Game Music Circle: no money hungry not dead behind 10 years abroad

Xiao Xu Music founder Lu Xiaoxu Studio is located in Beijing Wangjing an ordinary residential building. In the four-storey less than 400 square meters of small space, guitar, electric piano and Dynaudio, Digidesign, Korg, Novation and other professional recording equipment revealed the identity of the host. However, unlike most music studios, there are few star entrances or exits. But it is not "three flow" music studio, the following famous of the game soundtrack are born in this-nature beautiful "punish the fairy", cheerful witty "dou the Landlord", the magnificent atmosphere of "Tianlong eight" and so on. Eight years ago, when the free musician Lu Xiaoxu accidentally met the music of the game, the "magnet" was firmly absorbed. Today, he has more than 30 production teams, making more than 1000 game music, sound audio and game theme songs, customers almost all well-known domestic game companies and some foreign game companies, such as Tencent, Giants, Shanda, Japan Sega, South Korea Nets zen. Today, Xiao Xu Music has been quite famous in the game circle. February 2012, China's first game music concert held in Beijing, lasted two hours of live interpretation, so that fans are infatuated with. For Lu Xiaoxu, although game music as a game accessory, but beyond its own significance, called the "Nineth art." Game content, style, size, game music form different, is described as "hidden doorway." Although many game companies have entered the tens of billions of camps, but Lu believes that game music as an independent industry, the gold mine has yet to be excavated, talent is rather scarce. Most game practitioners have a low musical literacy, professional musicians who do not know the game, both have few and few, in addition, to do this line also need to put down the shelves of personal services-a game music from the creation to the landing requires the music producers and game companies of many collisions, communication, modification or even redo. In foreign countries, the game music industry has a considerable scale, game companies are willing to spend the entire game cost of 20% of the production of game music, and in the domestic music recording industry in the overall deterioration of the environment, the game music broken cocoon difficult, usually the name of the soundtrack will not be hit on the screen, public awareness is also very low, and lack of work achievement, The cost of making music for a game company is even less than 1%. Lu Xiaoxu wants to change that. He has visited foreign famous game musicians many times, such as "Final Fantasy", "Iron Fist" and other music composer Sayang, as well as the early Nintendo classical game music, the Queen composer of the light Tian Cangding. Lu found that the Japanese game music in the animation industry, music People's copyright will not even sell to the game company, these musicians often because of the publishing game soundtrack as animation surrounding product sales make a fortune. In Japan, the well-known composers also have a large number of works, the behind-the-scenes master also has the opportunity to go to the stage, such as 20 years for the Gongqi Chun all long animated film of the master Hisaishi so much admiration. It is not easy for the composer to achieve all this. A good game of music as the martial arts people need to get through the two veins, so that the wholeGame seamless, carefree dripping. Many people still remember the last century 890 's Nintendo red and white machine game music vivid memory-"tank war" opening music, "The Soul Dou Luo" in the infinite circulation background music, "Super Mary" eats the Mushroom, "the Circus" in the Fire circle's sound effect and so on. At that time, the music was often short and the melody was simple, limited by the sound source and memory. Xiao Xu Music Studio music director Guo told the "Global Entrepreneur", when the game of electronic synthesis of music can only be issued at the same time four tones, it requires the composer's deep music skills. By the 90 's, the rapid development of electronic hardware, the sharp increase in bit rate, the game music quickly into the golden age. 18 violin ensembles, even symphony records can be placed in the game. 2012, the Grammy Music Awards even the best Instrumental arrangement accompaniment award to the game "Civilization 4" theme song, the game music status has long been different from the past. Usually, there are many similarities between film music and game music, but the biggest difference is that the former is linear and the latter requires interactivity. Therefore, the good game music producer must pay attention to the game experience, even becomes the senior player. One day in 2005, Xiao Xu Studio received Tencent chess card games soundtrack orders. When playing solitaire music creation, the music person's inspiration suddenly-the wealth and the peasant's role extremely has the Chinese characteristic, quite conforms to the folk custom percussion element which the gong and so on, in order to highlight the modern feeling may add the electric sound element; In order to make the game interesting, the music person will be located in the whole genre of playful and Finally, complemented by a vivid sound voice "or", "Hurry, ah, I wait for the flowers are thanks" finishing. An enduring game music "Dou Landlord" was born. However, it is not easy to make the best sound. Producers usually in the middle and late game development, if there are map elements in the game, you need to create background music according to the characteristics of different scenes; to communicate with the game planning face-to-face, watch the game video, put forward the soundtrack style suggestions, after the run-in and then create. The first demo to be placed in the game scene in the trial test, repeated experience of the picture, rhythm and style of fusion, and then propose changes and feedback, and finally make the finished product. The production process is divided into three parts: background music, sound effects and dubbing. In general, background concerts vary in style depending on the theme of the game. In order to complete the sound effects, six or seven sound master needs to make the jump, hit and other sound effects. The final is dubbing, the creator needs to choose the appropriate sound simulation to complete the virtual part of the game. In addition, some large games will also make theme songs, which requires musicians and game operators to communicate with other recordings. How to make a player more immersive? The secret is to choose and match a variety of instruments. For example, the game "Imperial Dragon in the days" to choose to play the main instrument erhu, exquisite style, tactful, poignant. Pipa is used in "The Deer Ding Kee" because of its crisp, leaping and forceful. Flute is ethereal, melodious, bright, can improve the quality of the soundtrack. Wooden guitars and other modern instruments also bring different effects, such as in "The Sin" part of the scene, its unique kneading string, vibrato and other performance quite refreshing feeling。 In some casual cartoon games, the electric guitar often because of unique rock temperament makes the game music full of movement. Percussion is the rhythm part of the game music. Tambourine can increase the sense of reality and leisure. Some large games may even choose the magnificent music as the background music, sometimes even needs the symphony orchestra's live record. The orchestral part of the perfect world, for example, was collected from the Asian Philharmonic Orchestra's live record and was completed by a seasoned mixer. The inspiration for game music is usually inspired by genre movies. For example, the game "Tianlong Eight," The main soundtrack is flute, erhu, its inspiration from the "Huang Feihong" and other Hong Kong film inspiration, Zhang Yimou and other top director of the film soundtrack will also bring reference for the system author. The soundtrack style of some early classic movie or game usually has a far-reaching impact, as is the case with the repeated use of the cello in the movie "The Godfather". In addition to the overall style of control, the mood of different scenes also determines the success or failure of the game music. For example, the atmosphere of the palace is often eerie, the soundtrack is quite suitable for modern instruments-violin play or the sound of the keyboard will bring similar feelings. War victory music must be "up", often through the violin, piano, harp, flute completed, failure is "downward, long sound, frustrated." There is also a distinction between ordinary combat and the ultimate war of the end, the latter's musical mood "to make every hair stand up", so that players want to end the fight in 10 minutes. Ordinary combat is to emphasize a refreshing feeling, more use such as drums, guitars and so on. Because of the fighting and the plot to move repeatedly, the player's emotional tension is also different, the soundtrack should be against each other. When the game player enters the first scene, the newcomer cannot have too strong suggestive, at this time the music needs bright and soothing. In the landing interface, the first music that gamers hear is often a game theme song, the need to show a sense of the game's identity, the level of music producers demanding, but this is often the game companies are willing to make big. Theme songs vary in style because of the different theme of the game. For example, the three themes show the history of the long scroll, music needs heavy, atmospheric, magnificent. "The Tower of the Eternal" emphasizes the magic, the light and light feeling, needs to hum by the female voice treble, creates the ethereal atmosphere. Besides soundtrack and sound effects, production experience is also essential. Guo recalls that there was a game company to find Xiao Xu music required to produce European magic game music, but does not provide any story scenes, only a key word "Byzantine Palace." "We can only make music by this name." "Guo said. The message from Byzantium was that the powerful Empire of ancient Europe, with its religious overtones, and its symphony, which was usually used in church, could be used in this context; The palace emphasized the atmosphere of the soundtrack. So ultimately the effect of the customer is very satisfied. It's a chore. 2006, Xiao Xu Music for the Korean network Zen company Large-scale game "a Ride when Thousand" soundtrack, in order to complete about 80 minutes of the symphony record, recording only one time is half a month. Afterwards, the studio also spent more than six months to debugProduction, so far this is still a small Asahi team most satisfied with one of the works. However, because of the game production side reason, the game finally failed to on-line, this let Lu Xiaoxu feel regret. "Successful games and good music combine to be perfect." "Lu Xiaoxu said. "No money, no death." In addition, producers still need to keep up with the times. In the past two years, the main trend of the game circle is the decline of the number of large client games and the linear rise of mobile games, which means transformation. Mobile game music often has a huge difference in style. Epic, leisure, rock and other games, each soundtrack is not the same, but compared to the large memory of the end of the game, mobile gaming music rendering effect restrictions. The first is the horn sound problem, a lot of music in headphones, speakers appear very good, but use the phone directly out of the sound will break. In order to solve this problem, Xiao Xu Music even ad hoc test posts, in various types of mobile phones on the actual effect of testing. Xiao Xu Music recently participated in several of the hand tour music production, including rock and roll Machine cat, my name is Mt, war soul, and so on, these game themes are mostly from comics, style is not unreasonable. If music is to highlight such interesting elements, it is important to understand the contents of animations, comics, and games. Such talent is hard to find. Another problem with mobile gaming is that developers don't pay much attention to music and have very limited production costs. Has been in Xiao Xu music six years of music producer Fan Li revealed that a lot of hand travel company only two thousand or three thousand budget production music, but asked for an additional 5 audio. "It's not like the client game of previous years, there are forty or fifty tunes. But such a small job can not be answered. Fan Li to global entrepreneur. In its view, this industry in accordance with the need for a roundabout way forward, the ultimate realization of the scale effect. "Not rich, but also hungry not dead." Music director Guo said. Lu Xiaoxu that the domestic game music equivalent to a decade ago in the state level, from the production process, philosophy, rigor are greatly lagged, the entire industry is very impetuous, the need for precipitation. "A good client game often requires 50 tunes, and the fastest production takes 4-5 months." But a lot of game companies only give you 1 months, and the budget to the minimum. This is restricting the development of the industry. Lu Xiaoxu explained. In Europe and the United States, composers are going to fine line, the annual project is not many but are fine carved, and the domestic industry is still in the impulse phase, how to expand on the existing basis to be tested. In addition, the competition among peers has also greatly intensified, the Guangdong month Gate, Shanghai Fei Rain Studio and other outstanding performance. But Lu Xiaoxu doesn't mind. "In the music industry, there are very few team forms. I hope that we can do things together instead of fighting alone. Lu Xiaoxu to global entrepreneur.