Kane Minkus of SomaTone (an audio construction studio) talks to us today about what exactly goes into creating the music and sound for some of your favorite games. It’s pretty cool (and will probably surprise you) how much effort goes into creating a great audio experience!

CR: Tell us a little about SomaTone: Who are you, how did you get started, and what were you doing before SomaTone?

Kane: SomaTone is a team of 10 highly trained audio specialists in the fields of music composition, sound design, mixing and audio production. The principles of the company met at school at Berklee College of Music where we spent years receiving degrees in Music Production, Music Business, Music Synthesis and Song Writing. While at Berklee, we met about this “new idea” of scoring and sound designing for web based content. At that time, the internet was young and not prepared for the content we were interested in designing. So, we left Berklee and went out into the commercial music world to work as music producers, composers, engineers and mixers. Our team ended up working with Pop Stars on their records including: Celine Dion, Destiny’s Child, Ricky Martin, Santana, Savage Garden, Christina Aguilera, Faith Hill, and many others from a programming, engineering and mixing standpoint. Around 2001 the music industry began to slow down (partly from the invention of Napster and sharing/downloading), and many of us began to turn towards other parts of the entertainment industry for additional work. Commercials, films and video games were a great next step for our talents and we ended up spending a great deal of time scoring, sound designing and mixing for picture. After a short time, we reconnected and discussed the original idea for scoring for the web again. It was then that SomaTone Interactive Audio was born. Initially, web work was slow and web content designers were cautious about adding audio to their visuals (for fear of users being annoyed by audio). Today, audio is an essential part of every web site, downloadable game and other web content. SomaTone works on roughly 75 websites and 80 casual games a year (with a handful of films, console games and commercials mixed in between). Our vision that started 6 years ago has come to fruition!

CR: You have worked in a very wide range of products, from commercials to film and console games. Can you tell us a little about working with casual games? How is that different, and what kind of challenges do you face?

Kane: Casual games are among our favorite types of projects, because they are unique to both their technical and artistic requirements. Although they require us to draw on our skills from the films, console games and the advertising world, they also require us to think in a unique frame to properly outfit each game with effective audio. One of the main differences of casual games from our other projects are that the scope of the project is smaller. In a typical casual game we compose anywhere from 6-10 minutes of music (although some have had up to 25 minutes of original music!), and between 40-60 sound effects. We most closely associate casual games with console games (from an artistic approach), but there are many technical differences: the music is treated linearly, the file size limitations are tiny, environmental treatments and mixing are severely limited and audio engines are not standardized (to name a few).

We approach casual games like a mixture between film and console games. Creatively, we work to make each casual game sound as awesome as it can within the creative and technical limitations. By that, I mean, we use the same tools, musicians and sfx design techniques that we use for films or console games. Although, I would say that the most creative challenge comes in designing the music to uniquely unfold in each game (by building tension and release, staying fresh – while looping and being appropriate for the art/narrative), the sfx are also an incredibly game specific challenge (since SFX can be a very subjective). We have worked, over the years, with our developer and publisher teammates to design techniques of layering music cues (to move in and out of tense areas), design appropriate environment sound scapes and sfx that all work together to create, what we call, an “audio branded” experience. One of the best parts of working on casual games is that we almost always create the music, sfx and VO for every game. This allows us to properly set the sfx in key or in sample harmony with the music. With the music team and sfx team sharing recordings, samples, tools and creative ideas, together we create games that sound cohesive and support the narrative fully.

CR: How do you work with developers to get the “right” sound for a casual game? Tell us about your process.

Kane: Our process to get things right the first time is highly specialized. When we begin working with a developer we immediately take the game and capture it for our team to analyze. We begin with using Laban Movement Analysis – this is a technique of using movement analysis tools to fully describe the movement of the game/characters. Laban has been used in motion capture for films and console games for years and we apply it in being able to more fully understand the right way to develop a score and sound design - giving the game greater dimensions (by linking the music and sound design to the game movement, the score helps the game experience become multi dimensional). Once we have a full Laban description of the game, we begin temping the game with music (and sometimes sfx), for us to begin creative meetings with the producers. During the creative meetings with the producers, we get more specific about the exact creative direction their team has in mind, versus what our team has in mind. If they match we go to work. If the two creative concepts don’t match, then we will usually spend some time proving our concept. We strive to be a creative partner with our developers – offering several creative solutions and options as well as a process to get there. Since we work on so many projects, many of our developers and publishers rely on us to guide the audio design and look to us for suggestions of style and integration techniques. We are happy to suggest these things as we feel like we have the most current pulse on what is happening in the industry (since we work on everyone’s games!). Once we begin creating original content, we work closely with the producer on a submission and revision process.

From an internal creative process, we often follow similar steps for each game: Once we establish a creative direction the music team and sound design team meet together and discuss the full scope of the project (this way we can get creative input from everyone). The music team might suggest what sample libraries they will be using and what additional musicians they will need while the sfx team might suggest what additional “on-site” recordings we need to make to fulfill the SFX design. Tools the composers often use are ProTools, Logic, Giga Studio, Live, and hundreds of different VSTi’s. Tools the sound design team often uses are ProTools, Csound, Kyma, Reaktor, Absynth, and hundreds of gigs of original pre-recorded sound efx libraries from our years in film production.

CR: You did the sound and music for some great games like Diner Dash, Sweetopia, Mystery Case Files, Virtual Villagers, and most recently Jewels of Cleopatra. Tell us a little bit about how you found these great projects and how you found the right music for such a diverse group of casual games.

Kane: Often groups have heard about us or we meet through professional involvement in the industry. In the case of Sweetopia and Mystery Case Files, we had already been a staple in the publisher’s diets for audio. Virtual Villagers came our way as a request to review the audio before it launched. We felt we could improve the audio and offered to help in the 11th hour. However, Jewels of Cleopatra was a great partnership between BoomZap, Encore and SomaTone Interactive Audio. I actually don’t remember exactly how Chris Natsuume (the owner of BoomZap) and I met. But we finally got a chance to sit down face to face at a game conference and discussed his game Jewels of Cleopatra. However, it was not until after we saw a working version of the game that we realized that it was a really unique twist on a match three game. The setting and narrative was very strong and the game combined great mini games inside a larger game. We liked it instantly! After having worked recently on a film called The September Tapes (a film set in the Middle East) we had lots of awesome recordings of authentic Duduk’s and Ney’s (Persian and Middle Eastern instruments). We used these along with Middle Eastern melodies to create an authentic score for the game.

One of the best parts of working on Casual Games is the demand to handle a huge variety of scores in different settings, time periods and styles. From score to score, our team is well known for easily switching from one to the next and authentically composing for our clients. With 5 multi-instrumental staff composers - formally trained in classical, jazz, world and contemporary styles, we handle all styles of music.

CR: What do you see happening in the future with casual games? What’s the next big thing we’re going to see in the coming year?

Kane: It would be my guess that casual games will get bigger and bigger in download size and more and more fantastic with the art work and audio. I would love to tell you about all the great projects we are working on, that are going to be released soon, but unfortunately, I can’t! The near future of games are some really addicting games that break the mold of all current games out there. Sometime before spring we should see those released. Also, the SomaTone Team is working on an audio engine to give developers much more professional control of their music and sound design. I also think that we will start to see more currency systems – although they have been slow to hit the market. It is my belief that they will eventually mature and shape the future of casual games.

CR: So how exactly should someone who’s interested in working with you or hearing more about how audio can enhance their games get in touch with you?

Kane: For the developers that would like to know more about our services or need to discuss options of creating great audio for their games, contact us at: kane@somatone.com – or browse our website at www.somatone.com for more info, client feedback and full company portfolio.

CR: Sounds good. Well, thanks again for talking to us today! It’s been very informative and interesting.

You can see more of Somatone and what they do at their website, www.somatone.com. Be sure to check back soon for more features and reviews!