Q&A with Jared Emerson-Johnson, Friday!

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by avistew

My question is about sound effects.
I was wondering, when you make the sound of, say, a door, do you actually record a door, or do you record something completely different? If so, what are some weird things that became completely different sound effects?

Also, I'm curious about the order in which things are done. Music, voices, sound effects, I'm guessing they all come into the game at different times, don't they? Do you had sounds to the already animated cutscenes basing it off of what's going on (say, someone taps his forehead, so you had a sound for that) or is there some kind a specific storyboard that allows you to work with the sounds earlier than that?
And applying effects to the voices (like the muffling you didn't get to put in the game for the bear heads in season one), when does that happen?

Also, Chuck said we broke you. Sorry about that. Did you get better? More seriously, how insane are you to work that much?

I think you're awesome and I love your music, although I don't know enough about music to ask questions about that...

Good question. In the case of doors, we do generally record actual doors. For more esoteric things, or more character driven things, etc., we do often get a little bit more creative with the source material. The ui popup sounds in the homestar menu, for example, are me making sounds with my mouth.

There is always quite a bit of overlap between the three parts of the audio, but generally speaking it goes like this: Voice usually comes before anything else, just because the rest of the team needs it from the start, in order to do all of the animation, choreography, and programmatic authoring/wiring. We generally try to get all of the voice processing in as early as possible, but we usually do it after the full set of voice has been delivered. Music rolls into production next, since it takes the longest of the three (starting with the environment loops). Sound comes at the end, since it's dependent on the visuals being locked in and finished. The music for the cutscenes also needs to come in at the end, since it needs to be timed to the finished scenes as well.

Heh, it's a busy lifestyle, that is for sure. In the thick of production it's not unusual to be pulling 80-100 hour weeks, but I do my best to focus on the parts of it that I love, the composition, working with musicians and actors, etc. I've always been a bit of a workaholic, though, even back in high school...so I guess I found a career that suits my personality.

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by MalkyTop

... (and I'm a string bassist!)...so yeah.

Contrabass FTW!

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Zenfirg

Who's your favorite video game composer?

How long does it take for you to make one whole soundtrack?

How long is your normal day at work and what do you generally do in one day?

Thanks for making so many great songs. Desinge was really fun to listen and he was one of my favorite characters so I hope you continue voice acting in Telltale games.

Good question. Of the many talented folks I have worked with, Peter McConnell really stands out for me, both professionally and personally. To be honest, I don't actually listen to a ton of game soundtracks, so I'm probably not as good a source for recommendations as a more avid gamer might be. Of course I really love the greats like Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu, and I really love some of the work by newer folks like Kō Ōtani.

There is some variation in how long it takes to make a soundtrack, and it mostly depends on the production schedule for the games in question. Telltale games tend to be extremely heavy on the music order, so for the previous two Sam & Max seasons it was around 5-6 months from start to end, and for Wallace & Gromit I want to say it was a little more, like 7-8 or so. For some of our other, smaller gigs, though, where we turn around a soundtrack in a month or two.

In a normal day I usually spend about 10-12 hours working (sometimes less, sometimes more). What I do varies hugely, depending on where we are in production, and what needs to be done. Today, for example, I'm answering these questions for the first couple hours!

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by pwblaine

!! you took the words right out of my mouth. but its totally still true, the whole jazz feel of sam and max, the way the theme sounds like a crime comedy from the 50s, i just close my eyes and see myself in frank sinatraesque bachelor pad. when did you start doing music professionally? did you play any instruments as a kid? how has designing music changed for you over the years? (equipment, styles, etc)

The first pro gig I had was working as a part copyist and composing apprentice for Clint Bajakian's score to Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, back in the summer of 2002. It was the summer between my junior and senior years in college.

I started playing the violin when I was little, 4 or 5, and I studied singing quite a bit throughout High School.

So far my process hasn't changed too terribly much. There is always new gear, and new bits of technology, but at the heart of it, my composition is roughly the same as it ever was (same as it ever was...same as it ever was).

[puzzlebox]

Originally Posted by JaredEJ

I would love to have a full "making-of" video put together at some point (there was a small one a couple years back that Jake and Nick make, and it is probably still available somewhere in the TT web archives) [...]

For anyone who's interested, I think it's here.

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by JedExodus

Thanks for keeping us Europeans in mind with the timing

Apart from our usual dose of hard jazz and the sci-fi sound that we've already heard in the trailer (I really dig that wee theramin thingy over the main hook in the trailer) what other genres can we expect to hear creeping in this season?*

When you're writing say a big musical number or music to fit a cutscene do you have to time it around the animations or do the animaters work around the music?

Simon or Garfunkel?

Thanks for your time, i'm very excited to hear what's in store for us this season and I really mean that

*There was a vicious rumour of an auto-tuned sexy RnB song sung by Max flying about. Started by me

Ps. sheet music and chord charts please sheet music and chord charts please sheet music and chord charts please sheet music and chord charts please sheet music and chord charts please sheet music and chord charts please kthxbai

Without giving too much away, you can expect to hear some earlier american styles, like ragtime, and early pre-jazz—also some more classic film noir scoring.

So far, for the musical numbers, they've been generous in letting me write a full thing, and then they've tailored the animation to the music.

Hahah, um...that is a hilarious question, dude. I'd have to say Simon, just because I'm more familiar with his body of work, and it's so extensive. Garfunkel does have that awesome fro, though, so...hard to say.

Heh, I'll see what I can do about sheet music. I'm happy to get you the material I have from our sessions, but I'm afraid it might not be super useful since it's generally just part of the full score. I can definitely get you folks some MIDI files, if you feel like arranging some parts yourselves. If you do end up playing the tunes, I wanna hear it!

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Nojh

Hi Jared!

Just one or two questions that might actually be out of your field but I thought I'd ask.

1. Do you deal with any of the technical side of integrating the music and sound effects into the game or just the creation of the music and sounds?

2. I assume the telltale engine take a "pre-rendered" approach to sound, meaning that you record what is going to be used and then wait for events to trigger that sound effect. Have you ever heard of or worked with the idea of generative music and sounds, where the game itself generates the music or sound effects based upon what is happening in the game or other input/output (probably from samples of music or algorithms)?

Yes, we do all of the sound implementation, and I do some of the music implementation as well. Basically any audio that occurs in a cutscene is hand scored by us. The environment music loops often need some special care from the programming staff, so they really help out with that side of it, but we're definitely rolled into the process.

Yes, I'm definitely interested in generative audio, but I haven't had a ton of personal experience with it. My colleague Damian Kastbauer has a lot more hands on experience with that side of things, and I'll bet he could go into a lot of detail about it. I think Telltale's games operate in a way that really requires the pre-rendered approach, since they are so cinematic, and since so much of the action of the games takes place in story driven cutscenes, etc.

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Hassat Hunter

Jake stole my questions. But yeah, listening to the commentary of season 2, will Bluster Blaster return or was that deemed too demanding for your health (or, he returns just less shouty).

Favorite song is "New location unlocked", gotta love that song. I know it's a remixed Midtown Cowboy's song, but after 100 times, I still can't hear that though... also really love the small bleeping song of 105 and 105. Should have used that one for the puzzle of 205 devs instead of the mimesweeper song!

Anyway, questions not dealing with TTG even. I saw a certain "Jarad Emerson-Johnson" worked on KOTOR2 cinematic cutscene movies. I assume that's just a typo'ed you though. Made any new songs there too, if so, which?

Back to the TTG territory... What's the song of season 3 that you most like and we definitely should keep on the wait for?

See my response to Jake. I'm all for bringing him back. I've got my throat spray at the ready.

Regarding "New Location Unlocked," try skipping to 2:47 and see if you can make it out...the rhythms are adjusted, and it's generally slower and more chilled out than the actual theme, but it's there.

People have had more trouble getting my name credited correctly than I can count I've been Jerad, Jerrod, Jerod, Jered...and my last name has been just "Emerson," and just "Johnson," too. It's mostly just funny to me. My work on Kotor 2 was mostly in an editing capacity, but stay tuned for more information on the KOTOR music front.

[Will]

Ok, I officially want to make a Transmet game now.

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by GinnyN

Edit: Uhhh I forgot. When I recieved my Copies of both soundtracks, I play them in the Car with my dad in a long trip. He loves it. And he didn't know who are Sam and Max (He doesn't like adventure games). Well, he didn't actually say that, he asks me about the band . And considering those copies took a long trip to get to my hands, I'm lucky to still have it. (In a totally unrelated note, those copies survived a Mega Earthquake *thumbs up*)

Awesome, and awesome!

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Will

Ok, I officially want to make a Transmet game now.

Same.

[JedExodus]

Cheers for the answers man, i'd go Paul Simon too

Originally Posted by JaredEJ

If you do end up playing the tunes, I wanna hear it!

Trust me, you don't

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Remolay

What was the most fun song to create?

can we expect any randomish musical numbers this season?

Hmm...the most fun. Tough question. If we're talking the most fun from the Telltale Games catalogue, I'd have to say...gosh, I'm really not sure. I generally like what I'm working on at the moment the most, so I guess I'd have to say some of the stuff I just finished for season 3!

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Irishmile

Being skilled in sound how often does poor sound design ruin a movie for you because its more obvious for you than for someone who isn't trained to notice?

Heh, it can be distracting. The most funny thing to notice are stock library sounds in big, high budget pictures. I can usually just laugh about how lame it is and move on, though. I try not to let it get me down

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Fury

Was it hard voicing the Marquis?

It was disturbingly easy, actually. I don't know what that says about me.

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by RobD

Geeky question:

What DAW/platform/mics/outboard stuff do you use?

I answered some of this a bit further up, but I use Digital Performer, Pro Tools, Sibelius, on a G5 running OS 10.4

We use a really wide variety of mics for the recordings, too many to list.

[GinnyN]

Originally Posted by JaredEJ

It was disturbingly easy, actually. I don't know what that says about me.

I got the idea when the character is actually really really diferent to you, is easier to play it. My stock characters when I was in the School Theatre Group were ussually really different to my actual personality. Well, that's a noob talking about that =P

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Soracha

Who are your top-3 composers?

Oof...these questions are so hard. I gave a pretty extensive list in this interview from awhile back: http://talesofmi.net/?p=777

It's about halfway down the page. My list of favorites is always shifting around, and it's really hard to pick just three.

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by Giant Tope

The Beatles or the Ramones?

Ugh, now I'm gonna get my ass kicked, but I have to go with The Beatles. They're both great, but I really admire the variety and the scope covered by the Beatles catalogue. When I'm in the mood to just fully rock out though, you can't go wrong with "My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down."

[JaredEJ]

Originally Posted by lastfuture

What do you use to note down and listen to your compositions before you record the live instruments?

...and are the strings also real instruments or are you taking those from sample libraries?

Love your stuff, keep up the awesome work

Some of this is covered in some of the earlier replies (DP, etc.).

As for the strings, it depends. For single violin passages, it's often me playing, for larger, more orchestral textures, I do sometimes use sampled strings. It often depends on the context and the genre (and the budget).