Auf der offiziellen NFS:MW Site wurde ein Interview mit Paul Linford veröffentlicht.
Paul Linford war für die Musik während der Polizeiverfolgungsjagden zuständig.
Audio for Need for Speed Most Wanted is one of the most impactful aspects of the gaming experience. Without strong audio, a game can leave you feeling flat and uninspired. Knowing this, the audio team for Need for Speed Most Wanted wanted to immerse the player with a combination of agressive engine sounds, authentic cop speech as well as create an original interactive adaptive music score to be used in the game during the Pursuit races.Composed by Paul Linford, this score adds to the gameplay experience adding just the right elements to make your heart pulse and your breath quicken as you try to escape John Law. In order to get more background on the score, we sat down with Paul to learn more about the composition and what it was like working in this new medium.
Community Team: Tell us a bit about your background prior to coming to work on the Need for Speed™ Most Wanted title.
Paul Linford: I’ve been working on feature films for about 10 years now, like „Gone in 60 Seconds“, „Bad Boys 2“, „Enemy of the State“, „The One“, „Torque“, and „Con Air“ – to name a few. I’ve been a musician for longer than that and got my BSEE from Arizona State University.
[MEHR]
I also worked backline (that’s a roadie) with several bands like Yes, Jimmy Buffett, Hall and Oates, Richard Marx, Megadeath. Quite a variety huh?That’s actually how I met fellow composer Trevor Rabin who’s kept me busy for quite some time now.
CT: Did you have to do any prep work to adjust to this non-linear, interactive format?
PL: I don’t know if there is any way to „prepare“ for a project that uses such new technology, especially something like Most Wanted. I did take some time to come up with a mix template to write in the same mode as the delivery requirements.
CT: Were there special considerations that you had to make to adjust to the interactive medium?
PL: With interactive game play, you have to conceptualize the imagery in your mind, unlike working with film. Yet with both, it’s still all about the emotion.
CT: How long did the entire project take?
PL: The interactive music started to come together in February/March 2005. Everything developed further over the next few months, as the game details came into better focus. The video portions were finished some time in September 2005. So roughly 6 months.
CT: Can you tell us about any other projects you may be working on next?
PL: I recently completed a short film called „The Package“ that will be at festivals and locally in Hollywood on Nov 5th. I still work with Trevor Rabin a lot, mostly because… well, let’s face it he looks great in bike shorts!
CT: How did you find out about Most Wanted?
PL: A friend of mine who had done some work with EA connected me with EA Vancouver’s Charles Deenen. I talked a lot with Sound Artist Rashid Hille as well. Those guys had quite a bit of work to do in the game, so it’s a good thing there is a coffee shop downstairs at EA Vancouver.
Then Laura Engel talked to Steve Schnur at EA Los Angeles who talked to David Ferreria who talked to a gnome on the hill in some arctic region not far from where I was brought up, who talked to my mother who talked to my sister and, well, you get the picture!
Seriously though, I think the team was looking for someone who could traverse between orchestral-type scoring, and the driving, hard rocktronica that I’m known so well for.
CT: Have you ever done any other interactive titles?
PL: No. This truly is my first interactive adventure, outside the bedroom…and the back of my dad’s 1957 Chevy.
CT: How would you describe the style of the score?
PL: The score is hybrid orchestral/rocktronica. It’s kind of like dueling chainsaws, and emotes a falling-down-the-stairs type of sonic experience.
CT: What what type of equipment was used in recording the piece?
PL: I ran my Logic 7 rig on one Mac with Protools HD3 Accel hardware. I use all of the Logic plugs and instruments, like Sculpture, the EXS24, ES2, Ultrabeat, Space Designer – the whole gamut. I also used the Gmedia stuff, like impOscar, Minimonsta, Oddity and M-tron. I got some serious mileage out of Spectrasonics Stylus RMX, mixed in with some iZotope Trash and Ozone3. I sprinkled in some Ableton Live/Operator too and use the Line6 PODxt Pro stuff for guitar and bass.
I have 3 Gigastudios to provide sounds too. Those were the horsepower for orchestral elements mostly. I also used several hardware synths by Access, Emu, Korg, Nord, Roland and Waldorf. All of that went into another Mac running Protools HD3 Accel, used mainly as a 96-input mixer.
CT: Tell us about scoring the movies in the game.
PL: Scoring the movies was pretty fun. I mean, all the characters…they were talking to me, right? That was different from film, since they usually aren’t speaking to the camera. I wrote themes for the main characters, and worked them into the various situations they got themselves into. I thought the backline story was cool, actresses Simone Bailly and Josie Maran are inspiring as well.
CT: Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Paul. Check out these audio samples of Paul’s work.
