The Creation of Video Game Music?

[Typhoon]

OK, I'm Working on my own game at the moment (A silly little computer one) and im guessing this would be the right place to post it :/

Well anyway, I want this game to be awesome as it should. Although I'm not quite sure on how to make the music.

So heres the Question-

When making a piece of MIDI video game music, How do you start? Do you just whack random notes into the computer program or is it better to write out the sheet music?

Thanks for reading and hopefully answering =]

P.S. If its in the wrong thread please move it
-Typhoon

 

[Michael Brookes]

The first stage is to design the music, you need to determine what you want to convey, and how you want to do it. Compile sample songs that have elements that correspond to the design, you could mix a rough track to give yourself (or anyone you are working with) a demo for what you are planning to achieve.

I wouldn't start with random notes Whether you start by writing sheet music or straight on the computer/instrument is up to you. What do you feel most comfortable with?

Michael

 

[dariunas]

OK, I'm Working on my own game at the moment (A silly little computer one) and im guessing this would be the right place to post it :/

Well anyway, I want this game to be awesome as it should. Although I'm not quite sure on how to make the music.

So heres the Question-

When making a piece of MIDI video game music, How do you start? Do you just whack random notes into the computer program or is it better to write out the sheet music?

Thanks for reading and hopefully answering =]

P.S. If its in the wrong thread please move it
-Typhoon

Ok, first question would be what if any, musical skills do you have? While it's great to be able to have total control over every aspect of development, there's some fields which are best outsourced in a sense. As Michael said, I would not recommend the random note approach either - you'll fall into a long trial and error thing, unless you feel comfortable finding your way around new software and learning to transcribe what you hear in your head...

The truth is, composers are ten-a-penny. Some are great, some really not so hot. If you're looking to keep your filesize down with 'stock' MIDI files, I can recommend a couple of composers I came across whose work I was very impressed with.

The first is Ryan Reilly who worked on the Hero of Allacrost score (Open Source I believe) His MIDI score shows a level of composition I thought was just about lost. Another excellent composer and MIDI specialist is Shannon Mason. You can check them both out on myspace...

Good luck chapstick.