In January, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music unveiled its new professional grade recording suite, a keystone of its Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) program. Sporting a 32-channel console by Rupert Neve Designs and state-of-the-art equipment by Meyer Sound and sE Electronics, the mixing room is wired to SFCM’s three concert halls and a live room. Students and faculty immediately tested the setup in a three-day recording session for Apsis, a visually captivating video game that gives players a birds-eye view as they lead a flock through changing environments. TAC advisor and visiting faculty member Dren McDonald composed the score and SFCM’s director of recording services Jason O’Connell served as recording engineer. McDonald, whose credits include major titles like Ghost Recon Commander and Transformers: Age of Extinction, spoke with Take Note about the experience.

TN: You called this session a bit of an “experiment.” Why?

DM: I’ve been in some studios where they’ve been open a few weeks and no one had their act together and there’s a guy back behind the patch bay and he’s still soldering stuff… but I got the feeling things were going to be a lot more organized. Jason [O’Connell] is really on top of things. I think the biggest question mark in working with student musicians as opposed to seasoned musicians, is that I wasn’t sure how much I could ask of them as far as improvising, playing a certain cue or trying different feels… That being said, the students did a fantastic job preparing for the sessions. They brought a lot of interesting personality to the cues, which is why you want to record live musicians. You want to have their take on the music and to have that emotion come across. You could feel by the end that everyone felt pretty energized and excited about what we’d done. We got through 60 cues in a day, which is kind of remarkable.

TN: You felt strongly that music for acoustic instruments would suit this game best. Are game soundtracks tending to use acoustic instruments any more or less now than before?

DM: I think it really depends on the game design. That’s sort of king when you’re thinking about what a soundtrack is going to need. Part of game design is the art style, and this art style [for Apsis] was organic looking and a little bit mysterious - there’s clouds and wind and all these natural organic things - as opposed to a game with 8-bit or 16-bit pixel art. In those games you’re likely to hear music that’s more chip-based or synthesizer-based, more sine waves and that kind of stuff. Over the last five or six years, game soundtracks have really been expanding their sound. Just as many games are coming out now that lend themselves to acoustic instruments and a more quirky, small-ensemble approach. A game like Dear Esther had that. Even a big game like Bioshock Infinite had a very small ensemble, acoustic approach to it.

TN: Overall how did this session compare to others you’ve done?

DM: It was one of the best recording experiences I’ve ever had by a longshot. It’s right up there with any of my experiences with some of the more well-known studios. Part of that is the room [SFCM’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall]. The room just sounds fantastic. And musicians go in there and feel really comfortable immediately because it sounds great. Just putting a few mics up in that room – quality mics and quality pre-amps and a really good engineer who can read the score and make suggestions and tell you if somebody’s sharp or flat or whatever – all of those things contribute to a really smooth, organized and pleasant experience.

TN: Do you think SFCM’s recording studios and the TAC program are particularly well-suited for certain types of projects?

DM: Sure. If there were other interesting, art-based game projects from independent game makers or from student game developers, I think projects like that would be really ideal. We had one of the game developers here for the session. For him it was a great experience to understand the whole process. I think he really appreciated being part of the experience and seeing the artistry, skill and craft that goes into what we do here.