Highlight on Video Game Music

Stinger: A triggered short musical phrase that plays over the top of the continuous music.
Looping: Music often needs to play continuously in some scenes and this is when loops are generally used. These loops should seamlessly play into each other.
Adaptive Audio: As more games no longer follow a linear structure, audio elements in games need to be dynamic to game events and adapt to the games surroundings.
Tempo Alteration: Increasing and/or decreasing tempo throughout gameplay to create a different atmosphere for the player.
Digital Signal Processing (DSP): These are used to enact effects to audio in realtime while in the game.
Horizontal Re-sequencing: The ability to switch between musical cues based on a game event
Cues: Changes in music that highlight a game event/new location. Length of these cues varies.
Themes: A recurring musical motif that is the “core” sound for the game. Often used in the opening credits of a game/game menu.
Transitions: Music fading from one scene to another or from one game even to another. These short adaptive seamless musical transitions are important to stop the game audio from being jarring.

Hear from the experts...

We spoke with SQUARE ENIX’s music director Keiji Kawamori to learn more about the process behind arranging FFVII’s iconic melodies and creating original pieces of music for the world of FFVIIR.

Olivier's approach to video game composition has always been about much more than simply scoring the game. It’s not about what players hear, but how and why they hear it.

Game developers Sucker Punch tapped Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi to create this incredible score. Ilan, a 20 year veteran composer went above and beyond alongside Shigeru Umebayashi in creating the soundscape of Tsushima.

Download the stems here

Our library picks for Horror game scoring

Inspiration: Horror Game Scores

Download Stems Here

Our library picks for Sci-Fi game scoring

Inspiration: Sci-Fi Game Scores

The theme song of the video game Civilization IV(2005) was the first video game music composition to win a Grammy Award(2011).
Pong was the first game to incorporate digital audio.
Storage space was a big issue for games in the beginning - it has to be stored physically - but the intro of 8-bit and then 16-bit audio microchips in the 80s led to more musical pieces.
Software used in embedding audio into video games needs to allow for interactive and adaptive elements, such as the changing of reverb between rooms and adaptive mixing and sound design.

Koichi Sugiyama(Dragon Quest) was the first video game composer to put on public orchestral performances of his video game scores in 1987.
Chiptune is a genre of electronic synthesiser music born from using the programmable sound generator (PSG) sound chips or synthesisers in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles.
There’s an even split between freelance video game composers and in-house employed sound teams.