BlizzCon 2007 - Sound & Music Panel

Sound and Music Panel

Russell Brower - Blizzard Lead Composer
Brian Farr - Lead Sound Producer
Derek Duke - StarCraft Composer

The panelists for the music and sound panel included Russel Brower, who is the lead composer of the Outland fore and background music, and much of the original retail game music, Derek Duke who composed the StarCraft soundtrack (including the zerg music) and the Draenei starting area music, and Brian Farr who makes ambient sounds and sound effects.

The panelists said they use music and sounds in gameplay for many reasons. First of all, music is a means that goes beyond a screen to immerse the player in the game world. Also, sound effects give the player information; for instance, a WHACK and your player going "unh!" mean: "hey, you pulled a mob and it's hitting you in the back". Further, in World of Warcraft, players sit there for hours upon hours, and in extended gameplay like that, music and sound help to make it less monotonous and to keep the player from getting bored.

One technique the composers use is to blend the music and ambient sound, or to fade the main music into and out of the ambient track. This way, the music is not too repetitive or jarring; it stays fresher longer. They try to employ this technique in every area, and they achieve it in different ways for each. In Eversong, the wind in the ambient track is tuned to a tritone. The tritone used to be called the "devil's interval" because it's eerie and tense. Thus, the wind in the ambient track creates an underlying tone of tension. Because the wind is set to specific notes, the music in the foreground can be scored to complement the ambience music, so they blend well together.

Brian said that the inspiration for the music and sound comes mostly from their visuals. And more specifically, his inspiration often comes from colors. He says the colors of an area or action set the tone for the atmosphere. The goal is to match the melodies and chords with the overall feeling of an area.

In the Question and Answer portion, the panelists were asked what kind of training they had to prepare them for the sprawling task of scoring this epic game. Russell said that they are all very active gamers and very active listeners. He says he used to act out comic books into a tape recorder, and add sound effects. The panelists agreed on some common influences in their music, such as EverQuest and George Lucas's movies, Indiana Jones and StarWars.

The panel ended with selections from Tavern Songs performed live with an upright bass, harp, violin, various percussion, accoustic guitar, mandolin, accordion, and bass flute. And for the finale, Sylvanus Windrunner sang her song which is the reward to The Lady's Necklace quest.