg ds-10 jam at More Bass recently as part of 13 years of IF records
there was Jed, Enclave, one others and myself playing. We didn’t sync the DS’s over wi-fi or anything and had no pre planned approach , so this was purely improvisation and jamming along.

4 way nintendo ds jam with korg ds-10 [Acid Box Blues]

Audio:

Lastly, our friends over at Boing Boing’s Offworld gaming blog have been all about the DS-10 lately. Receptors, aka 8-bit Operators curator Jeremy Colosine, has an exclusively DS-10 album. (Okay, the novelty is wearing off a bit after the all-Tenori-On and all-Kaossilator album and whatnot, but if it’s musically satisfying for the maker and the music’s good, I’m game!) It’s free for download from last.fm, so the music-per-dollar equation is off the charts.

If you haven’t yet seen it, you should definitely check out the DS-10-as-talkbox video demo, but the man who created it – Jetdaisuke – now puts together everything mobile we’ve been talking about for the last six months and plays, all at once, Bloom (iPhone / iPod touch), Mokugyo (with Cat) (iPhone / iPod touch), ElektroPlankton (DS, by Tenori-On creator Toshio Iwai), and Korg DS-10 (DS), plus a Korg Kaossilator. Impressive, but it is missing a Game Boy running Nanoloop and LSDJ, a PSP running PSPSEQ and PSP Rhythm, a Palm, a Windows Mobile device, a Nokia, rjdj, LPDJ, a SIDstation – the battle is on.

For those of you who are sick of mobile music, watch this video and see how high your blood pressure can go!

In fact, now, with the Game Developer Conference coming up, I think we need a DS Boys’ Choir with one hundred of these things playing at once, like a swarm of so many digital bees. Anyone know a good party to crash?

Composer, musician, and sound designer W. Brent Latta knows something about sound design, currently working professionally on sound for games with Amaze Entertainment. As an enthusiast of what it takes to craft sound, he’s put together a list for us of where to go to learn more and hone your abilities, from fundamentals to the specifics required by film/video and games. -Ed.

Sound design is a fundamental aspect of nearly every form of digital media, from music production to games to commercial radio. Sometimes seen as a ‘dark art’, sound design can also be viewed as difficult and mysterious, often deterring would-be creators. Here are 15 sound design resources to help rookies and veterans alike.

Fundamentals

The fundamentals of sound design rest firmly on the core fundamentals of audio engineering. Without a working knowledge of basic audio engineering, your road to becoming a sound designer could be a long one. Here are some resources to help get you off on the right foot.

1. AudioTuts.com is a great place to start learning basic and advanced techniques for audio production. Even if you have no interest in producing music, taking the time to work through both sound design and music production tutorials will quickly give you practical, hands-on experience with the techniques you’ll need to get your sound design career moving.

2. Sound On Sound has a voluminous archive of audio, music and production tutorials. These range from the most fundamental techniques of sound synthesis, all the way up to specific techniques using outboard effects processors.

3. Digital Pro Sound has a nice archive of tutorials and articles covering a range of applications, plug-ins, and general techniques.

Sound For Film

Sound for film has a long and proud history, with a level of camaraderie and support that is not often found in other aspects of various media industries. As sound designers, we are fortunate to have a plethora of amazing individuals who help promote our work, keep us informed, and help us keep up on the latest and greatest news and tech. Here are a few film-specific sites that are worth checking out.

4. FilmSound is perhaps the most comprehensive site on the web regarding the topic of sound and music for film. Contributors include legendary sound designers such as Randy Thom, Ben Burtt and Walter Murch. There’s even a section specifically for beginners!

5. FilmSoundDaily is relatively new to the blogosphere, but is highly recommended for unique, personal approach, its thorough interviews, and plenty of audio and video content.

6. SyncSoundCinema is an interesting blog covering field production and recording. Product reviews and announcements, as well as industry commentary make for a useful daily read.

Sound For Games

Now that we’re moving into my neck of the woods, I’m happy to share with you some of my favorite sites covering the topics of audio for games. While many of the techniques are the same, the specific application of sound in games can vary widely from film, television and radio. Here are a few sites to give you a head-start on audio for games.

7. GamaSutra is one of the premier sites on the web for news, articles, interviews, and industry reports on games. Their archives are replete with interesting game audio articles covering a range of topics including adaptive music, voiceover recording, production pipelines and development methodology. In addition, Gamasutra has sections devoted to job-hunting and education, for those who are just getting started.

8. GANG is the Game Audio Network Guild, is the largest game audio community in the world. It is a non-profit organization devoted to the promotion, education and growth of the game audio community. The majority of the resources are available to members-only, but with the recent site overhaul, there are a number of new features that are available for those who are interested in joining but want more information first.

9. Music4Games is devoted to all aspects of music for video games, including soundtrack reviews, interviews with top composers, and even reviews of software used frequently in the production of game music. This is a great site for learning about the movers and shakers of the game music industry.

10. IASIG “exists to allow developers of audio software, hardware, and content to freely exchange ideas about improving the performance of interactive applications by influencing hardware, software, and tool design.” Comprised of a wide variety of individuals from across the interactive entertainment industry, the IASIG has working to improve the lives of game developers and game audio designers for over 13 years.

11. sound-music-interactive-games is a blog I recently stumbled upon. While much of the content is linked from other, previously mentioned sites, it is all focused on game-audio, and contains thoughtful and amusic commentary from Richard Stevens.

Communities and Lists

I’m happy to say that the sound design community is generally welcoming, informative, and a fun place to work and play. Here are some great places where you can begin to network with fellow composers and sound designers. As a general rule, newbies are welcome in all of these communities, though the signal-to-noise ratio here is very high. Posts are almost always ‘on-topic’, and searching the archives for previously answered questions is mandatory.

12. GameAudioForum is an excellent place to learn, share ideas, and network with other game audio professionals.

13. GameAudioPro is a Yahoo! mailing list devoted to learning more about sound design for games. While there isn’t a much traffic here as on GameAudioForum, this is a great way to stay connected if you don’t want to spend a lot of time searching through web forums.

14. sound_design is another Yahoo! discussion group. This particular group is a veritable who’s-who of the film, television and game sound world. The level of professionalism here is extremely high, and while rookies are welcome, asking rookie questions is somewhat frowned upon, as most rookie questions are readily answered elsewhere (in the archives or on other websites). I’ve been a ‘lurker’ on this site for two years and have yet to ask a question. Even so, I’ve learned a great deal by simply reading the posts of others.

A Random Must Read Site

15. USO is a site with a wide ranging scope covering topics such as sound design, production, technique, interviews and digital signal processing. This is one of my favorite daily visits, with a great sense of humor, and reverence for audio creators everywhere. Highly recommended! Ed.: I agree — this has long been on my blog RSS feed! -PK

Your Favorites?

Do you have favorite websites, mailing lists, or forums that cover the topic of sound design, production, recording, foley or audio for games? If so, let us know in the comments!

This site has always been about making music with computers and digital technology. Today, we increasingly have access to powerful computers in mobile form factors. But, despite the simple fact that all of these are ultimately computers, I’ve quickly learned that mobile music production is a divisive issue. Some of you are as passionate about hating mobile tech as others of you are about loving it, perhaps propelled by a strong uptick of iPhone hype and accompanying resentment. Don’t worry — I won’t be swayed too much by either group; I’m committed to computers in all forms, tiny and large, and accompanying digital synths. And analog synths. And, really, anything that makes sound.

That said, the survey results we did on mobile tech are very interesting. Story topics for CDM aren’t a popularity contest, but your responses do reveal a lot. (The best reading turns out to be the write-in portion.)

First up, here’s a look at what mobile platforms people own. I expect the survey is somewhat self-selecting (some of you in the “none of the above” category likely didn’t respond), but note how the game platforms dominate.

That’s platforms you already own. But which are you interested in reading about? The margin on each device increases significantly. (Sony’s PSP doubles; Linux triples.) So that demonstrates that people are interested in learning about the larger landscape, and may be basing future purchase decisions on what’s available for music creation. (It also appeared that stronger support for PSP and Linux came from Europe than North America, possibly in part due to painfully-inflated costs for iPod touch and iPhone in that market.)

Zany Write-In Response

Okay, enough demographics. The best part of doing the poll was getting your write-in responses.
Google’s Android platform unsurprisingly got a number of write-in votes; GP2X got fewer, but I expect people just (rightfully) answered “Linux.” We did get some interesting responses, though:

Mobile device suggestions:

• Boss Micro BR
• Buddha Machine
• Graphing calculators (careful; with the readers here, you might get your wish
• Korg Kaossilator
• MPC 500
• Psion organizers
• “steam powered”
• Yamaha QY100
• Speak and Spell
• PlayStation 1 (that’s mobile?)
• Nokia N-gage (but now I know you’re joking)

And then there was the hater/lover argument:
“PLEASE GIVE THE IPHONE A REST! BORING YUPPIE TOY. soz for capitals.”
“Not all of us have tiny little girlie fingers!!!” (ouch!)
“The above statement should be “I really couldn’t care less.” As it happens, I am interested in all of them, so I really could care less.”
“mobile audio coverage is getting ridiculous”
“Just keep it to a minimum, guys =)” (Well, it is by definition miniature, right?)
“more iphone!!!! screw the haters”
“Everything. If there’s something new and interesting done with a C64, it could be worth going out to buy a setup.”
“every – f***ing – thing !”

At least someone said “whatever, it’s all good.” Sir, you may be alone in your calm attitude, but the editorial staff appreciates it. Meanwhile, I’ll be exercising my tiny girlie fingers over a variety of devices. (They give me uncanny accuracy in touch apps. So there.)

BeatMaker Update and Workflow

A new BeatMaker video (below)

One of the biggest objections — and a fair one — boils down to “but how do you use this in real life?” The “it’s a toy” argument is a legitimate one if it means you have software you play around with, but that you can’t use as an instrument effectively or work into your own music. (By that token, for instance, my toy piano is actually a valuable instrument.)

So it’s big news that, as many people had hoped, Intua’s BeatMaker has added MIDI export. That means you can assemble ideas and patterns on BeatMaker and bring them into your desktop music software of choice. I’m already hearing from people using this with Ableton Live. This isn’t a new feature — Windows Mobile and Palm apps have offered the same thing — but it’s a big part of the draw of these devices. BeatMaker also has an improved manual, more videos, and Bonjour support:

intua.net

Intua’s Mathieu also tells us “We’re working on the new BeatMaker killer-update now. Should be interesting !” Indeed.

For the record, that means some of the interesting workflow possibilities now available include the likes of:

• Building MIDI patterns and audio loops for use elsewhere (PSP Rhythm, PSP; BeatMaker, iPhone/iPod; many others)
• Building complete tracks using unusual synths (PSPSEQ, PSP)
• Working on drum patterns, with samples, in a round-trip with desktop software (iDrum, iPhone/iPod)
• Using your mobile device as a touch/stylus controller, etc. (DSMI, DS; various tools, iPhone/iPod)

All good stuff. Of course, by the same token, there are clear disadvantages of mobile devices — cramped screen space and controls, limited processing power, a lack of full-sized and full-fidelity audio I/O, and the like. But that’s why I’ve always felt conventional form factor computers aren’t really going anywhere. They work really well; these augment what they can do.

The appeal of newer music apps for phones, current-generation mobile game systems, and PDAs is portability first. But for the Game Boy music scene, it’s as much about a distinctive sound, and acquiring Game Boys as a kind of unique synthesizer. Our friend and mobile game musician Peter Swimm points us to the new documentary Reformat the Planet. It’s available for a week free on pitchfork.tv, with screenings to follow. It’s a pretty nice survey of the New York corner of the scene, at least. I’m personally getting increasingly interested in tools like PSPSEQ, which have a distinctive sound all their own — think string modeling rather than vintage game glitches — but that puts this in additional perspective.

Reformat the Planet [available this week only, pitchfork.tv]

Cinematographer Asid Siddiky writes:

My partners and I have spent the last few years documenting the Chip Music scene in New York. It is a predominantly underground, but vibrant community in which musicians utilize video game hardware (Game Boy, Nintendo, Commodore 64, etc) to create songs of their own. This footage eventually became the feature-length film, “Reformat The Planet.”

While the movie isn’t being officially distributed yet, it has enjoyed some well-received screenings around the world…premiering at the South By Southwest Film Festival earlier this year…playing overseas at the Melbourne International Film Festival…and over the next few months, it will screen at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle and the International Amsterdam Film Festival.

Paul, Paul, and I are honored to have been selected by such prestigious groups and are pleased to announce that Pitchfork, an online publication devoted to the criticism and coverage of independent music that is hated and revered in equal (i think?) measure, has decided to stream Reformat The Planet, for free, for one week. To date, this represents our most widespread and accessible presentation of the film.

The film will be available for viewing from now until the end of the day next Thursday, August 21.