The Sound Architect speaks to professional composer, Olivier Deriviere.
Classically trained multimedia composer Olivier Deriviere has scored numerous animation, film and video game soundtracks including the widely acclaimed interactive scores for Remember Me, Alone In The Dark, Of Orcs and Men and the ObScure video game series.
An alumnus of Berklee College of Music (Jazz and Film Scoring) and the National Conservatory in Nice, France (Composition and Orchestration), Deriviere has recorded with the GRAMMY® award-winning choir The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices, Philharmonia Orchestra, The Boston Cello Quartet, The Boston String Quartet, The Children Choir of the National Opera of Paris.
His music has also been performed by the Cannes Symphony Orchestra, Monte Carlo String Quartet, and Utrecht Metropolitan Orchestra and Choir.
Most recently Deriviere recorded his original score for Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag – Freedom Cry with The Brussels Philharmonic (The Artist) and La Troupe Makandal, the internationally acclaimed ensemble dedicated to traditional Haitian music and dance. His main focus continues to be enhancing the player’s interactive experience through music.
Enjoy the read below!
How did your journey into music composition begin?
I started studying classical percussion at the age of five but I really fell in love with composition at around eight, when my mother bought a synth for her own use. All those buttons were really attractive to me and the sounds were very wide compared to the acoustic piano we had at home. I wrote many short pieces and my mother insisted that I should take some advanced courses in harmony and orchestration. It was useful but I believe there is no one path to learn music composition and every direction can lead to a greater education.
Did you always want to work in games?
My epiphany came at around ten years old when for the first time I played “Shadow of the Beast” on an Amiga computer. The main title music of that game was so moving to me, it felt so fresh and unique that I came back home and told my dad that I’ve just experienced the best music in the world…quite childish but very meaningful to me.
What has been your most challenging project so far?
Every project has its own challenge. However I think the soundtrack for “Remember Me” was the most challenging. Not only because of the choice to go record a live orchestra and then manipulate it with electronic processing but also because I wanted the score to follow every action of the player when he/she is fighting to give him/her support, feedback and reward. The challenge was so high that I still feel the weight of doubt and fear…Eventually it was a happy ending and oddly, I miss the thrill.
What has been your proudest project so far?
I would say that I’m happy for each project that I work on, and my proudest achievement for each is to have sculpted a unique soundscape. Of course “Remember Me” is the most sophisticated and in my opinion, the most interesting but to have worked with The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices, The Boston Cello Quartet, The Children’s Choir of the National Opera of Paris, and Haitian music with orchestra makes me feel really lucky.
What would be your dream project to work on?
You have three types of project experiences. Those where creativity is limitless and where your production process goes smoothly, those where you get a critically acclaimed reception and those where you get a big commercial success (of course to have all three at the same time would be amazing). I have been getting the two first types of projects and hopefully one day I may get to work on a big hit game. But my dream project has always been to work with passionate people to create a teamwork spirit to push the boundaries of music integration for games to the next level. It is hard because you don’t find many projects that can let you do this on a big game…I guess that would be my dream project.
Is there a particular piece that you’ve written that will always stick with you?
I’ve never considered my music to survive its purpose, meaning to outlive the game. I usually forget quite quickly what I did previously as I’m already focusing on the next project. The only aspect that I really keep in mind from each game is how we attached the music to the gameplay, how we succeeded in adding another layer to the player’s whole experience. What sticks with me is the player’s feedback, when I get emails telling me how the music integration made the experience deeper. I never forget that so I can improve it on the next project.
What’s your usual process when beginning a project?
I usually sit down with the creative director and the audio director to understand both the artistic vision and the technical possibilities. The first and most difficult part is to find what soundscape and melodies will match the purpose of the game and how we will use them throughout the gameplay. When ready we make a music plan on top of the game structure to decide what and where instruments/melodies should be exposed to add a sense of progression. Finally, and sometimes after weeks of research, I write the specific music for the gameplay mechanics.
What software/hardware do you use to compose with?
I’m using Sibelius, Cubase and Pro Tools on PC (RME audio card) with tons of Vsti (Kontakt, Omnisphere, VSL) and plugins (Lexicon, Audio Ease, VSL, Slate Digital, Camel Audio). There are no secret tools unfortunately! My speakers are Dynaudio and Blue Sky.
Do you have any “Go-to” plugins?
I think the best thing with plugins is from the way you use them. I have been working with top sound engineers and mixers and I have witnessed different ways of working with each. It’s funny how you may think there is a secret recipe but there is none. It is the same for composition. Today’s fashion is for atmospheric and/or a big sound and I would say Spectrasonics’ Omnisphere is just perfect for that.
Any specific techniques that you use that you recommend?
Truly, sometimes I listen to my own soundtracks and I have this feeling that it was someone else who did it. When I’m in the creative process I let myself become completely free and wild. The only aspect I do thoroughly is the organization. You have to be really organized whether it’s on notation programs or any Daws. My sessions can become really big with hundreds of tracks and routing, tons of plugins and a crazy amount of files. When working on a particular project I create a template session that will be my main plan for rendering layers and stems. So before starting any production I make sure this session answers all my needs and this takes a lot of time.
The Remember Me soundtrack is incredible, can you tell us about how you approached that score?
Thank you! The Remember Me soundtrack is a reflection of what happens in the game. In the world of Remember Me, you can digitize memories to store them, share them and of course hackers can steal them or manipulate them. The main character starts with her memory being wiped out, with only fragments remaining. We really wanted to implement those ideas into the score. To do so I used a Vstfx from Native instrument called Reaktor that comes with many presets for electronic manipulation. But I had to tweak and sometimes create my own because my main goal was to manipulate in real time (in my daw) the live orchestra. Listeners tend to believe it’s a mixture of synth and acoustic orchestra but it is not, all the electronic sounds you hear when the orchestra plays are from its own manipulation. This took me a lot of time with R&D because it had to be musically acceptable.
What were your first thoughts when taking on the Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag – Freedom Cry score?
Assassin’s Creed IV: Freedom Cry was an exciting challenge but I was also mindful; the premises of the game were so dominant that I felt I should make the historical and traditional Haitian music the real star of the score. However, the game tells the journey of its main character Adéwalé who is stranded in Port au Prince, and where he decides to play his part to fight against the enslavement of his people. So it was essential for my score to respect the tradition, to follow an assassin that is not really on a mission inspired by his creed but for retrieving his roots.
It must have been incredible working with the Brussels Philharmonic?
Every project I work on I try to get the best musicians I can and I was delighted when I learned the Brussels Philharmonic agreed to perform my score. I have to praise them for the hard work they accomplished since the music was really different from their usual projects, and in a very short time, they provided us with a tremendous performance. The second point that is very interesting is the connection with the game. Africans were enslaved by the French and the Belgians and so to gather 300 years later, the 3 cultures altogether around a musical project, was quite historical and emotional.
How did you begin writing the score?
This project was one of the fastest I’ve had to deliver for a game. I wanted to immerse myself in the traditional Haitian music of that time period so I had to wait for the recording sessions in New York with “La Troupe Makandal”. When the sessions were completed I only had four weeks to compose for the Brussels Philharmonic. My goal was to take the rhythmic patterns from the traditional music and transpose them to the strings. It was very confusing at first since the way Haitian music works is very complex but I had a very exciting time doing so!
What was your main inspiration derived from?
I tried to put myself a little behind the traditional Haitian music so I didn’t write an actual melody for a main theme, yet, I wanted the western European feel and influence to be equal. And where I found myself lucky was the storyline of the game – it was quite inspiring to follow a former slave who became an assassin and, by accident, has to face the enslavement of his people which finally gets him back to his roots.
Were there any particular challenges involved with this score?
I would say the whole project was very challenging in all aspects. Christian Pacaud, the music supervisor, really pushed some ideas for the music to feel alive within the game. It’s always a big challenge that becomes a risk when you want to explore and get away from the usual approaches and I think we came up with quite a unique approach for both the music composition and the music integration.
What is it like working on DLC without previously writing the original score? Does it make much of a difference?
If the DLC was simply additional missions to the previous game using the same character I think Ubisoft would have never called me. However, Freedom Cry is about a new assassin in a new context. I would never have thought it was a DLC, only that we had just 2 and half months to make it!
How was it working with La Troupe Makandal, it must have been an amazing experience?
I must say it’s hard to forget such an experience. The energy in the recording studio, the thrill of the drums and the power of the choir made a huge impact on everyone assisting at the sessions. I must thank La Troupe and its executive director Lois Wilcken who helped us so much in gathering the right musicians and the right songs.
What are your top tips for aspiring composers?
If you want to score games, I can’t encourage you enough to be a player yourself. It gives you a true vision of what the players will experience. Scoring a game has been compared to scoring a movie but unlike movies you are active in a game, and the perspective is completely different since you are focused on your actions. This is why I always want to support what movies don’t have: the gameplay mechanics. Today is a really exciting time as indie games are exploring gameplay with new ways of music interactivity and if I was starting a career this is definitely where I would be.
Any Major Do’s and Don’ts?
I will give you what I say to myself every time I start composing. “Don’t do what is the fashion” “Don’t do easy listening music yet don’t compose an over complicated score” “Do play the game you’re scoring” “Do understand the gameplay mechanics of your game” “Don’t think you will have a private life.”
What lies in the future for you now?
I’m back working with Spider Games (Of Orcs & Men) on their next production called “Bound by Flame”. It is a great team! I’m also finishing an indie game for Moonspider Studio called “Harold”. Lots of surprises in those scores! They should be out Q1 of 2014.
It was fantastic speaking with Olivier and we’re very excited to hear his new work in 2014! You can check out samples of Olivier’s work below:
https://soundcloud.com/olivier-deriviere/sets/remember-me-ost-excerpts
https://soundcloud.com/olivier-deriviere/sets/assassins-creed-iv-freedom-cry
Plus don’t forget to keep up to date with Olivier on his official website: http://olivierderiviere.com/
Thanks for Reading!
The Sound Architect
Interview by Sam Hughes
Uploaded 10/01/14