Ludus Musicus

It's been a while

2011-05-16T08:44:00.000-07:00

OK,
didn't mean to quote Staind, but yeah, it's been a while since I wrote something here...

I've been trying to find more time to write stuff for games, but hey, life happens, got pretty sick, moved across the world, got better,...

So let's see, I am trying to finish a game for XNA these days, a simple game using a physics engine, I'll aim for both PC & XBox360 but we'll see if I can finish it, with all that is going on.

Regarding music, I've been enjoying video games lately in 5.1, it really gives you another dimension... it's funny how some games' music get your attention... like Fancy Pants, really cool stuff going there...

Even silly stuff like IloMilo makes me wonder how complicated it would be to create something like that....

Anyway,

I'll see if I can post more often and specially whatever I try to accomplish in Video games and music/sound.

Take care.

Audio and Music work

2009-08-28T04:28:00.000-07:00

I am working on this Indy project adding Audio and Music, plus all the implementation with XAct, Torque and XNA.

I think it's going to be fun and it was about time I got back into Music and Audio for games.

This is the link for the project: Silver Age

I think Dan was right and I should really get involved in audio and music for games...

David

Dan Morris

2007-12-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

My dear friend Dan Morris passed away on the 21st of December, he was working at Activision in Central Audio. I'll miss him immensely, he was a great guy and a musical genius.

I miss you man.

David.

XNA & XAct sample

2007-09-13T17:54:00.003-07:00

It's been a while, but here I am posting a very simple test program.
If you have 2 background cues, say ambience and battle, you could switch between them with this code.

Keep in mind that LoopEvent = Infinite only in the ambience and battle cues not in the transitions to and from ones.

Here is the code. If you want the exe and resources let me know and I"ll post it somewhere is some 20MB with my music.

This is my Game1.cs file

Code:
#region Using Statements
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Audio;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Content;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input;
using Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Storage;
#endregion

namespace MusicTransition
{
///
/// This is the main type for your game
///
public class Game1 : Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Game
{
GraphicsDeviceManager graphics;
ContentManager content;

public Game1()
{
graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this);
content = new ContentManager(Services);
}

///
/// Allows the game to perform any initialization it needs to before starting to run.
/// This is where it can query for any required services and load any non-graphic
/// related content. Calling base.Initialize will enumerate through any components
/// and initialize them as well.
///
///
AudioEngine audioEngine;
WaveBank waveBank;
SoundBank soundBank;
enum GameStates { Ambient, Amb2Bat, Battle, Bat2Amb };
GameStates CurrentState;
Cue Ambient;
Cue Battle;
Cue Amb2Bat;
Cue Bat2Amb;

protected override void Initialize()
{
audioEngine = new AudioEngine("Content\\Audio\\MusicTran.xgs");
waveBank = new WaveBank(audioEngine, "Content\\Audio\\Wave Bank.xwb");
soundBank = new SoundBank(audioEngine, "Content\\Audio\\Sound Bank.xsb");
CurrentState = GameStates.Ambient;
Ambient = soundBank.GetCue("Amb");
Battle = soundBank.GetCue("Bat");
Amb2Bat = soundBank.GetCue("Amb2Bat");
Bat2Amb = soundBank.GetCue("Bat2Amb");
Ambient.Play();

base.Initialize();
}

///
/// Load your graphics content. If loadAllContent is true, you should
/// load content from both ResourceManagementMode pools. Otherwise, just
/// load ResourceManagementMode.Manual content.
///
/// Which type of content to load.

SpriteBatch ForegroundBatch;
SpriteFont CourierNew;
Vector2 FontPos1;
float FontRotation1;
Vector2 FontPos2;
float FontRotation2;
protected override void LoadGraphicsContent(bool loadAllContent)
{
if (loadAllContent)
{
CourierNew = content.Load("Times");
ForegroundBatch = new SpriteBatch(graphics.GraphicsDevice);
}
FontPos1 = new Vector2(graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width / 2, (graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height / 2) - 50 );
FontRotation1 = 0;
FontPos2 = new Vector2(graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width / 2, (graphics.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height / 2) + 50);
FontRotation2 = 0;
}

///
/// Unload your graphics content. If unloadAllContent is true, you should
/// unload content from both ResourceManagementMode pools. Otherwise, just
/// unload ResourceManagementMode.Manual content. Manual content will get
/// Disposed by the GraphicsDevice during a Reset.
///
/// Which type of content to unload.
protected override void UnloadGraphicsContent(bool unloadAllContent)
{
if (unloadAllContent)
{
// TODO: Unload any ResourceManagementMode.Automatic content
content.Unload();
}

// TODO: Unload any ResourceManagementMode.Manual content
}

///
/// Allows the game to run logic such as updating the world,
/// checking for collisions, gathering input and playing audio.
///
/// Provides a snapshot of timing values.
protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime)
{
FontRotation1 += 0.001F;
FontRotation2 += 0.01F;

switch (CurrentState)
{

case GameStates.Amb2Bat:
{
if (!Amb2Bat.IsPlaying)
{
CurrentState = GameStates.Battle;
Battle = soundBank.GetCue("Bat");
Battle.Play();
}
break;
}
case GameStates.Bat2Amb:
{
if (!Bat2Amb.IsPlaying)
{
CurrentState = GameStates.Ambient;
Ambient = soundBank.GetCue("Amb");
Ambient.Play();
}
break;
}
}

if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.A))// user trigered
{
switch (CurrentState)
{
case GameStates.Ambient:
{
Ambient.Stop(AudioStopOptions.Immediate);
Amb2Bat = soundBank.GetCue("Amb2Bat");
Amb2Bat.Play();
CurrentState = GameStates.Amb2Bat;
break;
}

case GameStates.Battle:
{
Battle.Stop(AudioStopOptions.Immediate);
Bat2Amb = soundBank.GetCue("Bat2Amb");
Bat2Amb.Play();
CurrentState = GameStates.Bat2Amb;
break;
}
}
}
// Allows the game to exit
if (Keyboard.GetState().IsKeyDown(Keys.X))
this.Exit();

// TODO: Add your update logic here

base.Update(gameTime);
}

///
/// This is called when the game should draw itself.
///
/// Provides a snapshot of timing values.
protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime)
{
if(CurrentState == GameStates.Ambient)
graphics.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.CornflowerBlue);
else if (CurrentState == GameStates.Amb2Bat)
graphics.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Purple);
else if (CurrentState == GameStates.Battle)
graphics.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Red);
else
graphics.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.BlueViolet);
ForegroundBatch.Begin();

// Draw Hello World
string output = "© 2007 David Cortés Provencio, Software and Music.";

// Find the center of the string
Vector2 FontOrigin = CourierNew.MeasureString( output ) / 2;
// Draw the string
ForegroundBatch.DrawString( CourierNew, output, FontPos1, Color.White, FontRotation1, FontOrigin, 1.0f, SpriteEffects.None, 0.5f );

output = "Press 'A' to transition and 'X' to exit";

// Find the center of the string
FontOrigin = CourierNew.MeasureString( output ) / 2;
// Draw the string
ForegroundBatch.DrawString( CourierNew, output, FontPos2, Color.Black, FontRotation2, FontOrigin, 1.0f, SpriteEffects.None, 0.5f );

ForegroundBatch.End();

base.Draw(gameTime);
}
}
}

more XNA

2007-06-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

Hey,still here, I just found a couple of nice tutorials from the XNA team:
Enjoy.

Another blog

2006-10-31T12:59:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, but here is another link for Film music this time

Gamefest stuff

2006-09-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Check the audio link here:

XNA officially to support XBox 360 and PC

2006-08-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Check the XNA site, for tools announcements and other stuff.
It is great news for all the indie game creators.

Establishing an Aesthetic in Next Generation Sound Design

2006-06-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Read this in gamasutra

XBOX 360 sound and music

2006-06-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Read this link

Interesting story about another programmer/musician

2006-06-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

I read it here

USC to offer BS and MS in Game development

2006-06-19T09:43:00.000-07:00

Here is the link

Kind of off-topic but really funny

2006-05-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

I couldn't resist to add this guys: Schaudenfreude

Game controlers and music articles

2006-05-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Some interesting stuff here : CDM

Programming DirectSound

2006-05-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

I just found this article about programming DirectSounds

Algorithms & Music

2006-05-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

So it looks like if you want to get involved in any music engine, some basic knowledge of logic and programming is really necessary or at least, very convenient.

What you need to create some sort of music engine and to create music for that engine, is to create a set of rules, something that will serve for the musician as well as the programmer.

Have in mind that a programmer with a good set of rules (what we call specification) will have an easy time coding your music into the game and it will work perfectly well from the beginning, but it you don’t give good rules the guess work on the programming side could ruin your musical results.

Programs follow what we call algorithms, in other words, a set of rules to solve a problem, check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithm

Algorithms usually solve problems following a very easy logic path, which can be graphically displayed with flow charts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_charts

Examples of algorithms applied to music are here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithmic_music

http://ccrma-www.stanford.edu/~blackrse/algorithm.html

Don’t think is something new; check this out from the ccrma page:
“Mozart, too, used automated composition techniques in his Musikalisches Wurfelspiel ("Dice Music"), a musical game which "involved assembling a number of small musical fragments, and combining them by chance, piecing together a new piece from randomly chosen parts" (Alpern, 1995). This very simple form of "algorithmic" composition leaves creative decisions in the hands of chance, letting the role of a dice to decide what notes are to be used.”

If you want to go even further:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finite_state_machine

Interesting articles

2006-05-04T14:26:00.000-07:00

Check this link

Credits in Videogames

2006-04-25T16:20:00.000-07:00

Check this out:
IGDA credit info

ASCAP EXPO in Hollywood

2006-04-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

I think is sold out but here is the link

More links, this time from the UCLA course, reproduced with permission here

2006-04-04T16:44:00.000-07:00

Audio Tools	Cubase SX/Nuendo/Wavelab Cubase SX3 and Nuendo 3 are Cross-platform Audio/MIDI creation software. Wavelab is an audio editing software.
	Digital Performer Audio/MIDI creation software for the Mac
	Live Cross-platform Audio/MIDI creation software
	Logic Pro Audio/MIDI creation software for the Mac
	Pro Tools Cross-platform Audio/MIDI creation software
	Reason Cross-platform Audio/MIDI creation software
	SAWStudio PC audio editing software. Similar in function to Pro Tools.
	Sonar PC Audio/MIDI creation software
	Sound Forge PC audio editing software
Composers
	Bill Brown Composer for the TV series CSI:NY Videogame Credits: The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-Earth , Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 , Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow, Lineage II: Chronicle 2 - Age of Splendor, Lineage II: Chronicle 1 - Harbingers of War, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour , Lineage II: The Chaotic Chronicle, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword, Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War, Rt Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Resurrection, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Command & Conquer: Generals , Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, The Sum of All Fears (PC), Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon - Desert Siege, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Rogue Spear - Black Thorn, Clive Barker's Undying, Michael Crichton's Timeline (PC), Rainbow Six - Covert Ops Essentials, Rogue Spear - Urban Operations, Shadow Watch, Disney's Villains' Revenge , Arcane Online, Xena - Warrior Princess PSX , Tom Clancy's Rogue Spear, Rainbow Six - Eagle Watch, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Trespasser: The Lost World, Tom Clancy's Politika ** denotes a collaboration
	Sascha Dikiciyan (aka Sonic Mayhem) Gameography Terminator 3 "War of the machines", Quake II, Quake II:Ground Zero, Quake II:The Reckoning, Quake III Arena, Quake III Arena: Team Arena, James Bond "Tomorrow Never Dies", Wild 9, Weapon sound design for Unreal Tournament
	Alex Kharlamov Videogame Credits: No Respect, Dragonshard, War of the Ring * Additional Music Composer
	Billy Martin Videogame Credits: Chicken Little, Finding Nemo: Learning with Nemo, Memorick, the Apprentice Knight, Spy Kids 3D: Game Over , Disney-Pixar Learning: Buzz Lightyear 2nd & 3rd Grade (2002 GANG Award , Best Edutainment/Children Audio), Disney's Royal Horse Show, Treasure Planet Training Academy (2002 GANG Award nominee), The Book of Pooh, Search For the Secret Keys, Tarzan Untamed (AIAS Award nominee), Zoog Genius, Phonics Quest (AIAS Award nominee), Mickey's Active Learning Series, Jungle Book Rhythm and Groove, Winnie-the-Pooh Early Learning Series, Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Aladdin's Reading Quest, The Great Reading Adventure, Hunchback of Notre Dame: Topsy Turvey Games, The Great Word Adventure, Arcade America, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones* * Additional Music Composer
	Lennie Moore Videogame Credits: Outcast, Dragonshard, War of the Ring, Plague of Darkness, Villain's Night Out* * Additional Music Composer
	Tommy Tallarico Videogame Credits: PLAYSTATION Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Spider-Man, Tomorrow Never Dies, Treasures of the Deep, Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Pac-Man World, Earthworm Jim 2, Spot Goes To Hollywood, Time Crisis: Project Titan, MDK, Wild 9, Point Blank 2, Apocalypse, Tales of Destiny, R/C Stunt Copter, Skeleton Warriors, Black Dawn, Agile Warrior F-111X, VMX Racing, Battle Arena Toshinden 3, Burning Road, Wargames: Defcon 1, NCAA March Madness 2000, NCAA March Madness 2001, NFL Blitz 2001, NHL Face-Off ’98, Test Drive 4, Test Drive 5, Test Drive 6, Test Drive: Off-Road 2, Demolition Racer, Tilt!, MTV Sports: Skateboarding with Andy Macdonald, Spec-Ops: Airborne Commando, MTV Sports: T.J. Lavin's Ultimate BMX, WWF Smackdown 2!: Know Your Role, Army Men: Air Attack, Twisted Metal: Small Brawl, Hardball 99, Powerslave, Golden Nugget, 1st Sony PlayStation Demo Disk, Major Damage, Felix the Cat, Deuce PLAYSTATION II Maximo, Maximo vs. Army of Zin, Pac-Man World Rally, Jaws Unleashed, Spy Hunter 2, Knockout Kings 2001, Blood Rayne, War of the Monsters, Bard’s Tale, Fight Club, The Incredibles, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie, Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights, And 1 Streetball, Street Hoops, Black & Bruised, MX Superfly, Casper: Spirit Dimensions, Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror, WWE: Crush Hour, X-Files: Resist or Serve, Black 9, Moto X PC Unreal 2, Unreal Tournament 2004, Unreal Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali, MDK, Advent Rising, Spider-Man, Lineage II - Chronicle 3: Rise of Darkness, Exteel, Jaws Unleashed, Messiah, Bard’s Tale, Sacrifice, Earthworm Jim 1 & 2: The Whole Can O’ Worms, Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Pac-Man World Rally, The Incredibles, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, Blood Rayne, Wargames, The Wheel of Time, Evil Dead: Hail to the King, Test Drive 4, Test Drive 5, Test Drive 6, Test Drive: Off-Road 2, Demolition Racer, Devastation, Jeff Gordon XS Racing, Beavis & Butthead Do U., Beavis & Butthead: Bunghole In One, Redline, MTV Sports: Skateboarding with Andy Macdonald, Luftwaffe Commander, Aladdin, Adrenix, Ultra Fighters, Hardball 6, Hyper 3-D Pinball, Duckman: Legend of the Fall, Powerslave, Agile Warrior F-111X, Golden Nugget, Monopoly Deluxe, Shuttle, Net Warrior, Flying Tigers, Akolyte, Jetz XBOX Advent Rising, Unreal 2, Unreal Championship 2, Jaws Unleashed, Pac-Man World Rally, Spy Hunter 2, Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, Bard’s Tale, Fight Club, The Incredibles, The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer, SpongeBob SquarePants The Movie, And 1 Streetball, Street Hoops, MX Superfly, Toxic Grind, Fugitive Hunter: War on Terror, Scooby Doo: Night of 100 Frights, Aquaman: Battle for Atlantis, WWE: Crush Hour, X-Files: Resist or Serve, Black 9, Moto X
	Cris Velasco Videogame Credits: Splinter Cell: Double Agent, God of War, Van Helsing, Battlestar Gallactica, Terminator 3: Redemption, Maximo: Army of Zin ** denotes a collaboration
	Jack Wall Videogame Credits: Jade Empire, Myst IV: Revelation, Rise of the Kasai, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, Wrath Unleased , Myst III: Exile, Unreal II, Ben Hur, Mark of Kri, Animorphs, Ultimate Ride Coaster Deluxe, Extremely Goofy Skateboarding, Barbie: Secret Agent, Mission Bravo, Vigilance, 10-Six The Million Player Game, Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam, Flying Saucer
	Inon Zur Videogame Credits: Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault, Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows, Exteel, Champions: Return To Arms, Men Of Valor, Shadow Ops: Red Mercury, Crusader Kings, Power Rangers: Dino Thunder, Syberia II, Champions Of Norrath: Realms Of EverQuest, SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALS, Lionheart: Legacy Of The Crusader, War And Peace, Icewind Dale II, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, Baldur's Gate II: Throne Of Bhaal, Star Trek: Starfleet Command II, Star Trek: New Worlds, Star Trek: Klingon Academy
Associations
	Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) Sponsor of the D.I.C.E. summit, held in Las Vegas every year. Sponsor of the AIAS Awards.
	American Composers Forum An excellent national organization for emerging composers
	Gamasutra Great industry resource
	Game Audio Network Guild One of best organizations around. Very supportive of emerging composers by the industry veterans.
	Game Developer Magazine You get an automatic subscription if you attend GDC (Game Developers Conference). Lots of inside-the-industry articles from programming to art to audio.
	Game Developers Conference (GDC) A must-attend for anyone interested in working in the game industry. Lots of great panel discussion on relevant topics. Always about advancing the Art of making videogames and meeting developers, publishers, and fellow audio professionals.
	Game Music Radio A great Web radio site devoted to videogame music.
	International Game Developers Association Another excellent organization. Sponsor of the Game Developers Choice Awards.
	Music 4 Games An awesome website devoted to Videogame Music.
	Society of Composers & Lyricists Sister organization to G.A.N.G. with mostly film and television composers as it's members
Sample Players
	Gigastudio GS3 Orchestra A powerful sample playback system, best as a standalone programm running on a separate computer from your sequencing host.
	Halion Sample playback for Cubase SX
	Kontakt A great plug-in sample playback if you have a surround sampled library like the East-West Quantum Leap Orchestra library.
	Logic EXS Sample playback system for Logic Pro.
	MachFive A sample playback plug-in from MOTU

	East West Large collection of sample libraries for all formats, including the Quantum Leap Orchestra, Symphonic Choirs, & Storm Drum.
	Gigastudio Tascam has many sample libraries for Gigastudio, including Dan Dean, Garritan, Larry Seyer, and others.
	Ilio Many of the best sample libraries around, including Spectrasonics, Skippy's, and Vienna Symphony Libraries
Sample libraries
	ProjectSAM Some of the best Brass and Percussion libraries around for Gigastudio.
	Sonic Implants Great orchestral libraries for Gigastudio
	Spectrasonics Maker of some of the most used libraries in film, TV, and videogames. Distorted Reality 1 & 2, Symphony of Voices, Vocal Planet, Bass Legends, Backbeat, Metamorphosis, Liquid Grooves, Burning Grooves, Bizarre Guitar, Han Zimmer Guitars to name a few.
	VSL (Vienna Symphony Library) A staple of the Gigastudio orchestral libraries.
Softsynth
	Arturia Maker of Arp 2600 V, Minimoog V, Moog Modular V, and CS80 V softsynths.
	East West Over 135 virtual instruments to choose from, including all Drumkit from Hell, Percussive Adventures, Quantum Leap, Vocaloid, and Yellow Tools plug-ins.
	Ilio Distributor for Spectrasonics plugins (Stylus RMX, Atmosphere, Trilogy), Plugsound, Lounge Lizard, and the new Vienna Instruments.
	Native Instruments Home of Reaktor, Absynth, B4 II, FM7, and PRO-53 softsynths.
	Spectrasonics Maker of Atmosphere/Trilogy/Stylus RMX.
	Steinberg Maker of Virtual Guitarist/Bassist, The Grand, Groove Agent, and Hypersonic plug-ins.

Added links

2006-03-24T20:24:00.000-08:00

Check links on the right. I added Lennie Moore, the teacher of the UCLA course. Gamasutra a good source for industry news and info. And one of the headlines that got my attention recently there music morphing.

Welcome

2006-03-24T13:46:00.000-08:00

Ludus Musicus, is just a pretentious name for Music composition and technology regarding Videogames.
I am a software engineer and musician, and lately, I am getting really interested in Music for Videogames.
I am about to start the UCLA course on Videogame music composing and I thought it might be interesting to keep this channel open for discussion of materials, technologies, SDKs, tools, you name it.
I'll add some links and some extra info as soon as I have some time to do it.
Thanks for visiting and enjoy.

DCP.