AngelCityOutlaw

I'll give it a shot

So I've been revisiting the "Metroid" series of Nintendo games from my childhood. Played through Prime and now Dread, which is the newest one until Prime 4 comes out in a couple weeks....it's not one of the better entries. But what stood out to me is the music. This is from the opening of the game. That is a very...not-convincing orchestral mockup, I must say. Definitely not for 2021. When I did my first game score 15 years ago now (omg), this sort of mockup would've gotten you laughed out of the building in the West. Even indies wouldn't have hired you unless it was a pixel-art throwback game and even then you're pushing it. I remember when I did my first soundtrack which was for a couple of Ubisoft devs back then, they were obsessed with "real", and even EWQLSO wasn't enough for them. But I remember reading a few years ago on Redbanned there was a survey, and Japanese composers still most often use Symphonic Orchestra Gold. It's very odd to me and something I"ve noticed specifically in Japanese video games. Not so much in film and TV — I see people from Japan regularly dropping killer mockups of John Williams and such on YouTube, but professional Japanese game devs really don't seem to care. Demon's Souls sounds like it used straight up ROMpler and "General MIDI" patches as well. Just abysmal. I wonder why in Japan they seem so unbothered by it? You'd think especially companies like Nintendo, who are so big on quality-control everywhere else and have these iconic melodies from like Mario and Zelda would demand only the best production quality?

There was something I was going to say about this part specifically and I remember like 3 days ago saying "When I get home I have to remember to say it" but now I'll be damned if I can remember what it was.

I've recently been rediscovering the Metroid series Crazy story: About 12 years ago, I covered this song with a friend on OCR. I believe our mix is still up, and someone actually made a guitar hero cover of it.

Well, keep in mind I don't write concert orchestral works much and neither did the composers I worked with when they were recording orchestras. So I'm not an expert on concerts. But from what I DO know about concert composers: Most of them come through academia. If you're a student, that's your best shot. Some churches might also have small orchestras. Otherwise, volunteering or getting some other job with an orchestra and building up a network with orchestra directors and what not you may eventually get them to perform some of your shorter pieces (not much longer than 4 minutes) in a concert. If you really build up a good relationship with them, they might even start commissioning you, which a single commission could be a 5-figure amount of money. But that would probably take years of networking and essentially proving yourself. The reason it's so difficult to get an orchestra to play new music in a concert, even if it is very good, is that orchestras have become very niche and they need repertoire on the bill that is basically guaranteed to put butts in seats; names that people recognize. If there are too many names people don't know, then they risk not selling many tickets. That's why so many concerts these days pull from games and films: It's the best source of "new" material that people will pay to see. Honestly, you may just want to reach out to orchestras near you and straight-up ask them about playing your pieces and what sort of hoops you'd have to jump through (don't phrase it like that though).

If you're just wanting an orchestra to perform your uncommissioned music, then they may charge a rate to print sheet music copies and otherwise prepare the piece. Especially for student pieces. Like, recording an orchestra for example typically costs 10s of thousands per hour. In concert music, if they commission a piece, they would pay for that piece and then pay out performance royalties to the PRO on top of that. Also in concert music, if they did not commission the piece, but choose to perform it in a concert, the composer is paid royalties through their PRO. BUT I'm not aware of many orchestras outside of music college ones being in the business of playing concert pieces that that don't already come from classical repertoire, films or video games anyway. In short: If it's for a concert and you're trying to get them to play your piece in it, they may want some amount of money to prepare the piece, but not a raw fee simply to "play" it. They have to pay to play it. But it is a bit of a moot point. Most orchestras, at least that I'm aware of, won't even give an unknown composer consideration for concerts.

I can't imagine why it wouldn't be true tbh

I've been impressed with some of Benjamin Wallfisch's stuff. Especially on "It", which I'm not into that kind of horror movie, but I was surprised listening to the score how melodic it is. I also really loved the score to del Toro's new Frankenstein movie, which is one of the most melodic scores I've heard come out of Hollywood in a long time. It's by Alexandre Desplat and it even plays *gasp* during dialogue and doesn't distract from it like directors all feared for the last 20 years.

I do think the pendulum is finally swinging back. I was at a film festival last weekend and talking with the producer of a film I'm currently scoring and a director it was interesting. The producer was talking about how most all of the films at the festival would have ambient scores. We were all talking then about John Williams, Goldmsith, etc. and my work and then the guy had this pained look in his eyes, shook his head and said "...I just love orchestral scores." I think the new generation of film makers are into melodic orchestral scores, but there's not many people making them and doing it well. I'm basically the only one in my area. Film and game makers can only work with what's on offer. But I don't expect the Zimmerites of the world, especially those making a lot of money, to allow that pendulum to swing without a serious fight.

I think the real question here is "Can someone with aphantasia be an aesthete?" Possibly. I don't know that it's ever been studied, but I do suspect it is comparatively rare. I've always had hyper-phantasia and like most of that sort, was shocked to learn that this isn't the norm. I definitely believe it must be better to have this ability than not. My opinion on musical composition and art is that great works are the product of technical craftsmanship (which can be taught) meeting with an strong sense of aesthetic taste (which cannot be taught, but is understood fairly universally by those who experience it.) Since the latter is innate, I suspect there is a strong correlation with hyper-phantasia and aesthetes. So I would bet money that the greatest composers and artists had hyperphantasia. While it might not afflict ones ability to enjoy or recognize beauty, it probably does affect one's ability to reliably create it.

I saw an article today that actually surprised me. https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2025/10/playstation-is-trying-to-scrub-any-mention-of-its-failed-concerts-from-the-internet Sony has canceled and is basically trying to bury that they were doing a tour of video game music from some of their biggest titles at present. This is the first time I'm aware of a video game music concert tour, of mainly orchestra music, being shelved due to a lack of interest. Some are saying a lack of marketing is to blame; others that the music isn't great. I can see the former possibly being true, but I can't see the latter. If Hans Zimmer, Nobuo Uematsu, & Slayer can still have sold-out concerts, then "meh" music can't be the problem here. Also, the Uncharted series I think was on the bill, and it actually has some good music. What it got me thinking about though, is that it seems to me like video game music, just in general, doesn't seem to be as popular as it was ~15 years ago. One of the first online music communities geared towards composers and studio musicians I ever joined was OCReMix, probably about 2012 or so. Back then, every college age person wanted to be either a video game composer or was going to "Video Games Live" and trying to get a Remix past the judges panel. New people came all the time. The former hasn't changed. Plenty of young musicians are still falling for the trap of video games being a golden field of opportunity, but last I checked out OCR, it's basically still the same people who were there in 2015 making remixes. VGL hasn't toured near me in years, so far as I know. I used to go annually with friends, but even 10 years ago, I noticed they weren't drawing as big of crowds each passing year. This is quite a shift as articles 10 years ago were boasting about how "Video Game Music Saved The Symphony Orchestra". In 2015, this Playstation touring orchestral concerts would've been a license to print money. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-videogames-are-saving-the-symphony-orchestra-1444696737 My hypothesis is that in the 2010s, there were nostalgic millennials still high on the '90s and 2000s video game soundtracks, which were great. A lot of millennials were big on gaming, but I don't think Gen Z is as much. From what I see of Gen Z playing games, they usually only play big franchises and social games like Fortnite, GTA and sports games. So, I think that they aren't as familiar with games where a soundtrack that "slaps" is noteworthy, and the millennials are now all middle-aged and either grew out of gaming or just simply don't have the time to go to VGM concerts anymore. But maybe I'm wrong and it's stilling secretly booming somwhere. Curious to know YC's thoughts, since I know there are VGM fans here.

Outside of rock guitar solos (and even then I prefer not to), I never use an improvisation as a complete melody. Personally, I dislike improvisation. I see composing music as the sonic equivalent to sculpting marble or painting on canvas. It is something that is shaped and refined until it realizes a vision. I think it was Michelangelo who said "I saw the angel in the marble and I sculpted until I set him free". I believe that should be the approach to composing music, and as far as I am aware, it is how all the greatest works were composed.

Thanks a lot man, I appreciate it! I'm actually quite busy with music at the moment. I'm presently in the middle of writing music for a new horror film that will be doing the festival rounds next year, a couple short pieces for a local documentary and actually just finishing up the next album: A Gothic/Dark Orchestral album for which I actually managed to recruit some grammy-nominated string players for.

Thanks a lot, Peter.