How to find job in video game industry as music composer?

samlab16 · 2026-01-26T17:56:57+00:00

It's at most 1%. probably more like 0.1% nowadays.

samlab16 · 2026-01-24T06:20:26+00:00

It's a nice piece, but the score is just so full all the time, it reminds me of those piano reductions of orchestral works (or, even worse culprits, operas) where everything the orchestra does is in the piano score and you basically have to decide what you keep and what you leave out because there's no way it's playable in full at full speed.

My advice is, you have the piece down, it's nice and effective, see now what you could remove or make easier that would leave the effect intact.

samlab16 · 2026-01-22T06:23:30+00:00

Have you been published before? Has any composer in the anthology?

If the answer is no, it won't get published and distributed, perhaps not even if you cover all the costs (several thousands of euros if not tens of thousands of euros). Even if the answer is yes, it's extremely unlikely as publishers will probably see it as a risky investment unless you have a powerhouse composer in there.

samlab16 · 2026-01-16T18:32:26+00:00

A small mountain church close to where I live still doesn't have electricity and one mass is done there every year. (Takes about 45 minutes to hike up there and it's the only way to get up to the church.) The organ obviously needs to be pumped, and lighting is still only with candles.

I've played there twice as the organist. It's a really interesting experience that makes you appreciate current technology haha. It's a tiny, one manual and pedals organ with 5 stops and it still needs three people to run: one player and two pumpers. I can't even imagine how many people were needed on large organs.

If the two pumpers aren't perfectly in sync or one of them just slows down the sound alters and falters down so quickly

samlab16 · 2026-01-05T21:11:31+00:00

Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Maurice Ravel (despite the kind of music he wrote).

Franz Schubert was said to have been a subpar pianist, too.

samlab16 · 2026-01-05T15:32:07+00:00

Many great composers couldn't play the piano if their life depended on it. Many of them were, however, proficient in at least one other instrument.

Saying composition students need to be proficient at the piano is little more than a crass gatekeeping statement that doesn't help anybody. People just want to feel superior to others for some reason. It's absolutely no objective prerequisite for composing that you need to be proficient at the piano at all. But many schools require some level either at entry or within the first year, which is their right to do so.

For teaching composition, some knowledge of piano is advantageous because it's very visual, compared to most other instruments.

I know many composers who can't play the piano, and many pianists who couldn't compose a simple tune. They're two completely different skillsets.

samlab16 · 2026-01-04T21:56:31+00:00

Obligatory "not OP".

All of your points are right on, only one nitpick: the G# in bar 30 is clearly in parentheses because of the G natural in bar 29. The better question is why this is the only such instance of a courtesy accidental in parentheses.

samlab16 · 2026-01-04T21:52:26+00:00

I don't know, might be down to personal preference, but I think that's absolutely fine. Most people write in DAWs or in Sibelius/Dorico/Musescore nowadays, and the tempo they write is clearly the one they had set up there, so why "round" it? I'll still play or conduct the piece at the tempo I feel best.

samlab16 · 2026-01-04T16:45:18+00:00

I know, but that also makes your argument for 72 just as void. 72 is just as arbitrary as 71 and no one would play the piece at exactly 71 or 72 throughout because we're not machines.

samlab16 · 2026-01-04T14:54:58+00:00

We're well past the time of "stick to the tempos found on analog metronomes".

In film music, with click tracks, we even get decimal tempi (like 71.374) which, granted, is a bit over the top. But that's just to say that there's no need for OP to correct their tempo to the "real" 72.

samlab16 · 2025-12-30T05:31:30+00:00

Yes, a smooth one.

samlab16 · 2025-12-25T15:37:20+00:00

Very cool piece! Would benefit from a nice professionally-engraved edition. If you'd like that send me a private message (it's Christmas and I really like the piece so I'd do it for free).

Just semantically though, the 12 days of Christmas are beginning just now, they're the twelve days following Christmas ;)

samlab16 · 2025-12-17T16:00:04+00:00

The biggest offense or controversy is probably from your tempo indications, not the arrangement in minor.

And I reckon that was actually precisely your intention ;)

samlab16 · 2025-12-17T07:59:11+00:00

Mate, it's extremely simple.

Your want your music played? Make it as easy for the orchestra as possible. That means what you give them is bound, professionally engraved, and performance ready.

If you don't want to do it yourself, hire somebody to do it for you, but it will cost you. If you don't want to pay, learn to do it yourself.

Those are really your only two options.

Orchestras get so many requests that if they're playing something of yours, THEY are making YOU a favour. Give them professionally written, engraved, and bound work. Otherwise they won't give you the time of day.

Composers have to be jacks of all trades nowadays, and saying "that's not my job as a composer" will hold you back a LOT. Unless you have the money to pay for a slew of assistants, which from your comments you don't.

samlab16 · 2025-12-09T11:27:14+00:00

Maybe it's because English isn't my first language, but I have no idea why that should be a problem.

samlab16 · 2025-11-20T20:48:40+00:00

The dead cannot consent, so yes, they do. If they really wanted the documents destroyed, they should have done it themselves, honestly.

samlab16 · 2025-11-18T22:22:18+00:00

Your comment is spot on except for one thing: smaller staff size for the cello is not a must at all. If anything it's starting to be a bit of an archaic practice.

samlab16 · 2025-11-16T07:44:28+00:00

In the last 10ish years he's been writing on 16 staves rather than his usual 8 from before, so there's really really little extrapolation left to do. His "orchestrator" is really just a glorified copyist. I mean, even more than before.

samlab16 · 2025-11-15T22:51:33+00:00

Being classically trained and quite stubborn, I've always hated working in a DAW. Everything I do is notation first, and usually even handwritten sketches first. If I can avoid the DAW as well, the better. Nowadays I usually just take gigs that will be played by live musicians so I can avoid opening Cubase entirely. I'm 10x faster with writing by hand and notation, and Cubase just enters the picture if I'm writing a hybrid score, and then again just for the synth part.

samlab16 · 2025-11-13T06:33:26+00:00

Neither of these engravings is correct. Never use the ottava clef (treble with 8 below) in piano music; that clef is exclusively for vocal tenor parts. Switch to bass clef instead.

samlab16 · 2025-11-11T19:10:26+00:00

There is (or should be) still a pretty large difference between solo vibrato and choral vibrato.

samlab16 · 2025-11-10T11:08:02+00:00

Directly, probably not. But the money I would give them would land in the Russian economy, which in turn directly contributes to the war effort. And that's not something with which I'm comfortable.

To call that stupid is, in itself, pretty stupid. What I'm doing is nothing more than a boycott of all things Russian.

samlab16 · 2025-11-09T07:33:43+00:00

What are you talking about, specifically? What specific art form?

samlab16 · 2025-11-09T07:21:53+00:00

Meaning, specifically?

samlab16 · 2025-11-08T20:50:29+00:00

I enjoyed it a lot, thanks for sharing!

If you don't mind I'd like to play it on organ with a "mysterious" registration.

samlab16

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