Drew Cunningham
Sound Design
Joining The Development Team / The Preproduction Process
Friday was originally a game project conceptualized/developed with a small team. I was brought on to develop the music after providing some Super Nintendo and chiptune-inspired samples of my prior work to Friday's creative lead, Taylor Bazhaw. There was an overall vision for the project at hand and I sought to understand how Taylor wanted the music to be done. Rather than working off of simple written descriptions for such a heavily defined project from the get-go, I suggested that the team provide me with video game music that sounded similar to what they wanted for the project. The idea worked very well because I was able to get a feel for what exactly the team desired and begin quickly working on drafts for the soundtracks.
Beginning Production
The game's premise focused very heavily on investigation, intrigue, and cute anthropomorphic animals that served as the game's characters. Clear inspiration was drawn from both Animal Crossing and Ace Attorney, and I sought to better capture the game's setting through recordings of live performances - as if they were performed in a jazz club to better contribute to the game's setting with a stylistic touch. Using a recording studio, I and several others quickly set to work to record saxophone and drum takes for the game's music. Among those on the team were Kenny Tentri on Saxophone; Rose Garret, John Sorrels, and Ian as Audio Engineers; and JC Steed as the team's sound lead.
Recording In The Studio
Recording the live instruments was a straightforward process. Despite the time it took to prepare the equipment and gain stage, the overall recording process was a breeze after overcoming a minor inconvenience. At this time I was unable to read music and couldn't properly draft notes for Kenny or Ian, I had them improvise to the songs and simply recorded their takes. Two or three days of 2-to-3 hour recording sessions were all that was needed to procure the material I needed to finish producing the songs in FL Studio.
Below are photos and recordings of the sessions in the studio:
Post-Production & Final Product
With the recorded saxophone and drum takes in hand, I immediately set about composing the tracks. Using various types of reverb on different instruments, my goal was to create a spacious mix that would allude to a jazzy/noir band playing on stage within the background. Overall, Taylor, the team's creative lead, looked favorably upon my attempts to create a track for the game, as did most others. I turned to JC, the team's sound lead for feedback to better refine my tracks for implementation before mixing down the final result, rendering the final product, and delivering it to the team. The entirety of the project was a great learning experience in learning how to work within a studio environment, as well as how to work with a team to accomplish a singular goal.