Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1538144
116 M PS E . O R G tracks. It was mind blowing, like when Photoshop added layers—you could actually combine multiple sounds non- destructively and tweak them until all the transients are perfectly aligned. SD: Exactly. Most people don't realize that in 1997, the Steinberg VST standard was announced. In 1999, we had maybe 15 or 20 plug-ins. I remember Reason came out in 1999 or 2000, but Propellerhead at the time. It was really a time when you had to be inventive, especially in audio. Like you said, layering was completely new. Most kids growing up today don't understand how difficult it was, because today you have Fruity Loops, a laptop and off you go. You have a billion plug-ins. Believe it or not, I've actually downsized my studio because I realized that less is more. I missed that time from the old days, when you had to be creative, because you will limit it. Having a million plug-ins is not going to help you make better music and better sounds. It's ironic that, at least in our age, we want to step back a little bit. I remember selling all my gear in the 2000s, all the digital and analog stuff, thinking "I don't need to sample anymore. It has seven seconds of sample memory." Two or three years later, I'm rebuying all that stuff now. It's ridiculous. CB: Sometimes less is more. It's like when somebody tries to promote their film in Hollywood, and they're like, "We have 12 screenwriters." It's like no, that's not good. AB: The fascinating thing about UT was that we did what we thought was cool, whether it sounded cool, whether it looked cool, whether it played cool— it was just do whatever. There's so much oversight these days needing to overanalyze, needing to make sure this is absolutely amazing. And sometimes you take a shot at what's great, and it doesn't work out and it's terrible, but at least you're thinking, "Well, at least we can try stuff." For the newer UT that didn't end up getting finished, Mike Larson at Epic Games was like, "Here's the deal for overall UT. Quake and id Software are guitar, and we are not guitar. There will be no guitar in Unreal Tournament games," even though the players, when we polled them informally, really preferred the music from the original UT to the sequels released after it. There's a GDC talk by Mick Gordon, the composer of Doom, talking about the music for that game. I recommend it to everyone because they did the same thing, except they tried to say, "No guitars in Doom." And Mick was like, "If you just outright outlaw something just because you don't like the use of guitars before … let me try something." CB: Doom is definitely the definition of heavy metal. AB: He redefined how guitars sounded and essentially started what is considered the "Argent Metal" genre, which is not that much different than super heavy guitars. It's tweaked and there's some synthesis and a whole bunch of layers. The notion of not completely allowing people to explore a space? Yeah, fuck that. That's just not the way to go. EM: Cliff, how did the story and narrative of UT come together? CB: We threw everything at the wall and saw what stuck. I just let the level designers run free with it: coherence and consistency be damned. That's how you wind up with maps like "Facing Worlds" and "Galleon." When you make a game Unreal Tournament gameplay Unreal Tournament flak cannon gameplay