Lost Planet

On to the conclusion of my interview with Sound Director Tomoya Kishi.

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Part 1
Part 2

[Brian] You mentioned contracting the music for the game out to Soundelux as well. Can you tell me about that? Did they do all of the songs for the game?

[Kishi] Sure. Jamie Christopherson over at Soundelux composed the music. In the first 3 days he came up with 2 full songs. He’s really amazing. And these songs fit the game perfectly. I was so amazed at his work I don’t even know how to begin to describe. I don’t know how we would have done the music without Soundelux.

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[Kishi] Overall Soundelux did about 80~90% of the music for the game, and we did the rest internally.

On the theme for Basil, one of the people at Soundelux used to be a professional singer, so she was able to do the vocals for that. I love how it turned out.

[Brian] So they did most of the sound effects? What about the voice recording?

[Kishi] Yeah. For the sound effects, some things would have been pretty challenging to do internally, like the cries and movement sounds for some of the Akrid, weapon gunfire, Vital Suit sounds, etc. So we contracted those out to Soundelux. Everything else we did internally.

And we did the voice recording sessions at Soundelux too. We worked with the voice coordinator to audition actors, and I worked with the director to narrow it down to the final voice actor for each character. The voice director this time was great. I first worked with him on Onimusha 3, actually.

He read the story script and knew what it called for, so there were lots of times he would practically read my mind. Like one time, we were recording for Wayne’s lines, and I was thinking to myself “he needs to do it more like this” and before I even said anything the recording director had already instructed the actor to do exactly what I was thinking. So the voice recording sessions went very smoothly.

[Brian] How many pieces of music are there in Lost Planet? Do you have a favorite?

[Kishi] There are about 60 music tracks or pieces of music in all. The BGM for the cutscenes and the showdown with Basil, all the tracks are wonderful so it’s hard to pick just one. But if I had to pick, it would probably be the main theme for the game.

[Brian] Do you have a favorite sound effect? For me, I noticed there’s a lot of subtlety to the sounds you don’t even notice if you have decent equipment and the volume up high enough. The game sounds amazing in surround sound, by the way. But one of my favorite sound “discoveries” was with the VS gatling gun. When you let off the trigger, there is a heavy sound of the barrels continuing to spin. Then for a second after that there is a faint whirring sound. I thought that was so cool when I first heard it. But there are so many cool sounds – all the weapons, VSes, Akrid, and all the enviromental sounds.

[Kishi] I really like that “whoosh” the rockets make when they fly by.

[Brian] Yeah, that’s really cool, especially in surround sound.

[Kishi] The actual sound file is much different than it sounds in the game, but there is an effect added on top of it in real time, so it sounds different depending on its location and trajectory compared to your own location. I just think that’s really cool, especially when you play with surround sound and hear a rocket fly by, barely missing your head.

[Brian] One time I was on top of a ledge sniping, looking through the scope. I heard that whooshing sound getting louder and noticed a rocket coming straight at me. Of course it was all in a split-second, so it basically hit me in the face.

[Kishi] Another one is the small spider-like Akrid sound effect, the sound they make. At first the sound effect we got for them from Soundelux was a lot more scary, more shrill. It was a bit too much, and I communicated with Soundelux a number of times trying to get them to tone it down. Finally I recorded myself making the kind of sound I wanted it to sound like, and they ended up using that recording. So my own voice is in the game, albeit morphed and tweaked a bit. That’s another one of my favorites.

Another one I really like is the sound effect for the giant VS shotgun. I think the sound is pretty unique, pretty cool. It’s one of my personal favorites.

Another one with a cool backstory is the queen mantis-like Akrid. Her voice is high, like an opera singer. When I coordinated with Soundelux for this sound effect, I had already commissioned the BGM track to play during this battle. So I had them make the “cry” of the queen Akrid seem almost like an opera singer’s voice, singing with the track they were working on. When you’re playing this part of the game, on top of all this is also the sound of the Akrid’s rib bones creaking and making those sounds, so I think it all meshes together really well for a cohesive scene.

[Brian] Finally, is there anything you want to say to the fans reading this?

[Kishi] Sure. I’m very proud of what we were able to accomplish with the sound design for Lost Planet, so I hope you take the time to enjoy all of the sound effects that went into the game.

Also, the CD that comes with the Collector’s Edition of the game has a selection of music tracks from the game*. Some of these were specially mixed by the composer just for this, so this is the only place you’ll hear them. You can listen to them from the applet on the disc, and you can even save them as mp3s to your computer to enjoy anytime!

There you have it!

One week till launch!

I can’t say anything right now, but I’m working on a cool contest so I have an excuse to give you guys and gals that want to come to the launch party but can’t some really cool LP swag. Look for an announcement soon.

—Brian