SSX to debut EA's "Harmony" system to remix any song (even yours!) dynamically

At a press event last night, EA showed a fun new trailer for SSX filled with all of the explosive, high-flying trick-based action we expect from the series. Before it began, SSX's creative director Todd Batty said teased that it featured a familiar song that might make fans of the series happy. He was right. The trailer was set to a remix of Run DMC's "It's Tricky," a track that served as sort of the theme song for the SSX Tricky soundtrack. After the trailer was over we tracked down Batty to confirm that the remix would be featured on the new games' soundtrack (it is), and were told about some interesting new technology that EA is working on. It's called "Harmony," and it can remix songs on the fly. Best of all, it works with custom soundtracks, too.

Above: It's Tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that's right on time, it's Tricky

Harmony is a live, in-game remix system that can dynamically remix any song based on what's going on in the game. In SSX, for example, it can cause the track to skip when the racer grinds on a rail, speed up when the player is flying high, or slow down then they tumble to the ground. Rewinding the game's action (a new feature in SSX) could also rewind the song, making it sound like a DJ is remixing the tracks as you play. It's an interesting technology, and one we're excited to see put into use in other EA games, especially since it can remix songs in-game from the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 hard drive in the same way it remixes the ones on the game's soundtrack. This is great, since sometimes EA's sports games can have awful music, and we're love to be able to replace them with our own tunes without fear of missing out on some cool remixes.

They weren't able to go into too many details about how this will work, but it sounds fairly self explanatory, you'll be able to hear it for yourself when SSX releases in February of 2012.