Jeremy Soule Interview @ Music4Games

Dhruin

Dhruin

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Some love him and some are sick of him but for anyone interested, the ubiquitous Jeremy Soule has been interviewed at Music4Games.net:
M4G: It’s kind of funny that a lot of people look back to that soundtrack and say, wow, it was so ambient and different, and the reason for it was because you had hardware or software limitations!
JS: Well, that’s actually the story of my life. I mean, Star Wars: KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) was more ambient because at the time we only had an 8 megabit per second MIDI system. That was state of the art. I literally could not write for a full orchestra for Star Wars. I had to fool people into thinking they were hearing a full orchestra. I’d write woodwinds and drums, or woodwinds, horns and drums, or strings and drums and brass. I couldn’t’ run the whole orchestra at once, it was impossible.
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Thanks, Destructoid.
More information.
 
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Wait, so the reason Soule's earlier tracks were better was because...he couldn't make them the way he wanted to?

Why am I not surprised?
 
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Oh dear ... I didn't see us heading down an ugly path so quickly ...

I love his stuff - like any soundtrack composer he will have ups and downs according to the requirements of the material and demands of the producers, and I have liked some of his stuff more than others, but feel he deserves his position of high regard.
 
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Asbjoern said:
And you are the authority on what is good and poor music?
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Too bad post-modernism kills any debate. Let's just pretend that sentence never happened and have an actual conversation instead of a typical internet "debate", no? Let's not pretend "it's good" is somehow more valid than "it's bad" because only one or the other depends on authority.

Oh dear. Snap!
 
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Brother None said:
Too bad post-modernism kills any debate.
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Here's the score card:
- There is no 'better'
- Opinion and 'feelings' are what matter
- The only thing you can state objectively is that there is nothing that can be stated objectively.
 
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This is a shock to me.

What game in this day and age still uses MIDI? Especially by the premier name in Video Game music, at least for RPG's (the Grammy's need an award for this now. I mean, there are people that listen to classical music now thanks to Video Games.)

The NWN Engine that was used to make KotOR doesn't even use MIDI. The sound objects are Wave files and the Ambient music is in BMU format which is so close to MP3 that you can often just rename the extension to get it to play.
 
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Lucky Day said:
What game in this day and age still uses MIDI?
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I'm assuming that he orchestrated it using synths and sound modules controlled by USB-MIDI controllers.
 
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Brother None said:
Too bad post-modernism kills any debate. Let's just pretend that sentence never happened and have an actual conversation instead of a typical internet "debate", no? Let's not pretend "it's good" is somehow more valid than "it's bad" because only one or the other depends on authority.

Oh dear. Snap!
Click to expand...

Well, post modernism or late modernity for that sake doesn't kill any debate, but it is etnocentrism and therefore arrogancy that does.
One can't take an ultimative position when trying to have a debate, because that necessarily excludes having a debate.
Opinions are of course the fundament of a debate, so with my previous post I wasn't trying to state otherwise, I was more trying to imply that the form and template of your post wasn't very pragmatic. Your post didn't take into consideration that it should serve as being part of a conversation, because it was very one-sided, so I can't really comprehend why you brought in the words "conversation" and "debate" when the fundament you created wasn't oriented towards having such.

This was at least the way I understood your post.
 
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Bleh. Jeremy Soule's stuff has gotten pretty generic and forgettable over the past few years. His earlier stuff was great but most of his recent works have been ordinary. Kotor, especially, was pretty dull.
 
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doctor_kaz said:
Kotor, especially, was pretty dull.
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I actually think that is some of his better stuff - the themes and motives capture an essential Star Wars element while carrying the story and environment along.
 
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txa1265 said:
I'm assuming that he orchestrated it using synths and sound modules controlled by USB-MIDI controllers.
Click to expand...

What txa said.

Almost all composers use MIDI apps and keyboards for composing, even if the end result will be played by a live band or orchestra. Much like word processors and paint programs, the ability to edit music electronically is very useful.

This also gets it the same types of detractors. Like those who insist that novellists have become excessively verbose now that they aren't limited to using typewriters (a sentiment I've heard expressed with great emphasis by a friend who edits novels at Penguin-Putnam -- they pay her to make it readable for the rest of us). And artistes who insist digital artwork isn't authentic or somesuch.

Personally, I love MIDI music (especially Daggerfall's), but then most of my preferences are still stuck in the mid 90's, so pay no attention to me.
 
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Stanza said:
Like those who insist that novellists have become excessively verbose now that they aren't limited to using typewriters
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[thread derail alert] My ten year old son just finished reading "Fahrenheit 451", and in the 'afterword' Bradbury describes typing the book on typewriters at the university that cost him 10 cents per half hour or something, so he had to be very careful and efficient because he was broke :)

I remember doing some early midi music stuff at the end of my undergrad days (*early* days of MIDI) and being very much polyphony limited ... I could set up a better studio in Reason on my worst PC now for next to nothing than was available then for 500k or more ...
 
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I like IWD very much, some themes from his later titles are nice as well, but overall he did more & more ambient tracks instead of nice melodic tunes...

on the other hand, ambient sounds may be more helpful to stress out a certain mood and do not distract the player
 
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