General:Discover the Team and Work Behind the Music & Sounds of Summerset

Originally published June 20, 2018. The original article can be found here.

The Isle of Summerset is visually spectacular, but it is just as pleasing to the ear as it is to the eyes. Learn more about the team responsible for the sound and music in The Elder Scrolls Online: Summerset unique and what went into its creation.

The beautiful isle of Summerset sounds as unique as it looks, and during the new Chapter's development, ESO's Audio Lead Brad Derrick and his team worked hard to fill it with new music, voices, and effects. The result is an experience designed to wholly immerse you in the home of the High Elves.

A Whole World of Sounds

"When building a new Chapter, we put tons of effort into making the world sound really dynamic and alive," says Derrick. "And we take great pains to make sure everything sounds like what you think it should sound like."

To ensure the game is as immersive as possible, the team has a massive sound library that they've developed over the years, resulting in more than 32,000 unique effects. These include sounds for animations, fixtures, monsters and NPCs, UI, the environment, and more.

"There are over 15,000 monster and NPC sounds alone," explains Bill Mueller, one of the team's Senior Sound Designers. "These are the various vocal sounds monsters and NPCs make when they fight, like attacks and pain sounds, and some monsters have over 150-200 unique sounds they can play."

Almost every aspect of the game comes with its own unique sound, including multiple variations for some of the game's most common actions.

"We add as much variety as we can so sounds don't become too repetitive, which is important in a game like ours," explains Mueller. "For example, we have about 100 step sounds that can play when a player walks, and we play different assets for when a player is running or sneaking."

While the team drew from their massive existing library for much of what you can hear in Summerset, they also created new ones from scratch to ensure the home of the High Elves was unique.

"For Summerset's ambience, I tried to find a way to hint at how magical the place is compared to other locations in game," explains Sound Designer Brian Brockett. "To do this, I used a combination of real-world chimes that were heavily processed (a lot of reverb and delays) and a number of software synths that felt similar in nature."

You can listen to some of Summerset's ambient sounds below:

By experimenting with different combinations of the chime sounds he created, Brockett crafted a selection of sounds that were incorporated into the final Summerset ambience. You'll notice these magical sounds most often on the mystical island of Artaeum where they are a constant, but if you listen closely, you'll also hear them periodically on Summerset itself, too, reminding you of the environment's magical nature and uniqueness.

Giving the High Elves a Voice

It wouldn't be a new Elder Scrolls Online adventure without a host of interesting and unique characters to meet, and because each has their own personality and voice, it goes without saying that there's a lot of VO work that goes into the creation of a new Chapter like ESO: Summerset.

"We have 7224 lines of unique dialog in Summerset," says Becky Ichnoski, the VO Supervisor in charge of organizing, recording, and producing the game's many voices. "For this Chapter specifically, we spent a total of 108 hours in the studios recording, making up 37 individual sessions with a total of 35 different voice actors."

In ESO, giving a unique voice to the game's myriad of unique characters is extremely important to the team, and no effort is spared when preparing the game's VO. This means formatting the scripts provided by the writers, instructing the voice actors, recording, producing, and finally adding them to the game.

Depending on the character they are recording for, the amount of direction provided to the actor can vary. This is especially true for brand new characters.

"Sometimes our writers have a specific character reference in mind," explains Becky. "For example, for the character Alchemy in the House of Reveries quest line, our writer-designer Tori Dougherty referenced Daisy from The Great Gatsby, and that was enough for Alchemy's voice actor (Julianne Grossman) to nail the role."

But how does the team ensure the High Elves of Summerset sound appropriately imperious when recording their voices? They have a certain reputation, after all.

"We always have a ton of voice references handy for the actors to hear. Throw in some direction notes like 'upper crust', 'noble', 'refined', 'proper', or 'superior' and you've got your snooty Altmer!"

Ancient World, New Music

In addition to the effects and voice-over work for a new Chapter, the team creates new music, including bard songs and an entirely new soundtrack composed entirely by Derrick himself.

"For Summerset and Chapters in general, we put about an hour of new music into the game, and we go all out with orchestral recordings, professional mixing, and mastering," explains Derrick.

For each new soundtrack, the team produces sounds like the Elder Scrolls music you have come to expect, but each one is also an opportunity for the team to create something special and new.

"There's an Elder Scrolls music style guide, but over time, because some of the uniqueness of some of the updates, we're able to push on that a little bit. It needs to feel like Elder Scrolls music, but also stylistically distinct."

When composing the music for Summerset, Derrick knew what he needed to add to give the Chapter a sound distinct from previous ESO soundtracks: wind instruments.

"We've done lots of orchestral sessions for the game over the years, but we've never had a wind section. All of our music has always been strings, brass, and a lot of percussion, and that has kept it a little darker. Sure, we've had soloists come in and play wind instruments, but never as part of the full ensemble."

When the team changed the makeup of the orchestra to include a complete wind section, the difference was immediately noticeable. This of course includes ESO: Summerset's title theme, which sounds less bombastic and somewhat ethereal in comparison to those produced for previous soundtracks. An obvious fit for the High Elves of Summerset!

"With a wind section, you get to explore lots of different tones and colors and textures, and not everything has to have a massive brass section behind it."

You can enjoy a short preview of the Summerset main theme below. Keep an eye and an ear out for the full ESO: Summerset soundtrack's release in the near future!

The creation of a new main theme means the return and use of the original Elder Scrolls melody, and it falls to Derrick to take the classic tune and rework it in fresh and engaging ways.

"Mechanically it's not difficult to do because the nature of the Elder Scrolls theme is deceptively simple," says Derrick. "It's very malleable, so you can make it big and dramatic or soft and gentle. It's like a little musical Rubik's Cube for me. I'll stick it in another piece of music and make it backwards or upside down, and if you're a real music nerd you might pick up on it, but if not, your subconscious might still notice it."

Listening for the Future

When it comes to the music for The Elder Scrolls Online, the team always goes big, and while producing the music for the upcoming Chapter, the team was able to begin work on future content, too.

"While doing the sessions for the Chapter, I usually get a lot of extra raw material that I can use later," says Derrick. "Not only do we have a full orchestra playing and full choir, but also a dozen or so soloists come in, including violin, flute, and ethnic instruments, things like that. I then create temp tracks for them to improvise over. That material isn't initially designated for anything, so some of it goes into the Chapter, but there's always tons that also goes into the later updates."

For example, while Derrick and his team captured everything they need for Summerset, they also got some recording done for the next DLC zone and expansion, Murkmire (recently announced at E3). In this new content, you'll be able to delve deep into the jungles of Argonia, making for an extremely unique biome and a decidedly different experience compared to that of Summerset.

"Knowing that Murkmire is coming, we brought in a lot of interesting wind instruments, not just standard western ones. Even at that point I had an idea what Murkmire might sound like, and figured those instruments would be well-suited for it."

When exploring a new zone, there are myriad unique sounds to experience and enjoy. The ESO audio team has created something truly special in ESO: Summerset. What do you think of the tranquil sounds and music found within the home of the High Elves? Let us know on Twitter @TESOnline and Facebook!