Sound42: Game-music is underestimated

"Games are often accompanied by music, but our idea is that music should be part of the game", explains Hasitschka. The young music producer from Vienna, along with three colleagues, founded Sound42 to realise his dream job, that of audio production for games and film.

Together with his colleague Paul Gallister, Hasitschka imported and programmed the sounds and music for the game Tight Lines Fishing from Vienna`s game workshop

. Brainstorming for this game, the young artist was hit by the idea of integrating a ukulele – a guitar-like plucked instrument – with melodicas. `In this way we were able to follow the wishes of the developer to give the fishing and countryside an urban touch`, said the musician.

Mobile and Social Games
Game music has to support the character of the game and must not detract from it. `For social games you have to create music and sound much richer in detail than for games for mobiles", Hasitschka said. He went on to say, `For mobile games the sound effects are different, and there are also different frequency settings and fewer atmospheric sounds in the background. All these aspects are taken into account at Sound42, from the initial concept to the final delivery of the audio-files.

For the iPhone and iPad game Run Rob Run from spielwerk, in which is to collect nuts, the team integrated the sounds of 13 different types of nut being cracked, which they had to record themselves. `Sound design and the creation of music for games need a lot of creativity. Through the sound you can mirror the results or transfer messages. We are convinced that it creates a much more comprehensive way of activating the emotions or telling a story when the audio design is integrated directly into the design process`, said Hasitschka.

Broadband
This should be enough of a reason for game companies to hire a team of audio specialists, instead of just downloading sounds from the internet and sticking them together. `The title melody is especially important. It gives an immediate impression of the game and heightens expectations", explains Hasitschka, who specialises in producing catchy sounds for the team as well as looking after the administration and business side of things. Gallister is in charge of symphonic music and orchestration, Gerhard Pacher takes care of electronic music and ambient sounds and David Ostemacher, who also works at Dynamedion, specialises in sound effects and dubbing

`As a team we cover a wide musical spectrum. Additionally, each member carries out further research in his field. Through regular meetings we exchange opinions and views about new developments and options. Using this process we are always up to date, support each other and grow as a team", explains Hasitschka.

Buy-Out Instead of Licences
At Sound42 they don`t work with the traditional royalties system, but focus on the American buy-out concept. `The time-limited rights are handed over to the client`, explains the producer. `Most studios on the Austrian game scene are going in that direction`, according to Hasitschka.

The sound-production team not only concentrates on the production of game-audio, but also the creation of jingles, theme tracks and speech recordings for TV ads, product videos and corporate videos. `It`s our goal to learn from smaller projects to move on to a larger one. Whether this is a game, a film, an ad or a rock opera, we`ll see.`

Their most recent project was the creation of sound effects for the Facebook game Deltastrike from Pro 3 Games, which is a war game set in space. Currently Sound42 is working, amongst other things, on the music and sounds for a new project for Team Vienna. Hasitschek is facing the future optimistically, `In the field of game-audio, film music and sounds for animation there is a need for various types of music. Therefore like us specialists are in demand.`