Berklee Today: Chuck Doud '88
Chuck Doud '88 is influential in the video game music industry.
Photo by Joey Cobbs
When Chuck Doud chose music as his career path, he was just a youth in Easton, Pennsylvania, playing original tunes as the guitarist for a local rock band and hoping for a shot at the big time. Since then, Doud has made San Francisco his home, and millions of young fans around the world have heard his guitar playing. But in the early days, he couldn't have foreseen the setting for his music.
Today, as the director of music for Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios America, Doud leads the team that oversees music development across the spectrum of video games published by Sony. They range from award-winning, blockbuster triple-A titles such as the God of War Uncharted, and Gran Turismoseries, to simpler downloadable games including Flower, Flow, and others.
The job has brought Doud together with great composers, bands, virtuosic soloists, and orchestras in studios at Sony's Foster City, California, facilities and in the hallowed halls of Abbey Road, Skywalker Ranch, and studios in Los Angeles and Nashville. When the music calls for it, Doud adds his own acoustic and electric guitar tracks to the scores. But his most important function is to brainstorm with his team about the creative direction for the music of every new project they undertake. The goal is to ensure that each has a winning score that enhances the player's experience in the game. To that end, Doud and his team select and contract composers, musicians, producers, and studios to create custom original music for their game scores in addition to licensing recordings of top artists from record labels. He also works closely with Sony's technical staff to assure that they have the technology they need to seamlessly integrate the music into the games, oftentimes dynamically tracking the gameplay.