composed the score for
Red Dead Redemption, in collaboration with Bill Elm.
Red Dead Redemption is one of the first games by Rockstar to use an original score. Music supervisor Ivan Pavlovich has cited the large scale of the game as one of the largest difficulties when producing the score. He said that, in order to achieve an effective gaming experience, the game could not solely feature licensed music, like previous Rockstar games. "We figured we'd need to write an original score," Pavlovich said. To work on the score, Rockstar engaged Bill Elm and
Woody Jackson, member and former member of
Friends of Dean Martinez, respectively. In collaboration with each other, the duo composed over fourteen hours of music, which scores the game's missions, across fifteen months. The original score and subsequent album were both recorded and mixed at Jackson's personal recording studio in Los Angeles, and mastered at
Capitol Studios. Following the recording, Irish producer and composer
David Holmes listened to the original score, and subsequently spent three weeks compiling fifteen instrumental tracks that could be used as standalone songs for the game's official soundtrack. Holmes attempted to make the soundtrack representative of the variety of sounds and moods in the game. Four vocal performances were also recorded for use in the soundtrack. Recorded at 130
beats per minute in
A minor, most of songs featured are constructed from
motifs in the game's dynamic soundtrack. A mix of modern instruments and those featured in traditional Western films, such as the
jaw harp, were used. Creative uses of instruments were used to bring unique sounds, such as playing a
trumpet onto the surface of a
timpani drum. Rockstar also consulted musicians who played traditional Western instruments;
harmonica player
Tommy Morgan, who had been featured on several films over his 60-year career, provided traditional harmonica segments for the game. Beyond trumpets,
nylon guitars and
accordions, the composers incorporated other instruments, such as
flutes and
ocarinas. When researching music for inspiration, Jackson found that there was no "Western sound" in 1911; he felt that the soundtracks of 1960s Western films, such as
Ennio Morricone's work on the
Dollars Trilogy, was more representative of Western music. In appropriating the score to the game's setting, Elm commented that the process was initially "daunting", taking a long time to discover how the music was to work in an interactive way. == Albums ==