Marty O'Donnell interview at Battleground: Halo, May 17, 2000
Originally published at Battleground: Halo, site and all original formatting lost
We
fired away some questions to the lead audio engineer Marty O'Donnell
at TotalAudio regarding the
music/audio at the recent E3 trailer.
Battleground:
Halo: Some of the special effect sounds were introduced in the
E3 movie this year, why wasn't the engine's sound system used?
Marty O'Donnell:
The sounds heard in the DVD movie will either be in the game or be
improved upon. The game visuals were captured and converted into NTSC
video, edited, and then scored for surround sound. Since the movie
is a cinematic linear sequence and not non-linear game play, I approached
it much the same way I would approach any movie soundtrack. The good
news is I'm also working on the game audio so my goal is to make the
audio experience as similar as possible. There is quite a technical
difference between real-time 3D audio and Dolby 5.1 AC3 encoded audio.
I'm hoping that I'll be able to utilize both in the final game.
Battleground: Halo: Someone claims that there was a new piece
of master music in this movie, will this song be released as well?
Marty O'Donnell: There
is quite a bit of newly recorded music in the movie. Much of it is
based on the original theme, but there are also some new sections.
It's a film score, so it's there to enhance the emotional message
that we're trying to get across in any given scene. Also, the main
them itself has sort of become a musical signature for "Halo" which
is a good thing from my point of view. We're still deciding how and
when to release the movie and the soundtrack to the public, stay tuned.
Battleground: Halo: Is the soundtrack for Halo already done
or will it continue to improve until the game gone gold?
Marty O'Donnell: I
hope it continues to improve, and for that matter I hope it's finished
by the gold master.
Battleground: Halo: Do you know if the soundtrack is going
to be available for sale through the Bungie store like the myth 2
piece of art music?
Marty O'Donnell: I
certainly hope so.
Thanks for your time Marty!
Marty O'Donnell was interviewed by Battleground: Halo staff member Protector.
|
