Nonlinar Music

March 2, 2005 1:50 AM

Nonlinear music: where can I find good examples? I remember the Final Fantasy composer talking about one of the scores for a boss battle that could transition several different ways, for example.

I imagine game soundtracks in general are a good place to find this, but I don't have any console systems and I don't really care about the games, just the music. (For educational purposes; I'm trying to see how it's done so I can, hopefully, do it myself.)

posted by Tlogmer to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

Some games actually release their soundtracks on cd, but of course, by the time it's put on a cd it's no longer in a nonlinear form...
You might also be able to find some examples by emulating some games, but I've no idea how recent a technique nonlinear music is and current gen consoles aren't really emulable afaik.
posted by juv3nal at 2:33 AM on March 2, 2005

does this count?
posted by andrew cooke at 3:05 AM on March 2, 2005

Have a look at Mozart's Musikalisches Wurfelspiel for a fairly clear demonstration. There's quite a bit on the net on it (including a nice, simple, MIDI implementation) - try Google.
posted by monkey closet at 4:05 AM on March 2, 2005

Well, Todd Rundgren comes to mind. I never heard that album in its interactive form and probably never will, but if you're interested in "How to do it" there's been a lot written about this album that you might find interesting.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:07 AM on March 2, 2005

Also worth checking out some resources on aleatoric music - the term for this style of composition when it became popular with the 20th century avant-garde.
posted by monkey closet at 4:09 AM on March 2, 2005

[alternate Todd Rundgren link since allmusic is not cooperating]
posted by Wolfdog at 4:19 AM on March 2, 2005

Best answer: IMuse was the music system in old Lucasarts adventure games, and had ways of branching and looping depending on things that happened during gameplay.
posted by zsazsa at 6:46 AM on March 2, 2005

Best answer: amon tobin mentions this some regarding his experience doing the new splinter cell soundtrack in a recent interview on gamespot
posted by yeahyeahyeahwhoo at 8:24 AM on March 2, 2005

Best answer: Thomas Dolby came up with a system of some sort for doing this in soundtracks for games; you might try looking him up in Keyboard and/or Electronic Musician via the periodical guides at your library.
posted by kindall at 9:12 AM on March 2, 2005

You should check out Longplayer, a music-generating algorithm developed to play for 1000 years.
posted by baphomet at 10:58 AM on March 2, 2005