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Originally posted by GulJared:
**No Nero, you're not rambling. I entirely agree. Music is a very expressive thing- you don't want it expressing an idea sort of along the lines of what your game means. You want to make it as accurate as possible. The more of a picture the music portrays, the more atmosphere it adds. Atmosphere is a very important part of a game. Each game has its own trademark feel to it, so the music has to go along with that as well.
And yes Madman, it is near impossible to compose with music playing in the backround. That's why I usually don't listen to much music when I'm working on a piece... it's frustrating to write music with a song stuck in your head. It's also why I, along with others I'm assuming, find they come up with their most inspired pieces during nighttime... it's the quietest part of the day.
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I can't imagine composing with the radio playing. I do a lot of composing in the car; radio off, windows down., just humming and singing and trying stuff out. I usually work out several ideas for arranging before I even turn on the keyboards and modules. I do listen to stuff during the time I am actively composing, tho. When I was creating original material for "A Man for All Seasons" I listened to nothing but Early Music for six weeks. I had lute and sackbutt playing almost every waking moment, until the flow and feeling of the music was in my blood. Then I composed.
I've read a few books on music for films and my bias is to have materials from the game/film/play around so what you compose speaks directly to that creation. When I'm doing theater I generally can't put anything to tape until I've seen the actors move and heard the rythms of their voices. For a game, too, I'd like to see screen shots and character drawings and read the back-story. Hey, if it worked for Myst...! A friend of mine does this so well that he can play a theme one finger on the piano and you know which play it is for.
When the music is just right it is more than an added thing. It somehow can infuse all the other elements of the game, linking them together in a coherent whole, making the emotions and moods deeper and more complex, hinting at a history and a world beyond what is shown. Finding that particular color, whether you searched the stacks for it or composed it from scratch, is one of the true joys experienced by a sound designer.
Hey, anyone else get the impression that there are more composers on this board than there are games in development? 
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"I know the stranger's name."
Turandot
