Music System - Contain in 1 Event?

Hello! I’m in the process of creating a music sytem for an Indie Game created in Unity. It’s my first attempt to use FMOD Studio to create an interactive score. I have a bunch of questions. I’m not a programmer, though I want to be involved in the implementation of the music.

1.) The game dev suggested having FMOD solely control the dynamic music system, and use Unity’s build in tools to control SFX and narration. Is this feasible?

2.) I’m trying to wrap my head around Banks and Events. Is it correct to think that a BANK could correspond to the “level” of a game, and the Events would correspond to the components of sound within that level?

3.) If FMOD is only controlling the dynamic music system, as stated above, does it make sense to have ALL music for a given “level” in one “event?” It seems that with transition markers/regions its more than possible to include multiple pieces of music in one “timeline.” Or is it better to have event correspond to difference game states - a combat theme “event,” an exploration theme “event,” etc?

Answers:

  1. OK to run both side-by-side if you’re targeting desktop platforms (PC/Mac/Linux). For other platforms you might run into issues

  2. Bank per level is one way to go. Others include Bank for players character, one bank per enemy type, etc. Bank is the unit of loading. In general group the events that make sense to be loaded together.

  3. The disadvantage of multiple events is they won’t share the timeline for quantization, i.e. when you start a new event it will be off the beat of the previous track. Putting everything on the one timeline makes sure everything’s in sync. You can change the tempo of the single timeline at different points.

Thank you for the response! I suspected as much about events, just wasn’t sure if I was missing something.

Could you elaborate on the potential issues we’d face on other platforms?

Xbox One will simply not work. Mobile phone platforms will be wasting performance, and face potential issues with resuming audio after phone call interruptions.