May 31, 2007

TMNT Game Composers Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan Reflect on Making Turtle Music Power

by Louis Bedigian

“We crafted it in a way that would merit listening to it even outside the game.” 

Since the days of the TMNT arcade game, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property has been one of extreme importance to its growing fan base. Many of today’s hardcore gamers grew up reading the comic book, watched the cartoon attentively, and played every game they could get their hands on.

I know this because I too am a TMNT addict.

One of the subtle, though certainly not any less important, parts of the TMNT equation is its music. For the new game based on the movie, released in stores earlier this spring, Ubisoft chose a different path. Rather than stick with one composer, acquire bits and pieces from several artists, or purchase a collection of pre-recorded works (all three being the common practices for game, film, and TV composition), Ubisoft chose the composing duo of Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan.

“It's one of the only true collaborations that I'm aware of,” said Cris Velasco, referring to their joint music creations. “Each of us has our own hand in every single cue. I'm typically covering the orchestral and choral music while Sascha takes care of the electronica, industrial, percussion, etc.”

Having worked on the score for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and the main cinematic title for Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Cris and Sascha had previous experience in game composing.

“On TMNT, there was a lot of music to write so we developed a certain rhythm with our work,” said Chris. “At first I came up with the different themes that we would use throughout the score. Specifically, I created themes for the Turtles and then a darker theme for the Nightwatcher. After that, Sascha would typically start a cue. He'd lay the foundation for the whole cue. I'd then take this track, add orchestra (western and eastern sounds) and then give him stems for each group. Sascha would then take my stems, add them back into his arrangement, and tweaking his sounds until we had a cohesive track.”

“Sometimes,” he continues, “what I gave back to him would already be a perfect match, ready for mixing.” But there were other times when Sascha would re-write whole sections when Cris had an idea that he wanted to explore that “didn't quite mesh with his original track.” Cris said that they went back and forth to get each track just right.

“The end result is an 80-minute score that we're very proud of. While the individual tracks themselves have a lot of variety, there's still a sense that each cue belongs to TMNT. There's definitely a ‘big picture’ to the music.”

TMNT is not the only game to use more than one composer, but it's rare that both composers receive equal recognition. So let me ask you – how did you two work on this game? Was it a 50/50 effort?

Cris Velasco: Sascha and I have been working together as a team for about two years. In that time we've written music for about 14 games so we're very used to the collaboration by now.

Do you write together, individually or both?
 
CV: We both work on every single cue together while still maintaining our own respective studios.  
 
Is it harder or easier to work on a score in this fashion?

Sascha Dikiciyan: Well, I think it’s for the better simply because each of us can focus on what we are doing best. Cris knows his orchestra really well while I've been doing electronica for years. So it’s really the best of both worlds. Sometimes we have our differences but we are both open to ideas and suggestions so it keeps things interesting.

What are the benefits of having more than one composer work on a particular project? Ex: are you able to write more music? Is there greater diversity? Do you get done faster?

CV: For us, it's not a matter of efficiency. We get a combined sound that neither of us could do on our own. This is where the attraction lies. We approach our music as a true collaboration of different styles interacting. We both only concentrate on where our strengths lie. In this way, I believe that we are able to produce some very high quality music. Neither the electronic nor the orchestral sides suffer. 

The composing duo pose for a studio shot.

Tell us about the equipment (PC, software, etc.) and instruments used for TMNT.

CV: My basic studio setup includes one main DAW and a few slave PC's that are running my sample libraries. I also purchased a Les Paul guitar that was played on the TMNT score. I'm endorsed by Steinberg and have been using Cubase as my sequencer for years. 

SD: I use several PCs as well as Macs. I've used a lot of Native instruments stuff on TMNT like Massive or FM8. But I also recorded a lot of live drums and used those for several tracks. My main DAW is a quad-core pc with Cubase and every plug-in known to mankind.

What other instruments have you worked with (in any other project)? Anything particularly unique?

CV: More often than not, I’m given the opportunity to record our scores with a live orchestra. For a composer, this is always the best scenario. There's nothing like standing at the podium or sitting in the control room and hearing an orchestra play your music. It's the best feeling in the world. As far as unique instruments go, we're working on a new score right now that will have some unusual surprises thrown in with a more traditional orchestra. Unfortunately, I can't say more than that right now, but check back with us this summer.

Are there any sounds or instruments you'd like to experiment with?

CV: I'd love to one day record a live children's choir.  I think they can be very haunting.  I'm also looking into using an erhu player for another project we're currently writing.  The erhu is so expressive that a sample, no matter how well recorded, just can't do it justice.

SD: Yeah I’m always looking for news ways to create new drum sounds. Maybe not an instrument per se but I'd love to go to the factories that build planes and record a lot of the  machines used in the process. I’m sure a lot of them would make great samples!

You're both credited for writing the score for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and the main cinematic title for Splinter cell: Double Agent. These were titles that got you into the game industry, correct? Tell us about that.

CV: Actually, those were just two of the titles that we worked on last year.  I got my start by writing for the Battlestar Galactica game back in 2003.  The game that really helped launch my career though was probably God of War.  Since that time, Sascha and I have worked together on games like Hellgate: London, God of War II, Spyhunter: Nowhere To Run, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and many more. Dark Messiah did however mark our first live orchestral recording together. It also was our first official soundtrack release and one of the highlights for me in 2006.

SD: I've got my break writing music for Quake II in 1997. That was my first professional job as a composer for games. After that I worked with people like Tommy Tallarico on games like James Bond and others.

Give us a little history. How and when did you begin working together?

CV: It's kind of a funny story. Two years ago Sascha had a potential project that required the orchestral/electronic sound. He posted a call for orchestral demos on a somewhat obscure message board. For some reason, I just happened to come across this post on the very day he put it up. At first I was hesitant to actually send out any music because I didn't know who it was. I gave him a link to my website though. After receiving tons of submissions, Sascha decided to contact me. Without ever hearing of each other before, it turns out our studios were both in LA, about 10 minutes from each other. We decided to demo for this one project together and realized that the sound we had together was pretty good. Since that day we've been hired to write music together on around 14 titles.

SD: It’s really a pretty cool story. I mean, just pure orchestra was never my strength. So one day I just thought why not try to find someone who can. And yes, I did get a lot of submissions, some were good but Cris’ work stood out because it was just really good.  I think that was March 2005 so we've been working ever since then. It’s been a great ride so far.

Do you plan to continue working as a team?

CV: We've got a great sound together. We've been very busy since our partnership and we definitely plan on sticking together. If anything, we're expanding our focus in the future. I think we have a lot of interesting ideas that you'll be hearing in the near future.

SD: Oh yes. I think I can honestly say that I’m happy to work with someone else. While there are people who do everything themselves, I do appreciate the different ideas and views someone else can bring to a cue. Plus Cris knows what he’s doing and we'd be stupid not to continue working together. It just works!

Do you have solo projects that you want to pursue or might want to
pursue in the future?

CV: Besides writing for games I am also involved in scoring and producing independent feature films. I have also written for numerous national television commercials and trailers. 

SD: Yes! I have a side project called "Toksin" where I produce breakbeats and remixes for people like BT, Deep Sky and others. If anyone’s interested please check out www.myspace.com/toksin. 

Like most of the recent Turtles games, TMNT has not received much critical acclaim. As a fan of all forms of entertainment, I look to every aspect of a game for enjoyment -- gameplay, sound, story, and visuals. Generally, if the gameplay sucks, I'm out. But if the soundtrack is really strong, I'm more likely to stick around till the end. What last words can you tell players about TMNT that might encourage them to give it a shot, if only for the music?

CV: What most people don't realize is that TMNT is a game geared towards kids. There are a lot of original Turtles fans out there that are now thirtysomethings that are a bit disappointed in the difficulty level of the game. Their children will love it though. Too bad the kids aren't writing the reviews! We tried to write a score that was fun but still had an air of sophistication to it. We crafted it in a way that would merit listening to it even outside the game. This is definitely not a typical score for a kid’s game. If you like orchestra, electronica, industrial, heavy guitars, taiko drumming, choir, and ethnic solos then TMNT will have something for you.

SD: It’s always tough as a composer when the game you worked on so hard isn’t getting great reviews. I think in this case like Cris was saying, the problem was that people forget it’s supposed to be a kid’s game. Not to say that you can’t appreciate it as an adult but TMNT is a kid’s game. I think personally Ubisoft did an excellent job and we tried to just write a lot of good, fun cues. We are still trying to get a soundtrack release.

Thank you for your time.

Cris Velasco – www.monarchaudio.com

Sascha Dikiciyan – www.sonicmayhem.com