Mass Effect 3 - Soundtrack Details

Worthplaying has a press release on the soundtrack in Mass Effect 3:

Like previous Mass Effect games, a number of talented composers will play critical roles in the game’s musical development, with direction led by BioWare’s acclaimed audio team. The roster of composers for Mass Effect 3 includes:

• Clint Mansell, Golden Globe nominatedHollywood composer recognized for scoring celebrated films including Black Swan, The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream.
• Christopher Lennertz, Emmy nominated Hollywood composer known for his work on the recent movie Horrible Bosses, also composed Mass Effect 2: Overlord, Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker, and won the Interactive Academy Award for Medal of Honor.
• Cris Velasco, known for composing the God of War series’ score, has also worked on downloadable content Mass Effect 2: Kasumi and Mass Effect 2: Arrival.
• Sam Hulick, veteran to the Mass Effect series having composed the score for Mass Effect, Mass Effect: Bring Down the Sky and Mass Effect 2.

Sascha Dikiciyan, video game industry veteran, known for composing the score for TRON: Evolution and the scores of Mass Effect 2: Kasumi and Mass Effect 2: Arrival.

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More information.

Seems like a lot of chefs in the kitchen for a 20-30 hour game!

Are there other games that hired 5 different composers?

What a waste. Unless they're playing Iron Maiden, Lacuna Coil, Korn, or some Tool, I'll be listening to my own music. Honestly, who on earth plays games for the sounds, lol! That would be like watching the Superbowl for the halftime music.


-Carn

Carnifex said:

What a waste. Unless they're playing Iron Maiden, Lacuna Coil, Korn, or some Tool, I'll be listening to my own music. Honestly, who on earth plays games for the sounds, lol! That would be like watching the Superbowl for the halftime music.

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To me, the soundtrack is a very important aspect, so no, it is certainly not a waste to invest in good music. After all, good fitting music can significantly improve the atmosphere.

Btw, I thought that the original music for Mass Effect was awful and I really hated it during gameplay. In the 2nd game, the score got better IMO.

but why on Earth would they hire so many different composers? Did they really need five of them?

Are they shooting for vastly different themes for each planet?

Maybe they're recycling music from past games in the series and listing those composers.

Mass effect is all about mood. I'm not surprised they are doing that for music. I don't see that as a waste at all...if they are willing to do that as a gamer I think thats great, I'm not sure why anyone would complain about that?

I'm simply saying that if I had a choice of the game being silent, and the money invested in 5 more minutes of gameplay, I'd pick the later. Everytime. Games just seem too short these days, and I think anything more than, say, 3-5% of a game's budget invested in the sounds is just too much.


-Carn

Carnifex said:

I'm simply saying that if I had a choice of the game being silent, and the money invested in 5 more minutes of gameplay, I'd pick the later. Everytime. Games just seem too short these days, and I think anything more than, say, 3-5% of a game's budget invested in the sounds is just too much.


-Carn

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Totally disagree. I never listened to any other music in any game I played since 1985. Creating moods and atmosphere is in important part of art and entertainment. Have you ever considered to watch The Godfather while listening to Gangsta Rap? No? There you go.

I am in complete agreement with Sir_Brennus, Asdraguuhl and rune_74. Music is a key factor when it comes to the mood and ambiance of a game like Mass Effect and the mood is vital for the overall experience. With no mood we might as well stick with tetris or chess where the only element to the experience is the actual gameplay (i.e. no story, no characters, no "progress", etc).

I have never and I will never EVER substitute ingame music with "real world" music. Talk about immersion breakers

fatBastard() said:

Music is a key factor when it comes to the mood and ambiance of a game like Mass Effect and the mood is vital for the overall experience.

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^This. The soundtracks were a significant factor for me in series like Baldur's Gate, IWD, Gothic, and many more. I couldn't imagine playing those games without their BGM.

I think as well that music in games is important - but why so many different composers ???

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I think as well that music in games is important - but why so many different composers ???

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I'm going to say because of time....that many can make more music in a shorter period of time.

The only case I know where they used many composers is the movie Kick-Ass. There, they had 4 different composers for the original score PLUS they used existing songs AND they also used classical music pieces. A lot of attention was given to the soundtrack as all these different styles were used (quite effectively in my IMO) to tailor the music to the scene in question such that the desired effect was created.

The article states that many of these composers worked on DLC's so perhaps some composers are specifically assigned to a future DLC.

I can perfectly imagine that one composer would do the music for the cinematics, if his style would be more symphonic and melodramatic in nature. Another would perhaps do the music to accompany the combat gameplay with more percussion and possibly electronical sounds. Another would perhaps just do a single techo song to be played in a club within the game.