Why Audio Matters: Hacking Gamers' Memories

http://blog.betable.com/stand-out-brand-your-game-with-audio

by chgriffin • 15 years ago

50 33 15 years ago

blog.betable.com

d-lectable4• 15 years ago

Where are those awesome headphones from? Link?

If you click through the picture, it says they are BXR red headphones. Not sure what that's from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikayama/5696871115/

sp332• 15 years ago

If you click on the picture, it takes you to a Flickr page with a caption. They're Astro A40 BXR's http://www.astrogaming.com/a40-headset-bxr-edition

sgarman• 15 years ago

They(Astro A40) are used widely for console tournaments (like halo and call of duty). You can daisy chain them to create voice LANs for your team.

diziet• 15 years ago

Although these headsets are pretty decent, they pale in comparison to similarly priced headphones from companies that specialize in audio equipment. Something in that ($200) price range are the Sennheiser 595s. I say this as someone who has used both.

d-lectable4• 15 years ago

Thats why I usually shy away from the more flashy Skull Candies. And while Beats by Dre look quite nice, they apparently don't sound great.

I'm quite happy with my Audio Technica Pro 700, but wish it would cancel more external sounds.

JonnieCache2• 15 years ago

Awesome looking audio equipment rarely sounds awesome, for a given price.

In fact I would say there is a strong reverse correlation, for most categories.

d-lectable4• 15 years ago

i.e. Beats by Dre

dpcan2• 15 years ago

Are they actually awesome, or do you just like that they are smiling at you :)

asianexpress2• 15 years ago

Is it just me, or is the music from SNES RPGs more memorable than any current day RPG music? I'm talking Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy (Kefka's laugh??) -- you don't hear music like this anymore.

Music, that when heard, makes you want to play the game or relive the memories.

PeterInouye5• 15 years ago

So true. The SNES audio chip just had such a distinct sound, and at the time it was better than the midi on my PC! Oh the hours I spent in FF III (or FF VI as we know it now)...

baddox• 15 years ago

Do you mean the timbre of the instruments (obviously limited by the SNES chips), or the compositions themselves? I think the technical limitations of those consoles meant that catchy melodies were extremely important.

With modern audio, stock music can be thrown in easily, and it will sound decent and give the "epic" or cinematic feel the game designers want. But you often don't get memorable themes and relentless catchy melodies.

That said, there is some great composition in modern games. The Halo series is an obvious mention, with several memorable orchestral and piano pieces. Indie games often get closer to the composition style of the older video games you mentioned.

asianexpress2• 15 years ago

I would say the compositions -- but perhaps it is due to the technical limitations as you mentioned. I can definitely say the compositions because I think they sound even more amazing in the hands of an orchestra, or in piano collections. Maybe I'm just a Nobuo Uematsu fan

I do agree that the Halo music is pretty good and memorable (especially the whole chanting monk deal).

PeterInouye5• 15 years ago

In some ways, both! The music definitely did have to work with the limitations of the SNES, but that audio chip (at the time) blew everything Sega had out of the water. I agree with asianexpress- Nobuo Uematsu is just awesome. But the sound of the trumpets on FFVI sounds so unique to the SNES too! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BPGle3hTWk&feature=relat...

Fargren• 15 years ago

Get the OST from Bastion. It's new, awesome and memorable. I'd link to it but I don't have access to streaming sites from this computer.

JonnieCache2• 15 years ago

While I am willing to agree that it may have been objectively better in some ways, this effect is almost entirely down to the fact that we were kids then.

Every experience is so raw as a child, due to having had so few of them at that point. Therefore the memories feel more vivid.

amalcon• 15 years ago

See also: Everything by John Williams. Try thinking of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Jaws. You're thinking of the music, now, aren't you?

PeterInouye5• 15 years ago

Dun DUN... Dun DUN... dun dun dun dun DUN DUN DUN DUN

davidtyleryork4• 15 years ago

oh god you just made this happen in my head lol

saturdaysaint• 15 years ago

Scott Pilgrim had some of the most affecting moments in recent cinematic memory when sampling Nintendo classics - the combination of young adult infatuation and the Zelda wishing-well fairy music was fantastic.

davidtyleryork4• 15 years ago

I loved that movie. I totally felt like it captured the video game vibe while turning the movie into a great story

PeterInouye5• 15 years ago

I loved the movie too. I never played the game, but the game soundtrack by Anamanaguchi was awesome.

Your description of Scott Pilgrim is pretty much my thoughts on Anamanaguchi in general--a combining of the old (chiuptune) sounds with something modern.

alanfalcon• 15 years ago

To get permission to use the music from Zelda, Edgar Wright wrote to Shigeru Miyamoto saying “This music is like nursery rhymes to a generation.”

Absolutely true, and it's very effective for that reason. I also believe it's the reason why Scott Pilgrim resonates so much with a certain generation and then holds little to no appeal outside of it.

This article (in which Michael Cera interviews Edgar Wright) has a bit more detail. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/06/ff_cerawright/all/1

dmbass• 15 years ago

I agree that audio is a very important aspect of games (and other forms of media like video), but do people really play mobile games with the sound on? When I do, it's either to my own soundtrack or none at all.

Has anybody actually polled the device volume level and ambient noise level when people are playing their game?

davidtyleryork4• 15 years ago

I havent seen that polled before. Either way, I am playing mobile games with the sound on pretty often now. I find it's kinda weird to play a game with my music in the background, it doesn't fit

d-lectable4• 15 years ago

Especially for games that require more agency, i.e. Tesla Wars where you are constantly attacking people.

I only put my own music on for puzzle games like solitaire.

thwarted• 15 years ago

I recently noticed that two of the most popular Clan Arena maps on QuakeLive (at least on the servers I frequent) both have the same background music, and I've been wondering how much that contributes to the way people pay the game/map and how quickly they learn it.

(Some of us are still keeping Quake3, via QuakeLive, alive)

zipdog• 15 years ago

I recently piped just the audio from a bunch of classic games to a group of people: every game was recognised quickly and spurred distinct memories of the games, though no-one had played any of them for years.

guan_yu• 15 years ago

The fact that he refers to music as "branding" makes me want to put my fist through his face. The soundtracks we all love, the ones from games such as Zelda, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy... they're all monumental works of considerable effort and artistic merit. People remember these games, they're such classics because they were ... art. It's not branding in the same way the Mona Lisa isn't branding for Leonardo da Vinci.

dpcan2• 15 years ago

Music in games is most certainly part of the branding. Think of the opening chip tune to super Mario bros. Or the song that plays while the contra logo scrolled in.

Those songs are as much a part of the brand as the characters, titles, enemies, sounds, etc.

They are almost like jingles on commercials. They belong to the brand.

The fact that they are works of art, or how they are made, or who makes them means very little once they become part of the brand.

PeterInouye5• 15 years ago

@guan_yu: I definitely see music as art and not just a part of the IP/brand. But not all developers see music the same way, so I was just trying to appeal to their business sense--if not to their artistic sense too.

Music is part of the game, not a window dressing. But some of that music would never have been known without the game too--there's so many orchestral composers in the world, what are the odds that we'd really get to know one guy from Japan if it wasn't for Final Fantasy? And didn't he create the 'sound' of FF while at it? That's probably why I never really liked the FF series after Uematsu went over to Mistwalker.

ctdonath• 15 years ago

At the end of iD's Doom II, the final boss produces a repeated "kafoomBOOM" sound.

That sound, like the Wilheim Scream, shows up freaking EVERYWHERE (ok, not quite that bad but it seems that way). Dunno if anyone else notices it, but it has reminded me of that game at least monthly for over 15 years.

Yeah, audio hacked this gamer's memory all right.

TheIronYuppie• 15 years ago

I commented on the site, but I could not agree more with this. We (http://www.hark.com) have millions of sound bites, and some of the most popular, without fail, are from video games - either from last week's latest release or twenty years ago.

Why Audio Matters: Hacking Gamers' Memories

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