How I Make Video Game Music (And How You Can Too!)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- Support the channel for only 1$ - / orithekid
What's a video game without some memorable music? In this video, I'm going to go over my personal process for developing video game music as well as show my improvements since my last music related video!
=== Fl Studio & Music Videos ===
✦ • How To Make Video Game...
✦ • Learn FL Studio In 5 M...
✦ • A Beginner's Guide to ...
✦ • Learn music theory in ...
✦ • MUSIC THEORY in 12 min...
=== Chapters ===
0:00 - Intro
0:55 - So, How DO I Start?
1:53 - So Do I Need To Learn Music Theory?
2:50 - The Failed Attempts
4:07 - The First Attempt
6:33 - The Second Attempt
7:22 - Breaking Down The Final Song
11:19 - B Section
13:20 - Mid Section
15:50 - Outro Section
17:31 - Final Song
=== Socials ===
Instagram - / orithekid
Twitter - / orithekiddd
Discord - / discord
Itch - orithekid.itch.io
=== Tags ===
#music #flstudio #gamedev #indiedev #indiegame #gamemaker #madewithgamemaker #orithekid #gungame #animation #gamedesign
#pixelart #gameart #conceptart #videogames #videogamemusic #tutorial #viral #musictheory - เกม
Re: Music Theory
I think this is an issue of definitions. As soon as you start applying patterns, you are in some sense using theory, so I don't see the point ignoring the most free resource you'll ever get. It doesn't matter if you call the major key chord the "squiggleblob finale" or something, you understand that there is such a thing as a resolution to a particular note and a particular chord with particular characteristics.
As an addendum, if a person has a sincere interest in making music, I have to question that sincerity if they're not willing to be curious about the characteristics of their favourite music. The first thing I did when I got an electric guitar was to learn metal, and that immediately led me down a path of learning scale theory. Like, why wouldn't I? As much as theory is frequently framed as the opposite of emotive sincerity, I don't believe this is the case at all. A willingness towards theory is a willingness to better one's own knowledge.
And, it minimum, it's really hard to communicate with people when they don't know the intervals of, like, the major scale.
Thank you for leaving such a detailed comment! I agree that in general I've picked up aspects of music theory, but I guess what I was referring to was basic music theory and practice (such as scales and whatnot).
Regardless, I do agree completely!
Honestly for me I would say the best way to learn theory is through learning an instrument. Honestly for making music in general having learnt piano has been the most helpful thing by far.
The way I saw it when I first started out was that everyone was nerding out about theory and it felt both really annoying and gatekeepy. Nowadays I'm open to learning some things but you'll never see me engaging with theory in a overzealous way.
@quicksilverGS maybe I just don't like jazz XD
@@ratlinggull2223 *_SCRUTINY!_*
Btw the funny monkey noise instrument is called a "Cuica"
Thank you! I had no clue it was an actual thing lol
That "HOO"-sounding instrument is called a cuica. It's a Brazilian instrument that's often found in the drum samples of soundfonts.
the last song sounds like something i would expect to hear in the original metroid
Ah thank you! I actually really love the classic Metroid games :D
The goal of making a melody is to make a pattern that people will remember your song for, or at least that's what I feel it is. A melody can be as fast as you'd like it to be, but make sure it's still slow enough for people to be able to hum in their head. This was a super awesome and informative video btw 😁
Thank you! Completely agree as well!
i got into making music through game dev and realized i liked music and music theory wayyy more than coding, so it always makes me laugh when i hear about devs who realize just how painful learning music theory is
also, i love all of the tracks in this video! i especially love the bassline + chords you came up with for the final song, and the little pitch bend in the melody for the first song is my favorite thing!
I started making music for my animations, but as I got into game dev I REALLY began to lean into composing. It's super fun to just mess around and hear things come together (and coding can be just as frustrating as music if not more lol)
And I'm glad you enjoyed the song! :3
What’s so funny is that I got into game dev through music and now I have so much more fun doing every other discipline (maybe because my musical expectations on myself are too demanding…. Maybe worth unpacking that).
Anyway, I love how different people’s journeys can be 😅
@@LighthoofDryden I'm kind of in the same boat lol. I love game dev, but I also find the work around it so satisfying!
I'm just curious, how do I get into game development? What language should I learn? Engine? I've been producing music for almost a decade now. But I also used to write a lot too and would love to make a game.
@@ivansoto9723 in my opinion it depends on how mathbrained you are, and whether you want 2D or 3D. if you can manage linear algebra, geometry, and some basic trigonometry, learn a coding language. otherwise, try visual scripting or something less dependent on a coding language.
if you want to learn coding while making a game, gamemaker and godot are wonderful choices. the most important thing, in my opinion, is to fully understand the code you're writing and why it works. the skills and concepts you learn with one coding language will transfer over to any other.
however, if you're more concerned with making a game, and don't want to get bogged down by learning how to code, the visual scripting in unreal engine may be more up your alley.
in the end it's far more about choosing an engine and language and sticking with it rather than there being one specific catchall. if you want me to tell you which one i think is best for beginners, godot is probably the best all-rounder engine that is 100% free and good to learn with.
What sometimes helps me is just having my phone ready to record myself when I get new ideas, because the good ideas usually come to me when I am not necessarily working, so when that sick melody appears in my head I just quickly record it so I have kind of a library ready which I can use to get startet. After that it's trial and error as usual
I actually do the same thing! I mentioned it in my last music related video, but I'll be doing nothing and sometimes ideas just hit me so I HAVE to pull out my phone. XD
6:18 huh, that IS a battle song, especially if your game is called Mother 3
ANYTHING can be battle music, even rickrolls(I used it as BGM test in my game and it fits surprisingly well
This is actually a fair point. There really isn’t a “rule” to battle music, more so I wasn’t trying to make a battle song like that
I was not expecting to see a "cuíca" being used out side of Brasil! hahah
5:25
The name of the instrument is cuica, an instrument commonly used in Brazilian samba
Baldi Basics signature melody thing lol
CALUM BOWEN MUCH?
It's an actual instrument?? Lol. I always thought it was a sample of a dog or something haha. I've heard this sound on one of those digital performer keyboards. Next to other Vox and Sfx sounds.
@@ivansoto9723 a SPONGE is used to play this lol
As a person who wants to compose music in the future, I absolutely love videos like this which portray and educate me on the process. I love making music, although I've only made a handful of pieces for courses in the past, and stuff like this certainly helps inspire me to follow my passion.
Glad to inspire! Can’t wait to see what you make!
I've heard that the best method for learning Music Composition is to give yourself creative limits. They are like writing short stories for a writer; or lifting weights while exercising.
Just look at the Zelda games, they had built up a suite of motifs over a long period.
Or to quote the Art of Composition: "The fastest way to learn composition is to memorize small fragments of music, and then learn to change and combine those fragments in very specific ways.
The process of changing it, actually forces you to understand it."
That’s honestly how I got started (since Toby Fox is the reason I wanted to learn music)
I think when starting out it could be hard to come up with motifs or even anything because it just seems so new. I always loved the “try to copy the thing you like then add your own twist”. Helped me understand a lot more about composition as a whole!
5:39 Baldi is that you?…
👀
I think a good way to base your battle songs when starting out is on megalovania. It has the opening, the mid section, (or the “go” as I call it to get my brain in the right intensity for the song), and a bunch of different calmer parts in the middle.
A memorable melody could be anything. In the case of Omori, there’s literally only three notes played in the white space theme. It can be anything from long sustained notes to literal 16th notes on a page. In the case of sellout, one of my songs for my game its main melody has no chill and blasts listeners with an extended version of the characters motif. Motifs/leitmotifs also good to use for game music purposes. If a recurring idea is present, you would use that ideas motif. There’s actually a musical motif called the Dies Irae that is featured in multiple songs pertaining to death. It appears a few times in Frank Ticheli’s Vesuvius, and if you really want to get technical, a good few hundred times in carol of the bells.
Video game music comes easy to me for some reason. Somehow just casually made 3 full length songs in a single day just last week. But that’s mostly because I used motifs.
So if you want to make a good battle song, it would help if you started with a motif, such as your game’s motif or a character’s motif and expand it from there. Undertale used motifs a lot, and a good example of this is in the battle theme for asgore, asgore,
the motif from heartache appears and gets its own dedicated section of the song.
If anyone reading this finds this confusing, sorry, but here’s the two main things you should look into:
Motifs
Memorable Melodies
First off I love the detailed comment so I will return the favor! When starting out I basically just tried to recreate Undertale songs from ear (and various other songs that I love) to try and emulate the sound. I honestly think copying (but obviously not taking credit) artist that you enjoy is the best way to learn because you get to work with something you love!
As for Omori, I REALLY have been trying to emulate the way Pedro Silva makes music but oh man they are on another level that I think it would take me quite some time to get to. Omori has tons of simple but memorable melodies that have stuck with me well after I completed the game.
On the point with letmotifs, I think it’s important to establish strong motifs because it could help you expand the world that your music sits in, but I also think for people who are just starting out it can be too much for them to focus on. An example, when I was first starting out I knew Toby Fox used lots of motifs so I made songs with the SPECIFIC intention to have a motif. But all it did was make the song writing process a nightmare.
Anyways, that was a long comment, but I appreciate the detail you went into with this!
@@orithekidd The only problem with copying Undertale songs is how often they use pitch bends.
Toby Fox basically uses 24 EDO, or the equivalent 12 extra notes.
@@lunyxappocalypse7071FL studio, (the program Toby fox uses) makes it really easy to make pitch bends. Idk how other software works but as far as I’m concerned soundation doesn’t have that kind of thing. So yeah maybe have 12 extra notes isn’t a bad thing, but most of them come from using the fine pitch tool since there literally isn’t an option to have a different tuning or anything
Learning music theory is important I can't stress that enough it is like memorizing Maps when you want to drive or go somewhere or using GPS it makes things make sense and a lot easier when you don't waste as much time experimenting with things that don't work
Fair enough, but I also think there’s fun to just messing around. I ultimately think it comes down to personal preference (although I agree completely that it would make things smoother lol)
@@orithekidd yes it is faster to just not think about stuff again once you learn how it's properly done it's more effective to strategize and plan something and then it'll seem like it's faster because it's already planned and prepped but you know it's correct as opposed to just jumping into something and then later having to correct it if you found out you made some mistakes because you aren't following up set plan
@@walidank2979 I understand. I think because a lot of my influence comes from my home town (where jazz is dominant) and my friends who learned by just messing around it's just how my brain was wired. Music theory is extremely important for refinement. I do agree with that!
@@orithekidd for like maybe 10 plus years I use my ear to play and then when I finally learned music theory I saw all the mistakes including even in jazz which is technically covered in mistakes and distractions we're popular music tends to not do that and they keep things more rigid in a sense that the number system works because they stay in the same scale I couldn't hear that at first until I learned Theory
@@walidank2979 That makes sense. When I show my friends who are trained in music some of my work they often help point out the imperfections, which in turn helps me clean the songs up.
You’re so talented! Thanks for sharing your process 😄
All ways happy to help!
dood i love ur style, keep it up bro. so cool to see other devs / musicians and what they do !!
Thank you so much!
This is great content! In attempt #1, the instrument that you were unsure of the name of is called a "Cuica." It's a Brazilian instrument!
Thank you! My girlfriend and I have been calling it the “goofy instrument” lol. Legit one of my favorite instruments
Everytime I hear it I think Baldi
This was one of the best videos I watched on how to make video game music, inspiring and underrated 🔥
Glad I could help in some way!
I saw that video which introduced me to all your videos and your channel, yesterday, then you make this the day after,
it's almost like you read my mind XD.
New Sub!
I was really trying to have the follow up ready XD
Thanks for sticking around!
First video I've seen of yours. Great stuff!
Thank you!
Now I need to figure out how to make games for the music
Ah the fun part
That first one is totally something close to what I want for a Mario Sunshine stage. I love it!
Thank you! I find this very useful!
Happy to help!
Mad Undertale vibes, I love it! Also, your music is surprisingly complex. If it makes you feel better, I've been studying music for a while and I cannot come up with stuff like this yet. Keep it going, you're inspiring so many people! :)
Undertale is a huge inspiration! Thank you!
that was really cool this see again by what wee all started ! i really wish i could see this vidéo 3 years ago that could really help me in many way. the only thing i think this video lacks is explaination to how you build your chord prog, cause you put a really lot's of 7th and i dont think its a thing the beginner's got the idea to do.
above all of that, really great video ^^.
Ah yes. I have trouble explaining progressions because they just kinda happen lol. But I’m hoping I can find a way to make that more understandable in future videos!
This is amazing dawg
The first attempt feels exactly like the first song in the idle Miner ost
5:38 baldis basics ahh beat
15:04 sounds like the audience choir on kontakt player
That instrument you called it's sound "this" it's a cuica, a brasilian intrument used in samba. Nice video, greetings from Brasil :)
I've been trying to figure out the name for a LONG time! Thank you and welcome!
That's actually insane progress between the attempts, I'm jealous!
I gotta ask though, is the choir the actual one from Touhou? Meaning the SD-90 one?
Thank you. And yes it’s the exact choir ripped. It just has some effects on it
I see Mio-chan in the Thumbnail
Instant click, like and sub
love the video, hope to see more
(also more nichijou thumbnails)
I’m glad you enjoyed the video!
I feel like the first attempt would fit incredibly well in a breath of the wild gerudo hotel if it was on the NES or N64
Great breakdown! What sounds do you use to create your music?
It’s a mixture of different soundfonts from video games I like to play! I mainly use the SGM sound font and a lot of my drums are either the cave story or sega sound font!
im not anything of an expert myself, but something ive learnt is just making some of the music 'shut up'. mixing is important to keeping music from being overwhelming, but sometimes the lead/bass/drum/whatever doesn't need to be there at all. it's very similar to how pixel art uses minimal colors in its palette, at least thats how i think of it. also if u havent seen 8-bit Music Theory's video on how to write drum parts its really good, and i definitely recommend it, even if u arent too much of a music theory guy lol.
Love 8-Bit music theory! Their videos have definitely helped shape my understanding of music for video games. I also agree that sometimes things can be wayyy too overwhelming and the idea of “less is more” is something a lot of people could strive for.
@@orithekidd definitely. slipped my mind when i initially wrote the comment, but with all of the art i work on i always get tunnel visioned. effeciency doesn't always make better (which is obvious said out loud but i always forget about it lmao)
more importantly, you respond 4 hours after my comment? of an old video?? get a life 😭(playing, but i did not expect a response lmao)
@@alsolii As long as I can keep up I try to respond to all comments!
5:36 reminds me of castle crashers and battleblock theather a lot lol
I take that as a VERY high compliment lol
Hey super awesome piece!!! I just wanted to ask about how you know how to form all these beautiful chords in your writing. I'm a self taught composer and have made some awesome music over the past few months but still have no idea how piece together chords in a meaningful way. I have basic music theory knowledge (chords in a major scale as well as constructing major and minor triads) but I have no idea how you learn to combine different chords and make up new ones based on where you want your melody to go other than spending numerous hours with trial and error. If you have any advice or resource recommendations on how you learned how to use chords so beautifully like in this video, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much!!!!
Honestly a lot of it comes from just trial and error. What I normally like to do is find songs that a want my song to sound like a study the progressions in those songs before trying to make my own version of that song (if that makes sense). So sometimes I’ll take a progression that I already know and just modify it to sound right with what I’m currently working on. Sometimes I also just take basic progressions (like 2-5-1) and just adjust them to the mood of the piece I’m currently working on. I find the best resource for learning how to make your own music is honestly TH-cam because someone out there has made a song in a style you want to make. Sometimes I just look up “waltz piano tutorial” and study it if that’s the kind of song I’m making. I hope this helps even a little!
@@orithekidd Thanks so much for the quick reply!!! Really appreciate your answer! I suppose the issue might be that I take on piece that are maybe too difficult pieces to breakdown. Take the battle theme from Xenoblade Torna Golden country for example and I have no idea how to understand what's going on there progression wise. It sounds awesome but replicating it..... uhhh where would u start!
@@shulkbru6598 I would say if you have trouble with complex pieces see if anyone has made a MIDI or recreation of the track! That way you can get a somewhat linear breakdown of a song you like. If you can't find that my best advice is to go by ear and just try and listen the individual instruments. With complex tracks it gets harder because of the sheer amount of instrumentation, but after awhile you're able to feel through the music!
Really great example of chiptune! One thing I would say is that me personally I'd make the drums louder and more punchy
Thanks for the tip! I was a bit scared to make them too powerful due to my last attempt being drowned out by the drums
@@orithekidd fair enough
ngl this is everyday life for me tbh no cap
Thumbnail has exactly 3 braincells
Saying music theory isn't required is like saying perspective, shape, and color theory isn't required in art. Technically it isn't required you can totally just compose and I think some people put too much emphasis on music theory sometimes, however, yes you can just compose or draw and you will eventually get better. However by getting better like this are you not just learning these concepts of theory by composing for example you are using chords aspects of harmony even bassline and melody all of these concepts are just music theory. Learning music theory is just a faster and more stable way of learning these concepts, you can kind of think about it like giving someone the tools for a specific task that greatly boosts efficiency while also giving you complete control and direction over your music, after all you can't control what you don't know.
I agree completely. My point wasn’t to negate the importance of music theory but simply approach music how I and many others approach certain mediums. When I was learning to draw my approach was “just pick up a pencil and mess around” which personally was more fun. Sometimes when you add technicalities to things it can make the experience boring. But it’s also about the person!
@@orithekidd As for approaching music yes then it is probably the best to maximize enjoyment and commitment rather than learning as much as possible however if you do end up loving the craft learning the craft more should not detract enjoyment or at least you should find greater returns in enjoyment after you have learned theory. It can differ from person to person though I do think at a certain level almost everyone will reach a plateau if they do not learn theory or have knowledge of it.
@@jairdinh7563 Completely fair. There is a point where learning even basic theory will help. Related back to learning to draw. I started by messing around and then picked up books on anatomy and so on.
@@orithekidd The way I can see it is do what you like for fun, and if you're really into it learning the technical stuff will (or should) become fun as you're still invested in whatever you're doing. It's like playing a game you really enjoy and then later learning to master its mechanics
Love the transition music, is there a full version out of it or it just 5 sec long?
Which part? If you give me a timestamp I'll link it!
@@orithekidd4:11 that one, sorry didn't link in
@@Kytrex_ Ah it is a full song. It's "LAKEY INSPIRED - In My Dreams". Hope that helps!
@@orithekidd Much appreciated bruv
Wake up mom! New orithekid video!!
:D
i will watch this later i swear
I’ll be waiting!
quality video 👍
Thank you!
Just curious, what plugin did you use for the choir??? It sounds really great and I would love to use it in some of my own music as well
It’s the choir from the Touhou Soundfony!
@@orithekidd thanks man! Really appreciate it :)
On theory, do or don't. Don't half ass it, you dont need phd levels of theory, but you do need a fuller understanding to not get constrained by the few things you know, rather then actually understanding how it works and exactly how crazy you can go while still adhering to theory or "how to break the rules" cus i learnt a bit in school, but just enough to get bogged down by it and the meoldies and chord progressions i wrote during that time got very boring. whiles before that with my music knowlage being understanding the diffrence betwene a major and minor chord i made a lot of weird crap, but alsow much more interesting things.
That’s also how I learned animation! I put a lot of time into properly learning and didn’t half ass it and then did my own thing after words. I want to do the same with music but I only have so much time on my hands so I decided it’s best to just mess around in the beginning stages!
Cuica used for some baldi basics OST
other important questions - where and how do you sell them, how do you deal with licensing, etc
I'd love if you can share advice on these topics too :)
Ah this is a great question and really it comes down to “it depends” I personally leave my music to be open so that anyone and everyone can pick it apart and use it, but some people also go through publishers (like distrokid). Maybe I’ll make a video discussing that kind of stuff!
@@orithekidd sorry i didn't mean distrokid. Like because it's game music I meant selling to game developers for their games, like this market is interesting and I don't know anything about it.
@@zloboslav_ Oh gotcha! Then my best advice I can give (at least through a comment lol) is make LOTS of music and put it SOMEWHERE. You can then use it as a timeline and portfolio of you musical work and then message game devs directly. I find that looking for people who are in game jams, searching through twitter, or messaging directly through discord is the best ways to make some money. It isn't easy, but it helps get your foot in the door. Bigger companies want to see you have experience so it's important to start small and use those experiences for a portfolio. Hope that helped a bit more!
@@orithekidd thanks :)
How did you achieve these great 8-bit tones?
I used Matt Montags NES VST! It’s very detailed and can do a lot in terms of NES sound emulation!
bro what vst did u use for the nes sounds? they sound amazing!
Ah it’s Matt Montag’s Nintendo VST! It’s super high quality!
@@orithekidd ty so much
I found a fellow final fantasy fan? (yea i know it's unrelated but hehe that's my thing)
May i ask what that program is called? In looking at daws currently to decide what i want to use to create :)
Fl Studio 21!
man im cooked
what plug ins and instruments did you use ?
Ah for which part of the song? I laid out all the instruments at the end, but for the other parts it’s the SGM sound font, the GM sound font, and Matt Montags NES VST
Does anyone know what choir he was using in 12:41 by chance?
It’s the Touhou choir! I label all the instruments used at the end if that helps!
@@orithekidd thank you so much!
what vsts did you use for attempt 2
I drums are the cave story sound font and everything else is Matt Montag’e NES VST. If you need the direct sounds or simply need help with how I made the sounds just shoot me a DM on discord and I’d be more than happy to help!
Keygen Vibes 😶
"I'm not nearly as big as most creators," while showing footage of TOTK and Undertale.
Dude. C'mon. Freaking Mario is barely holding a candle to those 2 games in terms of popularity.
Fair enough lol. I think I selected those because they are games that both directly inspired me
+ 1 Sub
Thank you!
I use lmms 😎
I actually used LMMS back in the day! Quality program if you know how to use it! :D
@@orithekidd I know! people diss on it without even trying it
5:37 is "track 7" (hoo-haa) the noise from baldis basics? th-cam.com/video/JyucizbsCV4/w-d-xo.html
It uses the same sound font that they used!
y didnt you continue the accent?
I could not do that for the ENTIRE video lol
It’s baldi
Bald
Step 1: switch daw
Kidding lol
FL ain’t for everyone lol. I completely get that
i dont give a shit about how to make it, thats just making music, how the fuck you gonna get that music into a game
With lots of coding! Maybe I can make a video about putting your music in games lol
first song reminds me of something i made and my friends called it "farm music" and I died inside
It’d be quite the goofy farm lol