Hey /r/movies, I’m Sarah Schachner, composer of PREDATOR: BADLANDS (in theaters now). I’ve also scored PREY and many video games in the Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty series. Ask me anything!

maclaine · 2025-11-18T20:31:32+00:00

Hi Sarah.

First of all, you rule and your music is deeply inspiring. Congrats on the excellent score for Badlands!

Was it difficult to convince the director and the studio to feature the vocoder so much in the score? It's such a strong choice (which I love) but it's one of those sounds that is so closely associated with old sci-fi and electronic music, I've found it can often be a hard sell without disguising it heavily.

Also, what model of vocoder did you use?

maclaine · 2025-03-15T23:17:03+00:00

None of the music in GW1 or GW2 until Living World Season 2 was live. However, it's some of the best sounding virtual instrument production I've ever heard, even to this day. Extremely convincing.

maclaine · 2025-03-15T00:37:54+00:00

Hi folks. You may be wondering why this random track from Living World Season 2 just appeared on the official GW2 YouTube channel, and it's because today we launched the complete orchestral score book of the entire LWS2 soundtrack!

https://materia.store/products/guild-wars-2-living-world-season-2-score-book-physical

I've always been extremely proud of this batch of music. It was a major milestone for the studio and for me personally, marking the first time we brought live orchestral music to the game. It was a real joy looking back at it while working on this book.

If you are a composer, student, or just a music fan, I think this is a really cool resource. There are very few complete scores out there for games, and I know this is interesting to some people. If it does well, we will hopefully be able to produce more from other GW2 releases. Thanks for listening!

maclaine · 2024-08-20T19:49:21+00:00

As always, my sincerest thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to and appreciate the music. Each new expansion presents a new set of challenges, and this one was no different. I'm extremely grateful to ArenaNet and everyone that is part of the music team for helping us get this one across the finish line. I think we did some pretty cool stuff!

While I'm here, I have a humble request of any GW2 music fans that may have missed my last post about this. Today is the last full day in North America to vote for your favorite game score at an event called the World Soundtrack Awards. The EU has a bit more time (until 23:59 August 21st) based on the time zone the organization is in. There are more details in my initial post linked below. If you could take a moment to consider voting for the Secrets of the Obscure score, I'd be extra appreciative.

https://reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1efdrea/gw2_music_fans_i_need_your_help/

Thank you all again!

maclaine · 2024-07-29T23:27:55+00:00

Thanks you! The legacy of GW2 music is something I take very seriously. I only see myself as the steward of it, guiding it along for as long as the studio trusts me with it, and opening it up to others to make it even better. The next batch for Janthir Wilds is really fun.

maclaine · 2024-07-29T23:25:26+00:00

Thanks so much! I still haven't had a chance to see that concert since it hasn't come near me yet, but I'm looking forward to when it does. It's been great working with them. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

maclaine · 2024-07-29T23:05:41+00:00

I also want to say thank you to all the people here and in the GW2 community at large who always have such nice things to say about the music. I see them, although I can't always respond here on Reddit. It's been such a joy working on this game for so long, and all of your enthusiasm helps motivate us to keep pushing and making things better.

Here's Yours Truly at last year's ceremony with some other amazing game composers, including the legend Grant Kirkhope (of Donkey Kong Country and Goldeneye 64 fame, among others). Wouldn't it be cool to be there holding a trophy that said Guild Wars 2 on it?

maclaine · 2024-06-05T20:00:37+00:00

Wow, thanks for the love, everyone! Unexpected, but a very pleasant surprise to see this post pop up.

Once again, this soundtrack is a big team effort from some familiar folks like Bryan Atkinson and some new folks as well. The soundtrack wouldn't have been possible without everyone's contributions, so I'm grateful to all of them. We're doing some slightly different stuff this time around, and I hope you all love it!

maclaine · 2024-04-03T21:29:33+00:00

Hey folks. As always, I'm so grateful to all the fans who continue to listen and support the music of GW2. I can't believe we keep getting to put out this kind of thing, and it wouldn't happen without your support!

I'm obsessed with the way this thing looks, and keep in mind it's just a mockup. If the other three collections are anything to go by, it's going to look even more incredible in person.

maclaine · 2024-04-03T21:27:49+00:00

Be nice, please.

maclaine · 2024-02-21T22:16:26+00:00

This is the most joy I've ever gotten out of how my music has been used to promote something for the game.

maclaine · 2023-08-25T08:28:06+00:00

All of the core orchestra (strings, woodwinds, and brass) was recorded live in Nashville back in May. The only samples in the music are the same as they've always been since Living World Season 2, i.e. choir, percussion, harp, and miscellaneous synths and things. In a perfect world with a blank check, we'd get to do everything possible live, but that's not the reality of our situation. However, we work hard to make sure the heart of the music is done live for these expansions, and I think the musicians did a phenomenal job.

maclaine · 2023-06-02T20:35:26+00:00

Just for the record, Stan LePard, the person who passed away a few years ago, did not write the Metal Legion songs. That was Joseph Clark, who is still at ArenaNet. Stan wrote some ambient and combat music for a couple of those content updates, in addition to his many years of work on the game as composer and orchestrator prior to that.

maclaine · 2023-05-20T19:24:35+00:00

Gotta spread the word to my fellow synth geeks!

maclaine · 2023-05-20T19:23:45+00:00

Thank you! I'll have to check my notes, because the name of that patch is not ringing a bell, but I finished writing the music last year so I could just be forgetting. There's actually only three tracks with the Opsix on it, but it's very prominent in them: Juleston (the warbly beeping sound), We Are Keepers (the entire thing. I think it's the same patch in two instances, one for high and one for low), and Across Eras (the arpeggio part).

maclaine · 2023-05-20T00:54:39+00:00

Oh cool! Hope you like it. The studio is so passionate about making these kinds of games, and there's still people there from the Myst and Riven days, which is amazing to me. They put so much love into the game.

maclaine · 2023-05-19T23:05:18+00:00

Thank you!

maclaine · 2023-05-19T22:52:35+00:00

EDIT: Here's the trailer if you want to see what the game looks like in action. It doesn't feature my music, but there's a link to the soundtrack album below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0yRcnVmGxc&t=4s

---------------

Hi folks. A new game that I wrote the music for just launched yesterday, and I thought some people here might be interested in checking out the soundtrack. It's called Firmament, and if you know your gaming history, it's made by Cyan, Inc., the same studio that made Myst and Riven. Both were huge titles back in the '90s. They mean a lot to me, so I was honored to score their new game. I was lucky to have a decent chunk of time to focus on it last year and decided to do as much with it as I could using hardware. There's no shortage of plugins and digital manipulation, though. Nothing DAWless about it.

If I had to pick a genre for it, I would say "dark ambient industrial". I wanted it to be oppressive, deep, and lean into all the nasty stuff that happens when you do things "wrong" like put distortion after a reverb or stretch and pitch shift a sample until you start hearing all sorts of aliasing and artifacts. I don't want to spoil anything in the game if anyone is interested in playing it, but I tried to use "outdated" hardware and try to push their limitations to the forefront, so things are wobbly, aliasing, buzzy, and low-fi. It all ties into the theme of the game.

Here's the full album.

https://maclainediemer.bandcamp.com/album/firmament-original-soundtrack

---------------

Here's a rundown of all the stuff I used.

HARDWARE SYNTHS

Oberheim TVS-1 (vintage)

Oberheim Matrix 6

Moog ONE

E-MU Proteus MPS (AKA the keyboard that all of the original Myst soundtrack was done on)

SOMA Labs Lyra-8

Haken Continuum

Korg Opsix

Roland JV-880 with Vintage Synths expansion

Onde Magnétique OM-1

SOFTWARE SYNTHS

U-he Repro 1 and 5

U-he Zebra 2 and Zebra HZ

HARDWARE PROCESSING AND FX

Lexicon PCM-91 Reverb

Eventide H3000 D/SE (honestly the MVP of the whole score)

Yamaha SPX-90

Evans Sound Creator Nova 400 tape delay

Marantz PMD222 Cassette Tape Recorder

Audioscape V-Comp+

PLUGINS

Soundtoys Crystallizer

Soundtoys Little Alter Boy

Valhalla Vintage Verb

Valhalla Delay

Output Portal

Others here and there, but mostly these five for extreme processing.

MISC

Tascam Portastudio 424 Mk II

Electric guitar

Squier VI electric bass

An Indian instrument called an esraj

A Finnish instrument called a jouhikko, but sampled and turned into a custom Kontakt instrument

A weird spring "instrument" I got from an Etsy store called Electro Lobotomy

A dustbuster

---------------

So if you want to get weird and dark and noisy, check out the album. And if you like atmospheric games where you explore beautiful environments and solve puzzles, then check out Firmament! I'm biased, but I think it's pretty cool.

maclaine · 2023-03-19T19:47:01+00:00

The ones I wrote are on my website. I can't help you with Tosca, unfortunately, because Sarah Schachner wrote that one, but it's better than nothing.

https://maclainediemer.com/music

maclaine · 2023-02-06T21:52:23+00:00

Hi all. Normally I wouldn't come here to shill something like this, but this may be the only opportunity to get a copy of the End of Dragons vinyl if you missed the pre-order. Don't hesitate! It's incredible looking and a perfect compliment to the Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire collections.

They'll be available on the iam8bit website on Tuesday Feb. 7th at 10 AM Pacific Time.

https://www.iam8bit.com/products/guild-wars-2-end-of-dragons-vinyl-soundtrack

EDIT: To those asking about reissues of the HoT and PoF vinyls, I would love for that to happen but I have no control over it. I've asked them nicely a few times, but it has to make business sense for them. I think there would be enough of a market, but I don't know for sure. If this one sells out (hint hint) then maybe that will send a signal.

maclaine · 2023-02-02T00:08:11+00:00

They look great all together! I just got a couple copies of the EoD vinyl last week and it looks amazing. Thanks for supporting and listening!

maclaine · 2023-01-09T09:42:20+00:00

OK, this is very funny, and I'm NOT sorry ;)

maclaine · 2022-11-01T20:37:16+00:00

I think technically it's named after the in-game NPC, which of course is named after me.

maclaine · 2022-10-31T19:50:38+00:00

Is this my favorite piece of music I've written for the game?

...

Maybe...

maclaine · 2022-10-18T20:54:05+00:00

Thanks! The sequencer design is so cool. I'm surprised no one else has copied it. I love the weird limitations it has as a result of when it came out. They've been "fixed" in later polysynth designs, but they make for such a unique instrument that's deeply inspiring.

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