the music for "tomb raider" was composed by nathan mccree. unlike most other games of the time, there was not a musical track playing constantly throughout the game; instead, limited musical cues would play only during specially-selected moments to produce a dramatic effect, such as enhancing tension during an action sequence or accompanying the discovery of a hidden secret, in much the same way as a film is typically scored. for the majority of the game, the only audio heard is action-based effects (e.g. footsteps or explosions), atmospheric sounds (like the roar of a nearby waterfall), and lara's own grunts and sighs, all of which were enhanced because they did not have to compete with music. according to mccree, the game was scored this way because he was allotted very little time for the job, forcing him to quickly write pieces without any thought to where they would go in the game. when the soundtrack was finally applied, the developers found that the tunes worked best when applied to specific places.