“Imagine members of the Tabernacle Choir … in a recording studio, singing in the Black Speech of Mordor,” writes Court Mann in Friday’s (8/2) Deseret News (Utah). “That really happened … for the popular ongoing video game series ‘The Lord of the Rings Online,’… recorded in Utah. Chance Thomas, a composer based in Bountiful, has composed the series’ music for years now…. Utah has become an increasingly popular place for the video game industry to record its musical scores…. Utah has a long history of orchestral music—the Utah Symphony was founded in 1940, and the state’s major universities have storied symphonic traditions.… There’s a lot of overlap between the Utah Symphony and the locals who play on these video game scores…. Some of Salt Lake’s best recording spaces … are ideal for the logistics of video game scoring … large enough to house a full orchestra/choir and still get a spacious sound.… [Sound engineer Michael] Greene said Utah’s scoring industry began taking off in the late 1980s, as the Sundance Institute launched its Film Music Program…. Video game scoring has become so popular here … that Greene said it has surpassed local film and TV scoring budgets.”
Posted August 7, 2019
