Studio X Labs: Sound for the Homeworlds
In 1999, Relic Entertainment teamed up with Sierra and delivered Homeworld. It would become, in many people’s books, the Game of that Year. One of the best components of Homeworld was its stunning audio, especially the musical score. Due to various reasons, many people assume that the aging 70’s rockers Yes were responsible for the Music of Homeworld. I would like the opportunity to yet again set the record straight. The people responsible for the music and much of the Audio on Homeworld were Paul Ruskay and the team at Studio X Labs.
On Monday the 16th of June, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Paul Ruskay and Terra Bell of Studio X. They spent an hour with me talking about the studio’s history, its proudest accomplishments and a lot about how great it has been to work with Relic on The Homeworld games, especially Homeworld 2, the upcoming sequel to Homeworld.
Paul Ruskay himself started with games in 1994 at Radical Entertainment. Expanding out from there, Studio X was founded in 1999. After the studio’s success with Homeworld, it continued to further its expertise in the audio world of video games. With various amounts of work on titles like NHL2k, Aidyn Chronicles, Soccer Slam, Homeworld:Cataclysm, Impossible Creatures, Combat Flight Sim2, Triple Play Baseball 2001, Mikita Hockey, Midtown Madness 2 and Kung Fu Chaos, they have definitely kept their skills sharp. Combined with their experience, and success, in TV, Short Films and other media, they have proven that they are not a one hit wonder.
In the last year, they finished renovating their facility, and updating their equipment and software (they are now a Dolby Labs approved Mix venue). Most recently, they have been working on some political ads for [Afrm2] an Ad agency with international offices, a half-hour independent film for Canadian TV, and two games, Lords of Steel (working title), and as mentioned, Homeworld 2.
When pressed for the studio’s proudest accomplishments, Paul immediately volunteered Homeworld. He was also humbly enthusiastic about his work with Nick Lloyd Webber (son of Andrew) on “Mon Amour Mon Parapluie” for which he won a Leo Award for best sound editing last year. The studio has been part of the production of the award winning short animated film “Frank Was A Monster” by Lostboys Entertainment.
After hearing the history of the studio (while learning a LOT about the process of adding sound to various media projects along the way), I managed to get around to asking Paul what their most challenging work had been. With little hesitation he brought up their latest, and largest project, Relic’s Homeworld 2.
Paul began by reflecting, “With Homeworld, it was very creatively open”. He went on to say that he was having the same experience with Homeworld 2, on which Relic had been allowing him to try out new production ideas. “Especially with Dan Irish” he espoused. Dan Irish, Homeworld 2’s producer, has won his own award for support of music in video games. Dan has apparently been pushing for the live music sound that Homeworld 2 is slated to deliver. Paul feels that “He’s a producer that’s been really aware of how music can effect the entire product”.
Live music? Not from what the fans of the game have heard so far! We talked about the Homeworld 2 Video Trailer, which was scored with midi tracks just prior to E3. Mike Neilsen, who has now been with the studio for just 3 months, had just completed ’setting up his room’ then got to work on the trailer music track. That track was set to be rescored sometime following the weekend after I sat down with Paul and Terra.
Starting on the Sunday, June 22nd, Paul and fifteen live musicians from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra are going to be recording at the world famous Armoury Studios. They will be recording the majority remainder of the live score for the game. The Armoury Studios is same facility that Yes recorded their 1999 album “The Ladder”. The Ladder’s Title track became the Credit track for Homeworld and was Yes’s sole musical contribution.
Joining the strings, there is also some music that has been recorded in Toronto and flown in by musician John Laldin. That session is filled with the sounds of East Indian Instruments, including Sarangi, a Veena and a Mridangam. Hearing samples of the music produced on those instruments brought back memories of the Kadeshi levels of Homeworld. Already fans have heard rough-ins of the tracks that contain this while watching the opening intro.
It is not all instrumental for Homeworld 2. One of the most powerful pieces in Homeworld was Samuel Barber’s Agnus Dei, a choral version of Adagio for Strings. To provide that impact of the vocal element in the musical score of Homeworld 2, is Rhett Brewer. Rhett is a relatively unknown musician, whose haunting voice seems perfectly suited to the established sound of Homeworld. I had a chance to listen to a sample of Rhett singing, and almost immediately thought “That is Homeworld”.
Of the animatic cut scenes between missions, only 6 of them do not have live music, and only 3 of the in mission scripted sequences do not have live instruments. Rhett’s voice will be accompanying a number of them as well. From the brief snippets I heard of the Audio Tracks, Homeworld 2 will not disappoint.
After hearing some of the music, we talked about the voice acting for Homeworld 2. As it turns out, for Homeworld, Studio X did not have the luxury of doing a proper casting call for voice actors. Not so this time around. A proper casting call was issued to voice acting agencies in Vancouver, and 32 people ended up reading for parts in Homeworld 2.
Seven voice actresses read for the voice of fleet command. Heidi Ernest, the original voice of Karan S’jet was in the running. However, Jennifer Graveness, another local musician, beat out all the others to win the part. I had a chance to hear some of the voice tracks, and in particular, Mark Oliver, the actor doing the voice of the main antagonist, really stood out (think Jeremy Irons). The amazing Campbell Lane, who I assume is also voicing the Bentusi, again voices the narrator. The bulk of the voice audio is yet to be finalized, with most pilot dialogue the voice of the sound editor.
But what really sets Homeworld 2 apart from its predecessor? What was the big difference in the sound of the game? What does it sound like? The best part about interviews is you get to ask those questions. Sometimes you even get an answer.
The scale of the game has been expanded three or four times, as such, it appears the scope of the audio has expanded to match. Paul stated that it has an “Obviously Dark, cinematic evocative feel, it’s that expansiveness that we’ve achieved in the first title.” He feels it has an “Almost psychological underpinning.” And that it conveys “A lot more about Karan’s story, and the story of the main antagonist and musically what’s happening between those two”. He mentioned a third component, but would not expand on it. Sounded like there is going to be some interesting surprises in the game sound and music-wise.
Another difference that Paul spoke about was that “There’s far more development with characters in terms of the races and the cultural universe.” He explained how “Certain Races now do have specific themes” and that he is “musically trying to define the races through themes and instrument sets”. If Paul succeeds, he may well have “establish(ed) a culture for the entire (game’s) galaxy” and founded “An expanded sense of culture in the (Homeworld) universe”.
It sounds like Relic built him the tools to get all the audio into the game and delivered the way Paul wants it to be. Shane Alfreds and Cedric Lee (who also did the Background Tool of the Geeks II) have crafted a suite of Audio tools that “are way better tools this time around”. They reportedly give him more detail and a higher degree of control in the environment. Paul recounted how he had looked back at the original sound design document and realized that Relic had made exactly what he had asked for.
Paul also spoke at length of how much control he had over the audio in game. “Each player object has a number of different audio attributes that can be assigned to it. A volume curve and a frequency curve.” There are also real-time reverb and filter settings that can be applied. “Basically defining the audio attributes, so that when I set the entire thing into motion a player can just interact with it, and it’s all going to make audio sense to him.” He gave an example of a really massive ship or megalith, how it would sound and feel like a huge ship, but not crowd out the foreground sounds. They, Relic and Studio X Labs, are building the audio environment in such a way that the ear re-enforces the eye instead of having a static set of rules IE: not having big ships just drown out everything else.
After talking at length about how the game was going to sound, Paul played some short examples to illustrate his points. With my newfound knowledge of game audio, I was hearing things in a different tone, and was newly impressed with what I heard.
As we were wrapping up, I asked him to talk a bit about the challenges that he has faced working in the industry and with Relic. The toughest thing so far seemed to be “getting the contract and the schedule to coincide with the actuality of the work”. However, it seems that he knows the process of game development fairly well, and is able to work realistically towards the end product. At this point, I expect that the sound of Homeworld 2 will equal and surpass the original.
Studio X Labs have impressed me with their past work and their current efforts on Homeworld 2 look to continue the trend. I hope one day Paul will get a chance to learn from and collaborate with the likes Walter Murch and Brian Eno, some names he mentioned as good influences. My impression of Paul and the crew at Studio X Labs is that they will work on many more quality titles. With luck, they will hit all their notes and win many awards.
Thanks to Rob Cunningham of Relic for ‘help’ with the shot of Paul at his Desk.
Hope you enjoyed this article; please send all comments or questions to uberjumper@relicnews.com.
- UberJumper