The Man Behind The Assassin’s Creed Soundtrack and More
Jesper Kyd, composer for some of the biggest game titles of the 21st century, reveals some of the secrets of his process, from his early days on the Commodore 64 to today.
This week, MusicTech locked down a behind-the-scenes interview with Jesper Kyd, one of the video game industry’s most accomplished composers. He’s worked on games that include the Hitman series, Assassin’s Creed series, Darksiders 2, Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, Warhammer Vermintide 2 and more.
Jesper grew up writing music for the games his friends were designing for the Commodore 64 and Amiga computers. He ended up starting a video game company with these friends, and they managed to sell a game to Sega; validating that they were headed in the right direction.
According to Jesper, “The Commodore had an analog sound chip inside so all these talented composers could utilize that to compose for games. That’s the first time that I’m aware of that a home computer really had, basically, a synthesizer built into it! So they were able to create very emotional and atmospheric music for those games.” This sound chip is where “chip music” or “8-bit” music originates.
Fast forward to the present day, and Jesper explains how “Using a live orchestra and a choir, for example, is light years ahead of the simplicity of 8-bit music. What we do today is really focused on integrating music with different layers, and more emphasis on music integration systems, as games are dynamic.”
It’s revealed that Jesper is contacted quite early in the production of a video game; before they have working demos, etc. Once he figures out the story and the narrative arc of the game, he relies heavily on concept artwork to feed his musical ideas. “We have to experiment with what feels right so that when you run it against the screen with the game footage, does it stick? Then the melodies come along, and I find that once we get locked into a certain tone and vibe, then it’s not long before we have lots of music to play with.”
Jesper’s California-based studio hosts an impressive gear collection that would make any studio gear lover feel like a kid in a candy shop. It includes a Yamaha DM2000 digital mixing desk, Yamaha CS-80, Prophet 10, MOOG Sub Phatty, Elektron Digitakt, Behringer Model D, and many more items.
To read more about what went into the musical development of games like Assassins Creed, and to view a list of Jesper’s entire studio set up, read the full article by MusicTech’s Andy Price.
Charles Hoffman is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer at Black Ghost Audio. After graduating from the University of Manitoba with an English degree, Charles completed his education at Icon Collective in Los Angeles, CA.
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