Interview With Composer, Game Audio Producer Steve Horowitz: Keep On Trackin', Pardner (Video) Interview with Authors of The Essential Guide to Game Audio, Scott Looney & Steve Horowitz. The Sound Architect speaks to renowned game audio professionals and authors of The Essential Guide to Game Audio, Scott Looney and Steve Horowitz. Scott Looney: Is a passionate artist, educator, and curriculum developer who has been helping students understand the basic concepts and practices behind interactive media for over ten years.
He pioneered online audio courses for the Academy of Art University, and has also taught at Ex’pression College, Cogswell College, and Pyramind Training. Scott creates compelling sounds for audiences, game developers, and ad agencies across a broad spectrum of genres and styles. He also performs at experimental festivals, designs custom instruments, and creates performance interfaces utilizing sensors and micro-controllers. Currently researching procedural sound applications in games, and mastering the art of code, he lives in Berkeley. Read our full interview below: First tell us a bit about yourselves, how did your journeys begin in game audio? Game Audio Institute. The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games (Paperback)
Description The Essential Guide to Game Audio: The Theory and Practice of Sound for Games is a first of its kind textbook and must-have reference guide for everything you ever wanted to know about sound for games. This book provides a basic overview of game audio, how it has developed over time, and how you can make a career in this industry. Each chapter gives you the background and context you will need to understand the unique workflow associated with interactive media. The practical, easy to understand interactive examples provide hands-on experience applying the concepts in real world situations.
Author Bio Steve Horowitz is a creator of odd but highly accessible sounds and a diverse and prolific musician. Perhaps best known as a composer and producer for his original soundtrack to the Academy Award-nominated film "Super Size Me Contents Level 1: AAA (Animation, Art, Audio) - Making Sense of Sound For Games Level 2: On the Road - to NOW! Level 4: What Is Hip? Level 6: Compose Yourself! Member Project Spotlight – Steve Horowitz with Fred Frith – CSIC Commissions in Concert. September 2011, Member Project, Steve Horowitz, Fred Frith and Berkeley High School An email interview with composer Steve Horowitz regarding his commission for Berkeley High.
CSIC: Please tell us about the piece you’ve written for Berkeley High. Steve: I wanted to write a piece that would interest the students, and that they would enjoy playing. I also wanted to write a piece that was scalable based on the individual performance level of each player or group of players. The open is fast, pounding and fairly brutal, Think Stravinsky meets Anthony Braxton, and from this wild unstable kernel of raw energy the rest of the piece is conceived! MMMOG was commissioned by Composers and Schools in Concert, performed by the Berkeley High Concert Orchestra with guest artist Fred Frith.
CSIC: What inspired you to focus on this theme? Steve: I have been scoring music for games since the early 1990’s. Steve: All games have rules and this one is no different. Steve: Yes to all of the above. Like this: Digitalmedia/2008/08/29/dmi27-steve-horowitz.html. Composer Steve Horowitz, high above Manhattan. (Click to enlarge.) It's hard to know where to begin when talking with Steve Horowitz. This affable composer and bass player is the audio director for Nickelodeon Online (www.nick.com), churning out interactive soundtracks for Nick and other clients. (His recent soundtrack for Worldwide Biggies' Princess Bride game broke new ground in audio for Flash games, weaving together music and sound effects in a way more evocative of cinema and console games.)
Horowitz also wrote the score for the hit movie Super Size Me, served as music supervisor for MTV's I Bet You Will, and won a Grammy Award for engineering a bluegrass record. Today, though, we spoke about his digitally enhanced chamber music. On September 10 and 11, TCI will perform at Score Fest in New York City, playing Horowitz's The Re-Taking of Pelham One Two Three and Invasion from the Chicken Planet. Right-click or Control-click to download this MP3 file. Production Notes: Recording Links. What advice do you have for composers who think they have what it takes to make it in the commercial marketplace? Steve Horowitz.
Overall, I think you should have a talent for writing to picture, decent people skills, and a warm relationship with technology. Just go out there and meet people. The path is different for everyone. There are a lot of interesting organizations to join for every musical community. There are a lot of opportunities but also a lot of competition. I have friends that can’t deal with the commercial music world at all…they are absolute control freaks and I have tremendous respect for them. They do not wish to merge art and commerce. I, on the other hand, have always been interested in making my living in the field. First off… Be true to yourself. Everyone and their brother will offer to tell you and sell you the exact formula for how to be someone in the music business, but I’d say its all bull. And I am always busy with my own projects too, whether finishing off my first orchestra piece (Mix Re/Mix), or performing with my group The Code International—you gotta keep making new stuff.
Second… Interview: Steve Horowitz and Scott Looney on Making a Name For Yourse. Steve Horowitz and Scott Looney are the authors of our brand new Game Audio courses. Rounik Sethi caught up with them to talk about their background, how they got into game audio, what gear they use and how their Game Audio series will help composers and sound designers to get into game audio. RS: Can you tell us about your background, how you got into music and game audio specifically? Scott Looney: I would say I'm a more recent convert. I come more from the teaching or training perspective. I've done a lot of work in interactive audio in terms of developing rich audio for Flash websites. RS: For you Steve, did you start originally teaching, or composing? Steve Horowitz: Just to highlight a couple of things that Scott said, everything about he and I meeting has been very fortuitous and strangely led us to where we are now. RS: Back then, it must have been a completely new thing.
Steve: Oh absolutely! Scott contemplates the main challenges when creating music and sound design for games. Interview: Steve Horowitz and Scott Looney on Making a Name For Yourse. Interview With Composer, Game Audio Producer Steve Horowitz: Keep On Trackin', Pardner (Video)