Improving Communication With Your Sound Designer Part 2
by Kane Minkus

Contents   Introduction   Tools Communication   Sample/Instrument Communication   Structural Communication   Printable version   Discuss this article The Series   Part 1   Part 2

Structural

Structural based discussions start to lead into the concept, but are still technical, so we separate them for purpose of thoroughness. These conversations are again different for music and SFX:

Music

When music is being designed, each composer should be able to (not that they do) literally chart out the structure of the piece they are writing. Here are some important structural words you should know to help sculpt changes to the music:

• Tempo - also called BPM, which stands for Beats Per Minute, is the speed or pulse at which the song is maintained. If you tap your foot to the beat, this is the Tempo/BPM. It is good to have a vague idea of the BPM you are looking for (using words like up-tempo (BPM of 120+), mid tempo (100-119 BPM) and downtempo (80-99) are very useful for a composer. Note: these are not absolute definitions, but are generally accepted.) Tempo can change in a song to pick up or slow down (tempo changes can create a very dynamic feel and are challenging to pull off well in a piece of music).
• Time Signature – how many beats in a measure. Usually 4 beats (like in a regular pop song), or sometimes 3 (like in a waltz - but sometimes used in popular music). There are others, but much less encountered.
• Bar/Measure – each bar of music contains 3 or 4 beats depending on the time signature (and something completely else if the time signature is different – this again, is rarely encountered). To point to a particular Bar/Measure you want to address you can count from the beginning of the piece. (i.e. in bar 22, the saxophone is too loud.) Sometimes pointing out music based on the time (mins and secs) is more convenient depending on how the music is being reviewed.
• Melody – this is the hummable part of the song, always played with one note at a time. Usually this is very obvious and pronounced in the music, but sometimes melodies are subtle.
• Harmony – these are the surrounding notes or chords to the melody (if there is no melody, it is all harmony). This is basically everything else working together to create the music.
• Arrangement – this means two things: 1) the way the instruments are layered over each other, and 2) the way the song is played out linearly from beginning to end. Both of these uses are incredibly important in discussing the music. To be more precise about which one you are talking about we say the “Instrument Arrangement” (referring to the layers of instruments making up the song) or the “Song Arrangement” (referring to the sections and order of sections in the song).
• Verse – the part of the song that contains a different melody each time it is played (and different lyrics if applicable)
• Chorus – the part of the song that contains the same melody each time (and lyrics if applicable)
• Bridge – different section than the Verse or Chorus, usually connects two choruses
• Intro – the introduction to the song, or the build up to the verse
• Outro – the end of the song, after the last chorus
• A section – when there is no verse/chorus structure, we might refer to the first section as the “A” section. The second section will then be referred to as the “B” section and the third as the “C” section (sometimes A means verse, B means chorus and C means Bridge)
• Climax – the highest or most dramatic part of the song
• Build – this is an area that will build to a climax or might build to a specific section
• Tension/Release – this is a type of structure where one uses tense sections of music and then releases them into pleasing resolved parts – this helps bring drama but not make the piece overly tense.
• Call and Response – a style where the melody (or Rhythm) of one instrument will be reflected back by another instrument playing a similar melody (or Rhythm) sequentially (one after another).

Sound Effects

Structurally, sound effects can be found individually or in sequences. Although there is not much to say about the structure of sound effect design (the juicy stuff is in the concept phase). What is important to note here is the way sound effect designers use layers. Often effects are layers of individual sound effects all working together to create a final sound or sequence. Teasing apart the individual layers (or adjusting them with Volume, Pan, Effects, etc), can often make a difference when trying to revise an effect.

Go Get Em!

Armed with new tools, a deep perspective on creative design and a whole new world of being able to relate to your audio professionals, I look forward to hearing the audio you will create for your games! Have fun! If you are interested in hearing the new soundtracks coming from the SomaTone Interactive Audio Team – check us out at www.somatone.com.