Inon-Zur
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Jukebox Heroes: Lineage II's soundtrack
Once again, I must begin this column by advising you to jettison your attitude toward an MMO when it comes to evaluating its music. Lineage II doesn't have the rabid following in the West that it seems to overseas, and I've heard a lot of negativity thrown its way (some of it quite deserved, but this is me jettisoning). However -- and I don't say this lightly -- its musical score is absolutely superb. It's right up there with the best of the industry and deserves to be heard. Its many soundtrack albums have a small army of composers powering them: Bill Brown, Jamie Christopherson, Inon Zur, Hyobum Lim, Chihwan Kim, Junyup Lee, Junghwan Park, Junghye Hong, and Changbeom Kim. Collaboratively, these folks have assembled a sizable body of work that spans a decade of video game music. The Lineage II soundtrack is, at times, cinematic, tranquil, lovely, and exciting. Check out these six tracks for a taste of the best, and if that interests you, you might want to listen to my recent Battle Bards podcast in which we dissect this score.
Jukebox Heroes: TERA's soundtrack
Within the small but passionate video game music community, there's a common gripe that goes around regarding studios' haphazard methods of distributing and selling original soundtracks. My general thought is that it's not that hard to just make a soundtrack a digital purchase through Amazon, iTunes, etc. for those who are interested in purchasing it, but more often than not, one has to look high and low to figure out how to get the desired music. What's even worse is when a soundtrack is released in different editions by region. Take today's subject, TERA, as an example. TERA's OST was at least released, but in two different editions: the limited 26-track edition given to Europe and Japan and the expansive 50-track edition that debuted in the US. It's just silly to do this sort of thing, but we see it all the time (and don't get me started on the way-too-expensive Japanese import of Final Fantasy XIV's Before Meteor). Anyway, I have a burr in my saddle about this today because TERA is a tremendous soundtrack. It's rich, evocative, and just plain catchy in parts. If you've listened to only part of this score composed by Inon Zur and Rod Abernethy, then you owe it to yourself to scrounge up the full deal. Here are my favorites!
Fantasia: Music Evolved scores Fallout 3 composer Inon Zur
Fantasia: Music Evolved will not only feature the imposing presence of sorcerer Yen Sid, but the original works of Inon Zur, a wizard of a different sort. Zur has a long history of composing music for video games, having accompanied players across irradiated wastelands in Fallout 3 and beneath besieged castles in Dragon Age: Origins. Disney has announced Zur will conjure the original soundtrack to Fantasia: Music Evolved and produce new orchestral versions of classic songs by Vivaldi ("Four Seasons: Winter: First Movement") and Mussorgsky ("Night on Bald Mountain"). He also arranged the orchestral mix of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," one of several contemporary songs that players can reshape in the game. Fantasia: Music Evolved is a motion-driven music game being developed by Harmonix for Kinect on Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Look and listen for it sometime in 2014.
Jukebox Heroes: Expansion themes
Main themes seem to be a strong favorite among video game music fans (and even the casual set), but I've talked about them a few times already. So instead of puttering around with main MMO themes, why not give expansions some of the credit? Not every expansion gets its own theme tune, of course, but plenty do. We've covered a few of them in this column so far, including Riders of Rohan and EVE Online: Apocrypha. What we haven't done is spend an entire week looking at these upstart themes and see how they compare to the originals. So strap on your headphones and prepare for symphonic excellence. Here are six great MMO expansion themes that deserve a few minutes of your time!
Jukebox Heroes: Starting your MMO music collection
I love seeing people turned on to MMO music, particularly after it's gotten such a bad rap over the years. But for the new fan, it can be a daunting proposition to start up a collection. After all, it's not as if you can go down to your local vinyl shop, peruse a stack of 45s, and come out with a full set of SOE's greatest hits. Only a fraction of MMO scores are available for purchase these days, with the rest being free, packaged in with collector's editions, out of print, or just tucked away inside of game files somewhere. So how do you get started on building up a robust library of MMO music? If you don't have deep pockets, which scores would I recommend you pick up first? Well, my friend, I've given it some thought and have put together a guide to six essential purchases that will get you off to a great start. Don't thank me; thank music. And also me because I did this hard work.
Jukebox Heroes: RIFT's soundtrack
From where I'm sitting, there seems to be a popular conception (at least within the MMO community) that RIFT's score was a letdown. As a player of the game, I actually shared that view for quite some time, as none of the music really popped out at me while I was playing. That all changed, however, when I sat down to listen to the full soundtrack. While it's not uniformly excellent (there are a lot of forgettable songs), several tunes arrested my attention and made me look at the score in a new light. So as we examine the soundtrack this week, I just ask that any of you out there who shared my previous outlook on the score give it another try. Keep an open mind, is all I'm asking. RIFT was composed by industry veteran Inon Zur (check out our interview with him from a couple of months ago). The score was originally released with the collector's edition, although it's recently become available in iTunes and Amazon.
Jukebox Heroes: EverQuest II's soundtrack, part 2
Last week, the laid-back folks at Sony Online Entertainment released the 118th expansion for EverQuest II, Chains of Eternity. Fortunately, it's available as a digital download so you won't have to suffer the embarrassment of a store clerk yelling, "PRICE CHECK ON 'CHAINS OF ETERNITY' FOR THIS PERVERT HERE -- THE ONE IN THE 50-SHADES-OF-GREY COAT" over the loudspeaker. Even more fortunate, for us, is that the expansion continues to grow EverQuest II's already immense symphonic library. SOE's been adding to the score with not only the game's expansions but also several of the larger content updates, and it's absolutely impressive to behold. As in most scores, there's a lot of forgettable noise that could probably be replaced by humming bees, but there still remains quite a few great tracks to appreciate, cherish, and adopt into one's own music library. Instead of focusing on the game's initial soundtrack, we're going to be skipping around to look at many of the terrific pieces of music that have come out of Norrath post-2004.
Jukebox Heroes Extra: An interview with Inon Zur
Did you grow up watching Power Rangers? I didn't, but then again, I was slightly over the age demographic there. But it tickles me pink (ranger) that the guy who got his start doing background music for one of the cheesiest shows of all time ended up scoring many of the greatest video games of all time. Israeli-born Inon Zur was hard at work in the film, TV, and video game industry in the '90s, but it wasn't until 2002's Icewind Dale II that his music and fame started to climb to a whole different level. Zur started winning awards left and right for his work on Dragon Age, Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, and Men of Valor, among other titles. MMO players might not know it, Zur's deft hand is all over the place. He's composed several EverQuest and EverQuest II expansions, the now-defunct Exteel, last year's RIFT and most recently, TERA. As a driving force behind MMO music, Inon Zur has a unique perspective on what makes for a great audio experience. Want to hear more? Us too. We have a great interview with Zur as well as a few select pieces of his works after the jump.
TERA composers discuss musical themes
As game budgets grow, production values usually do as well, and this is pretty apparent in the spate of high-quality musical scores surrounding many modern MMORPGs. Titles as diverse as Guild Wars, Age of Conan, and Lord of the Rings Online boast cinema-style ear candy and instantly recognizable theme music, and TERA is gearing up to become the latest MMORPG to follow suit. Renowned composers Inon Zur (Dragon Age, Fallout 3) and Rod Abernethy (RAGE, Dead Space) have been working on TERA's score since 2009, and the duo has made use of the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra and world-class production and mixing facilities to bring the music of Arborea to life. Zur and Abernethy are interviewed in a new piece over at ZAM, and clicking on the link will bring you discussion on regional and racial musical content as well as personal insights from both men regarding their work on Bluehole Studio's action MMO.
Meet basically every game composer ever in Burbank on June 11
Ever wanted to personally thank a video game composer for creating a particularly catchy anthem? Perhaps with a plate of cookies, or a hearty handshake? You'll get your chance next month, provided you live in Southern California -- Sumthing Else Music Works has arranged for a smattering of musicians to speak at a "Maestros of Video Games" panel on June 11 at Dark Delicacies Books and Collectibles in Burbank, CA. Attendees will be able to listen to and meet composers like Uncharted's Greg Edmonson, Dragon Age's Inon Zur, BioShock's Garry Schyman and a lot more. Check out the full list of participants and event details after the jump! (And we were just kidding about the "plate of cookies" thing. That would be creeptastic.)
Two tracks from Inon Zur's Dragon Age 2 soundtrack released
Care to give the boring events of your day an exciting hint of fantasy? It's a simple process -- just load up the two tracks from Inon Zur's Dragon Age 2 score posted below, and listen to them in the background while you go about your business. Suddenly, your routine chores become wondrous quests.
Music to kill by: The making of Rift's score
The musical score is often one of the little-appreciated aspects of MMOs, providing mood, tone and emotion for the player while hopefully refraining from being annoying or too repetitive. In a new dev diary, Trion Worlds showcases the audio talent behind Rift: Planes of Telara's score. Audio Director Yannis Brown and Composer Inon Zur (Dragon Age: Origins, Fallout: New Vegas) talk about how the music lends itself to character identity and the environment's atmosphere, while giving us an aural sneak peek of Rift's tunes. One of the cool concepts the audio team is the creation of multi-layered music tracks that provide the same theme in different degrees of intensity based on how big the rifts have grown. Hit the jump to watch the diary and hear for yourself whether this will be a game in which the default score stays on -- or gets quickly turned off in favor of personal playlists.
Zur and Abernethy making TERA music
Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment continue to impress with their ability to put together a top notch roster of talent for TERA. The forthcoming fantasy MMORPG will feature a musical score by Inon Zur and Rod Abernethy as well as the Northwest Sinfonia Orchestra. The soundtrack makes use of traditional acoustic guitar, various ethnic instrumentation and vocal performances. Zur is a prolific composer responsible for the Dragon Age, Fallout 3, and Prince of Persia scores, while Abernethy's extensive body of work includes music for The Hobbit, Alpha Protocol, and Dead Space. "The general direction for the music for TERA was to have an original score that sounded grand and to match the large-scale in-game world, mixed with some warm sounding music," said Mr. An Yong Jin, Bluehole's Audio Director. "Inon has created world-class quality, epic orchestral music, which is his best attribute; his sweeping symphonic music is outstanding. Rod's beautiful compositions for TERA span a wide scope of musical styles. His expertly crafted blend of acoustic guitar and orchestral compositions is incredible for enhancing the musical atmosphere and their popular music appeal." [Thanks Greg!]
Crysis composer Inon Zur scoring Fallout 3
No matter what platform we choose to take on Fallout 3's radioactive wasteland, we will be doing so to the musical styling of seasoned game music composer Inon Zur. If Zur's name isn't familiar to you, it's likely you've hummed along to some of his more notable tracks heard in games like Crysis as well as each of the three expansions to Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War. And speaking of three, a trio of the songs Zur created for Bethesda's hotly anticipated RPG are available to listen to on the official Fallout 3 website, from in-game tracks "Megaton" and "Into the Wasteland," to a bass-heavy title track that has us climbing the walls in our underground shelter in the march up to the game's release this fall.
Fallout 3 composer named, soundtrack samples available
Music is an integral part of any game. It's important that the right composer is put in charge of bringing the aural atmosphere to life. For Fallout 3, the right man to pen the musical score would apparently be Inon Zur, composer of game soundtracks from Crysis and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Fallout 3 executive producer Todd Howard had this to say about Zur's original music for the game: "He's created a score that has epic sweep; from the lonely ambience of the wasteland to dramatic fights for survival." True enough, Zur is well-known for that sort of sound. Don't believe it? Then hit up Fallout 3's official website to listen to three songs from the soundtrack. Also, you can hear some of Zur's older work at his official website.[Via press release]
