Q: When did the composing for Napoleon: Total War start?

The initial composing started in the summer 2009 and picked up pace towards the end of the summer period. The score and orchestration were completed towards the end of November ready for our recording sessions at the start of December.

Q: Were there any challenges in giving the soundtrack its own identity, as Napoleon is set in a similar time period to Empire: Total War?

This was perhaps the most challenging yet rewarding part of the music production. For those who may not have heard the score to Empire: due to the size of the game the music is very broad, featuring music tailored to European, American, Indian, Ottoman and Native American factions throughout the battles, campaign and movies.

Napoleon differs from Empire in many ways but one of the most significant is that it is set almost entirely in Europe, so we could focus the score to reflect this. Since Empire featured a lot of music that still also occurred in Europe and America and had music flavoured to suit this we wanted to differentiate the sound of Napoleon from Empire so I decided to focus the music direction heavily on the classical style of the period. It was a nice challenge to see how we had to shape and tailor music of a classical nature to fit the dramatic needs of the game.

Q: During the composing process do you write to in-game footage, FMV or storyboards?

The process for composing for me personally hasn’t changed much between Empire and Napoleon, that is that for the battles I’d get visual captures of the game as a movie file which will then be loaded in to my composition package Digital Performer and then I would compose while watching it like a movie, but not tailoring it to match events as you never know when these will happen in the game. You have to play it a little safer and less thematic to avoid repetition problems. For the campaign section of the game I studied lots of Mozart and Beethoven for the styles that I wanted and then produced relaxed, slow paced tracks in that vein – this was also the direction I gave to the other composers on the project. Finally, for the in-game cinematic sequences, these were provided to us as storyboards but with the timing exactly mapped out where we needed ‘sync’ musical highlights to.

Q: As the game is based around Napoleon, did you establish any unique musical themes for the character?

Absolutely. Since the game was about a legendary historical figure I wanted to give him a unique theme which suggested his passion and his military status but was also in keeping with the period. His theme and the flavour it sets with it’s tone is then used throughout the game tying it all together.

In terms of music direction I wanted we looked heavily at classical composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and some of their contemporaries to absorb these flavours so we could convey the period flavor in the music.

Q: With the game largely set in Europe, did it still give you much scope for variety?

Sure, this wasn’t a problem for a number of reasons. The game features (as did Empire) 3 specific areas that are Land battles, Ocean battles and Campaign strategy. Each of these sounds different. Land battles focus on quicker and slightly more intricate writing with an emphasis more on conveying a ‘military’ sound, through trumpets and snares. Ocean battles tend to be slower to work better with the pace that the naval engagements occur and help emphasise the size and might of the ships. There the emphasis is more on horns/brass and percussion to convey power. The campaign features some lovely pure classical style tracks, designed to ebb and flow gracefully without becoming intrusive while you plan and make your strategic decisions. Lots of string quintet, gently sung choir, harp and piano based compositions play here. Finally, lots of variety and interest is offered in the scoring of the in-game cinematic sequence, which are also much stronger in their use of the classical language.

Also, a first for a Total War project was that we used a live choir. Not only did we decide to flavour some of the orchestral tracks with choir but I decided to feature a handful solo choir tracks also, which really added a lot to the campaign listening experience and gave us some interesting challenges in creating the Latin phrases for them to sing.

Q: Where and when was the score recorded?

The score was recorded over the 3rd-4th December 2009, as with Empire by The Slovak National Symphony Orchestra at the Slovak Radio Concert Hall, Bratislava. The choral parts were performed by Lucnica – The Slovak National Chamber Choir. We recorded a small sized orchestra for the Theme, Credits and most of the in-game cinematics that would have been the same size used in the 18th Century by composers such as Beethoven. For the battle and deployment tracks the orchestra was huge, 84 players in total to convey the weight and power we required for this music. The campaign and loading screen music was recorded in separate strings and choir sessions. The game then randomisies between these as you play the game.

Q: How many musicians were in the orchestra and choir?

The soundtrack features the biggest musical line up we have ever had in a Total War project. It featured an 84 piece full symphonic orchestra and a 44 member SATB choir.

Q: How did you source the sound effects in the game?

A game like Napoleon features a balanced mix of realistic and hyped Hollywood style (big and bold) sound effects to help create an interesting mix and listening experience. When we first get the specs for the game and I have my initial meetings with the designers, artists and animators I will begin to draw up our assets lists and start making decisions on which effects we want need to record, which effects we may already have recorded previously , and which we can create out of combining our in-house custom recorded and commercial libraries.

If we are custom recording effects this will be either recorded at our in-house facility live room or it will be recorded on location.

Q: What is your favourite track from the album and why?

My favourite track would probably be track 1, Napoleon’s theme – simply because it sums up for me what the game is about emotionally. Passion and power.

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• Eurogamer: Music to Play Games By

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Composer Richard Beddow and his team have been delivering some of the best scores for videogames that one could hope for. The soundtracks for Empire: Total War, and Viking: Battle for Asgard are two exceptional examples of the stellar work being produced. In this interview, Richard takes us behind the innovative process that he employs and offers some great insight about the wonderful music we’re being treated to. Enjoy.

ScoreNotes: I really enjoy the music you’ve delivered of late, both with Viking: Battle for Asgard and Empire: Total War. Can you tell us a little bit about how you and the composing teams you’re involved with seem to work so well together?

Richard Beddow: I think the reason that it works so well is because we realised that when you are working with a team of composers, the main goal is to achieve consistency in style. You can imagine, unless certain measures are introduced, you could easily end up with a score that has no unity and could vary technically and artistically. In a project like Viking for example — which has a story as its foundation –I created initial cues to set the musical vibe and tone. These were then sent to the other composers in order for them to create tracks in a like style. Additionally, I would ask them to also take key fragments of my themes to incorporate and vary in to their own tracks, thereby binding all the cues and having a common thread run through related cues. One of the things I like about working with other composers is that each brings a different musical perspective to the table, yet while I am asking them to produce in a required style, incorporating themes and such we still get individuality coming through within the cues, which helps give a nice sense of ‘flavouring’ to the music.

When we start out on a project we don’t always know at the outset if we’ll be able to record with an orchestra, and it may be such that budgets don’t stretch to this or schedules might make it impractical – so we have to prepare for this scenario. This essentially means we could end up shipping the game using the MIDI versions of our scores. Firstly, this means we still have to produce high quality mockups and secondly, it brings us back to the goal of achieving consistency. Since our composers work out of their own studios with different tools and such we needed a way to narrow things down to ensure that our MIDI versions sounded as close as possible. So to do this I built up a list of libraries we’d use to create the music, then I would ensure that the composers we used had these libraries and were instructed to create their new templates to incorporate them. This resulted in MIDI cues that were consistent in sound and fully orchestrated before we go to record it live.

When it comes to the live recordings, there is one process left to ensure that the blend of composers music matches as much as possible and that is the orchestration. Once I have approved all composer cues, MIDI files were produced, edited, cleaned and sent off to Nic Raine, the orchestrator. I think that it was important in terms of achieving consistency that we used 1 sole orchestrator on the project because he would see and ‘process’ all the cues and could make changes to our orchestrations where needed to bring one cue for example more in line with another, helping it to sound like one voice.

ScoreNotes: In your recent score for, Empire, you had an opportunity to tackle both adventurous and dramatic subject matter set in the Revolutionary War period . What was your overall plan of attack for this project?

Richard Beddow: The game features a campaign called ‘The Road To Independence’ which is essentially like a sub-game within Empire – it’s a mini quest. This campaign is based on the buildup of the American revolution leading to the Declaration Of Independence. Musically, this section of the game is very different from the rest of Empire because it has to support the drama of this build up via a collection of short in-game movies sequences. This was a nice section of the game to work on because it allowed us the opportunity to create themes that don’t have to withstand the repetition, like say the in-game battle music, which meant we had more freedom to express ourselves. Tonally, as the subject matter involved uniting America, we wanted to have a build in the music towards the final movie, so basically early movies played down any hint of Americana where as the latter ones embraced it.

ScoreNotes: Part of what I enjoy about the work you’re doing is that the music seems to transcend the game and makes for a great listening experience. Can you talk a bit about the thought that goes into making a well arranged soundtrack release?

Richard Beddow: On the soundtrack, the goal is to present the best listening experience from the game, but in doing so being sensitive to the story or concept behind the game. First and foremost the music we produce has to function well with the game visuals, but generally I want all the pieces to sound as good as possible outside of the game also so I’ll strive for making the music the best it can be whether created by myself or one of the team. When we’re ready to start preparing for a CD release, I generally start by evaluating all the available tracks picking out the strongest candidates, paying attention to not only the compositional strength but also the orchestrational colours and making note to put aside those cues which are significant story telling cues as these will form the backbone of the release. Next, I’ll set out the backbone tracks on a timeline so I can see a start, middle and end to the CD, following on from which I will begin inserting the remaining tracks around them in an order which can support the telling of the story. Once I have completed the process as above, I’ll play through the list assessing the structure and feel of the tracks to work out if any of the non backbone tracks need replacing with a better alternative, whether that’s due to feel, tempo, structure or orchestration and so on, always trying to keep the listening experience as good as possible. Finally having the tracks also recorded live helps regarding the enjoyment of the listening experience; it adds depth, detail and life in to all the musical parts.

ScoreNotes: What cues do you feel stand out as the highlights from the Empire soundtrack?

Richard Beddow: If I was to compile a selection of say 5 tracks that I felt represent the game well in terms of a cinematic listening experience I would chose The Empire Theme, Uncharted Waters, The Pirates Attack, Plotting the Rebellion and The Powhaten Attack.

ScoreNotes: Moving on to another score from your team, Viking: Battle for Asgard. I found that the choral sections in it were truly captivating and entertaining!. What were some of the inspirations behind those cues and how much fun was it to write music with such an epic tone?

Richard Beddow: For a composer, Viking represented a fantastic opportunity. Not only because we’re given the opportunity to record the score live with orchestra and choir but also because of the opportunities within the game which allowed for some very colourful writing. With a fantasy game which featured gods, dragons, magic, undead armies and so on, there is an awful lot of scope to dig in to this with the music. To support these elements we knew early on the music needed to sound huge to support the epic battles and such but adding choir was a way to really tap in to the fantasy element and especially enhance the battles with the hoards from the underworld. The choir gave a truly dark sense of godly power to the battle tracks and movie sequences. The visuals for this game are very good and inspiring to work with, but aside from working with the game itself I also got hold of concept art and still images from the game to help immerse myself in this world and absorb it’s flavour.

ScoreNotes: Can you talk about the technology that you used in support of the orchestral elements in Viking and Empire?

Richard Beddow: Each composer has his own person setup which he is comfortable working with – though as mentioned earlier we are using the same sample libraries for consistency. In my case, my composing setup is based on an Intel Mac Pro running Digital Performer, this handles all the sequencing and mixing. This is then fed via ADAT 16 channels of audio from two PC’s that are kitted out with all the sample libraries. When we come to record the score live we record on to Pro Tool HD via an assortment of high end pre-amps and converters. In the case of both scores, each cue had a click track set up to provide the conductor and musicians timing info, this is crucial because some of the tracks were to movie segments, some needed electronic samples adding at a later date and we’d need the ability to splice different ‘takes’ of the recordings together when we needed to, all of which would not have been easy if we’d not use the click. If we are combining electronic elements back with the orchestra we will create a ‘stem’ mix of those elements and bring it with us to the recording session so we can hear it with the live orchestra. If no further tweaking of it is needed it will then become part of the final mix.

ScoreNotes: In general, do you feel that fans of film scores are missing out on something great if they haven’t explored the world of game music yet?

Richard Beddow: Without a doubt, yes. While I do think that Hollywood budgets still allow for producing scores which are for the most part not achievable on the majority of game audio budgets, as you’re aware some of the orchestral game scores coming out now are on par with film scores technically and artistically and are very enjoyable listening experiences. Additionally, many games have such diverse levels and therefore music requirements that there is every possibility to build a good musical journey on the CD like you would with a film score and deliver an interesting and moving experience on a CD release. Furthermore, aside from the increase in live orchestral scores we are seeing now, there are also many scores which are hybrids fusing electronics and orchestra or are simply electronic driven scores like you might get on a racing game etc. There is such a wealth of interesting game music out there that I think the music fans, whether or not they are film score fans would be missing out on if they never explored this genre.

ScoreNotes: As composer who has worked on many top video game projects, how impressed are you in how quickly game music has evolved into what it is today?

Richard Beddow: Well, from a technology stand point we have had the capability for well over a decade to stream Redbook (CD quality) audio from the game discs, this was the first hurdle. The only thing to have limited the musical output during these early days was budget, sampling technology and the composing talent available. So in the early days, game soundtracks featuring orchestral music would have sounded very MIDI. What has been impressive is the sudden shift that was created by the likes of Gigastudio and Kontakt allowing composers access to heavily detailed and superbly recorded orchestral sample libraries facilitating realistic mockups and taking MIDI scores and demos up a level. No doubt this has helped in allowing developers and publishers see what a great score can sound like and surely has helped in securing budgets to record with orchestras and choirs.

Hi guys,

We recently had the chance to interview Richard Beddow at The Creative Assembly to find out more about the music of Empire: Total War!

Q: When did the composing for Empire start?

Composing stated in the summer of 2008 and was completed towards the end of November in time for us to meet the deadlines to record our score live with the orchestra.

Q: What were the main challenges in the music production for Empire?

We approached the music in a somewhat ‘Hollywood’ fashion, that is, we decided early on to feature orchestra, have an epic cinematic score to really get across the sense of size and scale of a game as large as Empire and to support the battles with the necessary level of might within the music. So, with that in mind the most important thing then lay in getting these qualities in to all the music including those of the other cultures. While this is fine for western sounding music, it can be more tricky to get the right level of fusion when dealing with other cultures, for instance fusing western orchestral music with eastern instruments and scales and still maintaining the overall drive and sound that we’re after from the music. It was important to incorporate as much ethnic material as possible to give the right cultural flavour but while still retaining the orchestral and ‘Hollywood’ feel.

The above approach was applied to each music track and once these were complete the next challenge was to prepare all the music from the MIDI mock-ups in to a format for us to record the music with a live orchestra. Prepared MIDI files were created and then sent to the orchestrator in order to get the printed parts ready for the musicians.

Q: During the composing process do you write to in-game footage, FMV or storyboards?

A combination. The in-game footage helps to give you a sense of the games atmosphere and also allows you to try your music against the visuals to perfect the style. The storyboards were used essentially for the movie sequences in the game, mostly for the Road To Independance missions. The graphics and final renders for these movies were not complete when we needed to start the composing process, so due to the fact that we had internal deadlines and those with the orchestra and I needed to approve the music as soon as possible, get it to our orchestrator and printed before the recording, so we had to use static storyboard movies with placeholder voice over to write the music to. Far from ideal but doable. The shorter movie sequences such as the win and lose movies were almost fully complete visually so these were used to compose to in their case.

Q: What are the main differences between writing music for cutscenes and writing for the in game battles and what are the challenges faced with each?

Well, the cutscenes are miniature movies so we’ll obtain digital videos or storyboards as mentioned above and write to them as if its a film. We’ll contour the tempo, dynamics and melodic shape to fit perfectly to the onscreen drama. With in-game music, you obviously have no ‘locked’ visuals to synchronize the music to as it is constantly changing, so effectively what you end up writing is music that gives a mood for the battle but is not restricted by the visuals. Additionally with in-game music, due to the amount of repetition the music will undergo you have to play it a little safer in terms of how melodic you make it as the more thematic you make the material the more chance it has of grating on the end user over extended play. With the cutscenes, they will be viewed only once in a while or maybe only once so you can be very thematic but you have to keep in mind fitting it to the dialogue if it is present and not overpowering it. Much in-game music also has to be designed to loop, for instance battle music. We have to make sure that the material in the printed score around the looping areas works both musically and in terms of dynamics to get a smooth match when it loops. Other than that, we will actually want to create as much unity as possible with material used in-game with that in the cutscenes so where possible we will re-use or adapt our themes/styles where appropriate.

Q: Where do you being the composing process with a project as large as Empire?

Before we can start the composing process we need to know where music will feature in the game, what styles we’ll require and how and when they will be played in the game. So we simply start by answering those questions.

The basic idea for the campaign music looked back to how music was used in the original Total War game Shogun. In Shogun, campaign music was almost used as a sound effect, providing flourishes of musical colour on various oriental instruments, effectively small melodic music phrases or effects. This approach allowed plenty of breathing space when playing on the campaign map which could literally last days. In those types of circumstances the last thing you want is a looping background track to irritate the player. The Shogun approach allowed music to be used in an almost relaxing and calming manner. So, for Empire we decided to revisit the method used in Shogun and expand upon it a little. Firstly, as Empire is a game which stretches across continents not just Japan we had to look to record instruments which covered all the core cultures featured in the game – in essences instruments to represent Western, Indian, Arabic and Tribal cultures. Secondly we would look to record all of the instruments live to maintain a consistently high listening experience. Thirdly we would develop a playback system in the game that would not only play music from the appropriate culture when you position the camera over the part of the map that the culture originates but would also pick at random phrases of music to play for that culture in order to keep the listening experience interesting. For instance you could position the camera over an Arabic settlement and you could be listening to the haunting melodies of a Duduk, then shortly followed by phrases performed on a Lauto.

Recording all of this material provided us with approx. 70 minutes of material just for the campaign map alone.

The other large area of game play is the in-game battles, which in the case of Empire are featured on both land and sea. This area of the game requires a lot of music too, in the order of 60 mins. Much like in the campaign the music was divided in to the same cultural sets with a slight addition in that naval battles have their own music styles to differentiate them from the other music.

The basic idea with the music system for the battles is that when a battle is initiated on the campaign map, depending where you initiate the battle in the world, the music that will play during the battle will be based on the originating culture for that area i.e. if you start a battle in London you will hear Western battle music. Each actual battle consists of two pieces of music, the deployment (or tension) music and the battle (or attack) music. As you start to deploy your army the tension music will start, it will continue until the game detects that the battle state has been initiated. Once this state is reached the music will slowly crossfade from the tension music in to the battle music which will loop for the duration of the battle.

The final area of music usage in the game is with the in-game movies. Here again as with the rest of the game we have cultural variants of music to match the visual variants of the videos, but in addition Empire features the Road To Independence quest which also required a variety of cinematic sequences and musical accompaniment, this time building an American flavour in the music.

Q: A new feature is that units have musicians on the battlefield, can you tell us a little more about this?

One of the important roles of musicians on the battlefield was to relay orders to their unit. It was this aspect specifically that we chose to focus on. So, I spent some time with one of our designers Jamie Ferguson discussing what types of orders they’d need to relay in the game and once I had the list I quickly notated some ‘musical orders’ together such as Halt, Fire At Will, March for both the snare drummers and the buglers. I then brought in the talents of some live musicians to record the audio for these orders and the outcome was fantastic as once the orders were integrated in to the game it transformed the level of realism in the battles. While we did not stick to authentic musical phrases for the orders, the effect is the same in the game nonetheless. In the game hearing the enemy orders can be an important clue as to what an enemy is doing!

Q: Empire’s score features music performed with a Symphony Orchestra and also digital samples. Can you tell us a little bit about this?

We recorded approx. 60 minutes of the score live and we had about 20+ minutes remain completely as digital. In addition, some tracks were enhanced with additional digital samples, most notably the Indian, Arabic and Tribal battles which featured a lot of sampled ethnic melodic and percussive instruments.

Q: How do you know the tracks will work properly in the game before you record the orchestra?

We simply create electronic MIDI mock-up versions of each track. This is actually a very important process because these tracks are fully orchestrated so it allows us the ability to hear very accurately the music and make any decision on changes before we record any notes live. It also allows us the opportunity to try out concepts in the game and refine the style.

Q: When realizing the score with an orchestra, does this alter the composing process as opposed to just using digital samples for the music?

The composing process itself largely stays the same, what alters is the amount of editing you’ll do to create a realistic MIDI mock-up if using the samples alone in the final mix. Mock-ups can be very big demanding jobs, and often due to the limits of using samples you’ll sometimes find yourself having to layer many articulations, adding lots of volume shaping, tweaking reverb settings to simulate a hall environment or other such procedures in order to make the music sound more realistic when played back with samples.

Q: Where/when did you record the live orchestral score?

We recorded the orchestral music with THE SLOVAK NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA . It was recorded by sound engineer Peter Fuchs at the Slovak Radio Concert Hall, in Bratislava during the first week of December 2008.

Q: Can you tell us a little about the recording process.

The Slovak Radio Concert Hall was huge, it a created a lovely lush sound with the orchestra.

To capture this engineer Peter Fuchs used 46 microphones strategically placed around the hall, between and in front of the players. The close string mics were fed into a Yamaha DM 2000, the remaining microphones were fed into Grace Design 802R, Millennia HV-3D, ASP-008 and Digidesign PRE pre-amps and recorded in to a ProTools HD rig via Apogee converters.

Each piece of music had a click track that would be fed via headphones to each musician and the conductor to ensure accurate timing in the music. This was important because we needed to add a fair amount of digital samples back to some of the tracks later in the mixing. Then one by one we’d work our way through each piece of music until we had recorded everything we needed.

The score was recorded over 2 days after which we began preparation for mixing the music.

Peter then flew back to the UK to join me in our in-house studio to mix the music. We then spent 3 days mixing, again using a ProTools HD rig.

Q: What was the most enjoyable part of the music production?

I always enjoy the collaborative process, working with other musicians, composers and the rest of the orchestral team who helped us put together and record the score. There are so many cogs in the process and each one helps make the finished recording what it is.

Without doubt though, the single most enjoyable aspect is when you hear the music come alive through the orchestra. When you have spent months writing, listening and working with the music in MIDI format, to then go and listen to it live with 80 musicians giving it their all is truly a moving experience.

Q: Are there any plans for a Soundtrack release, a lot of reviews have commented on the strength of the music?

Actually there is, we have been very pleased with the response to the music and I’m sure Total War fans will be happy to hear that we are planning a commercial soundtrack release from the game which should be available in the not too distant future.