Veteran music composer Sean Murray has worked in television and film for over 25 years, with credits that include Buffy the Vampire Slayer, God, the Devil and Bob, and numerous others. But perhaps his most-heard work is in the world of video games, where he’s composed the soundtracks for two titles in Activision’s hugely popular Call of Duty series, including Call of Duty: Black Ops, one of the top-selling games of all time.

Sean has used Roland synthesizers in all his soundtracks since his start in the business, from analog classics like the JUNO-60, JUPITER-8, and D-50 to rack workhorses such as the JV-1080 and R-8M sound modules. With his recently acquired INTEGRA-7, Sean has found a new piece of Roland gear for his frontline creative attack, one that offers him a huge palette of past and present Roland sounds at fingertip command. As Sean says, “The INTEGRA-7, incorporating the entire history of the Roland synth family, is an incredible addition to my rig here.” Since 1996, Cakewalk has been Sean’s choice in music software, and SONAR X2 is currently the centerpiece of his music production workflow.

How long have you been using Roland products?

My history with Roland begins back in 1984 or 1985 [when] I got my first programmable Roland synth, which was a JUNO-60. Then I bought a D-50 with the PG-1000 programmer back in 1987, and that’s been an integral part of my sound design in my scores and movie projects, because of the ease of use with using the programmer. I used a Roland R-8M rackmount drum module, which was fantastic. I’ve used JUPITER-8s on projects. And, to this day, my number-one guitar processor is a Roland GP-100.

Most important is my JV-1080; that has been my main piece of outboard gear since it came out. Every sound card that you could buy at the time I had thrown into the machine. I love those sounds, and I still use them to this day in my scores.

You’re a longtime SONAR user. What made you choose the Cakewalk platform?

I was one of the few guys using Atari [computers] for film music back in the early ’90s, and when it came time to upgrade to a [Windows] DAW, Cakewalk Pro Audio had just come out. It had terrific MIDI and audio capability together, so I switched to Cakewalk back in 1996. Atari used the same file format as a PC, which was a variation of DOS, so it was very easy to take my floppy disks from my Atari computer—all of my MIDI recordings—and stick them into Cakewalk. I’ve been with it ever since, through all the versions of Cakewalk Pro Audio and all of the versions of SONAR.

SONAR is fabulous, because the audio recording quality is incredible. You have virtually endless MIDI and audio tracks, the video works flawlessly with SONAR, the plug-ins are massive, and it’s a terrific host for Play, a terrific host for Kontakt. It satisfies all of your needs for being able to arrange and record outboard gear, MIDI, VST plug-ins, every type of plug-in imaginable. It’s just the most versatile platform, and I’ve been on it since 1996.

What are some of your notable projects in music for film and TV?

The first film I ever did, I was 19 years old—it was a theatrical feature called Scorpion. From there, I was doing soap operas for several years of my early twenties. My first breakout film that really kind of signified my signature on film music was called Ocean Tribe. From there, I went on to do television shows for Showtime. Women: Stories of Passion was one of my shows. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was another breakout television series for me, as well as God, the Devil and Bob for NBC.

A lot of people know you from the video game music that you’ve done.

I did my first [video game] back in 2003. It was called True Crime: Streets of LA for Activision, and I followed that up two years later with True Crime: New York City. And I was lucky enough to be called in on Call of Duty: World at War in 2008, and then I followed that up in 2010 with Call of Duty: Black Ops.

What is your creative process for scoring music?

The creative process starts with sitting down with the producer or a director and figuring out what his vision is for the project. Every director is different; they have different musical needs and different things they want to accomplish emotionally with the music, and it’s your job as a composer to be their hands, eyes, and ears musically.

How does your process differ in scoring for movies versus scoring for video games?

Scoring for video games and movies is very similar. When you’re scoring to picture for a movie, everything’s pretty much locked down; you don’t really start working until you have a locked picture. On a video game, it’s a little more fluid. They really don’t tend to finalize anything until towards the end of the development process. But essentially, it’s the same.

How does the INTEGRA-7 speed up your creative process?

The INTEGRA-7 is a fabulous new addition to my setup here. For years, I’ve been using a Roland JV-1080 as my main piece of outboard gear, so I was really pleasantly surprised to find that the INTEGRA-7 essentially has every sound from my old JV-1080, as well as [every sound from] my Roland D-50.

When I’m quickly going through a cue and I need to pull up percussion instruments, for example, there are tons of timpani, gran casas…wonderful instruments that you have right at your fingertips. You always know where to go to them, and you always know how to dial right to them. I just find it amazingly easy to build up a massive amount of sounds for whatever particular cue I’m working on very quickly, without having to wait for, say, a soft synth or a sampler to load those sounds. I like having the hands-on approach to the sound module, where I can quickly dial through thousands of sounds, and with the INTEGRA-7 I have over 6,000 sounds readily available at [my] fingertips without waiting for load time.

What do you think of the INTEGRA-7’s sound quality?

It is the cleanest outboard synth that I’ve ever heard. It’s essentially noiseless, so plugging that into the system is a real joy when you get that clean sound coming through. The D/A converters have really improved since the JV-1080’s release. Everything sounds a little bit crisper and cleaner, but you also have tremendous warmth with the addition of the SuperNATURAL sound technology.

The SuperNATURAL sounds are more than I expected them to be. The amount of control and nuance that you have with them is just wonderful. The realism of some of the instruments is amazing. For example, I never thought that you could get a saxophone sounding so real, a sampled sax on a synthesizer. And this is really blurring the lines between a recorded sax and a sampled-based saxophone. It’s shown leaps and bounds since the early days of sampling, and has really made an incredible improvement on the sample-based systems.

I understand you’re using the iPad Editor for the INTEGRA-7.

The programming app is fabulous—the ability to have 5.1 surround panning within the INTEGRA system is fabulous, eight outputs [that are] 5.1 ready. It’s been really interesting and fun to have on the current project that I’m working on.

Having this iPad control is just wonderful. When you get those analog-type controls over the SuperNATURAL sounds, especially on the synthesizers, it’s fantastic having your envelope filter right at your fingertips. You have the ability to change the level of every partial and parameter that you can imagine. It really brings you back to the analog days when you have that immediate fingertip control using the iPad.

How do you like the wireless connection via Roland Connect?

This is incredible. One of the best features about the iPad interface is having a Wi-Fi connection to it. That is fabulous. I’m auditioning sounds [while] walking around, [or] maybe sitting on the couch in the studio. Being able to get away from your command center for a second and walk around and stretch your legs while auditioning sounds is an amazing aspect of the iPad control. I’m really loving this, and I’m finding out more things to do with it every day that I work with it.

What are your thoughts about the Motional Surround feature in the INTEGRA-7?

I love the Motional Surround. It is so fabulous to have a visual aid for your placement in the surround spectrum. I’ve been using this part of the app in my new mixes for the current video game project I’m working on.

Are the INTEGRA-7’s eight outputs useful to you?

The eight outputs are essential for my needs and what I do with the synthesizer. The JV-1080 had six outputs, so you could work around getting that into surround placement on your projects, but having the eight outputs is terrific: six dedicated to 5.1 surround sound, and two as an additional stereo [output] is really terrific. Also, you can use the stereo output [and stereo input] as an effects [loop] within your surround setting as well.

Are there any other INTEGRA-7 features that you use?

I am really loving the fact that you can assign pretty much any controller to manipulate anything within the synthesizer sound. Right now, I’ve got one of my controllers set up to manipulate the attack, the release, the frequency, the resonance filter, [and the] effects send level. It’s incredibly versatile in what you can assign your controllers to, and [that] gives you tremendous control over the sound.

What do you enjoy about your job?

I love writing for film, television, and games more than just about anything. It is a dream job, an absolute dream. One of the greatest things about it is that you get to act with music. I’ve always considered myself sort of an actor with music, because every project is different: you’re telling a different story, and with film you never know what the director is going to throw at you. He may want you to do a jazz bass score, so that brings out your jazz skills. He may want you to do a more classically influenced score, which brings out your classical skills. And then I love doing electronica scores, because it brings out the synthesizer geek in me. Every project is a different musical adventure, and I get to act it with music.

How do tools like the INTEGRA-7 help you on that adventure?

The INTEGRA-7 has every genre of sound that I want to work with. It has the electronica [sounds], it has incredible analog synths, it has incredible ethnic instruments with wonderful articulations, it has the realism of wonderful strings. It’s got incredible percussion [and] wonderful articulations with timpani. [It’s] been just really impressive to me, the amount that you get out of the SuperNATURAL sounds. Having everything in one box is kind of wild—you’ve got every aspect of your sound palette right at your fingertips.