Exploring Avenues of Audio in Video Games

with

Playstation Studios Creative Arts Music Designer

SONIA CORONADO 

Electronic Arts Motive Studios Audio Director

OLIVIER ASSELIN

MODERATED BY GORDON DURITY

Executive Audio Director at Electronic Arts

YouTube Live Stream

THURSDAY, APRIL 6 12:00-1:00pm (PT) // 2:00-3:00pm (CT) // 3:00-4:00pm (ET)

Video games are a non-linear style of storytelling that is dictated by the player and the experience they want in their game. How does one then write musical themes, melodies, and textures that are open-ended and capable of adapting to the player’s desires? Audio professionals from Electronic Arts and Sony Playstation Studios will discuss the methods by which composers deliver music, what a music designer does on games, what the requirements for delivery are, and the explanation of how music is implemented into the game itself.  

Sonia Coronado is a music designer currently working at PlayStation Studios Creative Arts. Some of her recent game credits include God of War Ragnarök, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part II, and Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. In her short time at PlayStation, she has been nominated and won several MPSE awards as a music editor, most recently being recognized for her supervising role in God of War Ragnarök. The games she has worked on have also been recognized by the industry with nominations and wins at D.I.C.E., The Game Awards, BAFTA’s Games Awards, and G.A.N.G. Awards, among others, in both audio and music categories. Originally from Colombia, she moved to the United States to pursue a career in music, attending Berklee College of Music for Film Scoring and Performance. She later moved to Los Angeles to get her master’s degree at USC in Screen Scoring. During her studies, she had a growing passion for music in games because of the unique technical and creative challenges that non-linear media provides. Nowadays, she is a music editor and designer for linear, interactive, and systemic music in AAA games.

Olivier Asselin is the Audio Director for EA Create for the EA Motive Studio in Montreal. He has been working in the game industry for the past 17 years, starting at EA Montreal back in 2006. He has been working as a Sound Designer and Audio Director on a wide range of AAA video games, including Star Wars Squadron, Battlefront 2, and the Army of Two franchise. Recently, Asselin was the audio director on the Deadspace remake that was just released in January 2023. In the game industry, he has found the perfect balance of creation and technology that match perfectly with his music (electro-acoustic composition) and science (degree in biology) background.

Gordon Durity has over 35 years of experience in creating soundtracks, producing audio, and songwriting in the areas of games, multimedia, film, television, and album production. He started his adventure with sound, games, and computers on a Commodore 64 and never looked back. Gordon has been at Electronic Arts for 24 years and now serves as Executive Audio Director. Gordon designs and supervises the creation and implementation of audio for various titles, works with technical staff to develop new cutting-edge technologies, sits on game design groups, conducts industry R&D, and supervises audio at various EA Studio locations worldwide. He has been a guest lecturer at Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, and Emily Carr University of the Arts, and a speaker at many creative and technology-focused gatherings and conferences. Gordon’s current research focuses on audio, experience design, and implementation for virtual environments, procedural & generative audio, and machine learning-based speech synthesis. In his free time, you can find him playing jazz trombone.

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Thursday, April 6, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

---