Red Dead Redemption is my current front-runner for Game of the Year, and frankly, I don't think anything else will eclipse it. Much of my love for the game stems from its stirring score, which Bill Elm and Woody Jackson composed. Rockstar has put out a four-and-a-half-minute featurette detailing the process by which Elm and Jackson put together the soundtrack and integrated it into the game, and as someone who's interested in music composition, I found the video fascinating.
If you've played the game, then you've surely noticed certain musical motifs that correspond to particular environments and actions. A particular riff comes in when you saddle up on horseback, and a different sequence will join in if you start shooting your gun. The composers planned for this by creating musical "stems" as opposed to entire songs, and they composed the entire score in the key of A minor at 130 beats per minute to allow for the stems to be overlaid among each other.
Even more interesting are the instrumentation and techniques used to create the music. Elm and Jackson utilized many period-specific instruments, such as jaw harps and harmonicas. There's an instance in the video of someone playing a trumpet into a kettle drum! Everything comes together to create a unique, situation-based soundscape in Red Dead Redemption, and you can learn about it by watching the video.
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Contest:
7:30 PM on 07.28.2010
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Bought the soundtrack on Amazon, too. It's only $5 for the soundtrack, people! If you're so damned cheap that you'll buy the $60 game but torrent the music to save $5, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
It's been a long time since I enjoyed a game's soundtrack (and a game) this much. The songs that play when you enter Mexico and [MINOR SPOILERS]
when you finally learn you can reunite with your family
[/MINOR SPOILERS]
were fantastic. I loved them.
It is too bad. You're so cool for not drinking the kool aid!
RDR had an amazing story mode and one of the best soundtracks i've heard in my life. The online does need some tuning, but other than that it's a great game, don't see why you say it's "boring"..
Anyhoo, this behind the scenes was awesome, I hope they get hired to do more music for Rockstar and other companies.
I'm convinced you don't love anythng.
Also, I highly recommend you all check out the entirety of ScrappyDoo's "my comments" page. Never before has the internet witnessed such a boundless depth of villainy and hatred. It's an experience on par with being goatse'd by Satan. So darkly glorious. I rate it an 8.7, would read again
LMAO, that was intense. What a miserable piece of shit.
I love RDRs soundtrack, mainly because Revolvers was good but wasnt it ALL from movies? Not that its a bad thing, but Redemption wins on originality.
"Amon Tobin"
I still remember when I first learned about him doing Chaos Theory. I remember thinking.. "Why are more people not jumping at the chance to hire some of these amazing electronic artists like this guy?" Although as far as the actual games album, it doesn't hold up as well as his other releases imo, but still phenomenal to what video games are used to having.
hahaha. Holy shit. ScrappyDoo's comments are pathetic to the point of hilarity. That would suck to be that miserable.
Check out this gem. Looking for one positive remark EVER said by Scrappy Doo on this website, I was only able to find one that wasn't overly negative.
"RDR is a pretty mediocre game"
Seriously, that's as positive as it got. But since then I guess RDR got terrible and boring? Anyway, this gave me a good laugh.
/sarcasm off
My only complaint with the game is my complaint with most Rockstar games: You're a just a gofer.