Cakewalk Case Studies: Sean Murray and Tim Wynn
Dominic Milano
SONAR X1
When Cakewalk released its SONAR X1 digital audio workstation (DAW), they weren't just giving composers a world-class set of audio tools; they were giving them a solution to their production challenges. Here, DIG takes a look at how two game composers have integrated the suite into their studio workflows and brought the power of SONAR to bear on their latest projects.
Sean Murray
Composer Sean Murray started his career at the age of 19. His credits include the hit TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the games True Crime: Streets of L.A., Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Production Challenges
On his latest project, Call of Duty: Black Ops, after first laying down his orchestral tracks using sampled instruments, Murray needed to swap them out for live orchestral recordings. This called for delivering a score for a 79-piece orchestra to another recording studio for recording, and then digitally manipulating the various stems.
The Solution
Cakewalk SONAR and a Mackie digital mixing board serve as the hub of Murray's studio. SONAR's complement of virtual synths and percussion, along with extensive MIDI and digital-audio recording capabilities, give him the flexibility to start composing right away.
He starts each audio cue by loading its corresponding video clip into SONAR. From there, rhythmic elements, melodic ideas or sound design elements drive the composition. "When you're writing for moving pictures and games, it's usually best to go with the first idea you have as you're looking at the video," says Murray.
Murray uses four computers: One of them runs SONAR, and the other three are dedicated to TASCAM GigaStudio sample player software, which he uses for brass, strings, percussion and for extended polyphony when he runs out of voices for a given cue.
On Black Ops, Murray was often running 110 tracks of digital audio, MIDI and orchestral recordings. He utilized SONAR's Track Folders feature to organize his score by instrument groups. For example, he put 15 string tracks in one folder, MIDI and brass tracks in another folder, audio data for 36 tracks in another, and so on.
Orchestral stems from Pro Tools were brought back into SONAR, where SONAR's battery of effects were used to, as Murray puts it, "absolutely destroy a sound beyond recognition so it's something fresh." Also used frequently were Transient Shaper, V-Vocal and the Z3TA+ virtual synthesizer that comes with SONAR.
Tim Wynn
Tim Wynn's credits as a composer span a number of television shows and motion pictures, including the hit CW series "Supernatural" and the 2010 feature film To Save a Life. His game credits include Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Red Faction: Guerilla. He is currently working on two unannounced titles for 2011.
Production Challenges
As modern games strive to be more cinematic, Wynn's challenge is to enhance the storyline by writing music that adds to whatever drama is taking place. "I'm at my best when my score helps the player make an emotional connection to the story, the characters and the gameplay," says Wynn.
To accomplish that goal, Wynn needed a DAW that would allow him to import and play back video clips, while giving him the power to record and play back over 120 audio tracks and effects, as well as 30 or more stems, simultaneously.
For Command and Conquer, recording was done at Skywalker Ranch on an Avid Pro Tools system. So Wynn needed a DAW that could import stems (discreet parts of a composition saved as an individual audio element, often used in remixing) mixed in Pro Tools and further tweak them using various effects plug-ins, virtual synthesizers, synthetic percussion and instruments from multi-gigabit sample libraries.
The Solution
Cakewalk SONAR became Wynn's go-to DAW. He found that it gave him the computing muscle to run multiple effects plug-ins on all of his audio tracks, and include virtual synthesizers and percussion as well as MIDI tracks in the mix -- all without having to render submixes before being able to hear the overall result.
He says he's more than satisfied with the performance of his DAW system. "With SONAR, I don't need to be so wrapped up in tech," says Wynn. "I can just worry about creating music. The computer and the software unshackle me."
Dominic Milano spent over 30 years in print, online and event media production before signing on as one of the writing muses for Rose & Her Minions. He’s worked on DV, Game Developer, Keyboard and Guitar Player magazines, as well as the Game Developers Conference.
Twitter: @ihavenet
Videogaming & Video Game Reviews
- 'Terraria' and 'Universe Sandbox'
- 'MotorStorm: Apocalypse'
- Cakewalk Case Studies: Sean Murray and Tim Wynn
- Thought Leaders: Bonnie Nardi
- Chatting With John Martin of Reallusion
- 'Galaga 30th Collection'
- The Way of the Samurai: Chatting With James Russell of The Creative Assembly
- Audio for Games Reimagined: SONAR X1
- 'Hunted: The Demon's Forge'
- Baseball Simulation in MLB 2K11: Part 2
- Video Game Thought Leaders: Matt Ployhar
- Daggerdale - Talking With Tim Ernst of Bedlam Studios
- Fallen Enchantress Is Set to Rise
- 'Mortal Kombat' and the First Amendment
- 'Infamous 2'
- 'Fable III'
- E3 2011 Showcases a Big Year for PC Gaming
- Happiness Is a Warm Gun: Chatting With Emotional Robots
- 'Fate of the World'
- 'The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings'
- 'L.A. Noire'
- PlayStation Network: After the Fall
- Value Proposition - PC or Console Games?
- Complexity in 'Civilization'
- 'Dragon Age II'
- Creating the Baseball Simulation in MLB 2K11
- Hear That Knocking Sound? It's PC Gaming!
- 'Portal 2'
- Saving the Universe One LEGO Brick at a Time
- Synchronization Between Threads in the Infernal Engine
- Thought Leaders: Eleanor Wynn
- The Art of War: Shogun 2
- Solid-state Drives Revolutionize Gaming
- War Production: Chatting With Frank Pearce of Blizzard
- 'Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime'
- Darkspore Creatures Come to Life
- Finding the Next Challenge in Visual Computing
- 'The Sims: Medieval'
- The Future of PC Gaming? A Personal Viewpoint
- Explosion of Creativity: Power of Online Communities
- 'Homefront'
- Game Optimization for Modern Hardware
- 'PixelJunk Shooter 2: The Belly of the Beast'
- Pixels and Sand
- Sneak Peek at DC Universe Online With Chris Cao
- Thought Leaders: Orion Granatir
- Combat Duality in Cakewalk Case Studies: Sean Murray and Tim Wynn
- 'Jikandia: The Timeless Land'
- Exclusive Look at Homefront
- GDC 2011: Sneak Peek of Battlefield 3
- Talking Dragon Age II With Valve Software's Erik Wolpaw
- Nathan Camarillo of Crytek Talks Crysis 2 and CryEngine 3
- 'Two Worlds II'
- 'Dungeons'
- Peter Molyneux Talks Fable III and Commitment to PC Gaming
- There's an App for That Game
- Talking Tech Tactics With Football Manager 2011
- 'Kingdom Hearts Re:coded'
- 'Dead Space 2'
- 2K Sports Announces 'NHL 2K11' for Apple iPad
- 'Dead Space' for iOS
- Why are Video Games for Girls so Lame?
- The Muddy Beauty of DiRT 2
- The Reality of Indie Game Development
- Using Artificial Intelligence in Game Development
- Top 10 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2011
- Need for Speed Drives Back to Roots
- Developing and Optimizing Games for Netbooks
- 'Bejeweled 3'
- Rolling Thunder, Analytics and Performance Drive Need for Speed World
- Who You Gonna Call? Ghostbusters Challenges
- Dude! Who Killed My First-person Shooter?
- Racing to the Finish Line: Chris Southall Talks Total War and Sonic
- The Force Remains Strong with LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars
- Unreal Engine 3 Brings Chadam to Life on Web Video
- 'Pac-Man Championship Edition DX'
- 'Infinity Blade'
- TRON: Evolution -- Game Developers Go Hollywood
- EA Sports Moves Graphics-rich Gaming Online
- Humble Opinions: From The Sims to Indie Games
- Meet Mr. Industrial: Justin Lassen's Music Machine
- 'Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood'
- 'Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem'
- 'Time Crisis Razing Storm'
- 'Arcania: Gothic 4'
- 'Disney Epic Mickey'
- 'Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light'
- 'Ace Combat: Air Assault'
- 'Game Dev. Story'
- Epic Games Unveils 'Gears of War 3' Multiplayer Details
- 'Castlevania: Lords of Shadow'
- 'Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1'
- 'Amnesia: The Dark Descent'
- 'Enslaved: Odyssey to the West'
- 'Valkyria Chronicles II'
- 'Dead Rising 2'
- 'Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'
- 'Halo: Reach'
- 'Mafia II'
- 'Scott Pilgrim' vs. Its Video Game References
Video Games: Cakewalk Case Studies: Sean Murray and Tim Wynn
Copyright © 2011 Studio One Networks. All rights reserved.
Your Favorite Comic Strips Online
Daily Comics & Your Favorite Comic Strips Online
Your favorite comics strips Animal Crackers, Annie, Bound & Gagged, Brenda Starr, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy, Broom-Hilda, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley, Gil Thorp, Housebroken, Loose Parts, The Middletons, Pink Panther, Raising Hector, Sylvia, 9 to 5, Bliss, Bottom Liners, Love Is..., Pluggers all online at ComicStripNation.com