Ori and the will of the wisps composer series#

“Marty O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori have such a great understanding of the space between the notes.,” he says of the duo behind the first three Halo scores.

Ori and the will of the wisps composer series#

Taking over the music for an established franchise, Gareth found himself in the unusual situation of stepping into the shoes of well-loved series composers. “For those who aren’t necessarily hardcore Halo fans and might just play a handful of videogames, they might just think it’s just an action shooter, but behind that there are some much softer and more emotional story elements.” Talking about the series, Gareth feels that people have a few misconceptions about the videogames. This latest installment of the bestselling first-person shooter finds space-marine protagonist Master Chief battling aliens, zombies, and other assorted enemies with a vast array of sci-fi weaponry.

Gareth has recently been tapped as one of three composers – along with Curtis Schweitzer and Joel Corelitz – to score the upcoming Halo Infinite from Microsoft-owned 343 Industries.

I guess that for musicians, recording sample libraries can be pretty boring, so I don’t want to hear that in the samples.” “My philosophy with choosing orchestral sounds is to find the ones that feel the most alive. “Sonically many of these libraries are pretty specific and some have great, very niche articulations that can be difficult to replicate in a live setting.” In some cases the sampled instruments are blended into his live recordings to give a unique feel. “I think I was probably one of the first people to buy Symphobia as I remember my order number was really low.” His favorites are from Spitfire, ProjectSAM and Orchestral Tools. Even though his scores are often re-recorded by orchestras nowadays, Gareth’s sample library collection has expanded considerably since those early years. Gareth’s introduction to Native Instruments products started early on in this process, with the first version of Kontakt and long-since discontinued libraries like Percussive Adventures and Vienna Symphonic Opus. So I made a decision that even though I felt I wasn’t the best composer in my class, I was going to really focus on the technology and mock-up aspect and try to be ahead of the curve in that respect.” It became obvious to me that music tech is super important. He explains, “I even interned for a couple of composers (though I was not a great intern!) Nevertheless I did get to see their studios and workflow. This stems from his time in USC’s Scoring for Motion Picture and Television program, during which he had the opportunity to visit the studios of composing greats like Thomas Newman and John Powell. Gareth gives us some insights into the work of a composer of video games music.Despite his traditional musical education, Gareth maintains a focus on the technology behind music production. He is well known for his scores for Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. In this episode of 'devcom podcast', our hosts Lars Janssen and Nico Balletta welcome composer Gareth Coker. A soundtrack can make the difference between a good game and an epic experience. From chiptunes to the first orchestral recording, music has always enhanced the entire feel of games. Right from the outset, music has been a vital part of video games.