Lawrence Schwedler

This article is written from the Real Life point of view

Lawrence Schwedler is a composer and sound engineer, and the former audio director at Nintendo Software Technology (NST). Schwedler produced and directed sound production for NST's games for 13 years, including Metroid Prime Hunters. In 2012, Schwedler left NST to become the director of the Music and Sound Design programs at the DigiPen Institute of Technology. He is also the chair of their music department.

Schwedler gave interviews to Shinesparkers and Kiwi Talkz about his role on Hunters in late 2021. He also appeared on the Shinesparkers Podcast in May 2022.

Prior career

Schwedler was the lead singer of Midnight Fiction, a band that played the club scene in Los Angeles in the early 1980s. He was also part of the Modern Arts Guitar Quartet, a band that went on worldwide tours, from 1991 to 1995. Schwedler earned a master's degree in music at UCLA, where he was mentored by Theodore Norman. He subsequently worked as a production assistant for Adaptive Design, Inc., where he edited sound and music for games on the Philips CD-i platform.

He then moved on to The Dreamers Guild, where he was Audio Director for games such as I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream and Faery Tale Adventure II: Halls of the Dead, among others. Next, Schwedler worked at JVC Digital Arts Studio, which closed without notice and left him out of a job shortly before Christmas in 1999.

After ten weeks of searching for a new job to support his family, he applied through Gamasutra (now Game Developer) for a job at NST as an Audio Director. Schwedler sent in a demo CD of his work, including music he composed for Faery Tale Adventure II. On the cover of the demo, he wrote that the contents were MIDI files rendered in real time. A then audio programmer (now Director of Production) at NST, Rory Johnston, took notice of this, and Schwedler was flown in for an interview and subsequently hired.

Metroid Prime Hunters

Prior to Hunters, Schwedler's Nintendo-related music at NST included Ridge Racer 64, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Pokémon Puzzle League, 1080º Avalanche and the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series.

Schwedler was not very familiar with Metroid before Hunters, but quickly became a fan after playing Metroid Fusion (on Nintendo DS) and Metroid Prime. He began his work on the game by studying the sound design of prior Metroid games, and sought to honor series traditions while also doing something new. Whereas James Phillipsen designed the game's sound, Schwedler composed all of the music, with which he had full creative freedom. Their work would be placed in a build of Hunters that was sent to Nintendo, who would respond with notes on improvements. Schwedler and other NST personnel communicated with their Japanese Nintendo partners via teleconferencing. Nintendo rejected one song Schwedler composed for Hunters that used a pentatonic melody, and therefore sounded like Japanese music to them.

To him, the Metroid series mandated a dark, intense and science fiction approach to its music. The DS' technical and memory limitations significantly impacted the sound of Hunters. Schwedler recorded his own samples to use in custom virtual instrument sound banks, used control data to render the music at runtime, and relied on "models", a technique where an original composition is built on top of an existing one, and eventually converted into a separate work. This meant that the music could instantly shift in key and tempo with next to no impact on system performance. Schwedler would use a special adaptor to send MIDI data from his keyboard into the DS software development toolkit, allowing him to play his sound banks through the DS speakers and in headphones.

He used three guitars to compose the soundtrack of Hunters: a Fender Stratocaster, Guild D25 acoustic, Spector bass, as well as a fully weighted 88 key synth-MIDI controller.

Schwedler found working on Hunters and other games in beloved Nintendo franchises to be stressful due to high fan expectation, but greatly enjoyed working with his colleagues.

Trivia

• Schwedler co-authored two U.S. patents with James Phillipsen: A method and apparatus for interactive real time music composition, and parameterized interactive control of multiple wave table sound generation for video games and other applications.
• Schwedler's view on writer's block is that it is an existential threat to musicians and other creative professionals, and that one must either learn to deal with it or find different work. He sets time aside to be alone and to produce anything during this time, regardless of quality.
• Early in development, Schwedler received advice from longtime Metroid composer Kenji Yamamoto about the importance of music in the franchise. Yamamoto told him that there is a hierarchy of melodies in Metroid that play specific roles, such as the opening of a door, acquiring an artifact, arriving on a planet or completing the mission. He recalled that Yamamoto was patient and supportive with him and Phillipsen, and greatly appreciated his advice.
• One of the themes that Schwedler composed for Hunters, Psycho Bits, later appeared in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was not aware of this until one of his students at DigiPen told him, but he was honored.
• Schwedler did not remember if any music was cut from Hunters, saying that he usually repurposes what he creates until a place can be found for it.
• At the time of his interview with Shinesparkers, Schwedler had only played some of Metroid Dread, but watched his son play it for several hours. He was impressed by the level design and the tension of the E.M.M.I. chase sequences.
• Before NST began development of 1080º Avalanche, Schwedler and other employees went to Mount Baker for three days of snowboarding, to become familiar with the sport.

Gallery

Schwedler's Nintendo DS box bundled with Metroid Prime Hunters: First Hunt

Schwedler's unopened Jones Soda

External links

• Interview with Shinesparkers
• Interview with Kiwi Talkz
• Shinesparkers Podcast Episode 24
• Modern Arts Guitar Quartet website
• Schwedler on LinkedIn
• Schwedler on MobyGames
• Schwedler's DigiPen profile
• Schwedler on IMDb
• Schwedler on Twitter
• Schwedler on Bandcamp