Video Game Music and Music Technology revision

HOW VIDEO GAME MUSIC DEVELOPED:

•Early video game music was very simple due to limited technology.

•Could only have a couple of different instruments or parts, so it tended to be based on short melodies/motifs that were played on a loop

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswzriFIf_k

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnipB_8Br8U

•Early video game music would typically use synthesisers to create and manipulate synthetic sounds.

•MIDI allowed video game composers to write for a range of instruments that played back consistently on different pieces of equipment (so it could be used on different types of computer).

•Video games in the 1990’s were able to use higher quality music with more realistic instrumental timbres because of the technological advances in sounds processors or consoles and computers.

•Today, soundtracks can be created very effectively using DAW (digital audio workstation) software like Cubase or Logic Pro.

COMPOSERS:

Koji Kondo

Harry Gregson-Williams

Martin O'Donnell

Music Technology - Key words for Music Technology TECHNIQUES

Techniques	Description
Multi-tracking	Various lines of music are recorded on separate tracks. Individual tracks can then be edited to create a perfect sound.
Sampling	Where sections of sound have been ‘pinched’ from another song and used in some new music.
Quantising	To electronically adjust the duration or timing of a note by a preset amount
Over-dubbing	Adding tracks/samples over the top of other tracks
Remixing	A different version of a piece of music, e.g. a pop song that has been turned in to a dance remix
Looping	Where a short sample is repeated over and over again
Panning	Adjusting the levels of a particular source that are being played through the left and right speakers, allowing the user to ‘place’ it within a stereo panorama (hence the name).
Scratching	DJ and turntablist technique used to produce distinctive percussive or rhythmic sounds and sound effects by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable

Music Technology - Key words for Music Technology EQUIPMENT

Equipment	Description
MIDI	Musical Instrument Digital Interface. A technical facility that allows a range of digital music making equipment to connect with each other. (MIDI equipment is connected by MIDI cables. MIDI data is digital information. It’s sent down the MIDI cables, and the MIDI instruments turns this data in to sound).
Synthesizers	A synthesizer (synth for short) allows you to create sounds, which often imitate musical instruments. Come in different forms – some have keyboards and some don’t.
Sequencers	Equipment that can record, edit and replay music stored as MIDI or audio information.
Drum Machines	Special sequencers that play back rhythm patterns using built-in drum sounds.
Vocoders	An electronic device that synthesizes speech
Mixing Desks	Electronic device for combining (also called "mixing"), routing, and changing the volume level, timbre (tone colour) and/or dynamics of many different audio signals, such as microphones, signals from electric or electronic instruments such as the electric bass or synthesizer, or recorded music playing on a CD player.

Music Technology - key words for DIGITAL EFFECTS

Digital Effects (FX)	Description
Echo	A sound that is heard again.
Reverb	Adding multiple echoes to make a sound appear to be coming from different spaces. Commonly added to the voice and guitar to give it a fuller sound.
Distortion	To alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, most commonly used with the electric guitar, but may also be used with other electric instruments.
Delay	a single copy of the sound at a later time, often used by guitarists to make it sound like they are playing more