Thursday, February 4, 2016

Help us "Crowd Create" the Theme from HALO - and Break a Guinness Record.

Attention All Musicians and Game Music Fans!

Help Eimear Noone, The Dublin International 
Video Game Music Festival and Video Games Live
Break a Guinness World Record.

As many of you know, on April 4th, 2015, at the 1st Dublin International Game Music Festival, Eimear Noone combined 134 musicians and singers on stage at the Convention Center Dublin, with 128 videos submitted from musicians around the world - all coming together to "Crowd Create" Eimear's"Malach," theme from the original score to "World of Warcraft; Warlords of Draenor."  It was one of the great highlights to the festival and the headlining Video Games Live Show.  You can see the result below.

A big thanks to Malukah for her absolutely brilliant performance as the "high priestess" of the piece.



Eimear Noone's "Malach," Crowd Created Version.

As we plan for year 2 of The Dublin International Game Music Festival, (April 29-30 at the RDS, and May 1st at the Convention Center Dublin), everyone is asking us the question, "What epic event will the iDIG Music Fest team pull off this year.

After much consideration, we've decided it wouldn't be enough to just create another crowd created video, but this time, we need to set a Guinness World Record for the most videos of individual players combined to recreate a single piece of music.  

With this goal in mind, we decided that the "Video Games Live" version of the original theme from "HALO," (by Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, orchestrated by Emmanuel Fratianni, Laurie Robinson, & BenoĆ®t Grey) would be the perfect piece to accomplish this task.  

So we reached out to both our friend Tommy Tallarico (of Video Games Live) and our friends at Microsoft to see if they would be on board.  They instantly agreed to the idea - but it's taken a bit to work through the details.  We've been waiting for the approvals...

Which just came through -  so we are off and running.  We are thrilled!



Sign Up Now
The Process:

Step 1:  

Click on this link.   The link will take you to a sign-up page where you will find the download link to all of the parts and the audio guide track for the "Halo Theme."  You must sign up to download the files.

Step 2:  

Download the parts as well as the audio guide track from the second link.  The guide track is a click track layered upon a mono mix of the arrangement we are recreating.  The zip has parts for the entire orchestra - find your part.

Step 3:  While listening to the guide track on an earbud or headphone, using a cell phone or video camera, video yourself playing your part/parts.  

If you have a way to record with a proper microphone and synchronize your audio to the video, then do so.  If you don't have that capability the audio recorded on the phone will work just fine.

Step 4:  

Make sure you identify the video file(s) with your name in the title so we know who to put in the credits!

Step 5:

Using "Wetransfer.com," send your video(s) to zeldaconductor@gmail.com.  Do not send the video as an attachment to an email as that will crash our email server.

Format:  

TUNING IS A440!

Ideally, your video file should be a 16 X 9, H.2.6.4 QuickTime file with stereo audio.  

Audio should be at 48K.

But if what you just read seems like gobbledygook to you, don't worry;  just send us the video.  We can import just about anything.


Synchronization:  

Below is a snapshot from the score.  You will notice the first bar is in 4/4 and the notation states "4 clicks to bar 1."

On the audio recording, in bar zero(the very top), you will hear a synth pad.  Then in bar 1 you will hear a gong and gran casa roll into bar 2, where the iconic theme is stated in male voices.  That's how you know where you are.

While listening to the click, if you could clap your hands exactly on the downbeat of bar one, that would be ideal.  This is the equivalent of the old "slate" you would see executed in a movie.  We use that clap to line-up your video with all the others.

If your part does not start until much later in the piece:


Clap your hands exactly on the downbeat 2 bars (or so) before you come in.  We'll know where you are and as long as you are accurate with your clap, we can line you up.


Try to do your part in one continuous performance.  This way, once we have the clap exactly lined up on the downbeat, as long as you play in sync with the click and guide track, your entire performance will be in sync when your part is lined up with our master session.

If one continuous take is not possible, that's OK too.  Likewise, if you don't include a clap.  These tools just make lining things up easier.

Click Instructions:


1.  The parts we are using come straight from the Video Games Live library and certain elements are originally designed to be specifically conducted and directed.  We've created a new click for this purpose.


Therefore at the top we have constructed a rubato click for the vocal part that follows the subtlety of the performance.  Likewise, for the tag in measure 139, the click goes momentarily into an 8th note click in order to be able to direct you through the ritard.  A listen or two to the click against the track and you will get it.


We've added these notations in your part (ignore the "Click Out" from the original part in measure 139).


2.  There are two guide tracks uploaded.  The first has the click hard right and the music hard left.  The second version is in mono with the click married to the guide track.


Depending on your method of recording, you might want one or there other, for example, if you record with just one headphone, use the mono version.


ATTIRE OR BACKGROUNDS IN THE VIDEO:

Please avoid clothes with logo's, game images, or anything that might cause us to infringe on a trademark.  Don't worry if you have already sent a video, we'll simply have to blur out logos.  

If you have an iDIG or VIDEO GAMES LIVE T-Shirt, those are OK!  Likewise, if you want to show off your band's T-shirt, that is OK too - as long as it's your brand.  

A million people may see this video - use it to show off your band.

Last Performance Notes:

As much as you might hate the sound of your voice or instrument without reverb, we ask that you send your tracks dry!  If your track is dry, then it's easier to make it blend with the rest of our tracks by giving all of them a matching reverb!  

Two examples follow, excerpts from Malach - just to give you an idea of what is expected of your video:

Mark Scholl, Percussion - we created the montage,
you send all the video individually.


Joe Pignato, Guitar

UPDATE

We just posted this montage from videos from Joe and Mark, created for this year!
It rocks!




Deadline:

THE DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED.  We would like to have all the videos by March 29, 2016 as we know it will take 6 weeks to compile, synchronize and mix everything.


If you can get your tracks in early, that's even better as every moment counts when undertaking such a complicated adventure.


The video will debut at the Video Games Live Show, May 1st at the Convention Center Dublin, Ireland, during the closing act of the Dublin International Game Music Festival.  We'd love to see you there is you can make it!



INCLUDE YOUR NAME IN THE TITLE OF YOUR VIDEO!
DON'T LET YOUR WORK GET LOST!


Sign Up Now


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