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All about the Sound of Dead Space

June 22, 2009 by Miguel Isaza

dead_space

There is no doubt that Dead Space was one of the best games of 2008 and personally, the best game sound design and music of that year. I have collected some information and videos about the sound on this game, let’s see..

Developer: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Game Engine: Godfather Game engine
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Genre: Survival horror – Third-person shooter

Game Designers: Glen Schofield (Exec Producer/Creator) and Bret Robbins
Audio Director: Don Veca
Main Sound Designers: Dave Feise, Andrew Lackey, and David Swenson
Music composer: Jason Graves


Here is a video with the Dead Space’s Developers talking about the sound in the game:

There is an interview with Don Veca at Original Sound Version (OSV). It’s fantastic!

OSV: What role does music play in Dead Space? We’ve been told that composer Rod Abernethy composed some music for the game, but in all the demos I’ve seen, I hear mainly grotesque sounds from the creatures and environments and not so much in terms of traditional music.
Veca: The music credits read “Music Composed and Conducted by Jason Graves in Association With Rod Abernethy.” Early on, Rod helped out logistically and was involved in our initial brainstorming, but Jason actually composed, conducted, and arranged all the music. But once again, we didn’t set out to compose a traditional music score; we were going for textures and mood. In the final carnation of the game, the music plays a huge role in the overall soundscape; it’s the drama behind everything. It’s sometimes very subtle, but can at a moment’s notice move seamlessly into a blaring dissonant cacophony, supporting the action and drama of the game play.

OSV: What were some of the tools the team used to create and record these sounds? Were some of them borrowed from sound libraries, or were they created by Foley artists?
Veca: We really didn’t use much in the way of sound libraries for this game. We recorded most of the raw source audio ourselves, in all kinds of crazy places. We used professional Foley artists as well, but to a lesser extent. We used tons of boutique audio processing plugins for just about everything, as well as traditional analog synthesizers, funky outboard gear, and synth instrument plugins for the more futuristic sounds.

Read Full interview here.

Music 4 Games published two a very interesting articles about this Game. First called “The Music of Dead Space: Artistic Design and Technical Implementation“. There you can read all about the process creating and thinking about Dead Space Sound.

dead_space_ost

The second article is about the Soundtrack, developed with award-winning composer Jason Graves, in association with Rod Abernethy and under the direction of EA Redwood Shores studio. That music is absolutly impressive. Read article here.

Tracklist:

1. Dead Space Theme
2. Welcome Aboard The U.S.G. Ishimura
3. The Necromorphs Attack
4. Fly Me To The Aegis Seven Moon
5. Severed Limbs Are Hazardous Waste
6. Nicole’s Farewell
7.  Left My Heart In Med Lab 3
8. The Leviathan
9. Cyanide Systems Offline
10. Entering Zero-G
11. ‘ve Got You Devolving Under My Skin
12. Manuel Survival Mode Seven
13. Plasma Cutters Are Your Friend
14. The Cost Of Living Is On The Rise
15. Escape From The Planet Of The Red

Awards

  • 7th Annual GANG Awards: Audio of the Year and Sound Design of the Year
  • IGN Best of 2008: Best New IP of 2008 (Xbox 360)
  • GameSpot “Best of 2008” Editor’s choice awards: Best Atmosphere and Best Sound Design
  • GameSpot “Best of 2008” Reader’s choice awards: Most surprisingly good game, Best Sound design, Best original IP and Most violent game to make it past Aussie censors.
  • Game Informer: Game of The Month and one of the Top 50 Games of 2008″
  • British Academy Video Games Awards: Best Use Of Audio and Best Original Score
  • 12th DICE Awards: Won Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Action Game of the Year and nominated to Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition



And finally… Dead Space- Launch Trailer

Dead Space Official Website

EA Games Website

Filed Under: featured Tagged With: dead space, don veca, horror, jason graves, sound design, video games

Trackbacks

  1. Initial Seminar Research into Adaptive Audio Topics | Brian Diamond – 4th Year Honour Project says:
    October 20, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    […] https://designingsound.org/2009/06/all-about-the-sound-of-dead-space/ […]

  2. Alexis Garriott says:
    March 31, 2014 at 6:31 pm

    […]   Isaza, M. (2009, June 22). All about the Sound of Dead Space. Designing Sound. Retrieved from https://designingsound.org/2009/06/all-about-the-sound-of-dead-space/ (Source: http://www.youtube.com/) This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the […]

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