Ableton Live has become one of the foremost DAW’s for electronic music production…but creating breathtaking soundscapes and out of this world ‘drops’ aren’t the only thing it can do.
Meet Nils Iver Holtar, a game developer and musician based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Beginning in the late ’80s with classic NES titles, Nils was inspired by the soundtracks of video games and considers them a foundation of his musical endeavors. While earning his Master’s degree in Game Design at the IT University of Copenhagen, he began to experiment with the idea of music being more than just an aesthetic, background element in gaming. What if the music could directly alter and be altered by the flow of gameplay?
This led him to create Audioverdrive: a coupling of a simple space-shooter built for the iPad and Ableton Live. Nils wrote a mapping program that allowed him to use Ableton as a game-scripting tool; he could then use elements in Ableton such as kicks, snares, and pitch as signals to inform the behavior of the shooter and it’s environment. The soundtrack of the game is created in real-time, shifting according to the in-game action.
This might sound a bit complicated, but rest assured, this is a major breakthrough in both gaming and music technology. For more information on how Audioverdrive works, check out the video below and make sure to peep this interview with Nils on the Ableton Live blog.
NILS IVER HOLTAR
Audioverdrive – Live demonstration from Nils Iver Holtar on Vimeo.