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My main concern is that the prose isn't really up to snuff. It meanders, and generally takes three times as long to say something as it should, verging on PR-style puffery on occasion, or else just unclear language.
E.g. Graves remembered in an interview that sound designer Don Veca spoke about the team's intention for the score, describing their wished-for music as dark and "Aleatoric in style", ranging from eerie sounds to loud cacophonous sections. — I don't know why we need to have it explained this was from an interview, and I don't know why it's introduced as "the team's intention" instead of just saying directly what the team wanted. (I'm also not sure why this part is included before mention of the call for artists and Graves getting the job in the narrative.)
Reworked, big time.
the team cited the work of Christopher Young as a reference for applicants. A later direct inspiration was the score for The Shining. I'm not sure what "later" means in this context (after Graves was hired?) I also don't know what "direct" means versus citing an artist directly like in the previous sentence.
Done my best to rework and condense.
His early samples followed science fiction action conventions—meaning?
I've done my best to clarify this.
Graves and Veca shared a common music source so they both understood the end goal.—meaning?
Double checked, and it was a clanger on my part.
The few setpiece tracks were composed for boss encounters or scripted chase sequences The set piece tracks were composed for set pieces?
Whoops, thanks for catching that.
The final score, settled upon by all parties, was described by Veca as "a modern, aleatoric, orchestral style".—settled upon? We already had the "aleatoric" quotation earlier, so it's redundant.
Cut.
This element made Graves nervous, as both the sound he was creating and how it was being integrated had not been done before in gaming.—I'm gonna' have to call BS on this sentence absent a better source, because audio that changed depending on player action had been a thing for at least half a decade before this game came out.
BS noted. I've cut that bit, and merged the remaining points together into a single sentence.
While the gameplay would become more action-focused and see character development for Isaac, Graves also wanted to make the score akin to an updated version of his work on Dead Space.—I don't see how these two thoughts connect. Graves didn't have anything to do with the gameplay.
Rewritten for clarity.
It's kind of weird the section on the section game references music cues from the first that were never before mentioned (a motif for Isaac, I have no idea who Nicole is, etc.)
I've clarified that Isaac's theme is new for DS2, but I've already mentioned Nicole in the DS1 section (last sentence, second paragraph).
There's some weird choices with tense in the article throughout where the game's audio is described in past tense rather than present (e.g. Dead Space 2 contained over three hours of layered music.)
I've tried to adjust it; past tense is used for the technical/recording elements, while the music uses present tense.
References:
What makes Game-OST and 411-mania reliable sources?
I'd used Game-OST in other GA music articles I've worked on (Music of the Drakengard series, Music of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII), and since it's the only accessible source for solid dates/those interviews at this time, I thought it would be admissible. As to 411-mania, it was only used for one thing, so I've cut it.
@David Fuchs: I've done my best with your comments above, particularly condensing the prose and cutting down on superfluous stuff. A lot of the album detail stuff was tough to find due to age-restricted and dead URLs, little fanfare for some elements and releases, and a reluctance to use reviews as the only source for that kind of stuff particularly since some of the album releases saw no reviews or press attention or were digital-exclusive. --ProtoDrake (talk) 10:08, 27 April 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@David Fuchs: I've removed Game-OST. That means a large chunk of the music commentary from the interviews went with it, but still if it's not reliable it's not reliable. --ProtoDrake (talk) 16:36, 13 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
