Get Gooey Visage stereo tool for FREE until June 3rd!
Gooey Visage is a tool for controlling stereo width and panning with drawable curves, an LFO, and a macro control. The plugin is usually priced at $29.99, but you can now get it for free until June 3rd! Visage has two main panels. On the left side, you can access a macro control, one control [...]
View post: Get Gooey Visage stereo tool for FREE until June 3rd!

Sound Particles update inDelay  Capable of everything from enhancing music productions to designing spatial effects and creating immersive cinematic textures, inDelay 1.5 promises to deliver yet more power, precision and inspiration.

Arturia’s V Collection 11 Pro almost made me forget I had other pluginsSince the release of V Collection X, Arturia has dug even deeper than ever with its digital ambitions. Both the recently-reviewed KeyLab 88 MK3 and preceding AstroLab testify to this, pulling few punches when it comes to breaking Arturia software out of the computer and into the physical studio. Fair to say, those instruments’ affinity with V Collection extends to the degree that they only really come to life upon interfacing with those software instruments.

READ MORE: Will GTA 6 change the way gamers discover music?

The V Collection was introduced in 2005 as a modest collection emulating four classic synths (the Moog Modular, CS-80, ARP 2600 and Minimoog), and has since bloomed into a mighty catalogue of software instruments ranging from the Emulator II to the Vox Continental. By now we should take it as read that with each new edition, V Collection continues to grow apace.
The latest, expansive iteration of the V Collection furnishes the suite with more instruments than ever— 45, to be exact. V Collection 11 doesn’t just add a spate of new emulations of existing hardware instruments (not to mention more of Arturia’s own hardware), it also presents a substantial helping of original Arturia design, not least substantiating and expanding the rapidly-growing Augmented range of instruments.
New kids on the block
Brand new to the Collection are the Synthx V emulation of the Elka Synthex polyphonic synth, the Jup-8000 V emulation of the Roland JP-8000 ‘Analogue Modelling’ synth, and a completely remodelled SEM V, itself based on the Oberheim SEM. Of these, I am particularly impressed by the Synthx V, whose 1980s Italian ancestor— widely regarded as a cheaper but comparable synth to the likes of the Sequential Prophet 10 and Oberheim OBXa— never sold particularly well in its own time. Massively deep, its dual layer architecture allows for the complex blending of sounds while remaining hugely versatile— not to mention massively wide in the stereo image if desired. It’s an instrument that translates brilliantly into the DAW.
Screenshot from Arturia V Collection 11
SEM V is another clear highlight of the emulations. The virtual synth is pre-existing in the Collection but here has been completely redesigned, similar to how the V Collection X overhauled the Mini V to boast better analogue modelling. Oberheim’s iconic Synthesizer Expansion Modules could be conjoined to make two-, four- or eight-voice systems, and of course here all that polyphony is realised behind just one SEM user interface.
The Modules might be renowned for smoothness and warmth, with the gorgeous SEM filter at the heart of the matter, but I find all manner of colours on the palette with this satisfying and impeccably-modelled instrument, from chiming arpeggios to deep growling baselines.
Arturia’s own
You might be surprised to learn that when it comes to new emulations of classic instruments, the list ends there. Indeed, Arturia has markedly turned more of its attention inward, starting with an emulation of its own MiniBrute— first announced almost a year go— and an update to the MiniFreak V. MusicTech responded favourably to the MiniFreak V’s appearance in V Collection X, but that was arguably something of a shoo-in, what with the MiniFreak itself being a digital synth and therefore easily transposable into the DAW. The MiniBrute V, however, takes things a step further to tackle analogue Arturia.

This, I’m pleased to report, it does remarkably well. The hardware MiniBrute, released in 2012, is a comparatively diminutive and simple monosynth but one full of grit and attitude, namely thanks to the ‘Brute Factor’ of its onboard distortion and its Steiner Parker filter design, which in a nutshell is smooth at the bottom and harsh at the top. That aggression and substance translate magnificently in the V, and allied with a simple interface also makes for a highly usable ‘go-to’ if you’re in need of a basic but powerful synth, which can now also work across eight-voice polyphony, to cover many bread-and-butter synth sounds.
A new original instrument, Pure LoFi, also joins the Collection. This is a ‘low fidelity synthesiser’ with three different LoFi engine types and nine vintage hardware emulations. Not only does Pure LoFi offer a range of modulation, distortion and noise-based tools for crafting sounds, particularly enjoyable are its sampler engine options, with classics like the Akai MPC, Fairlight CMI, EMU SP1200, and even the cheap-as-chips Casio SK1 all in the offing.
Augmented instruments
Perhaps the biggest step V Collection 11 takes forward, though, is with the Augmented series, which here expands to seven different instruments, interpolating acoustic sample-based instruments with synthesis engines. Augmented Voices, Strings, Grand Piano, Brass, and Woodwind are joined by Yangtze and Mallets. Atop that, every one of those existing Augmented instruments has received updates to its layout, controls and workflow, with Strings and Voices getting significant expansions to their sample banks and preset libraries. Not bad at all.
Screenshot from Arturia V Collection 11
I enjoy Mallets’ gorgeously captured marimba, vibraphone, celeste and tubular bells, as well as its dynamic synthesis capabilities, but I’m mightily impressed by Yangtze, which boldly takes a raft of traditional Chinese instruments into the DAW, such as the bowed erhu, plucked pipa and xiao bamboo flute. Sonically beautiful and evocative, these sounds push the Augmented series into genuinely exciting territory; not only does it encourage producers to think beyond the components of the western orchestra when it comes to classical and traditional instrumentation, it also brings these instruments into contact with the electronic music domain in a natural and creative way, which is a huge achievement.
Suffice to say, I hope to see more Augmented instruments taking cues from traditions around the world in the future.
Sound ecology
Let’s take a moment to reiterate the now-obvious: when it comes to all things Lab and V, the French developer is not simply building instruments in the way it is hardware, it is populating an ecosystem. All of V Collection’s instruments are available individually, but increasingly Arturia are focused on making its software instrument range a DAW-based environment all of its own, with a bespoke workflow spanning virtual instruments of all shapes and sizes.
Screenshot from Arturia V Collection 11
You might have noticed this edition of V Collection 11 is $100 more than the preceding V Collection X. Is it worth it? That depends on how you think about it: with six new instruments in the picture, that’s a modest $16 or so for each new addition. It’s fair to assume that Arturia has done its utmost to keep the V Collection’s price down, and overall, I still call it strong value for money. But the one-time purchase of the V Collection is less representative of the cumulative value of its individual instruments, as it is an investment in Arturia’s world (indeed, to buy all its instruments separately would increase its price by just under a factor of ten). This is perhaps best represented in Analog Lab, which allows users to hop between emulations to achieve sounds as breezily as one would between presets on a single synth. In this sense, the V Collection is worth far more than the sum of its parts.
If I were being cynical, I’d say Arturia has an almost Apple-level knack for locking users into its ecology. ‘One canvas for infinite sonic exploration’ is how Arturia described V Collection X and, if V Collection’s 11th edition is anything to go by, one canvas the brand would like it to remain.
But if I’m honest, the developer has not only created an enormous library of virtual instruments boasting top-tier quality, it has made navigating it so marvellously easy that after a while, I’d almost forgotten about my DAW’s other software instruments entirely.
Key features

45 software instruments blending emulations, modern hybrid synth engines, modelled keyboards, and augmented acoustic sounds.
7 new instruments: Jup-8000 V, MiniBrute V, Synthx V, Pure LoFi, Augmented Mallets, and Augmented Yangtze
Rebuilt SEM V
Updated Augmented instruments
Updated MiniFreak V

The post Arturia’s V Collection 11 Pro almost made me forget I had other plugins appeared first on MusicTech.

Viral outrage over Apple’s EU payment warnings misses key factApple says the warning messages now appearing next to EU App Store listings that use third-party payment systems are not actually new. According to a number of recent reports, Apple added a warning with a red exclamation mark next to apps that it found were not using its own “private and secure payment system.” The […]

Fender Collaborates with Gustavo Santaolalla on “The Last of Us” ThemeFender has shared the latest episode of Fender Presents, "featuring two-time Academy Award-winning composer Gustavo Santaolalla, the musical mastermind behind The Last of Us. In this exclusive piece, Gustavo performs a hauntingly beautiful new arrangement of the series' iconic main theme — using a truly unique instrument: the 'Guitarocko.'""This 1-of-1 custom instrument, conceived by Gustavo and built with Fender’s support, blends the soul of a traditional Andean ronroco with the form of a mini Stratocaster," they said. "Outfitted with a custom bridge, doubled stringing, lipstick pickups, and a bespoke nut, the Guitarocko delivers a distinct tonal palette that reflects Gustavo’s signature style."

The post Fender Collaborates with Gustavo Santaolalla on “The Last of Us” Theme first appeared on Music Connection Magazine.

LACED: Peeling Back PCB Layers With Chemical Etching and a LaserOnce a printed circuit board (PCB) has been assembled it’s rather hard to look inside of it, which can be problematic when you have e.g. a multilayer PCB of an (old) system that you really would like to dissect to take a look at the copper layers and other details that may be hidden inside, such as Easter eggs on inner layers. [Lorentio Brodeso]’s ‘LACED’ project offers one such method, using both chemical etching and a 5 Watt diode engraving laser to remove the soldermask, copper and FR4 fiberglass layers.
This project uses sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to dissolve the solder mask, followed by hydrogen chloride (HCl) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to dissolve the copper in each layer. The engraving laser is used for the removing of the FR4 material. Despite the ‘LACED’ acronym standing for Laser-Controlled Etching and Delayering, the chemical method(s) and laser steps are performed independently from each other.
This makes it in a way a variation on the more traditional CNC-based method, as demonstrated by [mikeselectricstuff] (as shown in the top image) back in 2016, alongside the detailed setup video of how a multi-layer PCB was peeled back with enough resolution to make out each successive copper and fiberglass layer.

The term ‘laser-assisted etching’ is generally used for e.g. glass etching with HF or KOH in combination with a femtosecond laser to realize high-resolution optical features, ‘selective laser etching’ where the etchant is assisted by the laser-affected material, or the related laser-induced etching of hard & brittle materials. Beyond these there is a whole world of laser-induced or laser-activated etching or functionalized methods, all of which require that the chemical- and laser-based steps are used in unison.
Aside from this, the use of chemicals to etch away soldermask and copper does of course leave one with a similar messy clean-up as when etching new PCBs, but it can provide more control due to the selective etching, as a CNC’s carbide bit will just as happily chew through FR4 as copper. When reverse-engineering a PCB you will have to pick whatever method works best for you.
Top image: Exposed inner copper on multilayer PCB. (Credit: mikeselectricstuff, YouTube)

Live Nation has already sold 100m tickets in 2025 so far – compared to 98m sold in all of 2019Live Nation CFO Joe Berchtold talks about pricing, facing a potential economic slowdown, and fixing the company's public relations headaches
Source

Heavyocity Damage MachinaIntroducing Damage Machina — an unconventional and inspiring percussion library, borne from the mechanical world. Chock-full of over 720 unique sources and 2.6 GB of clanks, clangs, and churns of industrial cogs, typewriters, steam engines, antique tractors, pinball machines, and countless other mechanical oddities, Damage Machina is a uniquely inspiring percussion tool designed for modern composers and producers. Heavyocity partnered with acclaimed sound designer, Robert Dudzic, known for his field recordings and percussive flare in the movie trailer and film industries. His style, in combination with Heavyocity's expertise and careful curation, created a truly one-of-a-kind percussion library. Available Now: Heavyocity.com/machina. Watch:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6KNfOVvxo9Xpr3VDCkVUsBU5O1SWCTz-&si=MAZ_kkFWdgKuoFse Listen:http://soundcloud.com/heavyocitymedia/sets/machina. Read More

The new soft power and its hidden rulesThroughout the 20th century, particularly the second half, many Western countries – such as the US, UK, and France – increased their global influence through the use of cultural soft power. This was done through tools like Voice of America and the BBC World Service, as well as via movies, TV, journalism, and music. The oft-discussed ‘globalisation’ of culture was, more accurately, a westernisation of global culture. With local-language entertainment growing more popular, audiences fragmenting, and ongoing budget cuts to the World Service as well as (to put it diplomatically) an uncertain future for Radio Free America, the soft power era may appear to be over. It is not. 

Just as the much-heralded end-of-the-gatekeepers was in fact a replacement of human tastemakers with algorithmic ones, so too the human soft power era has been replaced by an algorithmic one. Over the course of the last decade, American tech companies have assumed a dominant cultural and social role in the lives of consumers across the globe. In doing so, the corporate ideologies of these companies (manifested in their algorithms and strategies) now shape the way the world sees itself, just as – if not more than – traditional soft power strategies did. Most pertinently for entertainment, these companies have collectively formulated a new set of rules for cultural success, that stack the deck so that the house always wins.

The leaders of these companies and their investors often have firmly held political beliefs. They often see the companies as tools for furthering their views and agendas – even if those agendas are to manufacture new problems to sell solutions to (which, of course, is part of why the US is so concerned about TikTok). While the old soft power era aimed to propagate (at least in theory) the cultural and political views of entire nations, US tech soft power furthers the worldview of one particular slice of US society.

Sometimes this is done out in the open (e.g., Elon Musk / X) but most often, the implementation is subtler. Because the inner workings of algorithms are closely guarded corporate secrets, not even governments, let alone consumers, are privy to how they are influencing thinking, beliefs, and behaviour. This is unaccountable, social engineering on a literally global scale. The geo-political and social implications are vast, but the impact on entertainment and culture is also profound.

When you are in the midst of change, it can sometimes be hard to understand just how dramatic and significant it actually is. The numbers alone show just how much the influence of US tech companies has increased over the last ten years.

In that time, streaming has come to dominate music and TV revenues, while social has simultaneously given birth to the creator economy and become the collective gatekeeper for entertainment discovery, with often less-than-satisfactory results. It is social’s role that is the most far reaching and that entertainment companies and creators are least able to influence. The result is that entertainment industries have become governed by a new set of rules that they did not write:

Make more content, more quickly

Try fast, fail fast

Chase virality, not longevity

Bring value to ‘discovery’ platforms but extract little or no value in return

Compete with everything and everyone for attention

Accept toxicity as a cost of doing business

What these rules have in common is that the outcomes benefit the platforms more than they do creators and rightsholders. Social and streaming platforms have an insatiable appetite for content, and the burden for meeting that falls on creators and rightsholders. But this appetite is not some unintended consequence, it has been engineered by the platforms in order to meet and increase demand of their users. Pouring gasoline on the viral fire might burn bright, but once the initial flames die down, they often leave behind nothing but scorched earth.

Meanwhile, entertainment companies have been forced to re-engineer their businesses to abide by these new rules. And there are few among them that would argue that the outcome is positive, with a recent quote from WMG’s Elliot Grainge a case in point:

“The whole point of the algorithm is to feed you content that triggers a dopamine response in your brain. It can be really negative and addicting… Those who truly succeed aren’t the loudest; they’re the ones with their heads down, grinding, unsure if it will even work, but going for it anyway… Don’t take the bait and fall for it.”

AI looks set to knock everything up a notch, not least because some of the investors behind the AI companies favour dramatic copyright reform, in some cases even seeing it simply as a hindrance to tech’s future. If you want to take a conspiracy theory approach, you could make the case that one of the reasons the big AI companies have received such massive levels of investment is to provide war chests for fighting precedent-setting copyright cases that will further the ideological ambitions of their investor backers.

So, what can be done? There are two alternatives:

1.    Continue as we are, with tomorrow becoming an even more intense version of today

2.    Begin plotting a different path

Few would want the first option, but the second could seem like a Herculean task. Yet, it might just be that a window of opportunity has presented itself in the shape of the new US tariff regime. More on that in my next blog post! 

New recording studio by Abbey Road, Adidas and Co-op offers “decades of audio expertise and cutting-edge gear”Abbey Road Studios, Adidas, and Co-op Live have opened the doors to a first-of-its-kind recording studio within Manchester’s Co-op Live arena.
Situated inside the UK’s largest music arena, the Adidas Originals Recording Studio is designed as a “vibrant hub for emerging musical talent and young creative communities”.
The space has been engineered by Abbey Road’s own team of technicians and sound engineers, blending decades of audio expertise with the latest workflows and cutting-edge gear.

READ MORE: “A lot of artists need to understand that it’s part of music production”: Myd on overcoming the fear of a blank DAW

Slated to open to musicians this August, the Manchester studio will support up-and-coming talent through a joint effort with several existing creative programmes.
These include Abbey Road’s Amplify and Equalise initiatives – aimed at inspiring the next generation of artists, producers, and creatives while promoting greater diversity in music – as well as Factory International’s Factory Sounds programme, which provides financial support and mentorship to underrepresented groups within the Greater Manchester area.
With on-site access to Abbey Road’s engineers, artists and creative communities will be supported by some of the industry’s most experienced recording and mixing experts – bringing decades of learning and a deep commitment to audio excellence to every session.
Liam Fray, frontman of Manchester-based indie rock band Courteeners, opened the space with a live performance; he also praises the studio for providing opportunities for musicians who may be geographically disadvantaged.
“Opening up a space like this to get people through the door – I’m all for it,” says Fray. “There are obstacles to get into the industry, finance is one of those barriers, but geography is also one. To have something of this level up here that is a focal point in Manchester opens up the industry and takes it to a wider audience. There will be geniuses out there that we don’t yet know about.”
Sally Davies, Managing Director of Abbey Road Studios adds, “The launch of the adidas Originals Recording Studio is a world-first collaboration creating a new, Abbey Road-engineered recording space beyond the walls of our home in London.”
“We are enormously proud to partner with adidas, Co-op Live and Factory International to create a new platform for talent in Manchester and the North-West, expanding our mission to enable and empower the global community of music makers and creators, and shape the future of music making.”
The post New recording studio by Abbey Road, Adidas and Co-op offers “decades of audio expertise and cutting-edge gear” appeared first on MusicTech.

Arturia MicroLab Mk3 announced The latest iteration of Arturia’s ultra-compact MIDI controller boasts an updated design, and comes in at a lower price than its predecessor! 

At $60, Arturia’s MicroLab MK3 MIDI controller could be perfect for bedroom producersArturia has released the MicroLab MK3, a small but seemingly powerful MIDI controller that could fit nicely in your bedroom studio and your backpack. Plus, with licenses for Ableton Live Lite, Analog Lab Intro, and a handful of nifty features, the $60 asking price seems pretty tantalising.
The third model in Arturia’s MicroLab controller series, the MK3 sports a compact, minimalist design with plug-and-play USB connectivity. You’ll be able to hook this up and get playing within seconds, whether you’re in the studio or on the move with your laptop. The wooden panels on the side are a nice touch, too.
Arturia MicroLab MK3. Image: Arturia
You’ll have two octaves to play across on the MicroLab MK3, with velocity-sensitive mini-keys, which Arturia says are “the best quality slim keys on the market at this price point.” There are also two touch strips for pitch bend and modulation (or whatever you want to map them to) and a sustain pedal input on the back. In addition, the Chord Mode lets you play multiple notes of your choice with one finger — “perfect for effortless songwriting”, says Arturia.
If you’re new to music production software, the bundles that come with the MicroLab MK3 will be particularly useful. Ableton Live Lite — an introductory version of one of the world’s most popular Digital Audio Workstations — is included with your purchase. Here, you can record, perform and produce entire tracks using the included sounds and editing functions. Plus, for even more playable instruments, the included Analog Lab Intro package with the MicroLab MK3 gives you hundreds of sounds from Arturia’s V Collection software. Think vintage synthesizers, modelled pianos, lush pads and heavy bass sounds.
Arturia MicroLab MK3. Image: Arturia
You can pick up the MicroLab MK3 in black or white now for €60/$60 from Arturia.
Arturia has been on a run lately, releasing V Collection 11 and V Collection Intro, and receiving a high score in our review of its flagship software synth, Pigments 6. The French brand also just announced a partnership with Native Instruments, which allows KeyLab and MiniLab owners to get more hands-on with NKS plugins.
Find the best deals for the Arturia MicroLab MK3 at Thomann, Sweetwater, Zzounds and Reverb. 
The post At $60, Arturia’s MicroLab MK3 MIDI controller could be perfect for bedroom producers appeared first on MusicTech.

Get the IK Multimedia T-RackS 6 Mix and Mastering Suite for $30
If you’re in the market for a mixing and mastering suite, then you’re in luck as Plugin Boutique currently offers IK Multimedia’s T-RackS 6 Mix and Mastering Suite for $30, representing a 70% saving from the list price of $100. T-RackS 6 is a 64-bit release for macOS (AU, VST3, AAX) and Windows (VST3, AAX). [...]
View post: Get the IK Multimedia T-RackS 6 Mix and Mastering Suite for $30

“Don’t turn the music into the wallpaper in a kid’s bedroom”: Two video game soundtrackers on crafting music that players actually hearTo close out his panel on video game composition for the debut edition of the London Soundtrack Festival, Steve Schnur, President of Music for Electronic Arts, asked the composers on stage the following question:
“What composers have influenced you?”
Sitting on the panel were lauded game composers such as Ludvig Forssell (Death Stranding) and Stephen Barton (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor), the latter of whom organised the video game programming for the festival.
READ MORE: Behind the sound of Star Wars Outlaws: a polarising game with a Grammy-nominated soundtrack
After everyone had their turn, naming musical greats from Jerry Goldsmith to Tim Hecker to Ryuichi Sakamoto, Schnur closed by saying:
“The people who are about to study composition, their answers will be the people on this stage.”

Soundtrackers onstage at the London Soundtrack Festival. Image: London Soundtrack Festival
Today, video game music is held in the same esteem as film scores. It’s unsurprising, then, that the London Soundtrack Festival hosted masterclasses with composers such as Gordy Haab, plus performances of music from Baldur’s Gate 3, Battlefield 2042, and Metal Gear Solid, among others.
“[The festival] was in memory of a composer called Christopher Gunning,” Barton says of the programming. “He did TV, he wrote symphonies, he did concert music, he did film — he did everything. He would have undoubtedly done video games if they’d been a thing sooner. Honouring games seemed like a natural thing to do.”
From AAA titles within an iconic franchise such as Star Wars to auteur-driven indie games such as Death Stranding, the music is evolving with the format. But one thing remains true: game music is more grounded in technology than music for any other form of visual media.
“On a film, you deliver your stems, and it goes into Pro Tools at some point to be mixed. It’s no different from our music mix process. Just an extension with dialogue and effects. With games, we’re dealing with a technical architecture and sometimes writing for that architecture,” Barton says.
Within that technical architecture, the central processing unit of the game system or personal computer delivers the music in real time along with the sound effects, graphics, dialogue, enemies, environments, and everything else seen and heard.
The music is woven throughout that library of coding that’s like a Jenga tower; if something is out of place when the audio team implements the music into the game engine, the entire tower could topple over.
“Most of the time, the doesn’t want the composer anywhere near the build because we’re pretty good at breaking it,” Barton says with a laugh, going on to mention that certain game companies require 16-bit audio for every piece of music he writes.
“Game engines are so fragile. I’m in 24-bit, 48 kHz all the time, as is everybody. But that game engine is coded in such a way that it always only puts in 16-bit audio files. If they accidentally drag a 24-bit file into the structure, it will just crash the game, and it’s a major AAA game.”
Composers are also constantly working around sound design in the games. Barton composed for EA’s Titanfall series, in which the player pilots a titan, a giant robot. At these moments, the titan’s massive weapons and mechanical motions swallow the bulk of the low and mid-range.

“Everything [Titanfall] does is loud, so quite quickly I realised tons and tons of bass isn’t going to work here. You’ve only got so much headroom. The sound effects are certainly going to be the thing that takes over. One thing is going to have to win,” Barton says, adding that the HDR mixing function in games will lower the volume on everything else when these big sounds are running. “I found it was better to use higher frequency stuff and find my moments to use low bass-end sounds and then get out of the way, because I’m not being turned down.”
When Ludvig Forssell served as composer and audio director for Death Stranding, the open-world action game from Hideo Kojima’s Kojima Productions, he made those moments himself because he directed both the sound design and music.
“Having the power to influence in that way as a composer is very unusual and very privileged,” Forssell says. From this privileged position, he spent years “throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks,” as he developed the game’s overall sonic aesthetic.
Games have far more room for ideas to stick because players can spend hundreds or even thousands of hours on one game. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has six hours of music. The composer and the technical team work together on how that music exists within the gameplay.
“That’s often the challenge. Balancing musicality versus something that’s actually going to make sense,” Barton says. “A lot of it is trying to think about why we want to start music or stop music; the way the transitions work and how you go from one musical state to another.”
The in-game music in Death Stranding mostly starts and stops depending on combat. As with Kojima’s famous franchise, Metal Gear Solid, the combat is at the player’s discretion. They can choose to be stealthy, face the enemy head-on, or avoid combat altogether.

To allow the music to naturally shift between these states, Forssell focused a great deal on layering three primary modes: caution, evasion, and alert. Caution means the enemy is suspicious that you are there. Evasion means they saw you, but you’ve escaped their immediate sight. Alert means they see you and they are engaging with you.
Then, each of these states has multiple layers dependent on factors like the number of enemies and the physical distance from enemies. As the danger increases and decreases, more layers fade in and out. This is especially crucial for stealth when players need to hear enemies to avoid being seen.
“I provide the music editors and [implementors] with as much material as I can,” Forssell says. “So I write very, very densely. If we put stuff in that’s supposed to be for the mid-caution tension layer, and it doesn’t feel like it’s intense enough, or it’s too intense, there are always small layers that we can add or take away to mitigate that. We do a lot of balancing after production on the music is done and it’s been implemented to make sure that those different layers of tension are adequately presented to the player.”
Ludvig Forssell (left) and Stephen Barton (right), signing Star Wars: Jedi Survivor and Metal Gear Solid merch. Images: London Soundtrack Festival
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor also allows the player to explore the various planets they visit as the protagonist, Cal Kestis. Barton and his co-composer Gordy Haab wrote exploratory music, but they also use music to serve the narrative by creating suspenseful loops as a boss fight approaches or inserting melodies to inform the player they’re going the right way towards their current objective.
By LucasFilm’s directive, the score captures a similar aesthetic that John Williams immortalised in Star Wars. Barton recorded the score at Abbey Road as well, which is where Williams recorded every Star Wars score from The Empire Strikes Back moving forward. But Barton wanted to capture that spirit without biting those iconic melodies. In fact, he only wrote with “Binary Sunset,” also commonly known as the “Force Theme,” twice in the whole game.
“We don’t need the music to perpetually remind you you’re playing a Star Wars game,” Barton says. “Let’s not make the music the wallpaper in a kid’s bedroom.”
Kids have been playing video games in their bedrooms for decades, but only the most recent generation has been exposed to music on par with classic films. Today, one young gamer might just grow up to be one of the most prolific composers of their time.
Read more music production features. 
The post “Don’t turn the music into the wallpaper in a kid’s bedroom”: Two video game soundtrackers on crafting music that players actually hear appeared first on MusicTech.

New Trending Touring Artists Chart powered by BandsintownToday we unveil Hypebot's new Trending Touring Artists Chart powered by Bandsintown led in May by emerging artists Sombr, Will Wood and James Marriott.
The post New Trending Touring Artists Chart powered by Bandsintown appeared first on Hypebot.