The Choice, From The Last Of Us, On LinnStrument

This video captures a performance by Geert Bevin of composer Gustavo Santaolalla‘s The Choice from The Last Of Us.

Bevin performs the piece on LinnStrument, with the sound coming from Spectrasonics’ Trilian with an 8-part multitimbral setup (one for each row).

Bevin has been working with Roger Linn on the LinnStrument, now in development. The LinnStrument is a unique electronic controller that allows a wide range of expressiveness, including individual pitch and dynamic control, over time, of each note.

Here’s free download of the performance:

Bevin has also shared a version of the performance, where he’s stripped out the per-note pitch bend and per-note pressure expression:

“You just hear the notes with velocity, as you would from a regular MIDI keyboard,” notes Bevin. It’s still an expressive performance, but it’s missing the slides and some subtle dynamics control.

“I hope this allows you to evaluate how new expressive controllers are able to breathe life into a performance,” he adds.

More details on Bevin’s performance are available at his site. For more information on the LinnStrument, see the Roger Linn site.

And, if you’re not familiar with Gustavo Santaolalla’s soundtrack for The Last Of Us, check out the behind-the-scenes look at it, below:

11 thoughts on “The Choice, From The Last Of Us, On LinnStrument

  1. Really nice performance and the LinnStrument is a fascinating instrument. I’d like to see some expressive synth performances on this!

    1. I thought the score for Last of Us was really nice and added a lot to the experience. Different tastes, I guess.

      1. I agree with the unimpressiveness.

        How nice the score is has nothing to do with this particular song. It is boring and despite being in a popular game it is strange choice for demoing this particular instrument.

        And the score is nothing to write home about either. It was just that;
        nice background muzak and it is really easy, almost automatically easy to do.
        (of course, as usual, you will ask to prove it by showing my own muzak, but after writing an unpopular opinion, do you think I would stain other peoples works with my unpopularity. And almost every one in this forum is capable to making this kind of muzak for an entire film in one weekend anyway, so there is nothing to prove, it is obvious.)

        Different tastes of course, but this is easy peasy and bland as hell.

        1. Indeed different tastes, the score of this game and this particular song touches me deeply, every time. When I played the game, it sometimes even made me stop playing to listen, sending shivers down my spine. It’s also the only game score that I have in my playlist of favorites that I carry along with me everywhere.

          However, the different tastes argument doesn’t get you off the hook for making a value judgment about the quality of the composition, the production and the execution of this score. It would be awesome if everyone could compose that in just a weekend, but somehow I wager that nobody will be able to actually do it with such emotional intent, consistency and beauty. The beauty seems to be lost on you though, which is a shame, I can still marvel at the beauty of a single Em chord followed by a C chord, timing, subtle expression, silence, spacing, harmonic interaction, phrasing, … is all just as important (if not more so) as complexity, virtuosity and compositional ingenuity. Gustavo Santaolalla has won enough awards (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Santaolalla) for you to not dismiss this as easy peasy and bland, maybe, just maybe, some things in here are lost on you.

          The reason why I chose this piece is very easy, I took a break from coding the firmware, purchased The Last of Us Remastered to play it again on my PS4, heard The Choice and wanted to try it on the LinnStrument. Recorded that on video, and that’s it. This is the stuff I do, it’s all on YouTube, raw, un-produced, non-flashy, non-markety, lots of stuff that you will probably find terribly unimpressive and bland. However, 1200 subscribers with 1 million channel views seems to indicate that a few others don’t.

        2. U2

          The length of your tangential comment makes it look like you did not understand the point of Geert’s demo, at all.

          If you watch his videos closely, you will see subtle performance details that your current controller can’t do – and also some of the technical challenges that Geert has to deal with in order to be able to play with the same level if expression that a guitarist or string player is used to.

          What Geert’s doing is ahead of the curve now, but it’s coming fast and will make a lot of old gear obsolete as more expressive controllers go mainstream.

        3. i don’t think you even know what it means to score a film, sir. The purpose of the score is to highlight the characters, express their emotional state, and not take away from the action. Anyone could play the Jaws theme, but it is iconic.

          1. I think you all are concentrating on me a bit too much. And all of you are also failing in your inferring about my tastes and abilities. Sorry, if my distaste for this song is this bothersome for you.

            I don’t like this song. I don’t find its “subtleties” memorable, and I find it particularly lacking in emotion and in my view the lack of distinctivity is not doing its job as describing characters or events…or anything in the game. In my view this is the problem in modern background muzak, they are full of easy, predictable and used solutions and lack of distinctivity. When you have a strong theme, that is REALLY describing the character, you can alter it to describe the emotions and actions.

            And I don’t mean it must be loud, difficult to play, or complex to compose, but you should use time to find the inspiration with what you can create a theme, that is unique structure, so strong, that you can mold it in way you can imagine, and it still remains regognizable and unique, that can mean only one certain part of the substance, but in a new situation.

            1. of course people will concentrate on someone that attempts to crap all over something that those people enjoy. i do not understand why people do it. it doesn’t add anything to the conversation other than inserting “me” into it. Pay attention to me. I don’t like this!

              i see and hear things on this site all the time that I do not like. However, I keep it to myself, because criticism in this context doesn’t really help anyone, and no one cares if I don’t like something. The only thing that is accomplished by saying you don’t like something in this context is causing someone else to feel bad.

              Criticism with the intention of improvement and refining an idea is an entirely different and less selfish animal.

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