Hello Everyone and welcome to the SOTP Sound Department's first webisode!!! We sit down with SOTP Composer Waseem to talk about the Covenant Music that has been added to the mod. Additionally the VO contest is in its final run so vote for your favorite Voice-Over submission for the Strident Heavy Frigate. Lastly you can download the song "Wont go Back" by Ailyis as well as follow Ailyis on their Facebook Page!
Whats NOW Episode 1: Does it Sound OK?
First things first… So Waseem you’ve been in the project for 2… 2 ½ years?
Yeah that sounds about right.It’s been a while now.I remember when I first joined the... amount of trackers following the mod was around 1000.
Wow! That certainly was a while back indeed!
Yeah…! Things have developed quite interestingly since then.
Now before we go into the soundtrack, I thought it would be interesting for me and perhaps also the viewers just to talk abit about your background in relation to music.
Sure, I first started dabbling in music when I was in high school. My father and I used to go to these places; which the best way to describe them would be... ‘yard sales’ but in bigger places like a field. So one day he brought home once this software package full of CD’s and in there was a CD called Dance Ejay. ( For those that don’t know Dance Ejay is a very basic music software program with it’s own sounds and loops to get you going.)I started to play around with it at the age of 11-12 and slowly got into music production that way.When I was 17 my Father bought me my first midi keyboard which was the AKAI LPK25.It was small with only 2 full octaves to that of a full piano, but at the time it was brilliant for me and I used it all the time.After Highschool I ended up at Manchester Midi School which brought me my Diploma in Music Production and Construction, it was a great place and really opened my eyes there.After that I’m now currently finishing off a Bachelor’s of Science in Sound Engineering and Design at the School of Sound Recording here in Manchester in the UK.
That’s cool, thanks for sharing with us Waseem, Now...let’s talk about SotP and AUDIO.
You know…. after doing the music for the UNSC and the Main Theme, it took quite some soul searching to get that sound we wanted in the end for the Covenant.
...So what changed with the Covenant? How did you decide to go for the sound we enjoy today for the “coveted” team?
So after the first Release, we were all very familiar with the grand and epic orchestral score that fit the UNSC so well. With the prospect of an entirely new race being the Covenant which in Halo lore are the over-arching enemy of the former, I wanted to go for a uniquely opposite approach. But something that still retained a lot of the sensual undertone that kept the emotional aspect of the SotP score alive. If you look at the SotP Score in totality, you straightaway get and understand that this is a very Epic but hugely emotional score for both sides the UNSC and the Covenant.
So when it came to scoring the Covenant, I asked myself, ok… you’ve gone big and bold with the UNSC, how can you still retain and achieve that emotional aspect but through other means?
...So you still have the emotion for an antagonistic team, so would you say that the music is through the covenant perspective?
Yes! That was the aim, as I wanted to portray the Covenant not as the bad guys, because if you’re on the opposite team, you never really see yourself as the villain in your own story. I wanted to humanise and translate what it felt like to lose, to fight and breathe as one of the Covenant.
You and I both took that philosophy to heart with the initial UNSC/Covenant Release. Musicwise, and VO’s wise.
From the VO’s for that initial Covenant release we had quite a big turnout?
Yea, we had a lot of new voices as we included an early rendition of the Covenant to start balance testing with the community. Special Thanks to Hageshii01, Skaal, Diezel123, Redleader, and Kneesocks for voicing most of the Covenant team! I also can’t thank Dgaius enough for the crazy reverb that made those vo’s.
In the initial release I think we ended up with around 11 VO.wav’s?
Yea it was a great start to the team, I really like the direction its going as we still portray them as antagonists but still capture the essence that they feel like they are in the right. we are currently working on a few more VO’s like the AC and the Spook. Additionally the UNSC is going to get some love.
I hear you’ve got a VO contest!?
Yea voting ends this saturday to decide who wins the voice over spot for the Strident Heavy Frigate! You can find the contest at sinsoftheprophets.com under community events! I won’t lie, I’m really excited to see how many people threw their name into the pot, and I’m sure with a response like this we may do more contests in the future!
In fact, just before we finish here, I just wanted to highlight some very impressive feedback In a recent Mod Library edition by TGN Captain Shack, who had this to say about our composer and soundtrack!
We’ve also had a lot requests for a dl location for the song Won't Go Back, recently featured in a Sins of the Prophets trailer. and for our listeners listening now, You can DL it at the embedded link below and if you wanted to stay up to date with their latest and greatest be sure to check out and follow their facebook page! And don’t forget, to subscribe to Sins of the prophets on our MODDB Page!
This is Sancho and Waseem! Signing off!
Oh I see what you did there with the reclaimer part
Dat Voice
It's surprising how much professionalism, talent, and intelligence is being used to make this mod. It's like another game.
Personally, I don't like the autotune on "Won't go back," but I really like the effects through the song. Gives it a really "forerunnerish" robotic feeling.
With the Unsc being primarily a fraction of humans... :P
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