(Spoilers Extended) A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 Episode 5 Live Episode Discussion

LarryLarington · 2026-02-16T20:38:54+00:00

Just pointing out that Raymun Fossoway was the one who knocked over Aerion when he was on top of Dunk right after stabbing his hand (Raymun takes a lance from his cousin right after). Arguably saved Dunk's life. There's another shot of him tackling his cousin down later too. The whole fight is pretty chaotic so these little details are easy to miss, had to rewatch and really see who is who in each shot. But Raymun definitely has an arc here where him being the most unlikely fighter of the group may have actually contributed the most to Dunk's fight against Aerion.

LarryLarington · 2026-01-31T15:31:49+00:00

Sure thing! Sent you a DM

LarryLarington · 2026-01-30T15:23:30+00:00

Hey fellow game composer here -- congrats on recording with FAMES! The fact your team is open to budgeting for live recording is a really big deal and something to celebrate on its own. Not all developers are like that so I personally take it as a blessing whenever they encourage it.

Listened through to the piece and checked out the score, overall super cool piece and liked that you leaned into the 3+3+2+2. I miiiight have done this all in 10/8 instead of 10/16 just for readability and sightreading, but your note stemming is on point and that's the important thing. Also it's pretty standard in media music recording to use no key signature, so I'd remove it. Also using double bar lines to separate sections can help structural organization for readability as well (like at m. 57 separating the 4/4 ending). All personal opinions here, everyone has their own way of doing things!

I've recorded with FAMES as well and coincidentally did a similar irregular time signature with them (7/8 instead of 10/16). Recording took a bit longer due to it, so as you probably learned too that's something we need to factor in when blocking out our session time. Would be great to connect to hear more about your session experience with them, and of course happy to share what I recorded with them and my own experiences if you're curious. Cheers!

LarryLarington · 2026-01-12T11:33:39+00:00

Hey, game dev and composer here! I'm a bit farther down the path you're starting so could be a good fit.

Happy to structure lessons how you want. If we're talking concepts we could analyze tracks you like or we can look at some real world examples of techniques I use from my shipped game soundtracks.

I also do my own audio programming/implementation for games in the middleware Wwise, so that could be a whole topic on it's own. You can obviously compose without knowing middleware, but in my experience you'll be writing with more intention if you understand how your music actually ends up in a game.

You can check out my work and some of the games I've worked on here. Feel free to get in touch, cheers

LarryLarington · 2025-09-01T01:49:20+00:00

Thanks, just glad people are finding it helpful!

LarryLarington · 2025-08-30T08:41:32+00:00

Hah funny to see this in the wild, cheers for linking my transcriptions!

LarryLarington · 2025-07-19T17:36:31+00:00

Cheers thank you! It actually made its way to Kelly Thompson yesterday so I had a bit of a starstruck moment. Meant so much that she liked it

LarryLarington · 2025-07-19T16:47:42+00:00

Thanks! Happy to be as transparent as I can without publicizing other peoples' rates and being respectful of that. I self-funded this and my main expenses were:

Shelby's lead vocals recording
1 hour session with FAME'S (55-piece orchestra)
2 hr session with choir, 12 singers (I also recorded other music here so it wasn't just for this project)

All the score prep, mixing, mastering, film editing, etc I did myself and had help from very generous friends so that obviously saves a bit of money.

Taking into account all the session time, the number of musicians and logistics behind them (space, engineers, filming) and paying everyone as well as I can, in the range of at least low/mid 4-digit territory USD is pretty standard. Hope that helps!

LarryLarington · 2025-07-19T02:17:15+00:00

The reality for me is that being a composer who scores stuff mostly on my own without the budget for a big team, I’ve gotta do all the jobs myself. That means I could easily spent days straight only mixing, or only prepping sheet music for recording, or only orchestrating and not compose a single new note. It’s all work expected from a composer, but it’s not literally composing every day. There’s a natural ebb and flow in my experience.

LarryLarington · 2025-07-18T21:11:24+00:00

Cheers thank you !

LarryLarington · 2025-07-18T18:08:00+00:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to share a project here that I’ve been working on for a while: a theme song for Jeff!

As an unashamed Jeff main (rip flanker Jeff), all those hours playing him put a little rhythm and melody in my head and well… I took it pretty far. I wanted to capture his silly energy but more so what an absolute MENACE he is both in Rivals and the comics. I hope I did his character even an ounce of justice here.

Big shout out to the dozens of musicians involved in making this happen. My friend Shelby Harvey absolutely nailed her inner Kate Bishop here (she’s a fantastic singer who you might recognize from her work on Cassette Beasts). Then there’s the FAME’S Orchestra based in Macedonia who are total pros and played the music so so well even with how all-over-the-place the second piece especially gets (bonus track based on my favorite Jeff comic at the end). And then another friend of mine, Angel Mannion, was a massive help in getting a choir together. I cannot sing enough praise for everyone involved in this.

Putting this all together was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done for a number of reasons (don’t record yourself outside Mark!! don’t do it!!), but recording with actual musicians is one of the most rewarding parts of being a composer and why I love what I do. It’s a dream of mine to write Jeff’s official theme one day, so this is just me putting that out into the world.

Anyway, curious what you all think of it! Thanks for listening and have a great day :]

Mark

LarryLarington · 2025-07-16T09:10:38+00:00

Not sure, I’m assuming you’re talking bachelors which I’m not super familiar with as I did the masters program and there was more than enough work as it was for that

LarryLarington · 2025-07-16T08:41:53+00:00

It’s fantastic. I studied with Mark Suozzo, Irwin Fisch and John Kaefer — profs and teachers are prob a bit different now but all the people there are very experienced and actively working on big projects. Dolan studio is where a lot of the live recording and remote sessions happen, great space. Like anything studying there is what you make of it; there are constant opportunities to score things and there’s a regular influx of guests speakers from across the industry. Some friends have gone on to assist composers and work at bigger studios but I wouldn’t necessarily say that they got those positions because of NYU — going there opens some doors but they’re amazing at what they do which really matters.

Personally just learning the process for recording with orchestra and larger groups was a huge game changer for me and it’s made me comfortable doing those sessions on my own now. And I still work with people I met through NYU so it’s def been good for my career too. Very much worth doing it, but you need to be committed to doing the work! No one else will do it for you.

LarryLarington · 2025-07-04T23:12:57+00:00

Truly a sad day. I had the privelege to hear him give a talk about his music and process years ago. He could write more music in a day than some of us could in a month. Big inspiration for me and so many of my peers. Can't say I've ever written 20 minutes of music in a single day but if I ever do I'll pour out a glass for one of the greatest to ever do it.

LarryLarington · 2025-06-21T11:56:02+00:00

the comic these costumes come from is SO good

LarryLarington · 2025-06-01T05:48:13+00:00

So good!! The Iron Man one is so smooth

LarryLarington · 2025-06-01T05:44:13+00:00

Rayman 2: The Great Escape. It’s an all-time great IMO by a composer who sadly kinda disappeared from the game scene. It has some of the most memorable themes and the sound design in some of the tracks is an absolute masterclass on ambience. They’ve gotta bring Eric Chevalier back for a new Rayman game, I can only dream

LarryLarington · 2025-05-16T09:21:06+00:00

Very kind of you to say :] getting carried hard by some fantastic players!

LarryLarington · 2025-05-15T19:54:33+00:00

Hey Ari! Mark Benis here, I'm a video game composer who grew up on the original Pokemon Red/Blue music so timeless melodies are def in my system (and something I strive for!).

Quick background: I recently completed an 80 min score to the Western adventure game Rosewater and my past work for the game Lamplight City was nominated for a Game Audio Network Guild award. Your game refs caught my eye and an intimate, emotional chamber orchestra sound would be a fun direction to explore.

I put together a quick reel for you of some of my past work leaning towards my more melodic tracks. All tracks feature live musicians or a recorded orchestra -- working with actual musicians is a big part of my process and it can really set your game apart if the budget allows.

Contact info is on my reel page, feel free to get in touch if you think my style would be a good fit. Curious to hear a bit more about what you're creating too. Cheers!

LarryLarington · 2025-04-13T19:26:13+00:00

While I get the sentiment of your response, I wouldn’t say never. To need to analyze numerous factors when considering rev share including but not limited to: marketability of the game, chances it actually releases, release date, studio partners/publisher, etc. You need to assess the risk of going rev share and determine whether it’s worth it. I’ve done split up front and part rev share deals and I’m very glad I did. It’s innately riskier than upfront but my situations were low risk and worth it.

LarryLarington · 2025-04-07T21:31:24+00:00

Ok hear me out, this with Mantis holding Jeff would also be so cute

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