MCB Interviews Sam Hulick
"I feel very fortunate to have worked almost entirely on projects where the producer was not afraid of doing something different from the norm," Hulick says. The latest trend of copying Hollywood film scores has “game developers wary of venturing outside the box musically, and it's safer and a surer bet to stick with what works, though that's not always the most exciting and rewarding route.”
Hulick' collaborative work on the hit games Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 gave him a tremendous opportunity to learn the language of game developers. “On some projects, technical concern is minimal - at most you're asked to deliver stems, usually in different layers of intensity,” explains Hulick. “There are situations where you have to consider the technical aspects of adaptive music to make sure the material you're writing isn't going to cause problems once it's implemented into the game engine.”
For Hulick, using the latest samples and virtual instruments is important. Although he has relied on the Vienna libraries in the past, his newest sounds are a hybrid of various sample libraries. “I'm getting tons of mileage out of LA Scoring Strings on my current project, Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad,” says Hulick.
Heroes of Stalingrad is an upcoming WWII themed first-person shooter developed and published by Tripwire Interactive. The game focuses heavily on the Battle of Stalingrad, recognized as one of the most brutal battles in the history of warfare. “I try my best to put myself in the right emotional mindset before working on a new theme, though honestly I can't even begin to imagine what it was really like,” says Hulick. “It's an intense score, and while it has varying moods to match the gameplay, hopefully it captures some of the darker moments too.”
For Hulick, the work of a composer is more than a business. “I'm not satisfied with writing something that gets the job done, I want to craft something that of course works for the game, but it should also evoke strong emotions in its listeners.”
Listen to tracks from Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad and Mass Effect 2:
Across The Steppe
Legion Combat
Click here to visit Sam Hulick's website...
Sam's Gear:
Mac Pro 8-core with 16GB RAM
DAW: Logic Pro 9
MOTU UltraLite Audio Interface
StudioLogic SL-990XP
Event Precision 8 studio monitors
Samples and Virtual Instruments:
Vienna libraries, LA Scoring Strings, ProjectSAM (mostly for percussion), Drums of War, Ivory, Origins, Requiem Pro, Omnisphere, Arturia libraries (CS-80, Moog, minimoog, Analog Factory Experience), Stormdrum 2, Stylus RMX