Russell Brower Leaving Blizzard

[Eggroll]

Then Blizz need to hire/contract Hayes and/or Uelmen again, they're responsible for the stuff you've just mentioned, Brower's style is all about being/sounding epic.

The Alliance Garrison music WAS actually composed by Jason Hayes, he's also responsible for the new ORG/SW themes with the heavy choirs, and glorious stuff like Call to Arms. On the other hand I love musical varienty in WoW, I'd have loved to have Ulmen back for WoW just for contrast.

I loved Wolf at the Gates, tho. Could never leave my garrison because of it

[Deleted]

Anyone willing working for blizzard would be insane at this point. The compnay literally failed everything

[Eleccybubb]

Anyone willing working for blizzard would be insane at this point. The compnay literally failed everything

Hearthstone has 70 million lifetime players, Overwatch has sold 30 million copies, WoW is still the most popular MMO and still going with a sub 12 years later and their profits have been up consistently every year according to their quarterly earnings.

Where specifically have they failed at "everything"?

[ls-]

Hearthstone has 70 million lifetime players, Overwatch has sold 30 million copies, WoW is still the most popular MMO and still going with a sub 12 years later and their profits have been up consistently every year according to their quarterly earnings.

Where specifically have they failed at "everything"?

They "failed" official legacy realms, mate

[Unholyground]

Not true for huge projects like WoW. Most of modern day WoW soundtrack is performed and recorded live and only bolstered with high quality sample library mockup parts and synths. Low and mid budget projects rely on highly skilled people who are able to mock up pieces with sample libraries that sound fairly convincing to the layman's ears, but big budget productions - with good reason - still use real orchestras and performers in the final production.

Either way, this has no bearing on needing - or not needing - a guy like Brower. You can have the best commercially available, or custom-produced virtual instruments on earth - they're just high-quality sounds, they won't compose any music for you. Further, Brower wasn't "just" the composer - he was actually the lead of all things audio at Blizzard. Like an art director in the music department. He was largely responsible for the artistic direction, cohesion, quality insurance and overall organisation of all audio contributors and assets.

Giving up in-house art teams and leads is generally much more cost-effective, but product quality and identity almost always take a huge blow as a consequence, so I'm not sure if this was wise of Blizzard. They always had absolutely exceptional audio, probably the very best in the industry. Another company who employs inhouse audio in many of their studios - and it really shows - is Ubisoft. Not exactly encouraging to see a company like Blizzard apparently cutting corners here.

I understand what you are saying but I can guarantee you the need for orchestras outside of live performances are getting less and less becasue digital is sounding more an more real all the time, the only time they use orchestras now is for main scores and that is it, all other sound is voice acting or crafted digitally.

[Pull My Finger]

I understand what you are saying but I can guarantee you the need for orchestras outside of live performances are getting less and less becasue digital is sounding more an more real all the time, the only time they use orchestras now is for main scores and that is it, all other sound is voice acting or crafted digitally.

I get what you're saying, but doing these mockups is part of my job, I should know. At the top of the food chain, it's still real musicians for the end product generally. The smaller the budget though, the more it's mockups all the way. It's good and bad, really. It's good because it gets me gigs, but it's bad because the better the music, the more it suffers from samples. This will never change.

[papajohn4]

I might be wrong, but I think Jason Hayes actually composed that.

Oh I have no idea to be honest :P it is my favorite and always makes me sad when I hear it (nostalgia hit red levels)

[Eleveneleven]

Very clearly written with bitterness. He's not happy about this and it's clear Blizzard shewed him out the door. Which is absurdly odd.

There's nothing odd about Blizzard underappreciating talent. Hence the massive top tier talent turnover the last year.

[oplawlz]

There's nothing odd about Blizzard underappreciating talent. Hence the massive top tier talent turnover the last 8 years.

Fixed that for you :P
Sad to see him lose his job, but the music in mmos gets so boring that I generally play with it turned off anyway, so no great loss to me.

[Pakheth]

Agree with you intensely. I was talking game music a year ago with my best friend IRL who does not play and I showed him the God damned GARRISON music and how over-the-top bombastic it gets.

They definitely need to figure out a way to go back to Burning Crusade music style, Wrath wasn't so bad, but all those zones from Vanilla and TBC were just PERFECT. That's how zone music should be done.

Horde garrison has the most horrible music. When I could change the music with the juke box I did it instantly.

Good game music is made to be listened to for hours. Current wow music is not.

You know what part of Stormheim music I prefer? The start area(Horde) with the crashed ships has this somber mood-setting creepy music from Borean Tundra. It fits the area perfectly. The rest is rather noisy and makes me hit ctrl + m very fast.
Same goes for the other areas they use older music like Haustvald and Tideskorn Harbor. The new music in those areas tend to be really fitting too, and a lot less stressfull. The music isn't overly bombastic and it has a pleasent flow. To me flow is so important. Music that changes too much, going up and down in volume, makes me tired of it real fast.

Some of my most favorite tunes are the old plains music that was used in Mulgore, Barrens and Eversong Forest I believe. And for TBC Terokkar forest, Zangarmarsh. And Borean Tundra had some nice mood setters. Wotlk had lots of nice music too, it fit the expansion well. Cata on the other hand had very irratic repetetive music that felt rushed.

Epic music has it's place in this game, definitely, but it has to be used when it is needed. Firstly because it negates music fatigue when used sparingly, second because it then does not diminish the feel of the moment. By all means use epic music in raids, during scenarios and quest finales.

[Shadock]

Did people really like the Legion soundtrack? Cata? WoD?

The music has been the same thing over and over for some time now. Very generic.

Are you really serious?! WoD has literally the best music WoW has ever had throughout an expansion. With Legion coming in a close second...

[DeltrusDisc]

Are you really serious?! WoD has literally the best music WoW has ever had throughout an expansion. With Legion coming in a close second...

You're kidding.

[kenthovind]

100% of the WC3 music was 10/10. Know who the minds were behind those masterpieces?

[Forum Action 22]

In with the new!

[s0ul]

Did he create the Vanilla tracks? TBC and WoTLK? Like Elwynn Forest, Goldshire, Orgrimmar, Icecrown Citadel, etc.?

[KrazyK923]

Did he create the Vanilla tracks? TBC and WoTLK? Like Elwynn Forest, Goldshire, Orgrimmar, Icecrown Citadel, etc.?

He always did the title tracks at the very least.

Too many tracks to list here, but take a look:

https://wow.gamepedia.com/Russell_Brower#Composed_music

Dude is iconic and one of the best parts of WoW. It's sad that he's leaving.