Kelly Bailey (composer)
| Kelly Bailey | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Video game music |
| Occupations | Composer, game designer, conceptual artist, programmer |
| Years active | 1998-present |
Kelly Bailey is a composer, musician, game designer, conceptual artist and programmer. He was the senior game designer of sound and music at Valve Corporation[1] until he left in 2011 with Mike Dussault, to concentrate on their project Sunspark Labs LLC.
Bailey is notable for being behind the Half-Life series' music and sound effects. He is married to Christina Bailey.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
On the defunct Half-Life website, his function was described as follows: "Kelly did all of the music and sound effects for Half-Life, and wrote sound code to create character speech and DSP reverb effects."[2]
On the previous version of Valve's official website, his function was described as follows: "Kelly, formerly a product unit manager at Microsoft, has a programming background that includes consumer multimedia, database engines, and networking. He created all of the music and sound effects for Half-Life."[3]
On the current version of Valve's official website, his function was described as follows before it was removed after he left the company: "Kelly is Valve's senior audio producer, responsible for creating sound effects & music."[4]
Bailey built the test chamber disaster sequence featured at the beginning of Half-Life with John Guthrie in a weekend. He also sketched out the journey through Silo D for the Half-Life chapter Blast Pit.
It appears Bailey used samples from other existing soundtracks in his works, or at least used stock sounds also used by other artists. For instance, the track "Radio" from the Half-Life 2 soundtrack can be heard during the 2002 film 28 Days Later, in the background at 00:26[citation needed]. Another example is the track "A Red Letter Day" from the Half-Life 2 soundtrack, that makes up the start of the track "London Deserted", this time from the soundtrack of the 2007 film 28 Weeks Later, the sequel to 28 Days Later[citation needed]. Whether this was by chance or not is unknown.
Half-Life 2's Gordon Freeman's face was based on him, among other Valve employees, such as David Speyrer, Eric Kirchmer and Greg Coomer.
Around March 2011, Kelly Bailey left Valve with colleague Mike Dussault to work on their project Sunspark Labs LLC, launched in December 2010, developing iOS applications, their first being "Morfo", released in June 2011.[5][6] However he may probably work again for Valve in the future.[7] The news caused some concern and displeasure from the Steam community due to the lack of any public farewell or notification regarding Bailey's departure.[8]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Video games
- Half-Life (1998)
- Half-Life 2 (2004)
- Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
- Portal (2007)
- Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
[edit] References
- ^ MobyGames profile
- ^ Half-Life: Team on the defunct official Half-Life website
- ^ about the valve team on Valve's official website
- ^ Company People on Valve's official website
- ^ Valve Vets Launch 3D Face App for iOS on GameSlice
- ^ iTunes App Store page for Morfo
- ^ Mike Morasky interview at Podcast 17
- ^ Beloved Half-Life Sound Designer, Face of Gordon Freeman Has Left Valve on Ripten Videogame Blog
