Assignment 1 - Understanding the use of Music within Games and the Methodology of Recording and Production.
Name:Jamie Marsh
Lecturer: Josh Rai
The Last of UsThe Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on June 14, 2013. An updated version, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 on July 29, 2014.Players control Joel, a man tasked with escorting a young girl named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States.
The emotion with the "The Last of Us" is very dark,gloomy and mysterious, the author Gustavo Santaolalla has done this because he wanted to create the perfect sound for the apocalyptic action game. The mood he sets when the music is played is a very cinematic experience it generates a scene like your a person in this time zone, hunting, savaging and hiding. The.The perception that is brought into this track makes the listener feel like they are in this apocalyptic world also especially as the song build tempo.This track varies from loud notes to very delicate notes, I believe Gustavo Santaolalla intended for this because he wanted to represent the ups and downs for being alive in this time, however he could be digitally telling the difference between before and the aftermath of a wasteland. This sound track definitely features timbre in a few parts of the track at the beginning the listener gets the feel of a wasteland instant with the mysterious noises expecting the unexpected.
This song instantly creates a very foggy atmosphere what do I mean by foggy well I am saying it creates a unknown feeling, such as the creatures in "The Last of Us " and the toughness of Ellie she is a innocent girl who is actually very strong both psychically and mentally no-one would expect a 14 year to be able to handle the aftermath, but you would be surprised. the audio in the main theme is very in your face you mentally feel and hear all the sounds of a wasteland, it certainly brings the surround sound to full effect, also it brings in the 3D audio very nicely because the song is timed perfectly to bring the listener a very accurate atmosphere of being alive in the apocalyptic world.
This track creates one of the best game music, it draws the player in perfectly getting them involved with post apocalyptic feeling strait away both the intro and ending sequences are very straight forward, providing the suspense action the chills of zombies chasing you and the safe part where the player has had to sleep to rest up to stop fatigue and discovering a safe house and getting relieved of security and tranquility.As seen in the image above you can see that nature stills moves on with world e.g this giraffe is still eating the leaves as it would have done before the outbreak. Also the fact Ellie is stroking the giraffe shows she still has a child inside of her even though throughout the game she acts very strong.
The copyright issues with "The Last of Us" is that Sony paid Gustavo Santaolalla $250,000 to create music just for there game only which would mean the the author Gustavo Santaolalla could not use it for any other projects however Gustavo Santaolalla could of thought for the rights but I don`t know especially what happened. I`m pretty sure all the sounds and effects used in the creating of the main theme song are all royalty free because in the video "creating the last of us" you can see all the instruments on the floor and the people who helped.
The file formats for the "The last of Us" main theme are mp3,mp4. Also NaughtyDog would have used a Blue-ray to record their game which would have help a lot of space to give the director "" a lot of freedom when create "The Last of Us".
This track features a lot of multi-track system software to combine all of the different sound effects they could have used a mix pad which helps artists such as Gustavo Santaolalla to create the perfect sound from different types of sounds. Musical instruments also play a important role in the track because Gustavo Santaolalla enjoys creating sounds from any thing possible, as stated earlier he uses metals,plastics as well as ordinary instrument such as a guitar.
The last of us main theme link:
Halo 2
Halo 2 is a 2004 first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie Studios. Released for the Xbox video game console on November 9, 2004,the game is the second installment in the Halo franchise and the sequel to 2001's critically acclaimed Halo: Combat Evolved. A Microsoft Windows version of the game was released on May 31, 2007,developed by an internal team at Microsoft Game Studios known as Hired Gun. The game features a new game engine, as well as using the Havok physics engine; added weapons and vehicles, and new multiplayer maps. The player alternately assumes the roles of the human Master Chief and the alien Arbiter in a 26th-century conflict between the human United Nations Space Command and genocidal Covenant.
The emotion in the Halo 2 main theme has a very sci-fi feel towards it, alongside this the start of the song it starts very encouraging and continues to do so all the way through I personally think this track is really good it can motivated you to carry on when you have a had enough. Another thing
The file formats for "Halo 2" main theme are mp3,mp4. Also unlike "The Last of us " the developers Bungie had a lot less to work with for example they could not record on a blue-ray like NaughtyDog had done with "The Last of Us" also this game will also have a had a lower bit-rate becasue the technology that NaughtyDog used may not have been available for Bungie.
