Sound

Sound is almost always used to create emotion and mood within games and films. It is also used to convey information.

List at least 3 games (or films) which use sound as information (speech, iconography, symbolism, and or metaphors) to convey information. 

Explain how sound; speech, iconography, symbolism and or metaphors have been used. 

1. Psycho - ‘The Murder’ Is the track played in the background whilst Norman Bates is stabbing the blonde chick in the shower. 
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops II – Zombie mode – When progressing through the rounds of the zombies mode and you come to end of the round, the final zombie spawns randomly and gets louder and this is an adrenaline pumping moment in the game. 
3. Jaws – When the shark approaches in jaws, an iconic track plays in the background; this track gradually build in both tempo and volume to indicate the arrival of le shark. 

Using at least 3 of your favourite games explain the purpose of the game music:

    Mad father: All the music is pretty old and light sounding. It’s both eerie and relaxing. It mainly just provides a creepy old timey sort of atmosphere. I guess it’s relaxing because the girl you play as is very young and sweet. So it’s kind of a piece of her reflected in the music. It also kind of works with the progression of the plot as the music gets slightly darker and such, as well as more rushed etc.

I think that the opening screen is probably the best for this music. It’s just a really nice, repetitive melody. I think it suits Aya very well as a character and again, it’s just a little sad, which works with the game.

Bioshock: It has a very vintage feel as far as music is music is concerned. Very 1920’s, it really suits the city Rapture as it all has a steampunk vintage setting. I guess it’s used to reflect how normal life used to be but given the Splicers and such, it kind of has an under tone of terror or fear.

I think the sound that best fits the game is the vending machine where you can buy more items. I say this because it is really kind of creepy. It has such a cheery voice but it says things like ‘Tell you friends’ innocent as it is, I find it pretty freaky, and fitting for the game.

    Amnesia: Amnesia background music is pretty delicate in most situations. And kind of sad in a way as the game revolves around death and sacrifice. When something bad happens the music intensifies. So the overall feel you get from this game is ultimately sadness. Although when good choices are made, the story gets more uplifting, so does the music, especially at the end.

This basically applies to all of the music playing in the background.

What legal issues should you consider?

    Copyright seems to be quite an issue. Taking an artist’s music without their permission and the like. The same applies to videos and images etc. Although there is a slight loop hole. I noticed this with YouTube videos. Users ‘mirror’ videos of TV shows, like family guy. A variety of things can be done to the footage in order to try and avoid copyright. So take a family guy episode, the user will either flip It over so the image goes in the opposite direction or edit the voices far higher or lower pitched in order to avoid some forms of copyright. So I guess you could do something similar with music. So although there are a deal of loopholes, it’s not recommended I suppose.

        Listen to at least 5 pieces of gaming music/FX

Why did the game maker use this music and its sound FX? Did it work? If so or not, why? Would you use different music/ sound FX and why?

Mad Father: Title screen track: This music I find suits the game very well. It’s set around the Victorian era so it’s appropriate to the degree it doesn’t actually use anything ‘techy’. It also sets the atmosphere very well given it’s pretty eerie but it sounds very delicate which suits the style as it’s both a cute and scary game, the music I find is quite sad so it also works with the theme of loss and death etc…

Diabolik Lovers; More Blood: Background music: The background music to this entire game I find fits very well. It’s not overly happy, given the heroines situation, and it’s not overly sad given the themes that are in it. It’s very constant and goes in a loop and is nice to listen to when there is not dialect between the characters. But it remains silent and not overly complicated so it isn’t distracting whilst reading etc.

Love Live! School Idol Festival: All The Music: All of this is just chirpy and bright. None of it particularly sad or anything given it’s a rhythm game. And all of the music is provided by the band so it’s very high pitched and kind of annoying at times, but overall fits the entire games style.

Halo: I’d say the music is pretty fitting for the game. It’s almost kind of sad or tragic I guess? It works well with the actual style of the game. Honestly, it just makes me kind of sad, which I think is the kind of atmosphere the game wants to generate; and obviously it works, on me at least.

   B.  What is waveform (wavelength, amplitude, frequency) Pitch, Hertz, Decibel Level, Sound generator?

      Waveform: A curve showing the shape of a wave at a given time.

     Amplitude: The amplitude, a, of a wave is the distance from the centre line (or the still position) to the top of a crest or to the bottom of a trough.

     Frequency:

     Pitch: The highness or lowness of a tone (High pitched, low pitched)

     Hertz: A unit of frequency

     Decibel Level: Used to measure the level of sound.

     Sound Generator: An object that produces sound through vibrations. Like speakers, headphones etc.

C.      What is Foley? The reproduction of everyday day sounds that are then put into things like films, TV and games. It ranges greatly from things like the sound of rain falling, to footsteps on gravel.

D.      What is Timbre? The quality of a musical note. It is what makes one musical sound different from another.