Rare Gamer has a quick chat with Robin Beanland about Kinect Sports

by Paul on Mar 1st, 2006

We recently got the chance to have a bit of a chin-wag with Rare’s Audio Director Robin Beanland about all things Kinect Sports! Join us as we discuss his favourite sports, developing the Kinect Sports soundtrack and poptastic tunes.

Hi Robin, thank you for taking time out to speak to us.

No problem.

So what part of Kinect Sports is your favourite?

Well I do like table tennis, bowling and the mini games but I think my favourite part of the game is Party Play, as it’s quick fire and you get to play a variety of sports to some great music.

Was it strange to be creating a soundtrack for the game when there’s a lot of licensed tracks in there with only small snippets of music created by yourself? It’s not something we’re used to as Rare fans.

Not really. My background before coming to Rare was in TV and TV adverts so for me creating small bits of music for menus and stuff isn’t a problem. Don’t forget that we also composed full length compositions for Party Play which in turn is played as piped music in bowling.

From an audio standpoint, I’m really pleased with the way Party Play has come together, what with the superb voice talents of Peter Dickson along with some great sound design from Martin and Jamie, plus we’ve managed to get some interactive music in there that cross fades nicely with the stadium and syncs up with the photo highlights. It’s got a really nice flow to it and creates a nice friendly party vibe.

… but it must have been different to games in the past where you’ve composed pieces of music that last three or four minutes for different levels.

Yes, but there’s a nice spread of licensed tracks that have been chosen to cover the majority of things that happen; getting a new world record or a new personal best. So, for example, be victorious in the game and you’ll hear something like Queen’s “We are the champions” or “Good Times” by Chic … I think we licensed about thirty tracks in all.

Come to think of it, the shortest pieces in the game are actually the licensed tracks as we’re only using them for short celebratory moments. The rest of the music was composed by myself and Dave Clynick, the main chunk of it residing in Party Play. We’re really, really pleased with the way the music’s turned out, it’s been nice to get back to writing in a more contemporary style like Killer Instinct. Dave has written some fantastic uplifting guitar tunes along with some great electro, hiphop and generally poptastic tunes.

I’ve had a chance to write some fairly dance-driven tunes along with quite a bit of funk and one song almost entirely written on a talk box. I love a good talk box I do ever since hearing Roger Troutman on Scritti Politti’s “Boom there she was” all those years ago in TopMan. (admin edit: since we had our interview Robin has kindly sent us through a link to a YouTube video; Click here to see it)

The last few Rare releases have seen a CD soundtrack released as part of the launch. Will we get to see one for Kinect Sports?

Well a CD I have to say I don’t know about because of the use of licensed tracks. It makes it harder to pull them all together onto a CD and clear them for a soundtrack release, but there’s nothing stopping us from doing one with all the stuff we’ve done.

So maybe mp3s on the Rare site of the tunes you did would be more likely?

Yeah I think that would be possible, definitely.

Thanks Robin, I know you are very busy so thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

It’s my pleasure, thanks a lot.

Huge thanks to Robin for taking time out of his busy schedule to speak to us and to Mike Wilson for giving us the chance to speak to Robin in the first place!

Categories: Interviews