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The Music of League of Legends.

N Komaeda·4/7/2017, 10:30:52 PM·7 votes·4,239 views
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Hello my dearest reader! Today, I will be making a post geared towards the Music of League of Legends. If it ain't your thing or you don't know as much about it as others, fear not! I don't mind explaining any of this for you or others. If there are any other questions, feel free to ask them as well!

Before I ask any questions, I really, REALLY want to thank Riot for their effort regarding music in the game. Especially in the last few years, it has improved very well, with some songs even genually making me cry. Now, of course, some of these include Kindred and Jhin, because they are true masterpieces, but themes such as that of Camille makes my heart race with the speed of Rammus! I also want to explain my motivation as an aspiring musical student. I want to work in studio's, but I am also inspired to learn many instruments and techniques. Part of this inspiration comes from League of Legends, with it's amazing music. This is why I'm making this post to begin with.

Not many people realize that music is a really important aspect of any game. It's meant to express a certain emotion, that's how music is described most often. However, it is much more than that when talking about gaming, for example. A good 'theme song' for a Champion shifts their complete personality around. I can name a few examples, such as Jhin, whom's theme starts... Innocent, I would say, but later on evolves into the perfect composition. To play around that (It being the perfect composition, and Jhin talking about perfection) is something very beautiful and recognizable. On the other end of the spectrum, Galio sits with his close-to-rock theme. I would have expected him to have some sort of 'peaceful', civilized, yet badass theme. I did not expect this theme! And to me... It captures the fact that he can't live as much as other beings, and when he is alive, he makes everything from it, even though it's extremely destructive for everyone around him. For this part of the post, I'll be, lastly, talking about Xayah & Rakan's theme. (Just released, http://www.surrenderat20.net/2017/04/47-pbe-update.html is the place to go. c: ) I expected it to be... capturing the badass, serious elements of Xayah and the charming elements of Rakan. Yet, it captures neither as much as I would've thought it would. Instead, it, to me, focuses on their backstory, Xayah's cause, their close bond to each other and to nature and their elegance together. This is one of those songs I would love to hear more from!

I love the fact that every piece has something going on in it about the champion. What I've noticed is that every champion theme is a perfect fit while reading their lore. It's so... fitting, how different pieces of art (Visual, Literature and Audio) come together so well that you might as well immediatly want to main that champion. However, what I am curious to know is: (1) Do you ever design a champion, whether it'd be lore, art etc. based on (their) music? Or do you ever find a piece where you say: "Oh, we need a champion that fits with this kind of theme so well!"? And for any answer, why? What makes it so that you handle that way?

**I'll admit it, I'm not **that professional when it comes to music, but I would love to do a 'game' here. It's also a perfect roll into my next question, which I'll ask later. The premise of the 'game' is to name all the instruments used in a Champion's theme. Feel free to tell me if I missed some or am wrong on some.

Alright, so for those who have made it this far, thanks! I really appreciate it. Now for my question about music, it's the following: What type of instruments do you use, any extremely inconventional ones, any that would normally not fit into a gaming enviroment, but you found to work mighty fine?

**The 'Composing Dark Star' video **(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h9c-O3AEkE ) showed so much insight on everything Riot does about music, using the Viola da Gamba like that... Just wow! Using the breaths of the other people at Riot is SO COOL! Dry ice... How did you come up with it? It fits well, I certainly agree, but what gave incentive? What else... I would love to see more of these videos. They show so much insight for the people who are interested in music things etc. I know Jhin is a popular topic regarding this, but damn, I'd love to see one for Braum, Camille, Galio... Even for the more electro songs, such as that of Lucian, Ekko and the Project Line. My question here is as follows: Will there ever be another behind the scenes of creating the Music of League of Legends? What is the driving force behind the answer?

My last big question is all about recording the songs. I mean, it's interesting, seeing as most musicians work with clicktracks for a lot of their recordings, while (in my opinion) the rythm provided by a human themself is the best possible rythm. Another thing about this would be the idea that 'some segments sound better together' while 'some segments sound better apart'. I really wonder about that, because (in my experience with a studio), the best way to make a good, finished product is by playing it with the whole group! It gives much more soul to the song, and any small flaws are worked away by the other instruments in the piece. Not only that, but for electro music, I am really curious to see what kind of programs are used. So, my question here is: When recording music, is a clicktrack used, do you record apart, together or a mix of both? For electro music, do you use any form of aftereffects on the audio? Do you ever add something like reverb, or is Riot trying to work that out more natural?

I have a really small question to end off this discussion with, being have any of you Rioters ever been emotional, elated, angry, inspired or any other genuine emotion that can be felt while or after listening to the music they or their colleagues make? I would love to hear an answer on that, because music is a way of expressing emotion. It would never be a sin for something like that to happen.

And remember, it's all for the sake of Ultimate Hope!

  • N Komaeda.

11 Comments

Ed the Conqueror4/8/2017, 1:03:32 AM4 votes

Well, someone was inspired :)

Gonna try to carve some time this weekend for a proper answer.

Thanks for playing, and thanks for listening!

Ed the Conqueror, composer

Ed the Conqueror4/10/2017, 4:59:55 AM3 votes

Hey N Komaeda!

On behalf of the music team, thank you so much for your kind words. Good luck with your music studies! You’re clearly putting a lot of thought into how you feel about music, and that should carry you into your future as a music person :)

Thanks for your kind words on Jhin as well as Rakan and Xayah’s music, both of which I had the pleasure of penning. You’re right about the duo’s theme: there is a lot of their backstory in there. Instead of focusing on each individual, I chose to portray them as a pair, which, ultimately, is really the fantasy we’re shooting for.

Do you ever design a champion, whether it'd be lore, art etc. based on (their) music? Or do you ever find a piece where you say: "Oh, we need a champion that fits with this kind of theme so well!"? And for any answer, why? What makes it so that you handle that way?

I can only answer the questions about music, so hopefully someone chimes in about design.

All i can say is that everybody works to music (writers, directors, designers, etc.). Sometimes they share their playlists with us, and there are interesting things in there.

I am not aware of any champ or skin that has come from a particular piece of music, certainly not any piece of music the music team has written.

Regarding the instrumentation of the Jhin login: this is using violin, a 24 piece choir, gun sounds, some drums, a lot of guitars and synths!

Will there ever be another behind the scenes of creating the Music of League of Legends? What is the driving force behind the answer?

I am glad you enjoyed the Dark Star Thresh music behind the scenes. I certainly had a lot of fun of fun working on the music, and working with our wonderful video team to do the video.

While I don’t know that we have anything in the works in terms of more behind the scenes for music, I’m sure there will be more of this in the future!

When recording music, is a clicktrack used, do you record apart, together or a mix of both? For electro music, do you use any form of aftereffects on the audio? Do you ever add something like reverb, or is Riot trying to work that out more natural?

We always record to a click-track. That said, our conductor can influence the feel and sound of a group of musicians playing to a click. These wonderful Los Angeles musicians are some of the best in the world and can make music out of the most constrained click-tracks!

For electronic music, yes, we do a lot of processing.

We use copious amounts of reverbs for our work, on top of the hall’s natural reverb, Rakan and Xayah’s theme, which I just wrapped, has about a dozen of different reverbs on there. Some of them are meant to be natural-sounding, but there are also very synthetic reverbs on the piece.

_Have any of you Rioters ever been emotional, elated, angry, inspired or any other genuine emotion that can be felt while or after listening to the music they or their colleagues make? _

I’m certainly very inspired by the music my colleagues write!

Thanks for listening!

Ed the Conqueror

xxxDogmanxxx4/10/2017, 5:56:05 AM1 votes

Sorry if this sounds shallow, but the only music I really like in LoL is that Jinx music video.

http://i.imgur.com/eNssxu1.gif

WitchQueen Annie4/11/2017, 8:41:19 PM1 votes

I think Vladimir should get a theme song.

Nylisa4/14/2017, 4:57:50 PM1 votes

i really hope the music team do more works like Freljord theme/ARAM theme!

that theme gives me shivers and goosebumps from start to the end!there is something about the Vocals(?) and Violin theme in that music that just soothes my soul and im glad i was able to see the behind scenes of that piece.

when you read Freljord, Ashe, lisandra, and sejunai lores , that theme becomes even more epic.

League of legends music team never failed me!Galio rework theme was a blast as well! i really hope i see more epic works like that in the future!

thank you for making this wonderful topic and good luck with your studies \o/