 |
| |
MI6 caught up with Music Editor/Programmer
Dave L shortly after he completed work on the new
007
game "Everything
or Nothing"...
|
|
Dave L Interview
6th February 2004
Producer/Remixer, Musician and Sound Designer Dave L's career
spans a decade and includes albums, films, video games, commercials,
cartoons, and now "Bond, James Bond"... MI6 caught
up with Dave L shortly after he completed work on the new 007
game "Everything
or Nothing".
How were you approached by Electronic Arts to update the
score "Everything or Nothing"?
Veteran sound designer Larry "the O" called
me up in June of 2003, as he was
audio director for 'Everything or Nothing' at that time. He called
me
because he felt they needed someone who had both musical and
technical
experience, especially with interactive music systems. Since
I had
experience writing music for games and I had been involved in
the design and
execution of interactive music at LucasArts, I guess he felt
I might have
something to offer. I had just recently come off RTX Red Rock
for
LucasArts, where I had written the all the music and had been
involved in
the design of the interactive music engine.
Could you tell us a bit about your role as Music Editor/Programmer
for Everything or Nothing, what does it involve and what
are the main differences between this role and the composer
role?
My primary job was to take Sean Callery's music, orchestral
mixed with some electronica, and use EA's Pathfinder system
to design and build interactive music "cues." This
is designing and implementing how the music is going to respond to what the player
is doing and what's going on in the game. I did this with the help of Sean, a
talented programmer named Garrett James, audio director Marc Farly, and a couple
others. I was driving the interactive design, but this was really a team effort.
Aside from the interactive music work, I also did some editing of music for linear
dramatic scenes and I was involved in mixing the game.
Did you work with Sean Callery at any stage during the
project? Were there any changes that had to be made to
the in-game soundtrack to allow seamless transition?
Yes, I had initial meetings with Sean and the rest of the audio team, and after
that Sean and I spoke on the phone several times, as he was in L.A. and I was
in San Francisco. Sean was involved in the interactive design from the beginning,
and we did have to make some adjustments along the way. He was very aware of
what we were trying to get the music to do using Pathfinder. Aside from his composition,
we also worked with his own music editor to get alternate versions of cues and
the mix elements needed to adapt the music to situations and transitions. |
|
Above: Music Editor/Programmer
Dave L |
How does music editing for a game differ from that of a movie?
How does it
add to the atmospheric experience?
Two completely different worlds,
in my opinion. Music editing for actual
gameplay is a completely different approach than editing music
for a movie.
Music editing for a film is obviously a very linear experience
and will
always play the same way. Creating development and drama is predictable,
because the scene doesn't change. Now, I'm not saying good music
editing
for a film is easy. I have a lot of respect for good film music
editors.
Music editing for a game requires building pieces that can be
played and
shuffled against each other and transitioned between each other,
never the
same way, and you still have to try and have some kind of development
and
drama in it. The only goals game music and film music share in
my opinion
are helping to tell a story and support a dramatic moment.
Did the editing process for Everything or Nothing differ
in anyway from what you have done before? What did you
enjoy the most about the project?
Yes, it was the first time I worked with Pathfinder, which is a pretty powerful
tool for building interactive music into a game.
What I enjoy most about any
project is seeing how music and sound help it come to life, and working with
great people who are passionate about making things sound good. |
|
|
How eager are you to be involved in a project that is related
to such a
famous series? How has compared to your work on the Star
Wars titles?
Are you kidding? Very. Especially because I grew up watching
Bond. I also
grew up watching the Star Wars series. I have been very fortunate
to have
had the opportunity to work on titles based on things I grew
up loving. I
was a Star Wars kid, a Bond kid, a video game kid, and a musician.
It's
funny, I remember as a kid growing up a mixture of Star Wars,
Bond, my ATARI
2600, Intellivision, KISS, Queen, The Beatles...so many influences. "Everything
or Nothing" was different from my work on Star
Wars titles in
that it was the first title where I took someone else's music
and worked on
making it interactive, as opposed to actually writing the music
or doing
sound design, both of which I did on various Star Wars titles.
Most of my
work on Star Wars titles was sound design, but I did some "controversial" electronic
remixes and adaptations of John Williams' music for a couple
of
them. I did also do a lot of editing of Williams' music for Star
Wars
titles.
The music scores have been very solid over the
last few games, how are you
bringing something new to the music in the series?
The "Everything or Nothing" score
involves real orchestra recordings, and a
higher level of interactivity in the music than has been done
in previous
Bond games. Plus it's the first Sean Callery Bond score!
 |
|
What equipment are you using? How are you balancing
the mix of synthesized and orchestral aspects?
Sean's job was to compose the score, and I think he
and his team did a great job of mixing orchestra and electronica.
My primary tools for building the interactivity were EA's
Pathfinder and Stitcher, Bias Peak and Pro Tools. EA also
has other tools we used for controlling music interactivity
as it relates to the actual 3D game world geometry.
When updating the score for the game, how did you
relate to any pieces written by previous Bond composers?
Do you admire any of the famous work on the Bond movie
series?
Sean of course was writing based on the legacy of
Bond music, but bringing his own voice into it. I feel
that he successfully wrote music both inspired by what
has come before and taken in his own direction. As to the
composers of previous Bond movie scores I have a lot of
respect and admiration for them, especially the 60's and
70's scores, which is what I grew up hearing mostly.
Left: Composer Sean Callery |
Do you think your involvement with "Everything or Nothing" will
lead onto
scoring further Bond video games?
Hopefully! I think we all learned
a lot on this one, meaning the next time
around it will be even better.
How would you describe
the
music of your band "ZONK"? What are your musical influences?
ZONK
is a "trip-hop-rock" group that I have been working
with over the last
couple years. I am writing, producing and performing with them,
among the
other projects I have going on. I spent a lot of last year in
the studio
with them, and we recently released a new EP which is being received
well,
I'm glad to say. We are shopping that around to managers and
record labels,
and we're getting some interest. We have too many influences
to mention
here, but what do we sound like? We been compared to everything
from Beck
to Portishead to Goldfrapp to Gorillaz to Bjork.
Related Articles
Sean
Callery Interview - Part 1
Sean
Callery Interview - Part 2
Dave
L's Official Site
