1st Edition

From Pac-Man to Pop Music Interactive Audio in Games and New Media

Edited By Karen Collins Copyright 2008
    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    Digital interactive audio is the future of audio in media - most notably video games, but also web pages, theme parks, museums, art installations and theatrical events. Despite its importance to contemporary multi-media, this is the first book that provides a framework for understanding the history, issues and theories surrounding interactive audio. Karen Collins presents the work of academics, composers and sound programmers to introduce the topic from a variety of angles in order to provide a supplementary text for music and multimedia courses. The contributors cover practical and theoretical approaches, including historical perspectives, emerging theories, socio-cultural approaches to fandom, reception theory and case study analyses. The book offers a fresh perspective on media music, one that will complement film studies, but which will show the necessity of a unique approach when considering games music.

    Introduction, Karen Collins; Part 1 Industries and Synergies: The new MTV? Electronic arts and 'playing' music, Holly Tessler; Marketing music through computer games: the case of Poets of the Fall and Max Payne 2, Antti-Ville Karja.; Part 2 Ringtones and Mobile Phones: Could ringtones be more annoying?, Peter Drescher; Indeterminate adaptive digital audio for games on mobiles, Agnes Guerraz and Jacques Lemordant.; Part 3 Instruments and Interactions: Theoretical approaches to composing dynamic music for games, Jesper Kaae; Realising groundbreaking adaptive music, Tim van Geelen; The composition-instrument: emergence, improvisation, and interaction in games and new media, Norbert Herber.; Part 4 Techniques and Technologies: Dynamic range: subtlety and silence in video game sound, Rob Bridgett; An introduction to granular synthesis in video games, Leonard Paul.; Part 5 Audio and Audience: Chip music: low tech data music sharing, Anders Carlsson; Left in the dark: playing computer games with the sound turned off, Kristine Jorgensen; Music theory in music games, Peter Schultz; Annotated bibliography and resources, Erica Kudisch and Tim van Geelen; Bibliography; Index.

    Biography

    Karen Collins is based in the Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology at the University of Waterloo, Canada.