From Pac-Man to Pop Music Interactive Audio in Games and New Media

Digital interactive audio is the future of audio in media - most notably video games, but also web pages, theme parks, museums, art installations and theatrical events. Despite its importance to contemporary multi-media, this is the first book that provides a framework for understanding the history, issues and theories surrounding interactive audio. Karen Collins presents the work of academics, composers and sound programmers to introduce the topic from a variety of angles in order to provide a supplementary text for music and multimedia courses. The contributors cover practical and theoretical approaches, including historical perspectives, emerging theories, socio-cultural approaches to fandom, reception theory and case study analyses. The book offers a fresh perspective on media music, one that will complement film studies, but which will show the necessity of a unique approach when considering games music.

Introduction, Karen Collins; Part 1 Industries and Synergies: The new MTV? Electronic arts and 'playing' music, Holly Tessler; Marketing music through computer games: the case of Poets of the Fall and Max Payne 2, Antti-Ville Karja.; Part 2 Ringtones and Mobile Phones: Could ringtones be more annoying?, Peter Drescher; Indeterminate adaptive digital audio for games on mobiles, Agnes Guerraz and Jacques Lemordant.; Part 3 Instruments and Interactions: Theoretical approaches to composing dynamic music for games, Jesper Kaae; Realising groundbreaking adaptive music, Tim van Geelen; The composition-instrument: emergence, improvisation, and interaction in games and new media, Norbert Herber.; Part 4 Techniques and Technologies: Dynamic range: subtlety and silence in video game sound, Rob Bridgett; An introduction to granular synthesis in video games, Leonard Paul.; Part 5 Audio and Audience: Chip music: low tech data music sharing, Anders Carlsson; Left in the dark: playing computer games with the sound turned off, Kristine Jorgensen; Music theory in music games, Peter Schultz; Annotated bibliography and resources, Erica Kudisch and Tim van Geelen; Bibliography; Index.

Karen Collins is based in the Canadian Centre of Arts and Technology at the University of Waterloo, Canada.