[Interview] Jeramiah "Module" Ross
We sit down with the Kiwi composer behind Shatter and quiz him on everything from Daft Punk to, yes, Lord of the Rings.
Published: August 19, 2009
TPS: As someone that's fairly new to games, what do you think of the way they handle audio, and music in particular? So few gamers actually have a sound setup to properly appreciate the work that's gone into stuff like 5.1 separation (nothing beats hearing Shatter's music in surround, by the way, as much as we love the soundtrack), but there has to be some allure in composing stuff to properly attack all those separate channels.
JR: if anyone reading this has some knowledge of audio game programming, I can say FMOD can be a bit of pain to get your head around. It doesn't have a mixer which is a bit tricky. When I did all the sound effects, I had to mix them all outside of the audio game engine by batch processing them in Sound Forge. Shatter is only in 2.0 stereo, but that's awesome if it's working on 5.1. I used pretty extreme stereo fields to give the music that sense of space and then just slam the effects straight down the middle. Yeah, I have seen a few youtube videos of Shatter's game play and it sounds like its playing off a cheap radio, but the energy still comes across and I guess that's the most important thing. Most headphones these days have a pretty good dynamic range. It's more of a personal thing going all the way to make things sound good. So I know that I did my best to make it sound amazing, so if it's ever going to be played on a really good system, then it's going to sound really awesome and help you get totally lost in it. Cause that's what I love, getting lost in music and hopefully it has that effect on other people.
TPS: Since I'm sure everyone asks what your favorite track is, we'll do the opposite: is there anything you just weren't happy with by the time the project finally wrapped? What would you have tweaked in retrospect?
Hmm, Track 10 I feel could have had a bit more time in the oven, But mostly I am pretty happy with it all. I think cause I worked on it for over a year, I really had time to make sure I was happy with most things. I am a perfectionist but I feel pretty happy about the whole soundtrack. Maybe I would have liked to run it all on to analog tape to give it a more retro feel.
TPS: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. We know you've been bombarded by people freaking out about the soundtrack, and it really does mean a lot that you'd be willing to answer what are probably the same 10 questions over and over again. Since we've got you, though, this is your chance to plug any/all gigs you've got coming up and point people toward any sites where they can hear your stuff. Go fer it!
JR: No problem at all. Goodtimes. !! Pretty much you can check out what I am up to on my blog which is over at www.module.co.nz/blog also find me on Facebook (Search for Module) for news and updates.
Live, I am pretty keen to perform the Shatter soundtrack somewhere and film it in HD for youtube. I have a bandcamp page setup too on www.module.bandcamp.com which has my first 2 albums, a free live album, an ambient album and a couple of singles. I am working on loads more digital singles that are in a fun futuristic electro style, a new album and various other projects. You can just sign up to my blog via the feedburner form and that will keep you in the loop on the various musical adventures I’m going on. Thanks heaps !!
A huge thank you to Jeramiah for having such great answers to our lame questions. For those that are curious about the album, you can head to the official Bandcamp page to listen to the whole damn thing as a stream. If that's not good enough or you're curious about Shatter, we have five copies of the game and the soundtrack to give away. All you have to do for a chance to win 'em is post a comment right down there. vvvv (Make it a good one, though, or we'll just ignore ya.)
JR: if anyone reading this has some knowledge of audio game programming, I can say FMOD can be a bit of pain to get your head around. It doesn't have a mixer which is a bit tricky. When I did all the sound effects, I had to mix them all outside of the audio game engine by batch processing them in Sound Forge. Shatter is only in 2.0 stereo, but that's awesome if it's working on 5.1. I used pretty extreme stereo fields to give the music that sense of space and then just slam the effects straight down the middle. Yeah, I have seen a few youtube videos of Shatter's game play and it sounds like its playing off a cheap radio, but the energy still comes across and I guess that's the most important thing. Most headphones these days have a pretty good dynamic range. It's more of a personal thing going all the way to make things sound good. So I know that I did my best to make it sound amazing, so if it's ever going to be played on a really good system, then it's going to sound really awesome and help you get totally lost in it. Cause that's what I love, getting lost in music and hopefully it has that effect on other people.
TPS: Since I'm sure everyone asks what your favorite track is, we'll do the opposite: is there anything you just weren't happy with by the time the project finally wrapped? What would you have tweaked in retrospect?
Hmm, Track 10 I feel could have had a bit more time in the oven, But mostly I am pretty happy with it all. I think cause I worked on it for over a year, I really had time to make sure I was happy with most things. I am a perfectionist but I feel pretty happy about the whole soundtrack. Maybe I would have liked to run it all on to analog tape to give it a more retro feel.
TPS: Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. We know you've been bombarded by people freaking out about the soundtrack, and it really does mean a lot that you'd be willing to answer what are probably the same 10 questions over and over again. Since we've got you, though, this is your chance to plug any/all gigs you've got coming up and point people toward any sites where they can hear your stuff. Go fer it!
JR: No problem at all. Goodtimes. !! Pretty much you can check out what I am up to on my blog which is over at www.module.co.nz/blog also find me on Facebook (Search for Module) for news and updates.
Live, I am pretty keen to perform the Shatter soundtrack somewhere and film it in HD for youtube. I have a bandcamp page setup too on www.module.bandcamp.com which has my first 2 albums, a free live album, an ambient album and a couple of singles. I am working on loads more digital singles that are in a fun futuristic electro style, a new album and various other projects. You can just sign up to my blog via the feedburner form and that will keep you in the loop on the various musical adventures I’m going on. Thanks heaps !!
A huge thank you to Jeramiah for having such great answers to our lame questions. For those that are curious about the album, you can head to the official Bandcamp page to listen to the whole damn thing as a stream. If that's not good enough or you're curious about Shatter, we have five copies of the game and the soundtrack to give away. All you have to do for a chance to win 'em is post a comment right down there. vvvv (Make it a good one, though, or we'll just ignore ya.)
