How Arcane’s Sonic Magic Is Made – with sound designers Eliot Connors & Brad Beaumont, and composer Alexander Temple

Magic and destruction go hand-in-hand in Netflix’s animated series Arcane. The story draws on Riot Games popular IP League of Legends, adding prequel lore to the game’s characters.

But don’t worry if you’re not familiar with LoL as the show’s story is still captivating, heartbreaking, and ultimately rewarding to watch. From the visuals to the sound, the detailed craftwork is evident in every moment; the pieces fit together in a way that could only come from a deeply collaborative effort. There’s so much care, in fact, that in preparing for this interview with Riot Games’ sound designers Eliot Connors and Brad Beaumont and composer Alexander Temple, I struggled to pare down my list of questions. For the first three episodes alone, I had a list of more than thirty questions!

In this in-depth interview, Connors, Beaumont, and Temple talk about their approach to creating the sounds for Hexite, Hextech, magic, Shimmer, the steam-punkish gear-powered world of Zaun and Piltover, and how they made music and sound design fit together like cogs in the wheels of Arcane‘s world.

Arcane | Official Trailer | Netflix

Arcane is Riot Games’ first production for television. How did the company’s long history with the League of Legends IP impact the sound of the show?

Brad Beaumont (BB): First off, thanks so much for chatting with us!

Second, great question! We’re so lucky to have this amazing 10-plus-year relationship with League players. Longtime players have in a lot of ways grown accustomed to hearing a really diverse palette of these iconic and signature sounds, voices, and music in our games. For some players, there is a real level of comfort and even nostalgia for certain sound effects. It was so important for us to maintain that level of authenticity while expanding the scope and cinematic fidelity of the universe.

We set out to craft a soundscape that wouldn’t feel foreign to players…and was capable of immersing newer audience members in this strange and wonderful new world.

Also, we are huge fans of this world and these characters! We were constantly checking in with ourselves and other Rioters to make sure things sounded “right.” We set out to craft a soundscape that wouldn’t feel foreign to players, was richly detailed, of really high quality, and was capable of immersing newer audience members in this strange and wonderful new world.

This is the first time we’ve really had an opportunity to dive this deep into a linear narrative in our world. Over the years, we’ve created loads of amazing cinematics that have given fans of the IP a taste of what’s possible, but Arcane was really our first opportunity to build out the world of Runeterra sonically in this type of longer storytelling format.

 

The story of Arcane is an origin story for several of the characters in your games. How do you bridge that world of the games with these past events in Arcane?

BB: It was a ton of fun having the ability to take things back to the beginnings of Hextech and sonically explore some of those simpler, early days of the technology.

…we had to go back to the most core aspects of the sound design…

When we hear Hextech and other tech in our games, it’s usually in a way that is a bit more polished and refined. In Arcane, we had the opportunity to put together what some of this stuff sounded like in its most primitive form. With that challenge, we had to go back to the most core aspects of the sound design, which for Hextech is the magical energy that is powering each of these machines and contraptions. We spent a lot of time creating huge libraries of magic that would feel familiar to players, but it also give us the flexibility and variety that we needed to tell the story of magic sonically in lots of different scenarios.

 

Can you talk about your collaboration with animation studio Fortiche?

BB: Riot’s relationship with Fortiche goes back a way; our studios first collaborated on the “Get Jinxed” music video, which really served as the players’ introduction to the character of Jinx. Fortiche’s style was so incredibly unique, and their energy and passion felt so aligned with where our hearts were as a studio. From the beginning, there was just a really special connection.

Fortiche’s style was so incredibly unique, and their energy and passion felt so aligned with where our hearts were as a studio.

Since “Get Jinxed,” we’ve had the honor to partner with them on a number of projects, and each time they absolutely blow us away with their creativity and willingness to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

When it came to telling the story of Arcane, collaborating with Fortiche seemed like such a no-brainer because of this long relationship, and our shared love and passion for the League IP.

 

For complicated scenes, like the magic and Hextech moments, was there a lot of back and forth with the sound, music, and animation teams?

Alexander Temple (AT): For music, we actually had weekly conversations here on the LA side, and we would have more of a monthly conference with Fortiche. Often, we would start working as early as the layout phase where you see these blocky, 3D characters moving around in the 3D space but without any animation.

…there were cases where they actually wanted the music to be done a bit earlier so that they could let some of the musical decisions inform some of the picture edits.

Depending on the type of scene, there were cases where they actually wanted the music to be done a bit earlier so that they could let some of the musical decisions inform some of the picture edits.

In other cases — in most cases — it was fine for the music to work in parallel or come a bit later in the process. Oftentimes, you’re writing the music to respond to the action. When you are trying to write cues during the layout phase using those earlier visuals as reference, it’s hard to nail down precise timings.

[tweet_box]How Arcane’s Sonic Magic Is Made[/tweet_box]

Often, we would do our best to basically make the music work for what we were seeing at the time. There were definitely times when I would make some assumptions based on when a character is entering the screen and we’d want to have a stinger or something for when that character enters. But Fortiche would clarify that even though we’re seeing the 3D model appear, there’s actually going to be a cloud and smoke and stuff like that. So the character’s actual appearance in the final product is going to be about 10 seconds later than when we were seeing it in the unfinished layout. So having that kind of back and forth was great.

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The Sound & Music of Arcane: League of Legends

When you are trying to write cues during the layout phase using those earlier visuals as reference, it’s hard to nail down precise timings.

Starting on the music earlier in the process also gave them time to live with the music and, hopefully, get a little bit of temp love to the actual music itself and not what was there beforehand.

BB: For sound design, similarly with music, we had full access to anything and everything that was in progress visually both in LA and in Paris. Quick conversations about a visual intention or a future evolution of a scene were just a Slack message, Google Hangout, or email away. It was an absolutely incredible level of collaboration day in and day out.

 

What went into creating the sound of the Shimmer mutagen? We’re first introduced to it at the end of Episode 1, when it’s given to the rat, and then again when Deckard drinks the vial…

BB: There’s a common theme of duality that runs through this whole first season. We always knew that the story would have a counterpoint to Hextech in the form of Shimmer. Not long after the initial round of sound design for our Hextech and magic libraries, we dove headfirst into the development of a custom library for Shimmer.

We wanted Hextech and Shimmer to feel like they were on opposite ends of the sonic textural spectrum – Hextech being centered around these very pure and clean tones, and then Shimmer just feeling very aggressive and oftentimes awful to hear.

We wanted Hextech and Shimmer to feel like they were on opposite ends of the sonic textural spectrum…

There is a lot of despair and agony at the center of Shimmer’s sound design. That mostly originated with these weird, strained vocal recordings that I performed a few years back for another project here at Riot revolving around a phenomenon in Runeterra known as the Black Mist. I won’t get too deep in the weeds on the lore there, but there’s a screamy/screechy quality to that and I thought it would be nice to somehow tie it to Shimmer. Not that they have anything to do with each other directly, but just to feel that these two bleak and ominous forces in our universe share some kind of textural makeup felt right and helped drive a level of IP cohesion.

Eliot Connors (EC): That library grew as the season progressed, but it always went back to having some piercing element – those high-frequency sounds that played back at the wrong volume are going to ruin your day.

BB: And those sounds ruined a couple of days, I think, hahaha!

EC: Haha, yes! But, that great high-frequency content was what I ended up sampling and using to make a suite of stingers for when the mutations happen. Fortiche created such amazing edits for those moments where we are visually thrashed around with these quick jump cuts, and those frequencies in the form of these quick stingers really help sell the story of a violent transition, making those scenes feel so visceral!

…those frequencies in the form of these quick stingers really help sell the story of a violent transition, making those scenes feel so visceral!

Starting with the rat in Episode 1, we’re hinting that when you take Shimmer, it’s capable of doing something powerful, frightening, and unpredictable. The rat starts with a very standard rat-like vocal texture that quickly transforms into this mutated rat beast.

To sell that unpredictable and menacing transformation, we played up the impacts of his feet to feel more akin to a huge creature. The audience is kind of left wondering, “Well, if it does THAT to a rat, what happens when you give it to a person?”

I could use the volume envelope of actor Josh Keaton’s “Deckard” performance and filter in this signature Shimmer texture so that you could really feel that effect of his gnarly transformation.

And then we get to see that play out with Deckard in Episode 2, as well as with other characters a number of different times in subsequent episodes.

With Deckard specifically, I was able to take those vocal screeches that Brad made, then using The Cargo Cult’s Envy I could use the volume envelope of actor Josh Keaton’s “Deckard” performance and filter in this signature Shimmer texture so that you could really feel that effect of his gnarly transformation. I think this approach really helped to keep it grounded in a bit of Deckard’s humanity.

 

Now that we’ve delved into Shimmer, let’s look at how you approached Hexite, Hextech, and the sound of magic. What was your approach to these?

EC: It was actually a fun combo effort between Brad and me. Brad can touch on this more, but similar to what he did with Shimmer, he created a bunch of core libraries early on.

At the same time, I had captured a variety of really clean and pure recordings of gestures with wine glasses — those tones you get from rubbing the rim of nice wine glasses with varying levels of liquid.

I had captured a variety of really clean and pure recordings of gestures with wine glasses — those tones you get from rubbing the rim of nice wine glasses with varying levels of liquid.

Having these recordings helped us to give the sounds that really grounded, organic texture that we were constantly striving for in the sound design for the show.

Brad can probably talk about those core tonal libraries he created for this.

BB: Yeah, for sure. The conversation about the tonality of magic and Hextech began really early on, discussing with Alex his intentions for the different musical themes and chord structures he had in mind for Hexite and for Hextech.

Alex had a really great vision for what types of cues and consistent musical motifs might surface in those Hextech moments. I am totally blanking on what key those tended to hover around, hahaha. Do you remember, Alex?

…with music, we’re picking keys based on linear context. For example, if we’ve been in one key for a while, we’ll have a new scene be in a new key to make it feel separated.

AT: Well, that was the tricky thing – when you guys were thinking about this from a magic perspective, you’re sort of assembling a palette where it’s actual recordings and it’s convenient if all of those recordings are done in the same key. But often with music, we’re picking keys based on linear context. For example, if we’ve been in one key for a while, we’ll have a new scene be in a new key to make it feel separated.

So, often those magic sequences were in very different keys from each other. I think I made Brad’s life a little harder because of that. But in the end, we were able to adjust the pitch of certain things to make them be in agreement.

Brad would ask me what key I was thinking in, and I’d say, ”Okay, it’ll be in A minor but it has a natural six.” So I’d list out all the tones that I thought would be friendly with that key and wouldn’t clash with particular chords and whatnot.

So, often those magic sequences were in very different keys from each other.

BB: That really unlocked me to spend time just creating the same way I did with Shimmer – crafting different libraries of really clean, long stretches of elements that were 60-seconds to a couple of minutes of just those tones evolving. This was primarily through the process of stacking multiple soft-synths on top of each other, tweaking, exploring, and recording.

After some editorial, I’d take the best bits from those explorations and rework them to create a bunch of different magical motions. I remember TONSTURM’s Whoosh instrument and SoundMorph’s Wave Warper being really integral to taking all of those newly created samples and helping to create a ton of variation in movement.

EC: Then, I took what Brad created – these long awesome pads and tones – and was able to mix those with the wine glass recordings, sample it out, and start to create these libraries of quick magic phrases. Those core tonal bits are all over the entire season and play in a lot of different ways; we got a ton of mileage out of that stuff.

…there are some scenes where it’s indiscernible whether or not it’s Alex’s music creating some kind of a tonal gesture around magic, or if it’s something that we did in sound design.

BB: For me, it’s so cool that there are some scenes where it’s indiscernible whether or not it’s Alex’s music creating some kind of a tonal gesture around magic, or if it’s something that we did in sound design. I think they talk to each other and they work so well together in quite a few scenes. It was incredible to have had the time to actually have those early conversations and be that connected.

AT: Yeah, there were a handful of cues in Episode 3 specifically where I pulled in some of the sounds that were created and used them in the musical composition, stretching them out and running them through reverbs in lieu of pads.

For the same reason that Eliot said, I also felt that if I was just using purely synthetic elements for what would normally be considered a synth pad moment, then it felt too digital and artificial. Using a combination of those synths and manipulated audio recordings of real-world sources really helped.

…I pulled in some of the sounds that were created and used them in the musical composition…

BB: Something similar also happened with Shimmer. Alex Seaver, the other primary composer on the series, took some of the Shimmer sound design early on and tried working some of that into some of the cues as well.

Generally, there was just a ton of organic back and forth; it was great having access to each other all the time. Prior to COVID, most of the LA contingent of the Arcane team were all in the same building, so I could pull in folks from our production crew or artists and say, “Hey, what do you guys think about this?”

Even when we were spotting and cueing foley, and maybe we were working to rougher versions of picture and didn’t know what some surface textures might have been, it was easy to just ping the artists and get a quick rundown.

AT: Or even just things like, “Hey, so we have this big hit. Do we want to hit this with music or do you want to hit this with a sound?”

If you don’t have that conversation and you show up at the final mix, everyone is at 110% at that moment. Then everything just gets turned down and everyone is disappointed.

…it was such a collaborative effort. We’re always connecting with each other and talking about scenes.

EC: As far as this show and how close we all work together – from art to animation to the writers to the producers to the composers to sound – it was such a collaborative effort. We’re always connecting with each other and talking about scenes. You don’t usually get that opportunity on a lot of shows. I really think it’s a big part of why Arcane sounds the way it does.

Also, even though we had an ocean between us, Fortiche has a really robust way of sharing their work-in-progress which we had access to, allowing us to see constant work-in-progress. As they are working through an animatic, a scene, or even a couple of frames of something, we’re on the same page and able to react, ask questions early on, and vice versa.

 

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At the end of Episode 1, we see that Shimmer can be a brutal, destructive force. Earlier in the same episode, and throughout the season, we also see a side of magic that seems equally volatile.

Can you talk about your approach to these moments where magic feels destructive? How did you want the more chaotic side of magic to feel different from the unstable effects of Shimmer?

BB: The show introduces us to the idea that magic in Runeterra is incredibly powerful and can absolutely be a force for good. We see that manifest with the mage scene in Episode 2, whisking Jayce and his mother away from a blizzard, and teleporting them to safety.

But like you said, we also witness some incredibly violent reactions when magic is treated carelessly, or put in the wrong hands.

…we wanted to keep the core tonality of magic and these crystals a bit mysterious rather than treating Hexite and magic as “good” and Shimmer as “bad.”

Because of this, we wanted to keep the core tonality of magic and these crystals a bit mysterious rather than treating Hexite and magic as “good” and Shimmer as “bad.” Those tones were designed to act as a sort of siren song, calling out to the would-be user.

EC: I love the mage scene in Episode 2 for this reason. We’re introduced to someone wielding magic for good, though we’re not quite sure of those intentions right off the bat. From the moment they open their hand, revealing the magic rune, we’re left wondering what might happen next. A lot of that comes from the mysterious tone and the sharp sparking coming off of the rune.

To keep things cohesive, we filtered a lot of that pure tonality into the explosions as well.

In terms of the Hexite explosions, we wanted to play off of the contrast of seeing these tiny, beautiful crystals with this clean and pure tonality being capable of quickly becoming a deafening “BOOM” when mishandled.

To keep things cohesive, we filtered a lot of that pure tonality into the explosions as well. We had a lot of fun with Valhalla Delay and The Cargo Cult’s Slapper to help get those tones to permeate across the landscape after these huge explosions.

BB: We see a great example of this in Episode 3 when Powder is trying to save her family with her improvised Hexite bomb. You’re hearing these very clean, pure tones traveling through the air in slow motion, with this beautiful violin solo; it’s very still and minimal. Then we quickly cut to real-time, with the crystals wreaking havoc on her surroundings, and ultimately killing her family.

 

This scene was definitely one where sound design and score really work together. Can you talk further about your collaboration on that scene?

AT: Honestly, we worked on that quite a long time ago, so the actual details are a little bit fuzzy for me, but I remember right away seeing that this scene of terror and destruction had something weirdly serene about it, with Powder floating through the sky and the shrapnel almost looks like sparkly magic.

…this scene of terror and destruction had something weirdly serene about it, with Powder floating through the sky and the shrapnel almost looks like sparkly magic.

I wanted the music to almost come from her perspective of this beautiful design that’s finally fulfilled. But at the same time, while it does have this ethereal violin melody, it has, harmonically, chords that are from a completely different key, which I think gives it this sinister undertone, but still within a floating, tranquil, non-transient musical context. So Brad and Eliot had all the room in the world to put in the biggest, heaviest transients they needed to.

BB: That cue, that violin phrase is introduced in Episode 1 as a sort of theme for Powder; does that feel accurate, Alex?

AT: I would call it that, yeah.

And that first time, it’s sort of the same thing where it’s like Powder is inside her head. In Episode 1, she’s sort of overwhelmed by what’s going on. And in this case of Episode 3, it’s where she thinks she’s done this great thing.

…it’s these weird variations on the magical themes that we’ve already established that feel a bit off, but work so well with the bends and slides in Alex’s violin solo.

BB: The approach initially was to create a stark contrast between the sound design and the music. In earlier iterations, it was a little bit busier on those slow-mo tracking shots where we’re seeing the Hexite crystals flying through the air before violently impacting things.

Eliot did a revision on it, really thinning it out in those slow-mo moments, weaving in and around the violin; it’s these weird variations on the magical themes that we’ve already established that feel a bit off, but work so well with the bends and slides in Alex’s violin solo.

AT: There is a smeary effect for the violin; we also have delays. So when it changes harmonies, you’re still hearing delay and reverb of the previous harmony. We have a layering of synths that naturally have very long decay envelopes with more orchestral elements. So that has that smeary quality, which in addition to the intentional dissonances, makes it feel a bit unsettling.

…that smeary quality, which in addition to the intentional dissonances, makes it feel a bit unsettling.

EC: A huge shout out to Fortiche in the way that this sequence was edited. The scene has time to breathe in between flashes of destruction, then cutting to Powder as she’s falling. The pacing in this scene is just top-notch. It’s one of my favorite sequences in the show, honestly.

I kind of knew where Alex was going to go and where he needed his moments, like during the floating. Honestly, there’s not much sound playing there from our end, in order to give Alex that room.

It was edited in a way that gives you gaps and you can hit the viewer harder when you take a little bit of a breather, which is what we’re always trying to do —edit and make decisions on sounds that are clear and precise. We don’t want to make things cloudy would be the best way to put it. And this scene is a good example of that.

 

Story-wise, this sequence is so complex emotionally and I just love the way that everything came together…

EC: Yeah, I love this scene; that music is amazing.

BB: Bravo, Alex!

AT: So much credit goes to Ray Chen for that beautiful violin playing!
 

I want to come back to the orchestra but first, let’s dive into an essential sound design element of this show — the mechanical clockwork and gear work-based sounds that show up often in Arcane, like in Powder’s monkey bomb.

How did you cover the mechanical elements in terms of sound sources? Were there any helpful sound libraries? Did you end up capturing custom recordings? Did you have foley cover this?

BB: The answer is yes…yes…all of the above, hahaha.

I definitely need to bring up the Riot audio discipline here – the broader audio group at Riot that didn’t work on the show directly, but has spent over a decade creating all manner of things that flesh out the world of Runeterra sonically.

There’s an amazing culture within this audio group, which is a part of the Creative Department here at Riot. From the early days of League of Legends up through present-day where we are exploring the IP through a broader portfolio of games, each and every time a new Champion, character, region, etc. is introduced to the IP, there is this huddle that happens to help get composers, sound designers, and folks in the VO space aligned on how to approach this new sonic aspect of the world.

…everyone takes a crack at developing some fresh new material for that project, either to draw inspiration from or to serve as new source material.

Oftentimes, that manifests in what we affectionately refer to as an “Audio Thunderdome,” where everyone takes a crack at developing some fresh new material for that project, either to draw inspiration from or to serve as new source material. Some folks record, some folks make synth patches, some folks create soundscapes; it’s really special.

After years of this being a part of the culture, we have this giant library of sound from which to draw inspiration and pull from.

When word first got out internally this project existed, there was an effort within Riot Audio to do a few days of recording things that may be handy to have for Piltover or Zaun. Everybody went out and recorded, and many of those recordings are all over this show – people’s trunks, hydraulics on their car hoods, different doors around campus, sounds of dropping stuff in our parking garage, the gears on the dishwashing machine in the cafeteria — all kinds of different stuff!

At the same time, our foley crew at One Step Up (Dan O’Connell, John Cucci, and team) created so much incredible, custom stuff for us to play with.

At the same time, our foley crew at One Step Up created so much incredible, custom stuff for us to play with.

And absolutely, commercial libraries were a part of this as well. The Construction Kit elements from BOOM’s Mechanicals library helped so much for different things, like bigger elements that may have been harder for us to record, or that we didn’t have access to.

EC: All of this source material is the key to exploration and creation. So any new source we can get in front of us is important for that. Having that source combined with the tools we have these days, like samplers – whether it’s in Ableton, or Radium in Soundminer, or Native Instruments Reaktor – you can take a simple source from foley and start creating BGs and one-offs within these worlds.

We really wanted every scene to feel different. We wanted people to be engulfed in the world no matter where they were and you felt that in the BGs, whether you were in Piltover or Zaun.

 

Alex, let’s talk about your sources. There are a lot of orchestral elements in this score. Did you record with an orchestra, or did you use orchestral samples?

AT: We actually did a combination of both. Early on, we were looking at potential budgets for recording and thinking about what we needed to record, what would be nice to record, and what would be completely unnecessary. We were also looking at the palette of instruments that we would want to have for the show.

We determined early on that we definitely wanted to record strings and we wanted to record them well.

We determined early on that we definitely wanted to record strings and we wanted to record them well. We didn’t want to go somewhere to record them cheaply in a studio that didn’t sound good. So we ultimately chose this company called Scoring Berlin and they record at the Teldex Studio in Berlin.

I was already familiar with Teldex because if you load up Audio Ease Altiverb, Teldex is the default impulse that gets loaded up.

Not only that, but the same company has a sister company called Orchestral Tools that has libraries that have become industry standard; they sound great right out of the box.

Recording at Teldex was not a compromise; it’s a goal to get that sound. So I was very happy that we were able to get that partnership.

Recording at Teldex was not a compromise; it’s a goal to get that sound. So I was very happy that we were able to get that partnership.

Not every cue in the score ends up using orchestra, but the ones that do (like, if you hear an orchestral string section) it’s usually live orchestra.

There are cases where we wouldn’t actually want it to sound like an orchestra so we would augment it with samples, or even take the orchestra recordings and mangle them, process them, and whatnot.

In addition to that, we also recorded a handful of soloists, the primary one being violinist Ray Chen. We use him throughout the season and I was incredibly humbled to have access to him.

I remember originally thinking, “What can we use Ray for?” And we had some key moments, like the concert hall sequence in Episode 5 where you actually see his likeness performing a violin concerto that we wrote for him. We also had enough access to him where basically anytime we needed any kind of violin (even if it’s not a featured solo moment), we could ask Ray to perform it, often remotely.

…since we were using woodwinds a bit more often than I envisioned we would, we also needed to hire a flute player…

In addition to that, we also had a handful of other soloists, including a solo cellist and solo soprano that we used on every episode.

Towards the second half of the season, I determined that since we were using woodwinds a bit more often than I envisioned we would, we also needed to hire a flute player to help us out in a few spots. We would have mix reviews and there would be comments about how everything sounded good – like the sampled brass sounds great – but the sampled woodwinds made it sound MIDI, making the entire production sound cheap.

We had to fix that, especially because the types of cues that tended to use woodwinds would often be the more traditional orchestral sounding cues, where you don’t have the modern hybrid production to hide behind and where the expectation is that it sounds live.

 

Since you were mangling these orchestral instruments, sometimes it’s difficult to figure out what the instrument actually was. Are there electric guitars in there? Some of the musical elements sound like guitars…

AT: There are definitely some electric guitars in there, especially on the Zaun cues. But I didn’t want it to sound like someone taking an electric guitar, plugging it into the DI, and then running it through a run-of-the-mill amp plugin.

I didn’t want it to sound like a studio session guitarist performing a guitar part, but I wanted the attitude and intensity of a guitar. So, in some cases that would mean performing other instruments sort of like a guitar – possibly a synth that had a similar envelope and character.

I didn’t want it to sound like a studio session guitarist performing a guitar part, but I wanted the attitude and intensity of a guitar.

Or, we’d have our cellist play just acoustic cello and then we’d run it through a bunch of effects chains, or blend it in with existing guitars to make them sound a little less familiar.

I also did some things that normal signal flow says you should never do. For instance, I discovered this little trick where I would take Waves SoundShifter and pitch something up pre-distortion, distort it, and then pitch it back down to the original key post-distortion.

There’s something about the way that the SoundShifter pitch algorithm works that it doesn’t impart the normal artifacts that you’d associate with pitch shifting. It has this slightly more unfocused, but nice, wide, smeary quality. I felt like it still retained all the aggressiveness of the distortion, but it didn’t have the typical plugin distortion sound, and it didn’t sound as recognizable as whatever source instrument it was.

…it still retained all the aggressiveness of the distortion, but it didn’t have the typical plugin distortion sound…

In some cases, I would do the same thing with a distorted piano and sometimes those pitches were quite extreme. I would pitch it up an entire octave then distort it and pitch it down an octave and then run it through a plugin like Valhalla Reverb to make it sound like it still had some fidelity.

Some of the plugin chains on these instruments were ridiculously long. There is a certain number of plugins that you can insert on a track in Steinberg Cubase, and there were cases where I would run out of those inserts. So I’d have to actually create a group bus just to create a second layer of inserts.

 

In terms of music, there’s a definite difference between Piltover and Zaun. Can you talk about your approach to each of those locations? In what ways did you make them sonically different or distinct?

AT: At its core, we wanted Piltover to feel very scientific and intricate – almost like a very highly functioning sort of machine. We would often use orchestral textures augmented by little elements that pulled it enough away from the orchestra that it didn’t feel like just an orchestral cue. That doesn’t always come through in the final mix, but that was the intent.

So the orchestra is playing an ostinato or repeated pattern, but then that would also be doubled or supported by an assorted range of plucked instruments, like zithers, dulcimers, harpsichords, even sometimes tubular bells, and stuff like that. Much of that was inspired by the sweeping shots over the Piltover rooftops.

At its core, we wanted Piltover to feel very scientific and intricate – almost like a very highly functioning sort of machine.

For Zaun, we wanted it to sound gritty and aggressive, and sometimes a bit intimidating. But we wanted it to sound like it was conceivably straddling the line between source music and score music. So rather than just using a standard drum kit, we wanted it to sound like a found instrument. What would somebody in Zaun play if they wanted it to sound like a drum kit? What would they find in their environment to use in lieu of actual drums?

Often, we can start out with this almost militant idea that we’re not going to use any real drums; that it has to be trash cans and crowbars and metal elements. Then we’d realize when putting this all together that it kind of works at a functional level, but it doesn’t sound that good. So we’d end up layering it with a drum kit, which is of course the result of a long tradition of instrument makers trying to sound good.

So rather than just using a standard drum kit, we wanted it to sound like a found instrument.

Once it’s all together, my hope is always that it has enough of the found element trappings that you feel like it’s not just a guitar, a synth, and a drum preset patch.

Also, I found that since a lot of this is pre-Zaun – or what we imagine Zaun to be at the time the game takes place – I did want it to sound a bit more rugged and less honed, if you will, so I would often mix in abrasively-played acoustic elements. I’m not a cello player, but I’m perfectly capable of poorly but very aggressively bowing a cello in the rhythm of a guitar riff and giving it a little bit of acoustic energy that’s supporting the distorted and synthetic elements.

All of those elements together are what I think of for Zaun.

 

If you had to choose one moment to best represent your sound work on Arcane (and feel free to branch out into the episodes that we didn’t cover), what would that be and why?

EC: That’s tough to answer. I’d say that while this show is attracting people that are new to the League of Legends universe, it was ultimately created for the players.

I think one moment that feels like a huge payoff for players is the big fight scene at the end of Episode 8. We see Vi with the Atlas Gauntlets and Jayce with his Mercury Hammer; they’re finally using their weapons from the games and it’s just so awesome. It was one of those Easter egg moments for Brad and me.

But at the end of the day, we decided to just put in the in-game sounds…

I remember we had a discussion about whether we should try to recreate the in-game sounds, and try to magnify them for these moments, or if we should just try to work in the iconic in-game sounds. I ended up spending a couple of days working on that. But at the end of the day, we decided to just put in the in-game sounds, hahaha. That’s what players are going to recognize, and it really worked out well.

BB: I think that’s legit, hahaha.

The original question is impossible to answer because every episode was so big and so dense and had so many different design challenges.

One aspect we didn’t touch on was how much of a contribution the spoken word, ADR, and loop group made to building out the environments. Our ADR supervisor and editor Shannon Beaumont did an amazing job crafting crowds and walla for a huge variety of scenes with our loop group. This all really served to bring places like the markets in The Lanes, the Firelights’ hideout, and countless other scenes come to life with voice.

…Shannon Beaumont did an amazing job crafting crowds and walla for a huge variety of scenes with our loop group.

A ton of work and love goes into giving those environments their soul, and I think you really feel that through voice.

Additionally, she worked with the cast to record so many breaths, efforts, and little, subtle vocal inflections that really helped take these scenes over the top.

Again, I can’t say enough how much love and care was put into these episodes across the board. This was a dream project. And if I had to pick one scene, I actually think it would be impossible, hahaha.

I cannot answer that question, so let’s go with Eliot’s answer!

AT: On the music side, in retrospect, one of my favorite moments is in Episode 8. We see Viktor with his new mechanical contraption that he’s been building for his leg. In a scene in Episode 6, we see him as a kid and he’s struggling. We see him fall and it’s a sad moment.

For a variety of reasons, I feel like Viktor’s theme was one of the strongest character themes we wrote.

And then in Episode 8, we see him try out this device he’s been working on to help him walk, and he doesn’t just walk. He runs.

For a variety of reasons, I feel like Viktor’s theme was one of the strongest character themes we wrote. And I feel like this was a great showcase of it.

I also think this pairing of these two scenes was quite beautiful from Fortiche’s angle. The way I was able to have the music in this scene in Episode 8 payoff to the scene in Episode 6, I was really happy with how that came out.

BB: I actually get goosebumps just thinking about that! Seeing young Viktor struggling to catch up with his runaway toy boat against the backdrop of that theme, and then later seeing him outrunning ships that are passing by in the harbor, all while hearing that same theme but in a more confident, fuller way, it was so good. It might be time for a re-watch!

 

A big thanks to Eliot Connors, Brad Beaumont, and Alexander Temple for giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the sound of Arcane and to Jennifer Walden for the interview!

 

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