Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/7700
www.postmagazine.com March 2010 • Post 27 io have trouble wrapping their heads around the interactive media." Along with company head Machado, Coronado works with DAPG's Jeremiah Gray, Brad Dale and Bran- don Weatherred. Audio always seems the last thing in any pro- ject, "It's always [a] rush, so we're set up to turn around stuff quickly and keep the level of quality up. We have lots of competent people with lots of capa- ble gear in front of them." D A R K S I D E R S With his 15 years of experience, award-winning composer Michael Reagan has credits in feature film and television. But the last thing devotees of such FPS games as God of War and now Darksiders would sus- pect is that the talent behind the pulse-pounding scores for these epic adventures also won awards for shows like Elmo in Grouchland and Nick Jr.'s Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! As with God of War, Reagan worked with fellow composer Cris Velasco on THQ's Darksiders. Created by Vigil Games and Joe Madureira, Darksiders depicts a post-apocalyptic struggle between good and evil. Very evil. Players adopt the main character,War, who must face a hellish array of demons. The Darksiders' score features 60 minutes of high-intensity com- bat tracks using heavy percussion to convey power and danger. Rea- gan and Velasco composed the epic main theme together, setting the tone for what the two proceeded to score in- dividually (to make deadline).The main theme promi- nently features a full choir they recorded at Skywalker Sound. The bulk of the theme's instrumentation — foreboding percussion and orchestration — is con- vincingly derived from samples. Reagan usually works in his own studio in Santa Clarita, near LA. His studio runs multiple MacBook Pros powering various hosts for samples, and it all gets recorded into a Pro Tools 3 Accel system. His main sequencer is Apple's Logic. Reagan (www.mikereaganmusic.com) has also used live percussionists frequently, as on God of War. "When you approach a game project you think about what live elements you can bring to it that will give it a different sound than samples — al- though the samples do sound fantastic." He adds, "Working with people inspires composers to write and produce differ- ently — just because of the energy of the people in the room." However, Reagan says, "What I thought was really cool on Darksiders was, for the main theme, which Cris and I wrote together, we added a lot of our own sampling sessions into the mix." One such notable sound is an exhaled breath recorded with the mic passing the mouth ver y quickly. Reagan created another unusual sound by tapping pencils on the strings of Velasco's classical gui- tar. "Little nuances, when added together, really added something fresh and exciting to the mix." Completing Darksiders' numerous tracks sepa- rately did not pose a problem. "We both have a simi- lar style so, when you hear our tracks together, they complement each other," Reagan says. Victor Ro- driguez is the head of audio at THQ and Jeremy Rob- bins is audio director at Vigil. Each of the biggest, baddest demons in Darksiders have their own sonic identity — not necessarily melodic; it may be rhythmic or a weird sound effect. "We tried to blend the darkness of a par ticular [demon] with the main theme," Reagan says. "Usually you just want to end the cue that you've been listening to while battling that [demon] — so special endings get triggered in time with the music. The gaming engine knows, 'I'm going to play this final animation because you've killed this guy.'" Whether it's the slash of a weapon or the roar of a crowd, today's game audio is way more sophisticated — and feels more "live." By Ken McGorry