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d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=111419425648751"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script> <article class="blog inside clearfix singlepost"> <div id="entry-title-moot" style="display:none;">:lustmord-on-creating-evolve-soundscape-and-the-state-of-game-audio</div> <div id="blog-header" class="gamePageTitle"> <div id="page_header"> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/https://blog.2k.com/index.php/home/single/the-music-of-evolve">Previous Entry</a></li> <li class="active"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/https://blog.2k.com/index.php/home">Blog Home</a></li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/https://blog.2k.com/index.php/home/single/bioshock-infinite-the-complete-edition-out-now">Next Entry</a></li> </ul><div id="blog-title-image"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804im_/https://downloads.2kgames.com/2kblog/Lustmord_blog2.jpg" alt="PRIMAL GAME AUDIO: Lustmord on Creating Evolve’s Soundscape"></div> <div class="blog-title clearfix"> <h1>A conversation with Lustmord, the man behind the unique soundscapes for Evolve.</h1> </div> </div> <div id="blog-body"> <div class="blog-social"><cite>By Darren Gladstone <a href="" class="link-tw" target="_blank"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804im_/https://downloads.2kgames.com/2k/img/layout/footer/twitterfooter.png" alt=""></a> Wed Oct 1, 2014</cite> </div> <div id="tweetitnlikeit"><div class="inner-social"> <div class="wrapper-btn-tw"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/https://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button">Tweet</a></div><div class="wrapper-btn-fb"><div class="fb-like" data-send="false" data-layout="button_count" data-width="100" data-show-faces="false" data-font="verdana"></div></div> </div></div> <div class="wrapper-post"> <div class="post usertext"> <p><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">The job of audio in a game is to make everything feel more real and, at the same time, not distract you from the task at hand – not dying. Last week, we spoke with </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/http://www.jasongraves.com/" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">Jason Graves</a><span style="line-height: 1.6em;"> about </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/http://evolvegame.com/news/savage-music-jason-graves-and-the-audio-for-evolve" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">his role creating music for <em>Evolve</em></a><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">. This week, we have the opportunity to catch up with </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/http://www.lustmord.com/" style="line-height: 1.6em;" target="_blank">Lustmord</a><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">, the man behind the unique soundscapes for </span><em style="line-height: 1.6em;">Evolve.</em></p> <p>If you’re a follower of the dark ambient movement, you’re likely already familiar with Lustmord – he’s the pioneer credited with creating the sound. You’ve likely heard his work in films like <em>The Crow</em> series. Or maybe his work on <em>The Strain </em>(Currently airing on FX) may have subconsciously caught your attention. Today, we’re talking about being a composer <em>and</em> a gamer…and what the state of game audio sounds like to him.</p> <p><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804im_/https://downloads.2kgames.com/2kblog/Lustmord2.jpg" width="100%"/></p> <p><strong>Evolve: How did you first get involved with working on Evolve?</strong></p> <p>Lustmord: Turtle Rock approached me at first. I’m a bit of a gamer myself so I wanted to come in and see what it was they were doing. Also, I was already familiar with their pedigree and got the gist of the game, itself. We hit it off and were on the same page from the beginning.</p> <p><strong>E: Guess the fact that you are a gamer helped…</strong></p> <p>L: Well, I was aware of what they’d done and the level of their work, but I don’t play as many games as I used to. Really, though, it sounded like a really interesting project that I wanted to get involved in. It goes without saying that if you’re working on things, you want them to be good.</p> <p><strong>E: What was it that appealed to you the most?</strong></p> <p>L: The idea that you get to play a wholly different game from the Monster’s perspective was really a good idea. But one of the things that struck me is that even two years ago, when they brought me on, they had high production values here. That’s always the key. You only have to look at what they are doing (or hear what they are saying) and see that people are aiming to raise the bar – and I really respond to that.</p> <p>Personally, even if you fail – the fact that you try speaks volumes.</p> <p><strong>E: I’d imagine that the fact you’re creating two wholly separate experiences – one for the Hunters, one for the Monsters – is one thing that appealed to you.</strong></p> <p>L: It’s like you’re recording an album knowing that people are going to be shouting over it, getting it drowned out by loads of gunfire from one perspective. Then, having roars spike over the music you’re hearing as a Monster.</p> <p><strong>E: Just think of it as the players adding to your masterpiece…</strong></p> <p>L: [laughs] That’s the thing about working on games. It isn’t so much about what <em>you</em> do in audio, it’s about the contributions you’re making to the larger experience. There’s a much bigger picture.</p> <p>It’s actually a very interesting process to work on – I’ve worked on some commercial, TV and film stuff – and it’s a different way to think about your work. I’ll work on a movie and when someone walks into a room and starts the action, the music starts there. They talk or leave the room or go to the next scene. That’s maybe a minute or two long. There’s a rhythm and based of that, you create a tempo in a score.</p> <p>Whereas in a game, it’s very different. You’re doing a piece of music where someone could walk into a very specific action or area for a couple seconds, then they walk out again. Or they may just stay there and live. Or die quickly. All these events affect the music and you never know when it’s going to happen. So you can’t do the traditional beginning, middle and end to music. You have to create something that will work in 20 seconds, 10 seconds or five or six minutes. That’s what’s interesting – having to create something that also so flexible so it sounds like it could be something that would naturally go on for a while without feeling it’s a loop.</p> <p><strong>E: When you came into the project what objectives did you have? And did it change drastically over time?</strong></p> <p>L: [The studio] had a really clear idea from the beginning of what they wanted and they articulated that very well. Also, it helped that one of the references was my own music. So nothing really changed dramatically, but there were a few minor tweaks over time.</p> <p>It’s not your traditional score and big themes as far as the gameplay is concerned so it was much more about creating an environment. My job was to add a separate layer of sound in the environment and I found that to be quite interesting.</p> <p><strong>E: Well, it certainly makes sense that they asked you to be a part of this, a lot of your work already has a very primal sound to it….</strong></p> <p>L: Thank you very much for saying that. Some people comment and say that my work is dark, but no, I actually do view what I do as very primal. It touches upon these things that some people consider dark, but it’s definitely primal.</p> <p>It’s more of a “feel” thing, for sure.</p> <p><strong>E: What do you think of the representation of audio in the game world? Does it get short shrift or the attention it deserves?</strong></p> <p>L: I’m one of the people that actually turns the music off most of the time when I’m playing games. For me, it’s just irritating and gets in the way. I’m kind of hoping that there’s a trend against that [bad implementation of music]. About 10, 15 years ago there was <em>a lot</em> of experimentation in games. There are still, but sometimes music in games falls into a pattern that Hollywood has gone down as well. Hollywood <em>used </em>to be really interesting musically, then became this whole temp music, bombastic scores that I find ridiculous. That whole style of lots of bombast and big rhythms and “more is better” thing is just distracting.</p> <p>What’s important here is that people don’t buy games – or go watch movies – for the music playing in the background most of the time. The music is there to do a job: To enhance or focus on some intrinsic part of the game. Action, empathy, pathos – or in the case of Evolve, atmosphere of the planet.</p> <p>You shouldn’t really be drawing attention to the audio. If you’re noticing the music, it’s not doing its job properly, really.</p> <p>Unfortunately, I don’t get to play as many games as I used to. So, of course, that was a sweeping statement I just made. There are still some well-done games whose soundtracks I listen to from beginning to end – and other games that I’ve been meaning to check out.</p> <p><strong style="line-height: 1.6em;">E: So what do you find yourself listening to in other people’s work in games?</strong></p> <p>L: I try not to listen too much to what other people are doing – I try to switch it off. Like I was saying earlier, if you’re doing your job as a composer for TV, Film or games, you shouldn’t notice the audio. It blends into the whole experience.</p> <p>People aren’t buying a game for the music – unless it’s a music game. It’s an element. Also, a problem for me is that I don’t like a lot of stuff so I turn off the music tracks altogether on some games. I really don’t like this trend lately of there being wall-to-wall music. I like things that have a chance to breathe.</p> <p>For example, I like the old, classic movies from the 50s, 60s and 70s that had maybe 15-20 minutes of music in them. There are too many classics to name beyond that – <em>Once Upon a Time in America</em>, <em>Chinatown</em>, <em>Alien</em>. Actually, I should say that I quite liked the music for <em>Gravity</em>, as well. These days, though, you have a two hour movie and it’s filled with music. I find that very fatiguing. And when people try doing that to a game…..</p> <p>I’m again, saying this in broad strokes, but from what I’ve seen in the games I’ve played, there has been lots of bombast and lots of notes. It becomes a distraction after a while, so I just tend to turn it off and focus on the ambiance.</p> <p><strong>E: When you’re creating adaptive music for a specific scene, how many variants of a track are you composing?</strong></p> <p>L: It depends upon the game, of course. In this particular game, there’s a beginning, the middle of the piece proper and an end. Where the end kicks in depends upon what the player is doing or what’s happening in the game. There’s also layers on top of that for specific events.</p> <p>There’s the body of the music that 2-to-3 minutes long, an intro and an outro which is quite short. Then there will be overlays to make that middle section of a track sound longer. They would spread it out or at random times.</p> <p>In other games I’ve worked on, there will be different versions of the main thing. Do you live or die? What choices have you made? It just depends upon the game.</p> <p><strong>E: Compared to previous games you’d worked on, would you say this took longer?</strong></p> <p>L: It took about the same amount of time. I tend to get carried away and do more than needed, anyhow, but I definitely did a lot here. I just like to give them plenty of options. I tend to be pretty anal about it, tweaking details. Sometimes there are tiny details – nice fadeouts, intentional silence – that I’ll go back and adjust. Nobody else will notice it, but I do.</p> <p>Don’t get me wrong. Going back and re-editing all the time won’t help you – you need to know when to walk away and go onto the next thing. You can always go back and rework it, but that’ll potentially ruin a piece in the long run.</p> <p><strong>E: You’ve been operating in an all-digital world now for over 10 years, is there anything you miss (or don’t miss) from the analog days?</strong></p> <p>L: I don’t miss anything. It was nice and tactile with buttons and knobs but also things being big and heavy – they were great and I love those machines – but, no. When I started using digital stuff back in the 80s (it was an Atari 520 that had 12K and 1MB of storage that I used as a sample editor) it was just a small box and tiny screen and I had so much fun with that thing. From there, for work I used to have loads of high-end gear and racks full of equipment. Over time, I just missed that tiny box. So I got more and more into the Mac thing. Of course the software now is way more powerful than any of the hardware I had years before. I just like having that screen in front of me – it is how my brain works. I like having a linear track that I can follow and see where everything is laid out.</p> <p><strong>E: I can totally get that, I’ve talked to engineers who’ve described the old days as almost some black art.</strong></p> <p><em>L: A dark art </em>– I actually like that. An inner circle of dark artists…I love it. Makes it sound sinister and will keep people away from the editing bay.</p> <p><strong>E: So what are you doing now to capture samples?</strong></p> <p>L: My iPhone.</p> <p><strong>E: Really? That’s it?</strong></p> <p>I used to have to borrow gear or rent stuff. There some pretty decent systems to get digital audio to video tape, but the machines were quite large, bulky and heavy. Then you have the battery packs….a real pain in the ass to do anything. These days, though, all you need is an iPhone and a microphone. It’s in your pocket already – so, yeah, it makes sense. It’s been a long time since I’ve done something so serious that it’d require more complex equipment. In that case, I’d probably just rent stuff I need.</p> <p>Having done this for so long, though, it’s mind-boggling how much raw material I have on hard drives. I have so many terabytes of storage dedicated to samples at this point…I can literally reach my hand out grab a hard drive, stick in the bay and have everything I need.</p> <p>I think I have about 9 terabytes connected to my computer right now – and I have bare drives that I can back stuff up onto. And I have a heavy duty fireproof safe – like a gun safe – bolted to the ground and a lot of the drives go in there. For safety I have backups and cloud backups of the backups. There’s a lot to preserve after a couple decades!</p> <p><strong>E: Absolutely understand that! OK, so bearing everything you’ve said about how audio should be somewhat invisible – and the deep catalogs worth of samples layered in here –  is there anything that you think people should keep an ear tuned for while playing Evolve?</strong></p> <p>L: I want people to like the work, of course, but I don’t want people to be looking out for things, they need to avoid getting eaten. It is interesting what you’re doing because you’re creating an atmosphere for a game and if you’ve done your stuff right, people shouldn’t really notice anything. If it’s not there, you should notice – because the sound is adding elements. It’s adding a mood and texture to the game with the goal of enhancing the experience – not distracting you from it.</p> <p>On the subconscious level, someone playing the game will say, “Oh, wow, this is a great atmosphere” – they’ll be busy playing the game and getting this real vibe of the game, not really being aware of the music. The only time you should be aware of the music is when you take it all out – then the game will feel very different. That’s the effect the right music can bring to a game. The game is still good, of course, but it might “feel” emptier without the music.</p> <p>It’s an interesting process, being a small part of a bigger picture. The graphics, the explosions, the visuals – that’s all visceral. The audio should be an important element, but it’s something that will affect the player on a more subconscious level.</p> <p>It’s not like doing an album where people sit down and are there to listen to it – people are listening more passively…[laughs] It’s a really funny way to approach doing work. You’re creating tracks that people aren’t really listening to, but they are still listening to it.</p> <p>That’s the thing. People spent lots of time building levels and painting in all this detail into hallways and stairways and caves. When you’re playing the game, you’re running through it really quickly because you need to get somewhere. But someone has put countless hours of work into something that you only see for a split second.</p> <p> </p> <br/> <div class="clearfix"/> </div> <div class="clearfix" style="width:100%;display:block;"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display:none;" id="bg-single"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804im_/https://downloads.2kgames.com/2kblog/evolve_blog_bg.jpg" alt=""/></div> <div id="wrapper-comments"><div id="comments"></div></div> <div class="clearfix" style="width:100%;display:block;"></div> <div class="bloginfo"> <div class="column"> <h4>Recent Posts</h4> <ul> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150318071804/https://blog.2k.com/index.php/home/single/borderlands-2-and-borderlands-the-pre-sequel-come-to-next-gen-in-borderland">Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Come To Next-Gen in Borderlands: The Handsome Collection</a></li> <li><a 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