Star Citizen: Reverse the Verse LIVE - The Music of Squadron 42

19 January 201800:58:391,452 linesWatch on YouTube ↗

Transcript — every row opens the video at that moment

00:00:11
greetings citizens and welcome to reverse the verse live are the only weekly series from cloud Imperium games that's a done life because cyma I'm a glutton for punishment I'm your host community Content Manager Jared Huckaby now if this is your first reverse the verse you have to fight what we're already off script each week we bring you a bit of news from the week interviews with our developers a look inside the you know the inner workings of CI G a highlight of some of the community content that's created from the community and provide you with some of our behind the scenes of our behind the scenes last week on our first episode we had a we had a global head of production and the top man at foundry 42 Aaron Roberts on the show now it's always a fun time when Aaron Roberts is
00:00:59
on the show and this this episode was a no exception we also highlighted some of the amazing work by star citizen Thrustmaster and we took an inside look at the work at the other day in the inside CI g studio basically it was a after that not nothing happened absolutely nothing happened after that nobody nobody tried to sabotage the show in any way shape or form during the broadcast it was a fun show and it's available now on youtube if you want to check that out in this week's news we started things off with a with our first episode of our brand new weekly Q&A series calling all devs now this is a brand new show that airs each and every Monday where backers submit questions on spectrum you guys vote on which questions we ask every day and then I
00:01:46
call developers on skype and get the answers straight from the proverbial horse's mouth it's a great way to utilize to get you guys the fastest answers possible and to minimize the amount of down time on our developers so that they can focus on the development of the game and personally I think it's great when you can hear these answers directly from the developers mouth because I mean you see their expressions you hear their voice you know the exclamation that included in a intonation and expression is is one of those things that we can do here at star citizen that other game companies you know just don't you don't get it with a post on the forums that's been sanitized by by fifteen rounds of people you know forming shaping the answers it's like I said it's one of those things that I'm really proud that we get to do here at star citizen I think you guys will appreciate it to
00:02:33
Tuesday saw the release of another law post in the Empire report series Empire report there's nobody over there I'm talking to nobody on Wednesday our resident bug Smasher mark Ava returned with a new show the first bug smashers of 2018 where he and Kia dealt with a spawn problems you you could say that he had 99 spawn problems and and I had a joke here and I don't I don't remember it yesterday also brought with us the highlight of any week the very first around the verse of the of the new year are the very first around the verse of with our new ship shapes that's right shipshape our new week our new quasi and weekly weird anyway we're still working out how off and we're gonna do it it's a great look now we brought the new ship shaded in with our
00:03:22
anniversary special you know remember we had those eight anniversary specials and then the holiday special between those nine episodes in the last like 54 days or whatever we covered 18 ships 18 ships that's virtually every single ship in the ship pipeline so this month segment focused a bit on process and the idea where ships came from and personally I think it was worth it alone to hear you know chris roberts talk about you know his inspiration and where that we don't where he gets these things from now additionally concierge members will see a new poll on the website right now if you go to robert space industries calm and there's a poll voting on the next concierge exclusive t-shirt to be manufactured in 2018 now there are three choices you can see them on the screen there personally I voted for the dragonfly because I think the verse can use a little bit of color that's me
00:04:10
finally the VIP studio tour that we talked about last week had their tickets go on sale three batches of twenty throughout the day they sold out in less than a minute asked to be expected and somehow someone without be pulling any strings whatsoever my dad got a ticket to the event yeah may the fourth we'll be bringing your dad Lando to work day I can't wait all right with that we're gonna wrap up the news for this week but don't fret we'll be right back with a special guest composer for squadron 42 mr. Jeff Spinelli stay tuned what makes you itch what how would you really enjoy
00:05:04
spending your life let's suppose I do this often in vocational guidance of students they come to me and say well we're getting out of college and we have the faintest idea what we want another person says but I'd like to live in out of doors life and ride horses I said he want to teach in a riding school if you say that getting the money is the most important thing you will spend your life completely wasting your time you'll be doing things you don't like doing in order to go on living that is to go on doing things you don't like doing but it's absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don't like in order to go on spending things you don't like and doing things you don't like and to teach your children to follow in the same track and so therefore it's so
00:05:55
important instead of this question what do I desire you another great video the cinematic make made for the P 52 Archimedes sir PPG is that the P 52 B 32 b7 1872 Archimedes it's all red line all right joining us in studio good are you thank you good thank you for coming in course it's a la no it's a long track we yeah we of course have we met when we did the ATV segment yes with you almost exactly
00:06:42
a year ago how about that over at the Hans Zimmer studio that's right you know Florian wanna go yeah I remember we went over there I was like we're in a Hans Zimmer studio yeah and then you find out the Hans Zimmer studio is like two and a half blocks from where you live it's yeah oh yeah there's also seven or eight buildings I mean it's you know it's it's it's massive we got a lot of well it's sort of a big well I feel music central in a way but yeah that's my home he worked with consumer for for quite a while quite a while I actually I was his intern in 1994 right which makes me feel old but that's actually how I came into the business I didn't know a soul in Los Angeles I didn't know a composer I didn't know a studio you know and I managed somehow to sort of beg and beg my way into an internship with him he was writing The Lion King at the time so I certainly knew who he was from he had
00:07:34
already done I think Driving Miss Daisy and Rain Man it's an amazing scores but then obviously The Lion King was like you know in retrospect I suddenly realized wait he's in there doing that but anyway yes way and I've been there ever since you know when I 96 I moved in full time I was still in college and have had a studio there ever since so yeah so you of course you fit you've had a you started in 94 the amazing in fact we have quite a storied career we were we were looking at her you were looking in his eye yeah before we get into the questions nothing for the folks who may not know you sure I tell us how you got started with Chris okay with Chris I met him actually scoring a film that he was producing called Outlander yeah and so that let's see and I think
00:08:23
probably because he had heard music that I had written for the Pirates of the Caribbean the first one curse of the Black Pearl with Hans and I think you know took a meeting looked at his movie and I mean we had like a monster destroying a Viking village and you know and I thought like I have to do this I was raised on fantasy movies and sci-fi and adventure and actually my first experience with Chris was as a film composer so um when star citizen came around he said look we're doing this narrative story driven campaign that's like part of you know the universe would you like to take a look at it and of course I you know yeah I came and I saw his sort of early ambitions and goals this would have been a couple years ago and you know sign me up because well the other thing is I
00:09:12
knew Chris even before Outlander not personally but I knew him because I played his games you know I played Wing Commander that was the the exact time in my life when I was in high school when I had like you know that perfect moment when you can game all the time anything and so Wing Commanders 1 & 2 were those years for me actually so I didn't computer in those oh I had to go to my friend's house and play and when I say play I mean watch but yeah he was he was he was very hard it's my computer it's my joystick and you're bad Millia so he did he's played it's not there and watched right watch thanks Mac jamling well listen the truth is these days it's pretty fun to watch people play games and we had friendships based around who
00:10:06
had which console because I knew someone who had an in television but I had Atari so you know we were exactly if that was me my roots yep combat and they played adventure and pitfall and you know all those those were the this is the early days I said I still whenever something terrible goes wrong I had the there's a sound effect from them from an old Atari game called impossible mission okay it was probably lower fidelity than that though yeah like when we started the show today and the teleprompter didn't work at all and Jarrod just had to remember his entire script Efram from memories that's what was going in my head was wrong with disco in the first segment there all right so you
00:10:57
got hooked up with Christopher Outlander yeah when you watch on we said hey we want to we want you to consider working for squadron yeah what are the first things you could say I know it for a movie you do start with a script used to start oh well at night yes sometimes if the movie get the script other times they they will send you the movie and you watch it in the case of Outlander they'd already shot it so I did watch it in the case of star citizen obviously the the game wasn't done when you know so they talked about the story outline what are the main characters main plot points and those would be the starting points for a composer so I mean the goal for me is to have memorable themes that track certain characters through the game and like if you watch the vertical slices the old man and he has a piece of music that goes when he launches and
00:11:47
there's an intro sequence that plays his music and the squadron itself or really the game itself has a theme of its own as well which people are starting to recognize it's in the like Bishop's speech yes you know from a while ago and it comes in varying forms throughout the vertical slice as well so did they show you the script the thousand page before you sign them well I should say I looked at the outline of the of the game you know that I I realize it's then the script probably keeps getting longer actually but yes it is a thousand pages now isn't it yeah I don't know I don't know quite where it's where it's landed right now but I'm a lot of the last week I ever talked about it with haddock it was something like 12 or 13 right it was not that long when when I looked at it it was an outline of story outlining
00:12:35
you know and by the way a developing story outlines so that was it was surely slightly or maybe significantly different you know now than it was then but but I knew that there was gonna be a great story arc and I know from Chris's prior game work and from Outlander that he's you know looking at a big picture and well yeah sign me up yeah absolutely all right so we are taking questions directly from our viewers live you can submit questions in one of two places you can submit them directly into the twitch chat we are of course live now on twitch.tv slash star citizen and just in case you're watching this on the youtube replay it later you missed it oh yeah sorry we also take questions from spectrum which is our own communication platform upon robert space industry comm we put a thread up earlier this week to start collecting questions
00:13:22
you know for the people who you know they're working during the day they can't quite you know make the show live so we wanted to make sure be sure everybody had their chance to send questions and with the virtue of the spectrum thread it's not only can they submit questions but they can actually vote on which questions they want to see so other people come and say oh I really want to see that question I really want sacred so right now I'm gonna start you off with the top voted question for all up squadra for you hey Jeff hey how does squadron 42 end with it and with the end credits with the credit roll actually no yeah the question was actually interesting that I get if I had tried to predict that this would not have been what I would have predicted the atop the question to be it's this anything you can tell us about space radio music in our ships space radio music it's the most popular question yeah but it was
00:14:12
curious enough that I thought I figured I would I would put it out there well I think we're certainly planning on some fun Easter eggs part of the joy of starters and there is a whole like lore building you know we're building a world and in that world there would certainly be music yeah so what I'm what I'm mostly tasked with is the score of the game which is you know not in world it's actually more the players experience but within the world there will you know we're exploring ways of creating you know music and art and things that you know exist in that in world so let me say don't be surprised if you find some really fun Easter eggs when you get into the game regarding space radio because it's one of the hallmarks of any chris roberts project he wants that lived in diegetic universe
00:15:02
right and that means there were there are things that are gonna be on TVs yep there are conversations by characters you don't think are important the story going on you know the background it's like let's go over here and see what right right exactly I think and and maybe they're listening to music on a boombox totally and it makes it immersive but in fact actually I did the music for the remember the Cutlass commercial which actually had a radio in it and we did switch over to the tango and that's little ole me playing it Marshall is wonderful time here oh good I'm glad I have been known to kind of tango very good very good I am only been known to play a tango so tengo another he'll be dancing solo for the rest of the show I'm not joining in on acid so questions we also had we're taking questions from the thread we also
00:15:51
have questions coming in live a live chat have you created any spooky / scary music for horror segments in squadron 42 now we're not gonna say whether there are horror segments right before you do we're not gonna hands that but but but well I'm gonna change this to be have you created any music specifically for genre related so you know right sure sure right I'm obviously well look I'm the point of the score actually is to is to kind of play the players experiences and so certainly if something is horrific you'll have horrific music if something is tense you'll have that if it's heroic you'll have that so the short answer is yes you're going to hear all you know all sorts of kinds of music you know we typically have a kind of a sonic palette I'd say that we're gonna use for the
00:16:40
game which doesn't mean we never color outside the lines but it does mean that we have a something consistency but there are a few moments in the vertical slice which start to hint at some of the more tense discoveries you're going to make discovering this you know well I mean tray hoes chained to a pipe you know what I mean like you get some he gets moments like that and I would say that's the that would be the tip of the iceberg in terms of drama that yeah we have one of the things that I've been very deliberative doing the time I've been working for the project for about three years now okay and I knew when I came on board that star citizen as a project pretty much be kind of spoiled for me it's it's I'm gonna know everything ahead of time as far as playing the game I'm not gonna get to like discover jump
00:17:29
points or doing it because it's like why if I discovered something and I get to name of the bike well you knew about it had it right if I didn't everybody knew so one of the very deliver things I've done is stayed away from squadron stuff like squadron was the one aspect of this project that I could kind of firewall right and and still remain a fan so much of the the vertical size stuff I didn't see until I thought well I've okay as I'm running the show I saw it live and no I was intense we used the word intense intense was again where the I was if I cannot be allowed to be a fan of it for a second I was completely blown away by the storytelling and though and though and the quality of the performances and especially the way the the music supported that I think you used the word intense one of the one of the comments that we've heard you know
00:18:17
it's not it's not all it's on all the you know sunshine and rainbows you know some people were at times critical maybe the music was a little too intense about that sure sure sure and what you do that well a couple things you know the vertical slice is actually something that's educational for us and you know the development team as well actually why we make these things you know it's shown to the to the community so you can see what we've been up to but the reality is that is you know how I gained insight into whether or not my musics working and and I don't believe it's working a hundred percent you know the thing about what I do is I write music and then I find any way that I can incrementally improve any bit of it you know I happen to agree actually in a lot
00:19:04
of cases with the way it's played in the vertical slice you know it's a pre-alpha right so we're non-first implementation right exactly right and it's not necessarily the final version of the mix or the final version of the volume has the intensity of anything so in fact I actually went through it you know with with my red pen and I wrote down all the bit you know this is what we need to carve here this we need to do there and working with audio team in the UK you know the engine the game engine is going to the music logic system the music logic system will be tweaked in such a way that it'll it'll support the players experience and with the music as opposed to sort of conveyed it like so let's say the launch sequence well that's a good moment for music to kind of be in your face and big but if you're flying from one place to another it's not necessarily the place
00:19:54
for like the big to big it's it's you know it's more ambient should be setting the mood and is it tense or is it heroic or is it that but it doesn't need to overstate it so those are all things that we are you know working on my assay myself and the audio team in the UK to you know to make it better let me put it this way the the pre-alpha version that you guys on the vertical slice is the absolute worst that that could ever be in you know and in fact it's quite promising to see it looking this good this early ya know it's I know there's one of the features of the music loud music logic system that wasn't completely online at the time that we do the demo is the bit where how it mixes with the dialogue sure one of the way the music is supposed to dip down at the moments when people talk and stuff like that well and there's another thing the
00:20:42
music logic is doing in there that sort of would be transparent I think when you're watching a video of a playback like that which is what that was the the music is written in such a way that the the music logic system inside the game can actually score the player's actions as they happen so that was step one and when I when I talked with the audio team Phil and Lee banded about how you know how can we get the game to make the decisions that I would make if this were a movie and I were scoring it so all the music is written let me put it this way I would not be surprised if there are whole pieces of music that certain players don't hear because they went that way instead of that way or they you know there's there's a mass of music that's there and the engine is making a lot of clever
00:21:30
very situation dependent decisions about what to play to the player as they're going through so how do you wrap your brain around that in a movie in a movie you've got you've got this it's gonna lock them most of the time it's locked you know when you're if you're still Bergen Williams working on ET yeah at the end okay you go back and you change the eddy yeah you sure you've written a rare occasion but for the most part the scene is locked right so you know exactly what you're doing you know exactly you can do what you need to do to match every beat right but when when somebody comes and says all right we want to build this music music Roger system and we don't know if the character is gonna go here we don't know if the care to going here but I don't think you're just gonna gonna support this person the characters gonna be treated this first night how do you wrap your head around composing flexible music right well it is different right
00:22:20
because there isn't a version of ET where he doesn't go home and you know one had to write that music but if there was I know I wish she would stay but in this case you know we know certain things you know most likely will happen but we also don't know when they're gonna have and that's another thing but what I did really was with the music logic systems let's say you're you're flying a ship and you're in combat right but that can mean a lot of different things there can be two enemies there can be ten there can be none they can be right around the corner you know so those are all different pieces of music but they're written in such a way that they can transition at any point from one to the next and the game engine can keep track of what's happening to the player you know did did the bad guy come
00:23:08
out are you outnumbered are you injured are you winning are you losing and it can switch into and out of a grim version of the same music a heroic version a kind of more ambient version you know and so and this exists for all sorts of different levels game states you know is it a more epic scene is it more intimate is it hand-to-hand combat is it Evi a so I hadn't considered that the recording different versions of this singing music this is a grim version right exactly like a variation of the same piece of music is that just you know changing the key yeah you're doing this piece in a um it's actually it's not changing the key because that would make it more difficult to transition to into and out of but other techniques that you know that our you know
00:23:55
musicians can use or you know how fast it is how busy it is how dark it is you know so that all the different arrangements and it isn't always even necessarily the same melody when it switches to grim there might be a new melody that comes in it's more doom you know doom and gloom or something a little more heroic or sometimes it's not melodic at all it's just a tonal shift and some cases is really subtle in other cases you're gonna really feel it you know the players is actually almost in control of what the music is doing in a way if they're if they're winning you know it rewards you were the questions from the live chat what's your favorite video game music I don't know we should I know we played we played Atari yeah do you have a big yeah yeah I
00:24:47
know I am and I played I think of the Ultima games I think of Wing Commander as well I think George oj was the first right and and I know George a great job on that um let me think I mean because I am a gamer I mean I'm I find Mario to be irresistible [Music] I always have trouble with favorite questions because the way my brain works I don't I don't prioritize things like that I don't have to pit the things that I like against each other like this one but I mean I do I respond to things that are unique you know let's exchange that the next questions is what's inspirations do you have when composing music recording for you that's a
00:25:35
question this so well the game itself is a good place to start and I and I think you know once we kind of got a sense of what the story was we went okay this is is actually classic space opera right which is why I think in the verb I see here it's not entirely but largely orchestral you know and I think we have a there's a there's a real good reason for that which is that once once we actually record this with a live orchestra we should talk about that actually that you're gonna hear humanity and in real people and musicians and something acoustic and real and that kind of grounds this sort of massive sort of unbelievably huge epic experience in something you can feel you know when I record orchestras I don't like the sort of glassy distant
00:26:24
Orchestra I like when you can hear players and bows scraping and breaths and all that stuff and that kind of exactly this a texture it gets into the like the blood of the music and you hear it and and you know it does something to a person and you know what I mean it's what I want I mean it just I want it to grab you and pull you into your into your screen you know but that is something we that's another thing actually it wasn't in the vertical slice we have those are demos of the games at Camino you know savvy musicians will have noticed those are it's not a live orchestra yet but we're you know we're going to be recording you know they're very very massive orchestra and it's gonna I'm excited but it would mean I have how'd you get that what's it saying oh it's the track listing isn't it I
00:27:13
have the full squadron 42 soundtrack it's already been recorded and it's I'll tell you what's tricky about this VM oh wow look at this look stuff I haven't written pimp your spaceship if you have to write that here's where we're at right now I may have made a couple stick joke I mean you know I'm not saying that you have to use those there's a queue called bagel carrier but it says it's only 40 seconds long so I mean how much how long do you need they can keep to really convey the idea of a bagel to carry a bagel I don't know I'll tell you what something that's interesting right now as of now I believe I've written three to three and a half hours of music so we're gonna need a few more of these we'll need a box set and more to come we can see this on the NCI we do it
00:28:03
video track listing here I may have spent a little more time than was probably appropriate but I was inspired and if you remember when the Phantom Menace soundtrack you know it came out like two weeks before the movie yes it was a video everything MTV and the second-to-last track on the track listing was qui-gon jinns funeral III have Colonel Blair's funeral oh no spoilers nose closely if you find Colonel Blair in this game it's funny whenever I do soundtrack problems I'm forever changing the title so I don't spoil the movie I really do as a Star Wars fan we appreciate that whoever published the Phantom Menace soundtrack yeah oops right at least before but
00:28:51
Admiral bishops tax return I think is only released oh so patch back to the questions the next most voted on question we're gonna back to the spectrum thread works submitted questions of voting on this was the next most voted on question in oh boy star citizens are an interesting lot hey I'm heart being on this as you guys because I don't want you to think I'm responsible for this this is all in you ii was voted on question was any chance of getting elevator music you know for elevators elevator music i feel like answering that would be a spoiler I don't know there's an elevator in a vertical slice and there's a queue there but it's not elevator music we're not prepared to confirm the existence of elevator or in the scenes taking place in elevators
00:29:39
described in 42 there is one in the vertical slice but it's a tense moment and I wouldn't want to break the tension right in there let's let's go back just go back to the to the live orchestra sure yeah so you said you said we're talking about doing that I'm not doing that well what what can you tell us of that process was we oh we're doing that next week not next week no but but like I said I have a lot of music written and and you know we've obviously the point of it is to make the final tweaks and make sure things working and we're all sort of tightening the screws on on everything that came from the vs the vertical size so once that done we can sit down with an orchestra and record that and also there's a large amount of I would call the music logic system music which is not to any specific scene in the game but would play you know like I was saying of the
00:30:26
flight and him for hand-to-hand combat and these kind of game states that we know we're gonna be there that we can use and that is basically ready now actually so that could be recorded you know as soon as we book an orchestra um and we are definitely gonna do that so that's that's what's gonna you know this is the next level yeah there's questions in both the Spector chat and it's flooding in the live chat will the soundtrack be available for spider for each oh I'd be shocked if it wasn't yeah I'm not I'll say in this one I'll say I'll show you this one with what's that what's in there there's something with such tracks as talk about the f8 lightning already mmm and a single player at night I'll tell you this one you used to send five bucks to the other studio don't send five dollars dude don't do it no I'm not seeding good I know we're not prepared to comment on
00:31:14
yeah it's it's we're a little bit cart before the horse let's make this Butler we're gonna have all this music and I would be surprised if there wasn't a way to make it available all right so we haven't recorded with the live orchestra one of the questions here is about the bedroom as your your methodology what do you it was in here somewhere I don't remember oh how my god yeah what da do you draft your music in Oh Cubase cubane Cubase yeah I write in Cubase and then I have Pro Tools which is basically my mixer and sort of my video playback rig but Cubase is where I do all the sequencing and it's all you know sample based and everything and then we go and sit down with the orchestra and they when they play what I've what I've given them and what was one of the biggest hurdles you've had to
00:32:01
overcome in the scoring of squadron 42 um well let's see I think I think one of the trickiest parts about it is when you have like let's say a long stretch where the player might be going from one place to the next right and what's going through the players head is actually what the next task is and they're they might have busy mindset but you need to do something with the music while they're traveling that is both not to not repetitive but interesting enough and kind of keeps the pace going and that kind of thing so one of the tricky things is finding ways to create music which can play for long stretches but doesn't isn't repetitive so the way it's actually done or the what I've been
00:32:50
trying to do is write it in say three or four I want to say like like stems or something that can each play in different permutations so you might not play all of it at once or you could but you can strip away certain elements or you can put certain elements in and you know different combinations of that same basic track and that can be actually decided by well the game engine makes the decision but we discuss with the with the audio team how to implement it so it might might be game based you mentioned you you the music make sure it doesn't feel shortly before the release of alpha 2.0 mmm Pedro yes is a Pedro Camacho who is the composer for star citizen you are the composer for
00:33:37
squadron sir and some of the questions are about that so we'll go into that but a he a he sent me this 20 minute long track for Portola star the area where most people gonna be yes would you just listen to this all day and tell me if you're sick about it and so they're like yeah sure so literally we had it on like for two days straight right okay it's constantly this do it it's like no that's alright I think we're okay yeah right but that's a that's a real hurdle and it's not necessarily easy to write music that works like that it's it's almost goes against what what composers are sort of bred to do yeah but but so that does make it challenging but it's also it's pretty exciting when it works because you know the idea is and is to never intrude on the player experience but instead to enhance it so one of the questions from the live chat asked if
00:34:23
there's any interplay between you and Pedro Pedro star citizen you're doing squadron's right there pal I would anticipate would probably do more of that in the future we're in touch with each other we you know we share sounds and stuff but there so far we've been sort of deliberate keeping it as separate worlds and I think the reason really is you know the persistent universe is you can do anything at anytime and you know that's a kind of a different animal yeah then scoring a narrative yeah squadron 42 game you know even though the player can still make decisions in squadron 42 it's not it's it's story driven and narrative driven so they kind of exist separate and also certain characters I believe are only in squadron and you know that kind of thing something question from
00:35:12
the spectrum chat that was voted on are there any unusual instrumentations used for the vanduul being a legitimately alien race yes indeed and well that is that's a good question what I've been up to thus far with the music has not involved a venn duel okay so but that it's certainly that gives turning in my head you're not working chronologically that that's not a story it's not a story like that it's no no I'm sorry no it's not what I'm saying is like you've seen the bulk of what I've done in the vertical slice which doesn't really include them it exists you know but I I completely understand the concept of it I mean like they're they are alien and and let me put it this way any time there was something that gives me an excuse to create a new sound a new tone and that
00:36:01
can be an environment that we're gonna go to in the game it could be a race it could be a character we don't know about yet it's not on the vs there will be an opportunity for me to do something new and fresh and interesting within the soundscape that we're already living in so anyway let me put it this way yes I certainly would do that if that were the the the the hallmark for alien music to me as always if the first thing I always go back to is Star Trek the motion picture when the Klingons okay showed up yeah that I don't know why it wasn't particularly alien yes no it's more yesterday yeah but it was it was the I don't know enough to music your knowledge to be able to effectively express what I'm trying to express but it was it was it was just very powerful and very evocative right and you
00:36:49
remember it yeah free even when even when Klingons would show up on Star Trek next generation or whatever I'm still like you know doing them here - motion picture score no my head for their bits let's see what else do we got here is there a challenge in doing the score for this game that you hadn't foreseen and we talked a little bit about chance before or thought about before you join the project either technologically or just compositionally um I feel like I probably created more challenges than because you know really did turn into some a whole lot of conversations with the audio team can we do this can we make a me saying to them can we get the game engine to do this can we you know and I don't want to get too technical about it but I this is the crowd we okay
00:37:39
look I'm trying to push what what the would a video game music engine can do you know I really mean it when I said I hope that it will make the same decisions that I would make as a composer so I know there's like a large praying mantis or a cricket I don't know what that sound is that is I don't know if it's coming over the microphones but it apologize I'm saying you know know well that what I mean is like we were certainly you know talking a whole lot about how can we how can we do these things you know is it even possible in the music logic and then they'd get back to me and say yes it actually is and you know there's a whole thing you know in the vertical size you're flying through the coil a little bit and you get a tiny touch of what we're going to be doing
00:38:27
with that you know that environment is really special yeah and the way that music is gonna work it's gonna sort of swirl and build up in those stems that I'm talking about but it actually can kind of shift gears in ways that I don't think a music engine has ever done before so you know the challenges are coming because I'm as ambitious as with the music as Chris is with the game let's put it that way yeah that's that's a hallmark of this entire project if every aspect of the I project is it's whatever you thought you were going to do when you beacon trigger its if you do more it's like what would you do what would you do if you could what would you do what would you like to do that no other project will let you do and what else and then find a way to make that happen right you know because that's that's a virtue of being crowdfunding it's a virtue of not going
00:39:15
through the normal development no hierarchy with you know publishers it's like that is we have this freedom to do right what nobody else will do so how do we not take that opportunity I think it's great that we do it yeah it's like what can we do and it's it's not that we're working without a script it's that we're writing a brand-new script that's bigger and better you know we're going like what they call a game development construction it's a very probably plenty of great games that are constructed but we're developing something here and if you're really doing something that's never been done before yeah I don't know way that's never been done to make it there are no instructions there's no instructions and when now that we're starting to see with the vertical slice that it's promises are starting to work and it's gonna you know it's it's only gonna get better but it's pretty cool all right take a step
00:40:01
back away from smarter for you and go more to you here we have a question from the live chat I happen to see a picture on you you have a habit when you dressed up for Halloween look I didn't do this it just came up here what specific music artists influenced your style I showed you a picture that I was Freddie Mercury for Halloween there you great-looking I was I was I had just the mustache and everything and I was also Prince one year so those are you know I came up in rock bands actually you know I grew up in Orange County here in California which means I had a ska band a bad one yeah we tried we were not signed or anything but we sure had a lot
00:40:48
of fun and the point of it was you know we were that was my teenage years and I was playing video games and I was in a band of that was my identity and then you know I listened to rock music I suppose I came up at the time and like Guns & Roses was the big band and I certainly listened to that and eventually got into progressive rock I confess yes albums and what can you do and no I still write yes another King Crimson and the end they still put them on its anyway and then but obviously once that kind of leads you to something in a way it's what led me to longer form because the music things that are not three minute 20 seconds songs which are kind of locked and that it ended up kind of pointing me straight into film music because you really don't have a form handcuffing you you know a piece of music in the film can be twenty
00:41:37
minutes long it could be 11 minutes long depending on what the scene is and so you get to go to all these different places so I liked music that did that the orchestra obviously came into my life at some point and you know I don't know that I came up as like a I know I didn't come up as like a classically trained musician I came up as a rock guy but then started to add in other things you know when I keep doing this too you know another question from the live chat freelancer which is one of Krista's gasps it has some culturally distinctive music depending on the region of space here okay anything like that for squadron 42 yeah that's a four star system sure different baseline yeah well like we would have definitely different locations are going to have their own specific sounds and
00:42:26
like for instance the coil is a location so to speak its geographical so there's a sound for that and I'd be probably not really getting a full dose of it in the vertical slice but there's there's a sound for when you're on the base at the beginning of the vertical slice you know this is a nice friendly territory and that's its own thing and you're certainly going to get it from all the places that we're we're going to show you in the future so yes GI I would say geography and character are the two main informants to what my music is going to be what is your personal goal for the score it says what are you trying to evoke with it that's boiling well sure I mean I've talked a bit about trying to fulfill you know an ambition that that we're trying to do this on the level
00:43:14
that hasn't been done yet so that's certainly a goal break new ground and that some of that is technical but you know I also want to have a really rich varied narrative-driven body of music you know by the time this score is written it's you know I'm telling you I'm already at three hours there's going to be a lot of music so there's going you know I think once that's finished it can be distilled into something like quite amazing actually because it's gonna go to so many different places I'm not saying the music is amazing I'm saying we listen to me but I what I mean is you know we had our quote from the back of the soundtrack there you go quite amazing actually if you look closely it says original score by Jeff
00:44:03
cianelli who is cool who is cool is cool I don't know if that's true well I needed it for spacing okay got it I got it but you know the other thing is well and once you sort of you know put it with Pedro's music - you know we've got an encyclopedia music it's gonna be cool another question fine thread do prominent characters in the story have their own themes very common a Star Wars probably sure most perfectly well known example yeah can we find that you so well yes and and that's gonna be so old man already has one and it's starting to kind of gel a little bit and we're certainly gonna do it with all of the characters in the game so yes that's that's what Larry well the player character yes and I'll tell you something that's actually the really the trickiest thing to me about video game
00:44:53
music as opposed to film you then go and fill music you you know you write to a character in this game you are the player is the character and right and each of them is gonna have a different experience in it so that yes actually it kind of goes back to the most most difficult hurdle or most difficult obstacle in the game is is how do I get into the players head and account for different players different moments different events and but that's that's part of what I would call like the overarching squadron 42 music actually is the players theme if you think if you want to think of it that way fair enough yeah question from the chat what's your favorite instrument well I grew up as a guitar player but and now I would nowadays I would say probably the cello I'm not that I can
00:45:41
play one but I could certainly write for them and I think that it's um you know as a solo or an ensemble which is two very different things it's it's you know the most expressive instrument I can think of it's extraordinary another vigil yeah I from the live chat here when you're composing do you start with a melody and add or subtract on top of it until you're satisfied or do you hear a more completed stone in your head and then try to rough it probably more a more completed sound you know um in fact I would say almost never do I get a melody that comes naked in my head it has something around it and if it's an instrument if it's chords it's probably both actually and then I have to go and sort of dump it out on my head and you know find it but yeah I would say it
00:46:31
comes a pump it comes more complete you know I don't know if it always did but it does now yeah you've worked on another video games before phew this question says when a project your score is done in the game or a movie is out yeah do you watch the final product or play the game well with the games have I did before I'd play it um like beta versions of it as I was working on it and in a way that's kind of what we're doing with the vertical size I can watch it ya know I'm not playing it but but that's the same kind of thing right with the movies sometimes I watch them sometimes I don't I usually if there's a premiere visit than they watch yeah but and sometimes you know it's terrifying a little bit sometimes I like it I'm yeah well I hear that often with with with actors and stuff you don't watch their own work
00:47:20
right and I don't get it big TV here like the entire time he's talking I'm like I'm sad there's he's on the screen i I don't understand it I'm trying not to look at the TV cuz I don't you know see I don't really know what I look like yeah the mirrors that much I should not spit I had a big long beard until just did you oh yeah since you've seen me young we haven't even seen you in a month in January of last year I look just like this okay but the new guru no I just yeah there we go drew myself in January of 2017 which is when we met right we were and I looked exactly like this it was just in the over the last year I made a deal with the community that I wouldn't shave
00:48:07
until this last patch came out and what I thought was just a couple weeks maybe a month or two turn well done you guys well done more than half a year yeah it was to the point where it came to the moment where we were all doing the go no goes to launch yes checking in every check into the montage and we're waiting for Chris to say the go yeah and literally in chat with 400 employees across the world he goes let's wait another 30 minutes to jared has deciphered your razor ready to go so say yes I know so let's see we're just about out of time let's see what that I know it flies to 10 more come on they're listening okay so we know you've worked on music for some of the ship commercials we
00:48:55
talked about the colors already do you have a favorite of those that you did whether some commercial itself or just the track you did for it maybe the constellation are actually because to me that one makes a big promise you know what I mean it makes a big problem what the game is the scope its exploration there's there's some danger but you know what I liked about it especially was that it wasn't just a combat trailer - no I mean it shows the star citizen does so much more than that so that's one that came to mind we also did a little 2001 with the musical at the beginning and then but then it goes into something you know quite hopefully inspirational and aspirational or you know whatever the I I think very much so we see that quite we see that commercial
00:49:43
our backers will make their own stars ISM videos I'm ready mocking that's awesome you have not only gameplay footage but other promotional materials like locations that we do and the footage from footage from that constellation commercial it gets used all the time because it's a very inspirational it's a very aspirational there you go thing right it's it's you know so much of squat there's so much of a star citizen to this point is has been combat focused and that's because that was the first those were the first gameplay systems right it's the mechanical mind it's a core mechanic it's where we started when one of the things that's exciting about star citizen this year next year and as we go forward is branching out away from that shirt and I sure I like the way you put it the the promise that the constellation commercial yeah they had so much more to the
00:50:31
overall starts and experience exactly just fighting right how cool is are the fact that the fan base goes like we're gonna embrace this you know I love I love how involved the fans are in this you know it's exciting it's actually you know we are listening you know I'm paying attention to what they're saying and watching what looking at the vertical slice and seeing you know that it's meaningful to me that there's a feedback mechanism you wouldn't always get before that you yeah what were your thoughts on the Virgo so you you are right you watched it sure what were what were what were you thinking about well and I was watching it knowing full well this is pre-alpha this is you know and we so I think obviously was an eye or an ear to music that's what I was watching it for and I certainly went through it and went here's here's the improvements that I want to make and one of them is how we shape the music around the player you know the whole experience and in
00:51:20
some cases I think that's you know it's not there yet I didn't it will be you know so that's that was my thought on it but as a game as a whole just the story of it I think plays great I think the acting performances are unrivaled I mean I'm thinking it's so great yeah exactly I mean it's like you go on the bridge and just the pretty little conversation you have on the way in or something there's been an attention to detail about that but it's not a throwaway moment yeah I think it's superb for me I was watching it live this at the same time everybody else was I was running the show and just the three prisoner guys step up I don't that could be the only time we see them for all I know sir but just but just those guys as they stepped out they just had such personality yeah exactly it's such a texture right to it to it I'm
00:52:09
like this this could be a little throwaway right right and this one I mean I remember as a child gamer and you know you'd play a game and you'd walk in a town in like seven of the people would say the same thing you know what I mean like nice weather today you know and it's the immersion isn't there and now it is it's like you you just somebody walks by you in the hallway and they have something to say and you know it feels legit and real and visceral so it's the one aspect I still get to be a fan so you get you're gonna have to see me fan out so Jeff that's it that's all no time for thank you so much oh of course man it's been great thank you that's let's try to make it not another year before no that's dude easy okay I'll do together blue maybe we'll talk we're gonna take and take a short break and then we'll be right back with the
00:52:56
wrap-up so I would thanks guys would you be working our little girls hello I'm Christopher Smith an elite shift artists from Austin Texas what else question that's it I don't know what Oh am I saying I didn't know I was supposed to keep saying ago what's up um I'm currently working on a new ship finally just exciting and that's our the Lightning s78 can I talk about that
00:53:48
I don't know I don't know probably so that's our kind of the same things he said ready in three two action hi I'm Josh Koons I work at CAG been here for about three years we're gonna mention been here for about three years
00:54:43
made many shifts greatly ships it was challenging to hear that I put a guy's phone in the ceiling because it was loud about yay yeah that thing's nuts new show Gary wants to do the behind the scenes something that's good stuff I honestly think we can just use all of this yeah yeah sound you hear working at Sears
00:55:32
where should I let that pass this is goons from ATX signing off gotcha hi we're here with C Janine hey tyler witkin we're in the US no we're not in Austin we're in San Antonio huh back south 2018 is the current year we're actually right above the bar citizen let's take a look yes we're sitting at a table with cowboy use the fork Germany yes and after if I can sing that you said yes but more importantly more importantly I
00:56:23
don't get to work with my good friend disco Lando very often cuz he's half a country away but this is a special occasion and Lando and I come over here come come reunited again I enjoyed if we're framed right I don't know but if I turn it around yeah I think it is in it so look you can do a cool paneling I'm a technological I'm tyler witkin say i'm just going oh I'm just colano and we're in San Antonio and that's the bar citizen see you next week bye everybody cuz that good ending it's still recording yeah we're just gonna go with it cool so you see that email well that about wraps things up a special thanks
00:57:12
to Jeff Spinelli for taking the time to join us here in the studio is our guest and some housekeeping before we go we've got a couple big shows coming for you next week on Monday calling all devs returns with your most voted on questions about topics like AEC trading hot fixes before 3.1 and more Thursday's around the verse is the first of our new monthly substan decks Friday we come right back here with our very first squadron 42 centric reverse the verse with special guest game director chris Roberts that's bound to be a good one so save your fire and 42 questions and bring them next Friday so my name is jared huckaby and for all of us here at cloud Imperium games and foundry 42 we hope you have a great weekend we'll see
00:57:59
you next week and I'm Ron Burgundy thank you for watching so if you want to keep up with the latest and greatest in the star citizen of squadron 42 development please follow us on our social media channels see you soon

Transcript from YouTube’s automatic captions — punctuation and Star Citizen jargon are approximate. The video itself is hosted by CIG on the official channel.