In our interview with the composers of the Hellgate: London music you can read interesting details about the composing process and more. The German version can be found here. The both have composed the official Theme Song that can be downloaded here 
.
[biography Sascha Dikiciyan]
Born in Stuttgart, Germany and growing up in Berlin, Sascha Dikiciyan began learning the piano at an early age, but switched to drums when he was twelve. Following high school, Sascha returned to his piano studies.
Relocating to Los Angeles, California in 1993, Sascha studied music at Hollywood's famous Musicians Institute, where he excelled in classes focused on the keyboard, music theory and recording arts. After completing his studies at MI, Sascha studied film scoring and composition at UCLA.
Mr. Dikiciyan’s interest in video games began in the early 80's, compelling him to independently produce and release "Methods of Destruction," the first-ever audio add-on for the original Quake in 1996. "I produced and sold that CD out of my apartment in LA," explains Sascha. "It gave me the opportunity to be noticed for not just my abilities as a producer but also as an artist who understands the way music can complement visual action. It was quite an exciting time because Quake pushed new technological boundaries visually and sonically."
Encouraged by the enthusiastic fan reception of "Methods," Sascha captured the attention of id software and in 1997, submitted music for Quake II. After reviewing his demos, id agreed to use Sascha’s original music and the path was opened for Mr. Dikiciyan to become one of the leading progressive voices in game music.
Following the production of "Quake III: Arena Noise" Sascha realized the demand for the type of sounds he creates. In the spring of 2001, Sascha, under his company Sonic Mayhem, released his first sample CD "Noize Loops"; winning the Future Music Platinum Award. A Keyboard magazine writer noted, "Not since Sounds Good's Methods of Mayhem sample CD have I encountered a collection with so much edge and attitude."
Sascha’s passion for electronic-based music extends further than scoring for video games and sound design. In the summer of 2001, Sascha began producing dance music under the name “Toksin” in tandem with his responsibilities as a video game Composer. Within months, he went on to win BPM Magazine’s Remix contest with his original re-production of BT’s anthem, Communicate.
In the two years following, Toksin has produced over a dozen original recordings and remixes; collaborating with some of the world’s most respected and renowned vocalists and producers in dance music. The original track “Digital Divine” was released in February 2006 on Distinctive Records’ long-standing electronic compilation series, Y4K featuring Nubreed. 2007 will finally see the release of Toksin's long-awaited EP---created to break the barriers between Rock, Breakbeat and Drum and Bass.
With the official title, “Busiest Composer in Video Games”, Sascha is currently being managed by Bob Rice of FBI Intertainment, who represents the A-list of videogame composers, and is currently composing music for “Hellgate: London“, “Dark Messiah” and an all new incarnation of “TMNT” with his partner Cris Velasco.
Credits:
Videogames
- Quake 2 id software
- Quake 2 Mission packs id software
- Quake 3 Arena id software
- Quake 3 Team Arena id software
- Wild 9 Shiny Intertainment
- James Bond Tomorrow Never Dies MGM Interactive
- Unreal Tournament (Sound design) Epic Games
- Terminator: Rise of the Machines Atari
- Battlezone Atari
- Stuntman 2 THQ
- Splinter Cell 4: Double Agent UbiSoft
- Marvel Legends Activision
- Spyhunter: Nowhere to Run Midway
- Dark Messiah Ubisoft
- Hellgate: London (in production) Flagship Studios
- Dark Messiah UbiSoft
- God of War2 Sony
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2007) Ubisoft
- John Woo’s Stranglehold Midway
Remixes & Originals (Toksin)
- BT- Communicate (Toksin’s Narcan remix) Nettwork USA
- BT- The Great Escape (Toksin’s Stardiver remix) Nettwork
- BT- Superfabulous (Toksin’s Rawshaker mix) Nettwork
- Taxidoll- Look at What You Get (Toksin’s Subsumed mix) CD Baby
- Deepsky - Ghost (Toksin’s Ghost in the machine remix) Release Records
- Pitty Sing - Bleeding Hearts (Toksin’s Lopressor mix) White Label
- Bloc Party – She’s Hearing Voices (Toksin’s Aphagia mix) White Label
- Destiny’s Child – Loose Your Breath (Toksin’s Kymatized mix) White Label
- Gwen Stefani – What you waiting for (Toksin’s Sterilized mix) White Label
- WBN - Show Me Love (Toksin’s Methodical mix) A Different Drum
- Toksin – Digital Divine (Y4K:Nubreed) Distinctive Records
- Toksin – Digital Divine (Toksin’s Aftershock remix) Bijou Beats
- Summer Channel – Soulmate (Toksin’s Rockstar Syndrome mix) Libra Rising
Sample CD’s (Sound design)
- Noize Loops Big Fish Audio
- Noize Loops: Toxic Textures Big Fish Audio
- Noize Loops: REX Files Big Fish Audio
- Battery 2 KITS Native Instruments
- Battery 3 KITS Native Instruments
Movies
- Shade RKO Pictures
[biography Cris Velaco]
Cris Velasco, Composer
Cris Velasco is one of the most in-demand composers in the video game industry today. An accomplished classical and rock guitarist, Velasco is a graduate of the famed UCLA School of Music with a degree in Music Composition. He began his career as an orchestrator for several Disney animated films before turning his attention to his childhood passion, video games. His debut into the gaming industry began in 2003 when he was presented with an opportunity to score parts of the game Battlestar Galactica. The success of this project led to his work on other major titles including Maximo vs. Army of Zin, Van Helsing, and Terminator 3: Redemption, as well as the award-winning God of War.
In 2005, Velasco joined forces with Composer/Sound Designer Sascha Dikiciyan, who scored James Bond “Tomorrow Never Dies” and Quake II and Quake III Arena franchises. Together, the two have collaborated on a dozen game titles in the past year including Splinter Cell 4, Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run, Dark Messiah, Hellgate: London, and God of War 2 titles. Their music was recently released on the Associated Production Music (APM) Endgame Music Library, a collection of original music cues created by many of the most successful video game music composers in the industry.
An extraordinarily versatile composer, Velasco also writes original soundtracks for independent films and scores commercials for high-profile clients such as Toyota, Disney, Patron, Staples, and Mattel. His music has been used by New Wave Entertainment, NFL Films, Nickelodeon, the NBA, and the Family Channel, to name a few. In addition, he was also recently selected to write for the new Monday Night Football theme currently airing on ESPN.
Velasco has enjoyed considerable recognition for his work, being honored for the following:
AIAS Interactive Achievement Award 2005: Winner, “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition”
GameSpot 2005: Winner, “Best Original Music Award”
GameZone 2005: Winner, “Best Original Score of the Year”
IGN 2005: Winner, “Best Original Score Award”
GANG Awards 2005: Winner, “Music of the Year,” “Audio of the Year,” “Best Interactive Score,” and “Best Cinematic Audio”
GANG Awards 2004: Finalist, “Music of the Year” and “Best Live Recording”
GANG Award 2003: Winner, “Rookie of the Year”
Velasco continues to be at the forefront of latest production techniques and state-of-the-art technologies. He is sponsored by Audio Impressions and Steinberg, maintains a busy lecture and conducting schedule, and continues to involve himself in the entertainment industry by producing independent films.
1. How was the contact between you and Flagship Studios established?
Sascha: Funny story actually. I think this was during E3 in 2005 that I just so happened to make a stop at the Flagship booth and started chatting with Senior Producer, Chris Arretche, about music. Since it was early in development they had no composers yet so it was perfect timing for us. I gave Cris a demo CD of some stuff we had already written and then got in touch after E3. I think we signed on a few months later.
2. Which composers/compositions have inspired you?
Sascha: A lot of the inspiration for Hellgate came from horror movies made in the 70s and 80s. Scores like The Exorcist and Halloween came up as well as various zombie movies.
Cris: Besides those old horror scores I was also very inspired by some of the late 20th Century orchestral writing. The kind of music that’s more sound fx than melody. This is really great as a mood setter. Also, it’s hard to kill zombies and demons in a game like this without heavy guitars so I listened to a lot of Sevendust, Slipknot, and even Marilyn Manson around the house to get in the mood.
3. How did you work together with the guys of Flagship Studios?
Sascha & Cris: Before we started, Flagship flew us out to meet everyone and check out the game. We had a big roundtable discussion with Chris Arretche, sound supervisor Dave Steinwedel, and audio programmer Guy Somberg. After the initial meeting we started to work closely with Dave on a daily basis. We would get videos and artwork of levels and then just start writing. Once a group of cues is done, we upload them onto Flagship’s server and then start the next batch of cues as we wait for feedback.
4. With which instruments did you create the sound at the beginning of the Theme Song?
Sascha: We wanted to evoke the feeling of what Tubular Bells did for The Exorcist.
5. How was the composing-proccess compared to other projects before?
Sascha: The process was longer and more in-depth than your typical video game. Not only did we write music over the course of almost a year and a half, but we also made suggestions in terms of technical aspects of how the music is being played back.
Cris: The music engine is very complex. Not only did it require that we write our normal looping tracks plus all the remixes of these, but also tons of unique intros, outros, and stingers that could interrupt the flow of music at any point without being jarring or too abrupt. It makes for a very immersive musical experience when it all works as planned.
6. You've done music for games and for films - Are there great differences between setting a game or a film to music?
Cris: The biggest difference is that movies are linear and games are not. This means that unless you are watching an in-game cut scene, the gameplay is unscripted. What takes one player 15 minutes to complete may take another one 45 minutes. This makes gamers very sensitive to music. We have to compose in such a way that you aren’t annoyed by hearing the same track 20 times in a row. In Hellgate, we wrote numerous intensity levels of every single cue in the game for just this purpose. Depending on what’s happening in the game our music will be more ambient or more aggressive. But it’s still all related to the same cue. This almost gives the illusion that we’re scoring to picture.
7. What guidelines did you have for the Hellgate music?
Sascha & Cris: Musically, it was a free-for-all in the beginning. Dave had put together a document of musical styles that he thought might work in the game. It was up to us to take all those conflicting styles and come up with our own sound that would work in the game. Every track incorporates something from that original list though. We’ve combined orchestra, rock, electronica, drum and bass, etc in the final product.
On the technical side, we definitely had some limitations in order for the audio engine to work correctly. These limitations didn’t really hold us back in any way though. For example, to transition seamlessly from an ambient cue into an action cue both tracks had to be the exact same length. If we started in G minor and moved to B minor in one cue we had to do exactly the same thing in the other. By doing this however, we could move between both cues so easily that you would never really notice that the music was changing in the game. It feels extremely natural.
8. How many minutes of music do you have composed for the game?
Cris: We’ve lost track of exactly how much music was written actually. It’s well over an hour though. I’d guess there’s at least 80 minutes of music we’ve done for the game.
9. Is there anything special you're proud of concering the Hellgate music?
Sascha: I think we did give the game an identifiable sound, something that you hear and you go “oh that must be Hellgate”. It wasn’t an easy road but I must say that I’m quite happy with the outcome and hope people will appreciate it.
Cris: I agree. This is one of the first times where I think we really came up with a unique sound for a particular game. I don’t think this score would fit any other game I’ve played. When you listen to it, it definitely says “Hellgate”. Hats off to the Flagship guys for taking a chance and doing something different for their game. I’d like to think that they really gave us a chance to give the game some more personality.
Du kannst leider nur Kommentare schreiben, wenn du eingeloggt bist. Logge dich oben rechts ein oder klicke hier, um dich zu registrieren.