Musical Analysis of Video Game Score

Tonality: Minor

Instrumentation: Drumset, use of rim shot, soft beaters; synth strings, Violin

Structure: The song has a beautiful violin melody, 

Themes/Melodic Ideas: Violin melody that very much floats over the top and it often becomes more clear when the hamonys shift.

Harmony:

Texture/Layers of Sound:

Streaming, H. (2025). In that clip i have learnt alot about how he would make music for the last of us he would make the music very minimalist he says that his role in the making of the last of us is 'to preserve this organic element kind of minimalism' i think this shows alot in the game how he captures the little moments with such smooth and little peaces of music that linkyou back to that part of the game every time you hear it. He also like to use stiff like pips and cans to make it sound more in th enviorment of the game, it really helps the music fit into the game and slmost reminds of how broken the world is by hearing cans and plastic pips really puts you into this post disaster world that 'The Last Of Us. Making music for games is all about finding the right ingrediance to put together to fit into a sequence of the game and that was one thing Neil Drunkman (the maker of The Last Of Us game serise) says that Gustavo Santaolla is really good at. He would often start with more than a hour of music and start cuting it down more and more to try find the right elements and then how they would fit it.

From doing this genre research it has inspired me with my track to use some differnt thing in the environment around me to make the song feel more and connect with the listener i want them to feel like they have been draged into The Last Of Us universe where the world is a distroyed and the eviromenet around them can be used to create music. I have also learnt a lot about how simplisty can be so effective in video games because you dont always want the music to be the focus of the scene you also want it to add more the main part of the scene.

In this clip i learnt alot about his story on how he became the sucsess he is today. He talks alot about his first big job as a composer for the film Jaws (1975) and how he wanted the music to be more of a adventure than a scary sound, he also uses the voilum of the bum bum to tell you how far away the shark was. He then goes on to working on Starwars which he says that he thhought was going to be just one film and that Luke and Leia would end up together and thats why he wrote a track tahst almost like a love song. 

I am going do some research into differnt types of micrphones and which are the best ones to use for my project so for my performance i want to know which mic is best for my vocals as well as whats best to use when recording my guitar for my original score/composition.

Dynamic

Definition- dynamic microphones are a type of mic that work by coverting sound waves into audio signals while using electromagnism. These microphones are more often used to capture loader sounds they are also very durable.

Condenser

Definition- Condenser microphones are a type of microphone that uses a capacitor to convert sound waves into electical singnals. These microphones are ver sensetive and have a wide frequency responce this also requires phantom power.

Polar Pattens 

There are differnt types of microphones and its very important which one you pick because it can make the differnce betwwen super crisp audio and soggy sound which is why knowing about pola patterns are so important when recopording music and chooseing which mic to record what instument. Each polar patten has ist strengths and weeknesses and its important to be aware of these.

Videos I used to gain more knowlage:

Video Games and film Songs Live