в оригинале так сказать :super2: ...
Creating a track for quake2
In the beginning..
A lot of times a song idea starts with just one sound, a bass line or a simple drum beat...for this case study we choose "Descent into Cerberon" or Track 9 on the Quake 2 cd. This track is a perfect example since its build around a heavy bass line.
Descent into Cerberon
This track started off by me playing this bass line on the keyboard..so the first thing we did is play the Synth Bass line into our seqencer (Cubase Audio) just for 4 bars...a lot of times good ideas come and go really fast so its a good habit to record them right away. This simple bass line would give us enough information to start composing around it.(meaning the overall theme)
Creating a track for Quake2 part2
Drums
Now we`ll start to build a drum pattern around this 4 bar bass pattern. A lot of times we`ll just put the 4 bars into loop mode and 'jam' over it until we find the right drum beat for it. Once we have the perfect beat for it we`ll record once again into our sequencer. The drums you hear are being triggered via a master Keyboard off the Roland 760 sampler and recorded into the computer (Mac 8100). The drum sounds are sampled from a real live kit just for Quake2. If you thought theres a live drummer actually playing then we know we did a good job
.
Recording the guitars
We sometimes compose the guitar riffs on a keyboard and then play it on a guitar. In this case we went with the real thing right away and recorded the guitars into Cubase Audio via Digidesign`s 888 Digital Audio interface. We felt it needed a heavy moving riff something that "talks" with the Bass line we`ve recorded. Once we have a guitar riff that works with the drums and bass, we start to stretch the arrangement out to make room for more ideas.
Creating a track for Quake2 part3
Recording the Guitars part2
We then come up with 4 or 5 more riffs that go well along with the 'main' riff we composed earlier. We then decide which riff works as a 'verse' and as a 'chorus'. We also maybe layer a riff from the verse with the chorus to give it a little more depth. After the guitars are done we open them up in the cubase audio editor and edit the beginings and endings of each riff to get rid of any unwanted 'player noises' like sliding from one chord to the other. We also use Digidesigns Protools Audio editing software for some editing. Track 9 contains 8 individually recorded guitar tracks. Each guitar sits in its own frequency range, meaning each part will be EQ`d differently (like guitar 1 has more highs,g2 has more mids etc) but together they blend in perfectly making the guitars sound "big".
Creating a track for Quake2 part 4
The next step
Once all the guitars are 'edited' we`ll start to look for ambience or other samples that could take the track to the next level. Sometimes we take sounds off so called sample cds but most of the time we create our own stuff because we want to stay away from common sounds. We also use a lot of keyboards like the Korg Trinity which owns an exceptional set of quality sounds and editing possibilities. In this case we used a mixture of orchestral samples together with an ambience patch from the trinity to create the intro for track 9. If you listen close you can hear the orchestral sample in the background during the intro. Ambience actually plays a big part in most of the tracks. It gives each track a wider spectrum of sound which makes it more interesting then just having plain drums and guitars.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 5
Attention to detail
Most of the work goes into the little things like drum fills, smooth transitions from one part to another, programming more drums, looking for unique sounds etc. We`ll work on the track until we achieve a certain flow. That can take from hours to days. For track 9 it took between 3 and 4 days of work. Its easy to over produce things so a lot of times we`ll come to a point (and also due to deadlines) where we have to stop and finish up. When we feel we have an almost finished track, we go away for 2 hours and then come back and listen to the song from top to bottom to make sure it will fit the whole Quake2 theme.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 6
Mixing and mastering
First off we`ll transfer all the tracks we have (midi and audio) to the Adat format
Alesis ADAT XT
heep://www.alesis.com/alesis/ADAT/adatxt.html
For most tracks we need 3 ADATS ( 8 tracks each) giving us 24 seperate digital tracks. . We do this because we mix and master in another studio. Most studios own their own ADAT machines so all we need to bring are the tapes.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 7
Mixing and mastering part2
After each track is separated (kick,snare,hihat,bass,guitars 1 to 8 etc) we can then put the track down to the Adat format. For 24 tracks we need 3 tapes plus backup tapes (You never know). Once we're in the other studio, we`ll start to build a mix. A mix means bringing each element of the song into balance with the rest. We start by doing a submix of the drums. For track 9 that is : kick,snare,hihat,cymbals and another percussive loop which is running underneath the main beat. While mixing you also deal with such things as compression and gating. Compression makes sure that levels wont peak out even when their level (volume) is raised. Its also gives the drums a little more punch. After we have a nice balance on the drums we`ll go on to the bass then guitars. This is not an easy task since we have 8 guitars for track 9. Panning (where the sound sits i.e. left or right ) plays an important part in mixing as well.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 8
Mixing and mastering part 3
Proper panning gives everything it's own spot int the stereo image allowing everything to be heard. Some guitars will go to the left and right and some will fill out the middle. This will give us a nice wide guitar sound. After we`re done with the guitars ( takes from 2 to 3 hours) we`ll move on to the rest, like the ambience and keyboards. We also add a lot of effects like reverb or delay to give the ambience an almost surround sound feel. During this whole process we`ll listen to the track at least 30 or 40 times before we say "sounds good to me".
If we like the mix we have, we`ll record the final mix onto a DAT (Digital Audio Tape).
Creating a track for Quake2 part 9
Mastering
We then transfer the mix from the DAT into Digidesigns Protools Audio editing software. The mastering process gives the mix the final magic it needs to come alive through your speakers. This involves compressing the stereo mix, adjusting overall eq and in our case...raising the overall levels so the needles peg the red..
If done properly, mastering can make the difference between a good mix amd a slamming mix. The final step is burning the music onto a Cd. We then bring the Cd home and compare the sound on differrent audio systems ( in the car, on a jambox, over computer stereo speakers etc.) If the Cd sounds good on all systems then we know we have a slammen mix.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 10
final word
The overall production took 3 1/2 months (for 16 tracks) to complete. Only 8 of these tracks were used for Quake2 due to space limitation (hello dvd). There are tentative plans to release the rest of the tracks with the mission pack for Quake2 due out this spring.
Overall we had a blast working on this game..it was a dream come true.
Sascha and David
DBX 166 Gate &
Compression.
DBX 336 Spectral Enhancer.
Digidesign 888 I/O Hardware.
Macintosh 8100 /128 MB.
Featuring: ProTools 4.01 and Cubase Audio Software
Ensoniq DP4+ Effect unit
Panasonic DAT Pro
Korg Trinity.
Kurzwell 2500/s.
Roland 760 sampler
with 64 megs
JD-990, JV-880 & JD-1080
Digidesign DSP Farm.
Mackie 24-8 Mixboard
with 24-channel expander.
Enjoy :thumbsup:
Creating a track for quake2
In the beginning..
A lot of times a song idea starts with just one sound, a bass line or a simple drum beat...for this case study we choose "Descent into Cerberon" or Track 9 on the Quake 2 cd. This track is a perfect example since its build around a heavy bass line.
Descent into Cerberon
This track started off by me playing this bass line on the keyboard..so the first thing we did is play the Synth Bass line into our seqencer (Cubase Audio) just for 4 bars...a lot of times good ideas come and go really fast so its a good habit to record them right away. This simple bass line would give us enough information to start composing around it.(meaning the overall theme)
Creating a track for Quake2 part2
Drums
Now we`ll start to build a drum pattern around this 4 bar bass pattern. A lot of times we`ll just put the 4 bars into loop mode and 'jam' over it until we find the right drum beat for it. Once we have the perfect beat for it we`ll record once again into our sequencer. The drums you hear are being triggered via a master Keyboard off the Roland 760 sampler and recorded into the computer (Mac 8100). The drum sounds are sampled from a real live kit just for Quake2. If you thought theres a live drummer actually playing then we know we did a good job
.Recording the guitars
We sometimes compose the guitar riffs on a keyboard and then play it on a guitar. In this case we went with the real thing right away and recorded the guitars into Cubase Audio via Digidesign`s 888 Digital Audio interface. We felt it needed a heavy moving riff something that "talks" with the Bass line we`ve recorded. Once we have a guitar riff that works with the drums and bass, we start to stretch the arrangement out to make room for more ideas.
Creating a track for Quake2 part3
Recording the Guitars part2
We then come up with 4 or 5 more riffs that go well along with the 'main' riff we composed earlier. We then decide which riff works as a 'verse' and as a 'chorus'. We also maybe layer a riff from the verse with the chorus to give it a little more depth. After the guitars are done we open them up in the cubase audio editor and edit the beginings and endings of each riff to get rid of any unwanted 'player noises' like sliding from one chord to the other. We also use Digidesigns Protools Audio editing software for some editing. Track 9 contains 8 individually recorded guitar tracks. Each guitar sits in its own frequency range, meaning each part will be EQ`d differently (like guitar 1 has more highs,g2 has more mids etc) but together they blend in perfectly making the guitars sound "big".
Creating a track for Quake2 part 4
The next step
Once all the guitars are 'edited' we`ll start to look for ambience or other samples that could take the track to the next level. Sometimes we take sounds off so called sample cds but most of the time we create our own stuff because we want to stay away from common sounds. We also use a lot of keyboards like the Korg Trinity which owns an exceptional set of quality sounds and editing possibilities. In this case we used a mixture of orchestral samples together with an ambience patch from the trinity to create the intro for track 9. If you listen close you can hear the orchestral sample in the background during the intro. Ambience actually plays a big part in most of the tracks. It gives each track a wider spectrum of sound which makes it more interesting then just having plain drums and guitars.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 5
Attention to detail
Most of the work goes into the little things like drum fills, smooth transitions from one part to another, programming more drums, looking for unique sounds etc. We`ll work on the track until we achieve a certain flow. That can take from hours to days. For track 9 it took between 3 and 4 days of work. Its easy to over produce things so a lot of times we`ll come to a point (and also due to deadlines) where we have to stop and finish up. When we feel we have an almost finished track, we go away for 2 hours and then come back and listen to the song from top to bottom to make sure it will fit the whole Quake2 theme.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 6
Mixing and mastering
First off we`ll transfer all the tracks we have (midi and audio) to the Adat format
Alesis ADAT XT
heep://www.alesis.com/alesis/ADAT/adatxt.html
For most tracks we need 3 ADATS ( 8 tracks each) giving us 24 seperate digital tracks. . We do this because we mix and master in another studio. Most studios own their own ADAT machines so all we need to bring are the tapes.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 7
Mixing and mastering part2
After each track is separated (kick,snare,hihat,bass,guitars 1 to 8 etc) we can then put the track down to the Adat format. For 24 tracks we need 3 tapes plus backup tapes (You never know). Once we're in the other studio, we`ll start to build a mix. A mix means bringing each element of the song into balance with the rest. We start by doing a submix of the drums. For track 9 that is : kick,snare,hihat,cymbals and another percussive loop which is running underneath the main beat. While mixing you also deal with such things as compression and gating. Compression makes sure that levels wont peak out even when their level (volume) is raised. Its also gives the drums a little more punch. After we have a nice balance on the drums we`ll go on to the bass then guitars. This is not an easy task since we have 8 guitars for track 9. Panning (where the sound sits i.e. left or right ) plays an important part in mixing as well.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 8
Mixing and mastering part 3
Proper panning gives everything it's own spot int the stereo image allowing everything to be heard. Some guitars will go to the left and right and some will fill out the middle. This will give us a nice wide guitar sound. After we`re done with the guitars ( takes from 2 to 3 hours) we`ll move on to the rest, like the ambience and keyboards. We also add a lot of effects like reverb or delay to give the ambience an almost surround sound feel. During this whole process we`ll listen to the track at least 30 or 40 times before we say "sounds good to me".
If we like the mix we have, we`ll record the final mix onto a DAT (Digital Audio Tape).
Creating a track for Quake2 part 9
Mastering
We then transfer the mix from the DAT into Digidesigns Protools Audio editing software. The mastering process gives the mix the final magic it needs to come alive through your speakers. This involves compressing the stereo mix, adjusting overall eq and in our case...raising the overall levels so the needles peg the red..
If done properly, mastering can make the difference between a good mix amd a slamming mix. The final step is burning the music onto a Cd. We then bring the Cd home and compare the sound on differrent audio systems ( in the car, on a jambox, over computer stereo speakers etc.) If the Cd sounds good on all systems then we know we have a slammen mix.
Creating a track for Quake2 part 10
final word
The overall production took 3 1/2 months (for 16 tracks) to complete. Only 8 of these tracks were used for Quake2 due to space limitation (hello dvd). There are tentative plans to release the rest of the tracks with the mission pack for Quake2 due out this spring.
Overall we had a blast working on this game..it was a dream come true.
Sascha and David
DBX 166 Gate &
Compression.
DBX 336 Spectral Enhancer.
Digidesign 888 I/O Hardware.
Macintosh 8100 /128 MB.
Featuring: ProTools 4.01 and Cubase Audio Software
Ensoniq DP4+ Effect unit
Panasonic DAT Pro
Korg Trinity.
Kurzwell 2500/s.
Roland 760 sampler
with 64 megs
JD-990, JV-880 & JD-1080
Digidesign DSP Farm.
Mackie 24-8 Mixboard
with 24-channel expander.
Enjoy :thumbsup:
