BY CHRISTOPHER LEON FOR LEVEL AND GAIN
Kyoto-born composer Manami Matsumae was there during the “golden era” of Japanese games, crafting the soundtracks from as early as 1987 when she joined the Capcom studio. And it’s this era in gaming that she says laid the groundwork for everything we have today.
Whether produced through her studio or freelance work, Matsumae’s titles reflect a gaming industry that has travelled across waves of genres and technologies — some of those titles include the original Mega Man (and the more recent Mega Man 10), U.N Squadron, Dragon Quest Swords, Shovel Knight, and Mighty Fight Federation.
Matsumae celebrated three decades of composing music with her Three Movements album, released in 2017 through her label Brave Wave Productions (which also released Lingua Franca — you can read more about that album in our interview with games composer Takahiro Izutani).
In this interview, Matsumae tells us about her career and creative process when writing music for games. Manami Matsumae was selected to deliver the joint keynote in the APRA AMCOS High Score: Composition for Sound Art and Gaming event (October 5-6, 2019) for Melbourne International Games Week. It marks her first visit to Australia.
Hi Manami Matsumae, thank you for taking the time to chat with us. You have worked with Capcom and mentioned that a mentor once told you: When scoring for video games, it is best to keep things simple. What elements do you like to keep simple?
Back then, we only had three sound channels plus noise available to us. Also, regardless of whether we were dealing with music or sound effects, we had very little memory available. In such an environment, all we had at our disposal was to use repeating short motifs in order to make the game exciting for players. That would be things like repeatedly playing short sounds, or repeating noise for two measures.
I paid much attention to the melody line. I would think of catchy, easy-to-memorise melodies, and repeat those as well. By creating catchy melodies, my songs would exhibit a range of emotions. Stages would have refreshing tracks, while boss fights would have tension; all these would be in the form of short motifs.
Basically, with data limitations, we had to keep everything simple.
When writing music for video games, you have so many aural elements you can work with. How do you select the right synths and sounds, and how they all work together?
First off, when I make music, I need material containing information on the game’s world, the feel of the stages and their environments, how they appear, and so forth. And that’s when I think about what kind of music should go in it.
For example, in simple terms, if the stage is the Earth, then the synth sound should be very rich or heavy, while a stage with water as the main theme should have transparent-like synth sounds.
I make these choices based on my own perception and feelings. I then have the planner listen to the track, and if that person agrees with my take, then that’s great. But if not, then I gather feedback from the planner and then make adjustments to the sound.
Do you always compose using a real piano first? These days, how do you go about creating music for games that utilise 8-bit or low-fi sounds (such as your 2010 game Mega Man 10) by first composing on a piano — an acoustic instrument?
First, I use the piano to create a rough rendition of the track, and after that, I choose sounds that go with the song.
When making 8-bit or chiptune tracks, I use 8-bit sounds as-is. It makes it easy to imagine what an 8-bit track would be like. I made Mega Man 10 in 8-bit using this method.
Read the full story right here on Level and Gain, a new screen music publication from the creative team behind CutCommon.
Image supplied, credit Miguel Hasson.
