Liam Peacock
Programme:
Creative Music Practice - PhD
Start date:
September 2024
Mode of study:
Part time
Research title:
Inaudible Complexity: Musical Meaning and Adaptive Systems in Video Games
Biography
Liam Peacock is a composer, researcher and educator specialising in interactive music, game audio and music production. He is a Principal Lecturer at BIMM University and a part-time PhD researcher in Creative Music Practice at the University of Edinburgh.
His research examines the relationship between musical composition and the systems through which music is implemented within video games, with particular focus on how these systems contribute to the structure and perception of the resulting musical experience. His current research, Inaudible Complexity, considers how increasingly complex adaptive processes can operate within game music while remaining perceptually unobtrusive to the player.
His practice combines musical analysis with technical investigation and creative implementation, examining areas including adaptive musical structure, transition design, dynamic mixing and the role of audio middleware within the compositional process.
Research interests
- Ludomusicology
- Musicology
- Game Audio
- Middleware
Current:
- Game Sound and Music
- Audio Postproduction
Previous:
- Composition and Production for Visual Media
- Career Development
- Major Project/Dissertation
- DAW Skills
- Synthesis & Sampling
Research
Research
My research examines the design and implementation of adaptive music systems in video games, with particular focus on the relationship between compositional intent, technical implementation and the resulting player experience.
My PhD research, Inaudible Complexity, considers the increasing complexity of these systems and the extent to which this complexity can remain perceptually unobtrusive to the player. Rather than considering game music solely as a composed musical work, the research examines the systems responsible for assembling and adapting that music during gameplay, including musical transitions, dynamic mixing, prioritisation and other forms of real-time adaptation.
The research combines analysis of existing commercial games with practice-based technical investigation. Current case studies include Marvel's Spider-Man (2018) and Borderlands 4 (2025), examining different approaches to musical transition and dynamic mixing. These findings subsequently inform the development of interactive prototypes in Unity and audio middleware, allowing the techniques identified through analysis to be tested through creative practice.
More broadly, the research considers how increasingly sophisticated adaptive music systems might support immersion and continuity without drawing attention to the mechanisms responsible for producing those experiences.