Gothic 3 Sound Track Recording Session
Gorath, 2005-08-04

After the event,  Andy from Yiya.de offered to write a few lines for RPGDot. As  his article became longer and longer,  we decided he should publish it on his own site and we would  have a slightly edited translation a few days later. Our German readers can find the original report at Yiya.de. Please note that this guest article is not necessarily representative  of  RPGDot´s own views on the subject...

Computer games are getting more complex by the year - their technical advancement is nothing but amazing while the budget for their production reminds of smaller Hollywood productions.

Fortunately, this also holds true for other areas than just graphics; the production of game music - often neglected - has advanced well beyond the stage of "Oh, I nearly forgot... we'll need some music, too. Does anybody here have a mouth organ?"

Nowadays, intricate and innovative game compositions are recorded like movie scores: with a real orchestra. A rare occurrence in German game productions - but now, two much-awaited computer game sequels made in Germany will feature real orchestral music: SpellForce 2 and Gothic 3.

Koch Media, JoWooD and Piranha Bytes invited games press representatives to attend the Gothic 3 orchestral recordings in the Bochum lecture hall. Self-taught composer Kai Rosenkranz, a huge fan of movie soundtracks, is responsible for the music of the newest game in the Gothic series; it was orchestrated by Valery Voronov to be played by the Bochum Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Hans Jaskulsky.

When I entered the lecture hall I could watch the musicians tune their instruments and rehearse a bit, and I instantly recognized the Gothic main theme among the aural chaos... but in a different quality. Played by a real orchestra, the theme was transformed into something else. Even though orchestral samples are getting better and better, a real orchestra sounds... different... and so I went on to attend the first recording session, quite curious.

As a long-time fan and collector of movie soundtracks I'm used to composers who rehash their own works over and over again up to the point of total redundancy, or to those who believe they must follow a certain musical trend. Why do all WWII shooters have to sound like Copeland's Americana or John Williams' "Private Ryan"? Well, quite obviously they're "expected" to sound like this. This is why I went into the recording session with a bag of mixed feelings - nowadays, fantasy game soundtracks seem to be under the musical spell of "Lord of the Rings". I just forgot that the Piranha Bytes like to brew their own meatbug stew and tend to disregard 'fashionable' trends... possibly one of the reasons for their success. Even today some aspects of Gothic are rather advanced if compared to other games.

The hall was slowly filling with people, and once again the composer asked us for total, absolute silence during the recording as even the soft clicks of the digicam releases could be heard. This was when I realized that we were actually attending the REAL recordings... it wasn't solely a press event.

Interestingly enough, a reporter of one of the more popular German games magazines (who arrived a little later) chose a spot exactly under one of the microphones to whip out his bazooka-sized digicam and shoot a series of photos... during the recording, of course. I bet he had never received so much attention before.

The first track - a part of which is available for download - [Click to download DivinePowers.mp3 - ed.] managed to give us the creeps right away. That's what happens when an orchestra fills a hall with sound. The bare minute of awe-inspiring music serves to give us an impression of what is yet to follow, and of Kai Rosenkranz's full musical potential. The short composition "Divine Powers" manages to evoke a wide gamut of emotions. The sound of melancholic, yet heroic horns accompanied by elegant tubular bells slowly changes into the well-known, gloomy Gothic theme and leads the listener through mystical, sometimes even optimistic sentiments, only to release him into a yet-to-be defined adventure... without releasing the tension.

While the bells sounded a bit problematic during the live recording, they actually blend in well in the pre-processed MP3 snippet available for download. I can't wait for the final mix.

This track actually dispersed my initial anxiousness. Both Rosenkranz and Voronov preferred the ‘old-school' approach. They didn't suffer from the Hans-Zimmer-Media-Venture delusion… the one where all passages have to sound like "The Rock", all musicians have to play their instruments simultaneously, and where the composition disappears under a layer of overdone and thoroughly un-enjoyable pomp. More isn't always better, and I (as a fan of ‘classical' movie composers) am really glad they didn't go mainstream with the Gothic 3 soundtrack. The "Divine Powers" track might as well have been encountered during Hollywood's golden years.

Especially the majestic use of bells reminds of the works of Waxman, Friedhofer, Steiner, Newman or Korngold, composers who shaped the music of movies in the 1930s and 40s. Kai Rosenkranz's track ends in a short but grand finale which summons the full force of the orchestra. I thought it would make wonderful intro or start screen music, but it was composed for a certain in-game sequence I'm not allowed to disclose here J.

The second track presented - which unfortunately isn't available for download yet - was composed in a different, more modern way: a suspense track a la Bernhard Herrmann, Danny Elfman or the "Basic Instinct" era Jerry Goldsmith, yet refreshingly innovative, suited to the fantasy theme and never plagiarizing.

A Gothic 3 medley followed [Click to download Gothic3Medley.mp3 - ed.], depicting the main theme's versatility: all the way from a heroic interpretation to a military march.

It was a delight to watch the composer being carried away by the orchestral interpretation of his own composition. It must be a very special feeling to see and hear one's own notes - first a vague idea, then perhaps a MIDI mockup on a hard disk - come to life.

Those three days of live recording were neither the beginning nor the end of the soundtrack's production. Before the orchestra recordings there were recordings with Japanese Taiko band GOCOO, brutal percussion tracks to lend the Orcs more viciousness in combat; soon the SAM Gospel Choir & Joyful Voices will contribute the obligatory choir passages, and US singer Lisbeth Scott will provide the solo voice-overs. In September, Additional solo musicians will enrich the soundtrack with didgeridoo and bawu music, and thus add a little Ethno feeling.

The track available for download should be regarded as work in progress - only by combining various elements will the soundtrack become an integrated whole.

You can enjoy this even before the game's release in 2006: a Gothic 3 soundtrack audio CD is scheduled for publication in 2005.

The recording session made me wish for more. The team around composer Kai Rosenkranz proved that a major soundtrack production is not beyond the abilities and resources of a smallish software development house. I assume the Piranhas will take on the rest of the game's production with the same ease. Why? I just had the impression, and since I'm quite confident the game's quality will be superb I didn't ask the devs any questions about the game itself. Okay, just one, due to a little nagging doubt raised by the game's engine:
"Will there be atmosphere-killing in-level reloading?" "No, we don't make crap like this." Case closed.