The Sounds of THE GODFATHER® 3-Reel Slots

Another installment of THE GODFATHER® slots is here, this time as a 3-reel adventure! Live now on casino floors, THE GODFATHER 3-Reel slots are packed with six different bonus rounds starring the characters, sights, and sounds from the classic cinema trilogy.

We sat down with the sound composer who worked on the game for a behind-the-scenes look at the music.

As Lead Composer on this game, can you describe what makes the audio in this game so special?

In today’s age, people recording songs will bring in the guitarist one day, the violinist the next, and they lay the tracks one over the other. For this game, we wanted to get the feeling and vibe from the THE GODFATHER films, so we recorded the musicians playing together in one room at the same time – just as would have been done in 1972 for the original score. We felt that the best way to bring the emotion and excitement of THE GODFATHER film to our game was with the same process and quality of musicians used for the film.

What did you do to prepare yourself for working on this game?

I don’t know if this is something that you would want to tell anyone, but I actually never saw the films before I got assigned to this game. So the first thing I did was watch the films and I became instantly enamored with them. I listened closely to the film scores of the trilogies’ composer and visited a music library to learn what originally influenced the sound of the film scores.

By watching the films and really learning the story of the family, I was able to compose music to almost create the feeling as if you were watching each character bonus on film.

THE GODFATHER 3-Reel slots use our surround sound gaming chair; is this more of a challenge when creating the music for the game?

The challenging part of creating the music in surround sound is that you have to break the song into more tracks than normal. The player hears musical instruments from the front speakers and back speakers at the same time, and we want to ensure that we’re balancing them correctly. After we lay out the tracks, the only way to really test it is for me to sit in the chair, play the game for hours and adjust the sound accordingly. This allows me to get the balance just right for the best possible player experience.

Was it difficult to recreate the audio feel from such an iconic film?

Once I knew the films, the characters and the sound of the original scores, the task of writing music was very natural and intuitive for me. This was one of my favorite parts of making the music for this game; I had the ability to compose and conduct all of the songs, with the exception of one theme which we rerecorded from the original score. It was exciting to take part in building this for our players to enjoy.

What are some of your favorite tracks in the game?

SONNY and JOHNNY’S themes for THE GODFATHER Slot are two of my favorite tracks that I was able to work on. As I thought about developing a theme for Sonny, I watched the first THE GODFATHER film and studied the art that our art team had put together for the game. I wrote out a sketch of the melody and then, as you can see in the score, orchestrated it for 3 violins, viola, oboe, clarinet, guitar, mandolin and bass. We recorded everything live in the same room in order to get an ensemble sound that evokes the spirit of the original THE GODFATHER soundtrack. I conducted the music without the aid of a click track so that it has a little more natural ebb and flow.

JOHNNY’S Theme for THE GODFATHER Slot was also particularly fun because I was able to write and orchestrate in the style of an Italian pop song. We used a shortened version in the game.