Interview with Sergey Khmelevsky - composer of Galactic Assault soundtrack

When did you decide to write music and what did yon plan to be at first?

I think in the 6th grade, but at that time music went through me – I couldn’t keep it in mind or write down. Later I began to write down some things more consciously. Some of them were really not bad. ?

I didn’t think about what I want to be... Daily music lessons approached the moment, when I got able to write music professionally.

Do you have music education?

Yes… 12 years in Republican school-college of arts and 5 years in Belorussian University of culture and art...

What groups and performers have influenced you much?

In the early days, certainly, groups Queen and Europe. Classical composers – music of Rakhmaninov, Skryabin, Musorgski, Stravinski. I am also found of listening to music of impressionists. In general, each composer is a single separated world, in each of them it is good and comfortable in its own way; I believe, that every performer, composer, group has at least one creation, that I would like.

What music instruments do you play (do you have many of them in your collection)?

I can play piano, accordion, cymbals, contrabass. Recently I have bought a blockflute and have learned to play it; and even have written several tracks : ). I also have voice. A little later I am going to get some ethnical instruments and accordingly to learn to play them.

What equipment and software do you use for work?

In hardware – the following: RME DIGI 96/8 Pad, monitors Yamaha MSP 5, Mackie HR 824, earphones Sennheiser HD 600, midi keyboard CME UF-7. I also have an old Kurzwei K2500XS, and same old FM module Yamaha TX-802.

I use Nuendo as a midi-sequensor and bring everything together in the program Samplitude. I am planning to change to Logic Pro… Some time ago I worked with it on PC and I can not forget it so far…

The style of soundtrack interlaces from symphonic music to electronic with ethnical motives. Was it a designer requirement or you were allowed to carry out experiments? How strong was the producer’s enforcement?

I think it was my chose (coordinated with the responsible person for music in the game Ivan Dribas). By the dint of electronic music I wanted to show the space, planets and the condition of the future. By the dint of ethnical music – similarity of definite locations to the earth world, and by the dint of symphonic music – importance of events. I want to notice, that the responsible person for music in the project Ivan Dribas helped me very much… Moreover he had a musical conservatory education that helped us to find understanding very quickly. We chose compositions from different games that matched in style and juice beforehand to get a common view of the future soundtrack. I want to mark the importance of having a responsible man who understands music and conception of the game. It is no a secret that a competent and well worked out sound is a big plus for the project. Music allows making a game not only the next product of «making scores» or «slaughter», together with the good graphic and the plot it can move a game closer to movie, and make something more by the dint of artificial intelligence and the plotline. To be more precise – to create a virtual reality for man… Namely this, fictitious world, seeks the man when buying the next game.

At what stage did you joined the work on the game? Have you read the original «Inhabited Island» of the brothers Strugatski, and what accept the book inspirited you?

Yes, shame on me, I haven’t read the book of the brothers Strugatski. ? The game on the plot is sequel to the novel and the plot itself is not much underling the music. The work itself began with the writing of 2 tracks The Battle and First Strike. I didn’t have a demo version of the game at that time and I wrote these soundtracks inspirited only by screenshots. Later on because of creating music for an other project I had to stop writing tracks for a while. Half a year later I continued. This time I already had a version of the game, and I could add and check my musical themes. At this time the most tracks for the Island were written.

Was the whole material used in the game? How much time did the creating of soundtrack take?

Yes? The whole material was used.. I can not say how much time did it take me because I worked with a break, but I think – 5-6 months.

Did you have an idea to make music dynamic, changing depending on the events in the game?

Yes, I did.. But it depends on the game process, on the genre. It is a turn-based strategy, and as the matter of fact, the battle process itself takes the whole time of the game, that’s why it is very difficult to make music dynamic, and perhaps there is no need in it. Yet we had attempts and thoughts about it. I even had in my mind a fragment, when having given an order to the soldier for a sneak attack of an enemy, we start a mysterious and anxious music…

There are a lot of symphonic elements in soundtrack, are they all samples or live parts were recorded?

Live instruments were recorded, but not symphonic. Orchestral parts are samples.


Soundtrack to the game Galactic Assault (Inhabited Island) can be purchased at KeepMoving Records.

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