The Story Behind the Music and Sound Design for Star Wars: Battlefront

In this 2016 GDC session, composers Gordy Haab & sound designer David Jegutidse discuss building on the foundation set by John Williams and Ben Burtt to create the musical and audio soundscape for DICE'S Star Wars Battlefront.
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[@SgtZaqq]

Say what you will about BF2015's gameplay, but the sound design and music were impeccable.

[@ReporterRed]

Better than in BFII 2017 IMO.

[@Ndo01]

The replication of William's style is superrrr impressive!

[@DaiBenduMonk]

On a side note guy probably needs to compose for some Star Wars movies, amazing work.

[@DaiBenduMonk]

The beautiful thing was that I didn’t even realize this was new music while playing, all the music felt like Star Wars, I was constantly thinking from which bit of the film it came. It was quite frustrating and pleasing at the same time. Now in BFII it gets sometimes distracting because music seems to play not for note. I can be somewhere on Endor, or play through the campaign and suddenly hear the exact same score that was in this or that scene in the Phantom Menace for example. Maybe it’s snobbish or nitpicky, but it throws you straight out of the experience, because all you can see in your head is that moment from the film, that has nothing to do with what you’re playing. As if they just left the temp track in there. I heard somewhere that they been composing more original music for the current (BF2) game, so hopefully those moments will happen less. And new ones will emerge. Sound is half the film, half a game. Man I just love Battlefront I, it’s such a polished game. It took some time to get there of course, but everything that’s in it just works. Even when it was just released. There wasn’t a lot of content, but what was there was so well done. I can still play that game over and over, for hours, it’s so fun. Hopefully in a year’s time we’ll be able to say the same about the new game as well.

[@CLEMENTECASTORENA14]

Humming along with every music cause I played this game so much

[@sahmirlareum2718]

I’m disappointed they went for a much less authentic artistic direction for the sound effects in battlefront II, they did an amazing job for the first game and then for the second game decided to add a layer of boom sound effects over the top to make it “better” ? The first game is absolutely spot on and immersive but second game feels a lot less like Star Wars unfortunately

[@kfk8046]

18:00 There's a message from Batman on the slide

[@cougarten]

I'm 90% sure at 10:44 it's just a venetian snares song

[@Shl0kk]

Step 1/ Get John Williams score Step 2/ Play John Williams score Step 3/ Get Star Wars sound effects from ILM Step 4/ Play Star Wars sounds effects from ILM ... or am I missing something? >_>

[@Shl0kk]

Naturally, I'm making light. Their live mastering is some cool tech / new compositions are mkay.

[@smashbro247]

You're missing the entire sidechain he listed for the e11 alone, which allows for thousands of ways to hear it.

[@orionnentity2260]

you missed the entire video apparently

[@Shl0kk]

@@orionnentity2260 well, it was done more for the laughs than to be serious. Their work on original scores and environmental reverb was cool