Interview with Stephen Rippy

Ensemble Studios’ Music and Sound director and part time genius Stephen Rippy recently answered some of our questions about Ensemble’s latest project, Age of Empires III. Here’s what he had to say:

by Elpea, and Socvazius | September 02, 2005

HG: To start things off, could you give me a short bio of yourself?

Stephen Rippy: I grew up in a suburb of Houston, TX where I started a band with Ensemble Studios’ other composer and sound designer, Kevin McMullan. Went to school at the University of Texas at Austin, doing music work for “Age of Empires” with my brother on the side while the company was getting started. Once I graduated, I moved up to Dallas and started doing this full time.

HG: Could you explain the process that you go about when you’re composing a song?

Stephen Rippy: For “Age III,” I pretty much wrote everything using a piano sample played into a cheap Dictaphone to get down the basic melodic ideas. Most of the time, I knew pretty quickly if there was a nugget worth developing at that stage. From there, I fleshed out all of the arrangements using synthesized: strings, winds, etc. Those demos were sent to an orchestrator named Stan LePard, who sort of made sure all of the musical i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed. The tracks were ultimately recorded by a group called Northwest Sinfonia out of Seattle.

“The most interesting sounds in “Age III” were recorded on the field during a reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. I’d take my mic and DAT recorder as close as I could to whatever musket, cannon, or mortar was being fired at the time.”

HG: How about what you do to get sound clips for the game?

Stephen Rippy: Well, the most interesting sounds in “Age III” were recorded on the field during a reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. I’d take my mic and DAT recorder as close as I could to whatever musket, cannon, or mortar was being fired at the time. I wound up with a lot of good stuff, much of which provided the basis of the gunpowder sounds in the game.

HG: What was your first instrument?

Stephen Rippy: Generally, piano. Specifically, it was a portable brown Yamaha keyboard with miniature keys and a sample of a dog barking.

HG: How old were you when you started playing it?

Stephen Rippy: I guess 11.

HG: How many instruments can you play now?

Stephen Rippy: You know, I can only play a couple of things well, but I feel like I can get something useful out of almost anything. I wouldn’t consider myself a banjo player by any stretch of the imagination, but you’ll hear it in the game.

HG: Did you change any methods of composing music when you found out you were going to be able to compose for an orchestra with Age of Empires III? How was that?

Stephen Rippy: Yes, definitely. Many pieces of music from our past games started either from an inspiring sound or some kind of groove that I could build on. This time, the palette of sounds was already set, so I mostly concentrated on getting some strong melodies. I really enjoyed it, and I feel like I learned a lot along the way.

HG: Who are your biggest influences in song composition?

Stephen Rippy: That’s a tough one. I’d say that, for this game, I listened to a lot of movie soundtracks and went to a lot of concerts. All sorts of stuff probably found its way into the tunes.

“The new stuff from “Age III” is definitely the strongest material out of anything we’ve done, but it’s also kind of a new sound for us”

HG: Which Age game’s music do you like the most?

Stephen Rippy: The new stuff from “Age III” is definitely the strongest material out of anything we’ve done, but it’s also kind of a new sound for us. I think that “Age of Mythology” was the most refined version of what we think of as the “Ensemble Sound.”

HG: Sort of a tradition to ask with HG interviews: how do you like your coffee?

Stephen Rippy: Black and served as quickly as possible.