Making music for video games requires a basic understanding of music theory, access to a digital audio workstation (DAW), virtual studio technology (VST) plugins, and samples. Game composers must consider the context in which the piece of music appears to create an appropriate melody and rhythm. Getting started doesn’t require advanced music theory. Use your ear and memory bank of gaming experience as a guide.
Bright, saturated, retro platformers demand bouncy rhythms and carefree melodies. Fantasy RPGs build in sweeping orchestral arrangements and old world instrumentation. Horror games work best with drones and pads, blurring the line between silence, background noise, and music. Read on to learn the basics of making video game music, the tools required, and some tips on free resources.
What software is used to make game music?
Software used to make games includes, at a minimum, a DAW like Reaper, Logic, or Ableton and some VST plugins to create and shape your sounds. Options for DAWs differ based on budget, complexity of composition, price range, and features. For beginners, many inexpensive and free trial versions of DAWs are available. Ableton limits the number of tracks per song based on the version chosen, while Reaper starts a countdown timer upon opening the program.
Reaper is a full-featured, inexpensive DAW that’s lightweight and fast. It’s cross-platform, giving sound designers a portable, multi-OS setup. Reaper allows for precise editing and layering. Its custom macros and automations facilitate deep integration with middleware. The drawbacks of Reaper are that it’s not as pretty or polished as DAWs like Logic or Ableton, but it is more accessible to compensate. There’s a huge Reaper community with tutorials, videos, and forums to help new users find their feet. Reaper is commonly used in AAA, AA, and indie studios, many of which create their own custom macros and automations. Reaper is a solid choice that allows users to scale its complexity as their experience increases.
Logic is Mac’s proprietary DAW, commonly used in cinematic and synth scoring. Logic has clear strengths and a few minor weaknesses when it comes to composing game music. The orchestral and synth sounds packaged with Logic are extensive, with its Alchemy synth particularly effective for sci-fi-type sounds. Logic allows for precise MIDI editing and control, leading to expressive sounds. The primary drawback of Logic is that it’s exclusively a Mac OS DAW, alongside its lack of native integration with middleware. For beginners with Mac computers taking their first steps, these drawbacks aren’t a major concern.
FLStudio is a common DAW for independent electronic music producers and sound designers known for quick idea generation tools and loop-based sequencing. Its loop-heavy design makes FLStudio ideal for mobile games, platformers, and indie titles where the same music repeats in each section of gameplay. FLStudio’s playlist and pattern feature helps composers to experiment with ideas and try out different versions of the same composition quickly. The packaged VSTs with FLStudio are enough to get professional results and a single purchase guarantees lifetime updates (Image Line have honored this for 20+ years). Without any native integration to FMOD or Wwise, FLStudio users must manually export and name files.
Cubase is an established DAW used in film, TV, and AAA game scoring. That said, many designers, producers, and composers of all levels favor Cubase. The program features a deep MIDI toolset and excellent scoring to picture mapping. These features make transitioning from cutscene to in-game or menu to gameplay seamless. Cubase’s orchestral workflow was put to efficient use in the scores for The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed, and Halo Infinite. Cubase’s built-in instruments and effects are enough to create professional sounds alone, meaning no further VST purchases are necessary.
Ableton’s intuitive workflow and mix of loop-based and timeline experimentation make it the first choice for many electronic musicians. The Session View feature in Ableton is ideal for adaptive music testing, shifting between exploration, combat, and downtime variations on a theme similarly to how middleware works in games. Ableton’s design and experimentation features for stretching, warping, and filtering sounds make it effective for creating ambient music, textured layers, and SFX in addition to musical compositions.
VST plugins are the virtual instruments, effects, and filters that generate and shape the sounds recorded in your DAW. AAA game composers use VST and sound libraries from Heavyocity and Spitfire Audio’s BBC Symphony Orchestra to create the epic orchestral scores in games like The Last of Us Part II, Doom, and God of War. Thankfully, Spitfire’s LABS, BBC’s Discover, and Native Instruments Komplete Start are free versions of similar-quality sounds that are more than good enough for beginners.
Other recommended VSTs for composers starting out are Keyzone Classic for simple piano sounds, Surge, a free digital synth that’s great for atmospheric textures, and Tyrell 6, a low-cost analogue hardware synth with warm sounds. Dexed is a synth based on the Yamaha DX7 FM synth that’s perfect for creating retro ‘80s-inspired sounds (similar to Korg’s Volca FM hardware).
There are also AI programs that can create game music based off prompts like intro music for a retro pixel platformer. While it’s possible to make competent songs with AI music, the final results are delivered in a music file with all the elements bounced together, meaning it’s near-impossible to separate them. This is particularly detrimental since AI music generated with prompts is generalistic and not very precise. The results from this type of software are mixed and unlikely to create memorable sounds. The slop effect is real.
How to compose music for a video game?
To compose music for a video game, think about the context in which the music appears in the project. Then, consider what that moment is trying to achieve in terms of gameplay, narrative, emotion, or exposition. Different melodies and rhythms suit different genres of games and contexts within those games. When composing music to fit with onscreen action, context is everything. Thankfully, the decades of game music that already exist act as guidance.
Home menu screens, high-octane action sequences, and emotionally resonant moments require different approaches to downtime, exploration, or game boss music. Use major keys, bright tones, and soft transitions for cosy downtime. Try rousing melodies with dynamic percussion and brass sections for exploration. Scary moments or horror-focused projects feature minor keys, discordant tones, and silence-and-stab patterns for drama and tension. Listening to game music (and other types) that you want to emulate or aspire to is a good place to start looking for inspiration.
1. Study the music you want to emulate
Study the music you want to emulate to learn how to make game music. Draw inspiration from music that resonates with you and fits the goals of your project. Studying is not the same as idle listening. Observe the instrumentation, tempo, time signature and other characteristics of each piece as you listen. Make notes on what works, what similar resources are available to you, and elements that you can directly borrow (tempo, key, instrument choices, etc.).
A peer-reviewed study in Entertainment Computing by Tuuri, Koskela, Tissari, and Vahlo found positive associations between video game music and autobiographical remembrance. In short, people have strong lifetime memories attached to positive experiences of video games, with music acting as a primary anchor for these memories. Use this knowledge to analyze game music and critically unpack the elements of each piece. There’s a reason behind each strong, positive association. Critical analysis helps reveal these reasons.
2. Compose sequenced music (MIDI) & sampled music (Audio)
Compose sequenced music by arranging MIDI notes that trigger VST instruments or samples on the computer. Sequenced music is a set of digital instructions that tells the computer what notes to play and how to play them on the computer’s audio hardware. Sequenced music is how game music worked in the 8- and 16-bit era and is common in retro-inspired games today. There are many 8- and 16-bit-style music production tools, but contemporary games mainly use sound design software to create sampled music.
Sampled music uses snippets of recorded audio that’s been produced and recorded in a DAW (not just MIDI instructions). The music in this case is an actual recording stored on the device, meaning a much greater file size than simply storing MIDI data. Sampled music allows for richer, more realistic sounds, human voices, and consistent sounds across every device. Sampled music is what we hear in most modern AAA and AA games across all platforms. The move to sampled music began in the mid-1990s when consoles and high-end PCs began offering “CD-Quality Sound”.
3. Outline your composition
Outline your composition by either creating the MIDI data or creating a project in your DAW and deciding how many tracks your composition will feature. Open your DAW, set the tempo, and select the number of tracks your song needs. Depending on when and where you want to use the composition, the structure and length varies. Songs are like stories; they use familiar tropes and movements to attract and keep our attention.
Game music doesn’t necessarily follow the verse-chorus-verse structure of pop and rock music. One suggested structure for a simple looping video game song: first, an intro of 4 to 8 bars that sets the mood without giving away the main hook. Next, the main loop of the song. This section is longer, featuring 8 to 16 bars of the song’s most potent rhythms and melodies. A 4- to 8-bar change in direction follows with a break featuring a lower, different energy. Finally, the song returns to the intro. This simple structure allows for a looped track that plays while a player explores a particular location.
4. Choose your virtual sound instruments (VSTs)
Choose your VST instruments to determine what sounds your song features. DAWs allow users to audition many sounds playing the same rhythm and melodies by cycling through synths/drum machines and their various presets and effects. Don’t settle on the first instrument you hear. Pick digital instrumentation from 1st- or 3rd-party libraries based on your requirements, budget, and experience. Complex, preset-free modular synthesis is not something to tackle for your first effort. Stick to VSTs that give you fun sounds with minimal tweaking and filtering for your first efforts.
Listening critically to the music you respond to pays off when choosing VST instruments. Select the right sounds for your composition based on what you liked from other music. Audition sounds from LABS or BBC’s Discover for orchestral pieces, try synths like Serum and Dexed for space-age pad and ambient noises. Cassette 606, 808, and 909 are free retro drum VSTs, and LABS’ percussion section works for more classic or orchestral sounds. Don’t be afraid to experiment with mixing real sampled instruments with digital and analog synthesis. There’s no telling what works until you start experimenting and listening.
5. Improve your music with mixing and mastering effects
Improve your music with mixing and mastering effects by prioritizing clarity. Video game music must compete with dialogue, SFX and ambience, meaning your music’s mix and master must control the mid-range frequencies between 1 and 5kHz. Most SFX and human speech fall into this range, and you want your mix to leave space for the talking, explosions, and whizzing bullets to shine. Leave about -6dBFS peak headroom for the mastering phase and the effects of real-time game engine compression. (Don’t stress about this too much if you’re just making speculative game music for practice.)
Keep your bass mono, widen out pad sounds and ambience, and limit the use of hard panning. Pushing elements hard into either L or R is disorienting and distracts from gameplay in a virtual 3D environment. Reverb helps to create space and emotion, but must be controlled in game music, according to location. Small room reverb makes more sense during tense indoor gameplay moments, while large, open hall reverb makes more sense during exploration. Compression is a useful tool for keeping music consistent while respecting the dynamic nature of game sound elements like SFX, dialogue, and background noise. Aim for bus compression with a low ratio, slow attack, and medium release.
Understanding attack, delay, sustain, and release (ADSR) helps composers make reactive, smooth-looping music that fits a range of contexts. Attack refers to how quickly a sound reaches maximum volume. In real, physical terms, attack is determined by how fast you press down the piano key. Short attack sounds are snappy and percussive, suiting battle and high octane moments. Longer attack sounds fade in and out smoothly, suiting emotional moments and background music.
Decay refers to how quickly a sound drops after its peak (it’s the red line in the image below). It’s the fall off of the note after the initial percussive strike sound of pressing a piano key. Fast decay sounds punchy and tight like the sound of a drum strike or a pluck on a stringed instrument. Slower decay sounds disappear more gradually, evoking emotion and adding depth to pads and melodies.
Sustain refers to the steady level of a sound while the key is held. High sustain sounds like strings, drones, and pads are great for constant background layers that maintain a consistent atmosphere. Examples of low sustain sounds are plucked strings and percussive instruments. Low sustain noises are more rhythmic and melodic, suiting higher energy contexts where there’s a lot of action and movement onscreen.
Release refers to how long it takes for a sound to fade after the note ends. Short release sounds are tight and clean with little bleed into the next sound in the composition. Long release sounds are smooth and capable of conveying more emotional resonance. Longer release sounds make sense for ambient or menu music where the point is unobtrusive background flavor.
How to make retro game music?
Make retro music by using VSTs or a dedicated chiptune creator that mimics the hardware used in retro game consoles. Genuine 80s and 90s game music was created by sequenced MIDI data playing back waveforms on the console/arcade cabinet’s dedicated sound chip. A chiptune creator acts as both the sequencing/arrangement tool and the sound chip, allowing users to create songs and play them back (sometimes through various virtual sound chips).
VSTs for creating chiptune-inspired music include Magical 8bit Plug, Super Audio Boy, Sora Boy, and Plogue chipsounds. Magical 8bit Plug is free and ideal for making simple 8-bit sounds quickly. Its NES-style square, pulse, and pseudo-triangle waves make crunchy, classic-sounding tunes. Super Audio Boy and Sora Boy are free, faithful Game Boy inspired plugins that create authentic-sounding compositions. Plogue’s chipsounds is a paid VST that offers detailed emulation of a huge number of often obscure sound chips.
Beepbox is a free browser-based tool for sketching compositions with a particular focus on chiptune-style music. Bosca Ceol (Irish for “music box”) is a free, beginner-friendly downloadable standalone chiptune music tool created by Terry Cavanagh, creator of indie games VVVVVV and Super Hexagon. The tool is designed to make 8-bit and 16-bit music creation simple, even if you’ve never used a DAW before.
