MGR:R - It Has To Be This Way (Platinum Mix)
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2013 7:38 am
Vocal tracks in games are really tricky. I generally try to avoid them. There's two elements you really need to pay attention to.
1 - Lyrics. This is moot if it's a foreign song and you don't understand shit, I guess. But lyrics usually should have some kind of relevance. It's not a big deal if it doesn't fit, I suppose, but in such an instance use foreign music for sure so unusual native lyrics don't distract.
2 - The kind of vocals. BM vocals are really bad for background music, for example, because they are "noisy" and "occupy" a lot of sound activity, masking over other sound events. There are types of BM vocals that can work, though. It depends on their deployment and how they mix with the chosen instrumentation. You also would probably want to avoid very stage-taking vocals, e.g. vocals that really dominate the music.
Metal Gear Rising and DMC are the games to really stand out for me so far using vocalized music successfully. I actually really like the Revengeance soundtrack, though the name Revengeance has me laughing hysterically every time I read it. Come on, Blizzard.
Another element is, of course, knowing when to use the music. So far, MGR's vocalized tracks seem very restricted, e.g. only in the tail end of Boss fights. I intended to use some vocal tracks for Apex in secret and end game boss fights, meanwhile Black Sun makes use of a Russian vocal track for the Salvation battle in Episode 1. I don't foresee Retribution following suit, but I suppose only time will tell.
However, of my many internal test videos, most of them are using vocal tracks. I find it sets the stage for the test recording demonstrations very easily and saves me a lot of precise musical keying for something so simple. In doing so I learn a little bit about the pacing of vocals compared to the content, which is something I cover in the MGEC and probably one of the CC podcasts.
1 - Lyrics. This is moot if it's a foreign song and you don't understand shit, I guess. But lyrics usually should have some kind of relevance. It's not a big deal if it doesn't fit, I suppose, but in such an instance use foreign music for sure so unusual native lyrics don't distract.
2 - The kind of vocals. BM vocals are really bad for background music, for example, because they are "noisy" and "occupy" a lot of sound activity, masking over other sound events. There are types of BM vocals that can work, though. It depends on their deployment and how they mix with the chosen instrumentation. You also would probably want to avoid very stage-taking vocals, e.g. vocals that really dominate the music.
Metal Gear Rising and DMC are the games to really stand out for me so far using vocalized music successfully. I actually really like the Revengeance soundtrack, though the name Revengeance has me laughing hysterically every time I read it. Come on, Blizzard.
Another element is, of course, knowing when to use the music. So far, MGR's vocalized tracks seem very restricted, e.g. only in the tail end of Boss fights. I intended to use some vocal tracks for Apex in secret and end game boss fights, meanwhile Black Sun makes use of a Russian vocal track for the Salvation battle in Episode 1. I don't foresee Retribution following suit, but I suppose only time will tell.
However, of my many internal test videos, most of them are using vocal tracks. I find it sets the stage for the test recording demonstrations very easily and saves me a lot of precise musical keying for something so simple. In doing so I learn a little bit about the pacing of vocals compared to the content, which is something I cover in the MGEC and probably one of the CC podcasts.