How close can game music legally be to another?

MainManiac

I was watching the Runescape 3 video and.....

Song at 0:22
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKZAA_9mQGg"]RuneScape 3: Sizzle - YouTube[/ame]


Song at 0:50
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH3fLzxRX40"]World Of Warcraft : Wrath Of the Lich King Main Theme - YouTube[/ame]


How could no one inside the studio catch this....? This is something id expect from Gameloft, not anyone else. And I really doubt it was a coincidence lol

repete

The same sample CD / lib or midi file, how many trailers don't sound the same these days :poly121:

peanut™

I think that there is a universal convention that require any music shouldn't be more than 1 bar (4 beats) a like, so they teach you in guitar classes.

Justin Meisse

You mean they both sound like Howard Shore scores?

I'm sure someone who's involved with film & game scores can pull out plenty of songs that sound just as similar.

MainManiac

Justin Meisse wrote: »

You mean they both sound like Howard Shore scores?

I'm sure someone who's involved with film & game scores can pull out plenty of songs that sound just as similar.

I mean theres a difference to Jeremy Souls songs in Guildwars and Skyrim sounding similar, not the notes but the style. You can tell its him

this sounds almost like a carbon copy

Justin Meisse

meh, it's not similar enough - I'm sure a composer could point out that playing the strings in that method is just a musical standard, the analogue to a blues progression on the guitar.

teaandcigarettes

Pretty close I think

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzbzxyJo9RA"]Musical Comparison of Homm 4 Sea Theme with Sea Dogs 2/Pirates of the Carribean and 12 Kingdoms - YouTube[/ame]

The video description says it quite well. These kind of similarities are often due to people using the same samples.


There are also some interesting examples in the work of Yoko Kanno.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOy3AuB5PtI"]comparing similar songs part1(Yoko Kanno) - YouTube[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yupIJUbFNFg"]comparing similar songs part2(Yoko Kanno) - YouTube[/ame]

I don't recall any interviews explaining the similarities, but my guess is that if she's still making OST's after all these years, then the music is either properly licensed, while some of these can be treated as covers, or inspirations.

leilei

Just ask Bobby Prince.

Justin Meisse

just to troll wow fans - could someone find that WoW armor that looks heavily influenced by the WAR Zealot armor?

peanut™

@teaandcigarettes,i remember playing this in college, a friend of mine moved in my place so we could both play it, aaaah the heroes days

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzbzxyJo9RA"]Musical Comparison of Homm 4 Sea Theme with Sea Dogs 2/Pirates of the Carribean and 12 Kingdoms - YouTube[/ame]

MainManiac

Justin Meisse wrote: »

just to troll wow fans - could someone find that WoW armor that looks heavily influenced by the WAR Zealot armor?

I'm a fan of WoWs music more than I am the game

teaandcigarettes

peanut™ wrote: »

@teaandcigarettes,i remember playing this in college, a friend of mine moved in my place so we could both play it, aaaah the heroes days

Haha, I spent countless hours playing HoMM games. :poly136: Too bad they never clicked with me after Ubisoft started making them.

bugo

Audio files are like bitmaps. Think of how many games use cgtextures all around the world.
Sometimes is usually a lead/director that wants to copy the same idea because of lack of knowledge in audio/music compositing.

Makkon

To OP:

Dude, what you're hearing an inconsequential, coincidental similarity in a standard string run pattern, why are you claiming that it's copying?

As an aspiring composer myself I take great issue with your comparison. What do you mean you can't believe no one at the studio caught this? You realize that it's a pattern of 4 NOTES?

Take a look at a few standard orchestral libraries:

Orchestral String Runs
http://www.orchestraltools.com/page3/index.php

Cinematic Strings:
http://www.cinematicstrings.com/

8dio Adagio Violins Vol. 1
http://8dio.com/instrument/adagio-violins/

These all have patches that play patterns, chord progressions, string runs, in different styles, intensity, and velocity. They are all sampled from real orchestral strings. Guess what? Some of them have the SAME PATTERNS because it's STANDARD.

If two composers use the same library, does that mean the less popular one is copying the other's work? That's the assumption you're making.

To reiterate, even if they aren't using a pre-recorded pattern and just performing it with a versatile library (more likely), it's a STANDARD STRING PATTERN OF 4 NOTES. If you think this is copying, then we should be free to rip through your portfolio and identify every tiny similarity of your art to someone else's, because you MUST be copying it.