VG Frequency

Grant Kirkhope announced today via MySpace that he’s leaving Rare, his workplace of the past 13 years:

Well everyone…..it’s a very sad time, I have to tell you all that I’ve resigned from Rare. This Friday (18th) will be my last day at the company. Recording the stuff in Prague with Robin for Banjo has been my last task before I leave.

Needless to say my time at Rare has been the most amazing and rewarding experience imaginable and I’m going to miss not being there.

Nearly 13 years ago now, Rare gave a long haired metal fan a chance that no-one else would and I am forever in their debt.

I’ve worked with some fantastically talented people and it’s their creativity that has spurred me on to write and create the stuff I have………I really can’t put it into words.

I wish the company and people there all the luck in the world!

Grant.

I actually just left him a MySpace message a few days ago for his birthday; one thing I mentioned was how excellent the first Viva Piñata soundtrack was. I’d express sadness at these current events, but the circumstances haven’t been publicized. And as far as I’m aware, Kirkhope can write his own ticket as far as his career is concerned, which is great. So, following the initial rough patch of feelings after leaving a long-time employer like Rare, I’m excited at what he has the potential to do now.

Of course, I’m looking forward to the eventual release of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on the Xbox 360 to hear his final work with Rare. Best of luck to Grant as we see what the future holds for him!

Great stuff from Chris of Square Enix Music Online, lining up the first English-language interview on the upcoming Chris Hülsbeck concert series tribute, Symphonic Shades. Producer Thomas Böcker spoke at length about what led to the concert’s creation, working with a host of top industry talent like Arnie Roth and Yuzo Koshiro, as well as what to expect, including nearly all-new orchestral arrangements from Jonne Valtonen and the upcoming CD complementing the concert.

Böcker also went into detail on why there won’t be a sixth Symphonic Game Music Concert at Leipzig’s Games Convention, certainly of interest to fans of what was seemingly an institution at GC until recently. A great job and a very thorough read courtesy of Chris and SEMO, check it out.

By: David Lloyd, dlloyd@ocremix.org

“Whether I’m writing an original or remixing something from a video game, my inspirations never change. My music listening history is one big collage, and I try to pull on all of that.”

- Dain Olsen, OC ReMix Interview

June 21, 2008

Fairfax, VA — OverClocked ReMix today published an interview with OC ReMixer & Dance Dance Revolution musician Dain “Beatdrop” Olsen, in addition to posting a brand new ReMix of his from the soundtrack to Capcom’s Mega Man X3 for the SNES. Dain talks about the creation of his latest mix, his approach to mixing game music, and his involvement with Konami’s DDR competition, which landed him a spot on the soundtrack to Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA 2.

The interview is available online at:

http://www.ocremix.org/info/ReMixer_Interview:_Beatdrop_%28Dain_Olsen%29

Mega Man X3 ‘Revolutions’ is available for streaming and free download at:

http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01727/

About OverClocked ReMix

Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring hundreds of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.

By: Larry Oji, larryoji@ocremix.org

“A good tune is a good tune. That’s basically it! If a melody can stand the test of time when it’s being played with a one channel sine wave, then it can stand being a fully orchestrated piece of music. I guess really it’s substance over style.”

- Tim Wright, OC ReMix Interview

June 5, 2008

Fairfax, VA — OverClocked ReMix today published its first video game composer interview, with pioneering British VGM composer Tim “CoLD SToRAGE” Wright. Wright helped usher electronica into professional game scores with his work on the landmark racing title Wipeout, released in 1995 by Psygnosis for the then-emerging Sony PlayStation. The interview touches on other career highlights such as Wright’s days composing for the Commodore Amiga, his development of popular music creation programs eJay and MUSIC (a.k.a. MTV Music Generator), and his upcoming original album, CoLD SToRAGE HD, which functions as an unofficial soundtrack to Sony’s latest title in the Wipeout franchise, Wipeout HD for the PlayStation 3.

The interview is available online at http://www.ocremix.org/info/Composer_Interview:_CoLD_SToRAGE_%28Tim_Wright%29.

Conducted by site staff, OC ReMix interviews cover major aspects of a composer’s career, featuring targeted questions unique to each subject, as well a standard list of questions that specifically delve into a musician’s formative years, creative inspirations, and views on the current state of the game music industry. This unique format presents both a contemporary look at a composer’s recent activities as well as more comprehensive questions about the nature of video game music composition.

About OverClocked ReMix

Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring hundreds of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.

Links

• Composer Interview: CoLD SToRAGE (Tim Wright)
• OC ReMix interviews
• Tim Wright Composer Profile at OC ReMix
• The Official CoLD SToRAGE Website
• Purchase the albums of CoLD SToRAGE
• Wright’s company, Tantrumedia Multimedia Solutions
• CoLD SToRAGE @ MySpace

Eleven years ago, Akihiko Mori passed away from cancer. Even though his last work was in 1996, he to this day stands as one of my favorite VGM composers of all time.

Works featured in this post:

• Gokinjo Bouken Tai (SNES)
• Kidou Senshi Z Gundam: Away to the Newtype (SNES)
• Mystic Ark (SNES)
• Shien’s Revenge (SNES)
• Wonder Project J: Mechanical Boy Pino (SNES)
• Wonder Project J2: Josette of Corlo Forest (SNES)

full list of works

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mori worked at a company called Mint, which did sound development for video games. Thus, in addition to composing for some games, he also adapted music for the SNES sound driver developed by Mint. Two such games, Bounty Sword and Lennus II: Fuuin no Shito (Lennus II: Apostles of the Seals, Japan-only sequel to Paladin’s Quest), were composed by veteran game and anime composer Kouhei Tanaka, and actually have rather decent orchestral soundtracks. The over fourteen minute staff roll from Lennus II is particularly impressive.

But I guess maybe I should go on with Mori’s own compositions?

“Land Exploration”
Kidou Senshi Z Gundam: Away to the Newtype (SNES)

“bon voyage! ~ Come On! To the Skies! Medley”
arranged from Wonder Project J2: Josette of Corlo Forest (N64)

“Mountain”
Gokinjo Bouken Tai (SNES)

I could devote an entire post just to Gokinjo Bouken Tai’s soundtrack, one of the very best the SNES has to offer, but I’ll limit myself to one more track. Mori’s battle themes stand out to me as some of the best done by any composer, with the normal battle theme from GBT leading them all with its jazz stylings and madcap energy.

“Battle”
Gokinjo Bouken Tai (SNES)

“Bad Dream”
Shien’s Revenge (SNES)
co-composed with Tsukushi Sasaki

Overall, Mori’s battle theme work shines brightest in Mystic Ark, the Japan-only sequel to The 7th Saga. Mystic Ark is one of three games Mori composed to receive a soundtrack release, but unfortunately the album is marred by a defect, a hiss in the left channel audio.

“Hey! Don’t Attack Me!”
Mystic Ark (SNES)

“Your Fighting Eyes Are Always Beautiful”
Mystic Ark (SNES)

“Are You the True Form of Darkness?”
Mystic Ark (SNES)

I suppose it’s rather cliché to leave the ending themes for last, but this is a post in memory of one of my all-time favorites, so I’m going to get as sappy as I want to.

“Ending”
Shien’s Revenge (SNES)
co-composed with Tsukushi Sasaki

“Ending”
Wonder Project J: Mechanical Boy Pino (SNES)

We think you need to. For the past two years, we’ve been attending this event called MAGFest (that is, the Music and Gaming Festival). Short of knocking on djpretzel’s, zircon’s or my (Liontamer’s) door, this will be one of the best chances to not only meet us, the crew behind OC ReMix, but also to meet a whole ton of OC ReMixers. Not only that, but you’ll get to spend New Year’s weekend with us and party it up. This will be the seventh time they’ve thrown this shindig!

If you’re at all into video games and music, this will be the place to be this upcoming year. There’s so many fun things to do, you’ll wonder where your weekend went! Video game composers like Howard Drossin (with several Sonic titles to his credit) and Jake “virt” Kaufman (Contra 4 and TMNT on the DS) will be around. And Friday and Saturday nights are filled with concerts from video game bands! The Advantage, Minibosses, and NESkimos have all performed there in the past. This year’s lineup of bands will be out soon, including some familiar names from OCR.

The best part is that even after all of that, you haven’t even experienced half of the event! You can hit the video room and watch game movies and cartoons, buy stuff from the people in the marketplace, go to video game panels and discussions (including our own OC ReMix bash), or just play games the whole time. There’s over 10,000 square feet of just console, PC, and even arcade games, and it doesn’t close AT ALL during the entire duration of the event. If you want to play Rock Band on a stage for hours on end with José the Bronx Rican, you can! Or if you wanna challenge James Rolfe, the Angry Video Game Nerd, go ahead and call him OUT!

Here’s what me and some other folks had to say about last year’s MAGFest:
* http://www.vgfrequency.com/magfest-6-from-alexandria-va-13-day-1-report/
* http://www.destructoid.com/magfest-vi-highlights-65679.phtml
* http://revver.com/video/625357/magfest-vi/
* http://www.megatonik.com/2007/12/18/we-rock-hard-we-play-hard-magfest-cometh/
* http://gamemusic4all.blogspot.com/2008/01/magfest-vi-wrapup.html

Now that you want to go, lemme mention the important stuff:
- It’s in Alexandria, VA, in a 5-star Hilton, which is a quick ride from DC (Reagan National Airport).
- It’s Thursday-Sunday, Jan 1-4, 2009. If you’re not free on New Year’s Day, you can come Friday and not miss too much.
- Like many good things, it costs money. But $40 isn’t too bad for all weekend!

And here are a few links for you:
* Their site: http://magfest.org/
* The info on the hotel and directions: http://magfest.org/info/
* The preregistration page: http://courtwright.org/magfest/preregistration

Preregister for MAGFest soon to make sure you’re there! Their hotel is already accepting room reservations, and they even got the rates down for us that aren’t so lucky in the money department. It’s only $99 a night to stay at the hotel MAGFest is in, and come on, it looks like the Citadel! Split it with a few friends and that price goes down VERY fast. If you’re already sold on it, call them up and reserve a room at 703-845-1010 any time of day (they’re a hotel, ya know).

Let them know MAGFest and OC ReMix sent you (and make sure to be at the OC ReMix panel), and we’ll see you there!

Larry “Liontamer” Oji
Head Submissions Evaluator, OverClocked ReMix
Creator, VG Frequency
http://www.ocremix.org
http://www.vgfrequency.com

Just a quick plug today for M4G’s interview with the composer team of the very-soon-to-be-released PlayStation 3 exclusive Haze, Ubisoft’s answer to the Halo franchise in the latest round of the console wars.

Composers Christian Marcussen, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan were joined by audio lead Graeme Norgate for an all-encompassing look at the creative process behind the game’s soundtrack. Norgate mentioned that if you’d like to see a soundtrack release, you can help by beating down Ubisoft’s door, so be sure to let the company know if you like what you hear!

Rockstar Games and Future Green Entertainment have announced the release of an original production album from The Evil Genius DJ Green Lantern featuring music from and inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV.

Containing eight brand new tracks crafted exclusively for DJ Green Lantern’s “Liberty City Invasion” radio show on the in-game radio station “The Beat,” as well as eight new songs directly inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV, The Evil Genius DJ Green Lantern has created an epic urban soundtrack. This special album release features an incredible lineup of hip-hop, reggae and R&B superstars including heavyweights Busta Rhymes, Wyclef, Fat Joe, Styles P and Fabolous as well as up-and-coming artists Mavado, Uncle Murder and Future Green Entertainment’s own Johnny Polygon, Qadir and more.

Singles include “Where’s My Money” from Busta Rhymes and “Nickname” from the brand new artist Qadir. The perfect summer anthem “I’m So Fly,” featuring Fat Joe and Fabolous is inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV and while included on the album is not in the game.

“The Grand Theft Auto games have always featured stunning soundtracks and the amount of eclectic music in Grand Theft Auto IV goes above and beyond anything we have been able to do before” said Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games, “DJ Green Lantern’s contributions give the soundtrack a true New York flavor and we’re excited to be releasing his full album to fans.”

“From making mixtapes, to being on the radio, to touring with the biggest artists on the planet, and then for the biggest video game title to solicit me to create exclusive music is something most people could only dream about, it’s like a graduation,” said Green. “Rockstar Games understood what I bring to the table as far as not just presenting music, but creating music.”

Green Lantern originally came to prominence in the mixtape scene by consistently featuring exclusive self-produced music with hip-hop superstars like Eminem, Jay-Z, The Beastie Boys, Mike Shinoda’s Fort Minor, D-Block, Busta Rhymes, Mobb Deep and many more. This led to an acclaimed career as a proper music producer in his own right which has yielded such Billboard hits as “Number One Spot” by Ludacris and “In The Ghetto” by Busta Rhymes featuring Rick James as well as the street hits Akon “Ghetto” feat. Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac, Uncle Murda’s “Bullet, Bullet,” and many more. Green Lantern can be heard every week nationally on his Sirius Satellite Radio show.

The Evil Genius Green Lantern makes his official production album debut with the release of Liberty City Invasion: Music From and Inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV. It will be available at all major digital retailers on May 20th with a physical release coming soon.

Grand Theft Auto IV is currently available for the Xbox 360 and the PLAYSTATION 3.

I wrote a while back about the launch of VGM Rush, a site devoted to Western video game music. VGM Rush had a promising start, featuring such content as an amazing interview with Alexander Brandon that I pimped in my previous post (seriously, read it if you haven’t), but since December or so, updates to the site have been sporadic. The original version of the site used static HTML for its pages, meaning updating the site could involve making edits to a lot of files and generally be difficult.

The reason behind the slowdown was that Rimo, the man behind the site, was working on an overhaul, including a switch to PHP and MySQL to store data and generate pages. The coding is complete, VGM Rush is back, and new content should be streaming in.

In fact, new content is already streaming in; since the relaunch, four new composers have had biographies and works list added to the database, and five album reviews were added, courtesy of orion_mk3, a fellow who works with me at Song of the Week. Check out the new stuff, and hope along with me that the vein isn’t tapped out for a long time.

Also feel free to shoot me for that last sentence if you deem it necessary.

Music 4 Games‘ Jayson Napolitano conducted a lengthy interview with God of War: Chains of Olympus composer Gerard Marino at GDC08. Marino had plenty of enthusiastic comments for Chains of Olympus, revealing that he didn’t have to sacrifice anything substantive in creating the soundtrack for the PSP.

Marino also shed light on the tools used to create the soundtrack, as well as the unorthodox (yet somewhat refreshing) scenario of composing the music before the game was significantly completed, analogous to the creative process to some spaghetti western film scores. Certainly an interesting comparison, one I can safely say I’ve not seen mentioned anywhere else before. Did Marino feel any benefit from the situation he was placed in? You’ve gotta visit M4G to find out. (Side note: I’d actually love to find out which VGM composers have directly been influenced by spaghetti western scores.)

Jayson and Gerard also got into the very interesting debate on whether it’s more effective for the the games and game music industries to digitally release soundtracks for free rather than physical releases. Based on all of that, along with Marino’s thoughts on his musical growth, and a quick mention of OC ReMix, you’ve definitely got another great read from Music 4 Games.

Music 4 Games’ Tony Porter recently conducted an interview with veteran game composer Frank Klepacki on a myriad of topics. Most interesting was that Klepacki revealed his recent work on the Universe at War soundtrack as currently the most challenging soundtrack of his career.

Check out the interview in full for basics like Frank’s musical influences, insight into his gear for the music techies among you, and what games he’s playing, as well as deeper topics like how the job of scoring for games could be made easier, and his outlook on video game scores of the future. Per M4G’s usual, you’re gonna get a great read.

The prolific Bjørn Lynne has just released a brand new original album, Quiet Places. Lynne referred to the work, two years in the making, as “quiet, reflective, ambient music”, in line with his modus operandi of relaxing compositions (but only one facet of his talents). The album art, including the cover, is bolstered by photos near his home in Stavern, Norway (Norway’s smallest town).

Always generous with access to his material, you can listen to the entirety of Lynne’s new album in low quality, giving you the chance to make a very educated purchase. Currently available only as a digital download via LynneMusic, a very limited run of 300 physical copies will also be available soon, with half available to be shipped by Lynne himself and half shipped through CD Baby. To help keep shipping costs low, European customers should order through Bjørn while American customers will benefit by purchasing through CD Baby.

Are you ready to relax?

Early this week, the regulars of SoundTempest were treated to a surprise when legendary Commodore composer and demoscene enthusiast Jeroen “WAVE” Tel showed up to participate in SoundTempest’s regular compo series, CompoST.

zircon, SoundTempest’s creator, hollered at me to come on over, and CHz and I joined in the discussion while OverCoat and other ST regulars got along famously with Tel as well as Peter “Skaven” Habja, who also stopped by briefly.

In the 1-hour time limit compo featuring a factory theme, Tel competed alongside OverCoat, madbrain, Nario and Coda, scoring the victory with his track “Industrial Factory”, available from the CompoST 72’s archive.

Anyone can join in future original music compos with CompoST by joining #soundtempest on the EsperNet network via IRC. Thanks to OverCoat, you never know who will show up!

Attending Game Developers Conference 2008, Destructoid’s Dale North had the scoop on No More Heroes composer Masafumi Takada’s presentation detailing his methods in composing for games. Featured in the presentation were several major titles in Takada’s portfolio, including Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, God Hand, Killer7, and the critical hit No More Heroes. Be sure to read up for some informative details on Takada’s creative processes, as well as Dale’s quick account on a couple of other surprises!

Following up on Kenley Kristofferson’s Calgary Video Games Live rundown, it’s time for some more Canadian heat courtesy of Christina “Faith Naked” Winterburn, who detailed her experience at the concert’s February performance in Toronto, Ontario.

Before you go brushing this off as another typical account of the concert, Winterburn got to hang with Messuirs Tallarico and Wall at a local pizza joint where hilarity ensued. You trust her, right? Take the plunge.

I always enjoy checking out what people have to say about video game music around the net. Few guys out there have the respect and thirst for knowledge on the subject of Into the Score podcast host Kenley Kristofferson.

Kristofferson was in attendance for the second of a double-header of November 2007 Video Games Live performances in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and used his Flickr account last month to give highlights of the trip, including photos ops with concert creators Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. Be sure to swing by Into the Score and live vicariously through him. We’ll be plugging more concert accounts in the future from around the interwebz.

OverClocked ReMix judge and director of the Final Fantasy VII tribute album Voices of the Lifestream (http://ff7.ocremix.org) Andrew “zircon” Aversa was recently voted the winner of SquareSound’s (www.squaresound.com) “A Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu” Arrangement Competition. The winning participant out of 53 entries with his Final Fantasy VI medley “Dirt Devil,” Aversa earned a combined score of 96.22%. zircon walked away with the grand prize of a limited edition promotional copy of Voices of the Lifestream, and two VIP tickets to the March 1, 2008 performance of Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy (www.ffdistantworlds.com), including the official concert program and limited edition CD, performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The tickets to the Chicago concert include entrance to the exclusive meet-and-greet with Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu following the performance.

Emerging as runner-up was Kenley Kristofferson, who runs the Into the Score podcast (www.intothescore.com) dedicated to the academic study of video game music, with his own Final Fantasy VI medley, “Hundreds of Voices (Swinging in Unison!).” All of the entries are available for download on SquareSound’s website, and Aversa’s winning piece was recently posted to OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org).

Larry “Liontamer” Oji, OC ReMix’s head submissions evaluator and among the competition’s four judges, noted the prestige of what was at stake: “It was definitely a privilege to judge such an important competition from SquareSound, with a very meaningful first prize on the line. Having the opportunity to meet any composer in person, let alone Nobuo Uematsu, and express one’s fandom and thanks is something a lot of musicians in the community don’t have the good fortune to experience.”

zircon will be attending Distant Worlds with girlfriend and fellow OC ReMix judge Jillian “pixietricks” Goldin. Having created Voices of the Lifestream, Aversa hopes to present his awarded copy of the album to Uematsu in person: “Both Jill and myself are really excited to see Distant Worlds and meet Mr. Uematsu, even if only briefly. We’re huge fans of his music; between the two of us, we’ve remixed over a dozen of his compositions. I personally consider him to be my all-time favorite video game music composer. It will be a dream come true if I can personally hand him a copy of Voices of the Lifestream.”

Links:

*SquareSound: Andrew Aversa Wins Our Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Arrangement Competition!
*SquareSound
*Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy
*Andrew “zircon” Aversa at OverClocked ReMix
*Kenley Kristofferson at Into the Score
*Larry “Liontamer” Oji at VG Frequency
*Jillian “pixietricks” Goldin at OverClocked ReMix
*Nobuo Uematsu (????) at OverClocked ReMix
*Voices of the Lifestream

Following up on previous big name VGM composer interviews with Hitoshi Sakimoto and Yasunori Mitsuda, 1UP.com hit the motherlode with a full day of time with Final Fantasy series’ composer Nobuo Uematsu.

Now that Uematsu works freelance, unencumbered by interviewing through Square Enix, the discussion features Uematsu at his Yamanakako, Yamanashi home speaking his mind at length on a host of topics with 1UP.com’s James Mielke and crew. Standard questions such as musical influences, the humble origins of his career, dealing with technological advances in music programming, the creation of his band The Black Mages, and the worldwide acclaim his music has achieved are all in full force with all the candid details you need.

But getting to even meatier topics were Uematsu’s thoughts on attending the American debut of the Dear Friends concert series in Los Angeles, criticism of Square Enix and the direction of the Final Fantasy franchise after the departure of series creator and Square co-founder Hironobu Sakaguchi, how he wishes he had control over the music he wrote for Square, and the real deal on why he chose to leave Square Enix. All fascinating stuff as far as I was concerned.

A couple of issues I would have loved to have heard addressed are his thoughts on the amateur VGM arrangement community and their own musical tributes to his work (Peter Griffin: “C’MON!”), as well as his point of view on the gradual phasing out of his role in scoring the FF series with Final Fantasy X and XI. Nonetheless, a groundbreaking interview, at the very least for the English-speaking side of VGM fandom, it’s a must-read affair.

Over at the OverClocked ReMix forums, blood_thirsty_demon (clearly a typical name a female would choose) posted her account of the first of a double header of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony concerts in Seattle, performed by the Seattle Symphony on January 24. Several OC ReMixers were in attendance for the shows including OverCoat, Shnabubula, chumble spuzz, norg, and Select Start’s Elaine Li.

The highlight of demon’s story, however: snagging a certain composer’s autograph. Most stories aren’t this fangirlish (in a good way), and it’s better than drama instead, so check it out!

I live in Washington (Seattle area), and after years of waiting for it to come to my neck of the woods, I got to see PLAY! performed by the Seattle Symphony. Unfortunately, the Symphony overcharges the price of admission, and it cost about 155 dollars for two tickets and a program.

But it was the best investment EVER!

My sister and I got amazing seats, not too close too the television screens and not too far the stage. The music was amazing, and I even teared up a couple times through out the show. Being able to hear my favorite songs live is a totally different experience, and I couldn’t stop grinning the whole time. But that’s not the best part.

During the intermission, I was sitting alone while my sister chatted with some of her friends who also came as well. A woman and her son sitting two rows ahead of me saw my grin and started up a conversation that went somewhat like this:

“Enjoying the performance?”
“Definitely. I’ve been waiting since 2006.”
“Yes, this is amazing show. So do you know who the man sitting in front of you is?” I raised a brow, remembering a couple sitting in front of me, but nothing else came up in my mind.
“No, what about it?”
“He’s Martin O’Donnell. The guy that does the Halo music” My entire body freezes up, and after five seconds of silence I nearly shout.
“MARTY?! As in the composer for the halo series Marty O’Donnell?!” She and her son start laughing at me as I kept repeating “Oh my god” over and over again.

When my sister came back and I told her the news she started pestering me to get his autograph. But I didn’t want to bother him, he came to enjoy the show and I didn’t want to act like a fangirl in front of him and his wife. When they returned to their seats my sister began nudging me to ask him. We broke into a quiet argument amongst ourselves, with her telling me to grow a spine and myself saying “I can’t. No I can’t do it.”. Eventually she said if I wasn’t going to ask him then she would. But she didn’t have to, as some kid half my age came up and asked instead, which caused him to stand up and face me. My sister said “Ask him now!” He and his wife started laughing at us as they saw holding the program in my hand.
“So that’s what you two were talking about.” He said.

Okay, so we weren’t as quiet as I thought we were. So blushing madly, I timidly held up my program, “I love your work…Sorry, can I have your autograph?”. He just laughed again taking my program giving me his signature, as my sister and I started up a conversation with him and his wife until the show started up again. Before the show I was complaining about the price for the program, but it was the best fifteen bucks I ever spent. I’m framing the sucker and hanging it on my wall when the house is finished getting renovated.

I can’t wait for Video Games Live next January. Okay, I’m done ranting now.

I’ve added small (PNG, 2kb or less) cropped mugshots of VGM composers, where available, to all lists of composers (main list plus filtered lists).

• http://www.ocremix.org/composers/
• http://www.ocremix.org/system/c64/composers/
• http://www.ocremix.org/organization/id/1/composers/

I also intend to integrate them into detail pages later today, if there’s time.

This seems like a small thing, but pictures can say a thousand words… my hope is that these icons will help people more readily identify a given composer with his or her works through visual association.

We’ll be working on tracking down missing images where possible.

Thanks,

-djp

Tim Maxwell of SquareSound has publicized the final set of prizes for the Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Arrangement Competition, with the all-important tickets to Chicago’s upcoming performance of Distant Worlds hanging in the balance. Well, I’m helping to judge this bad boy, so let’s hope you’ve got what it takes:

The prize packages for the winners of the Tribute to Nobuo Uematsu Arrangement Competition have now been completely finalized. The grand prize isn’t changing obviously, but we finalized some other details. Here’s the rundown:

The grand prize winner will get:

• Two VIP tickets to the Distant Worlds concert in Chicago on March 1, 2008
• A free concert program
• A free Distant Worlds CD
• Entrance to the meet-and-greet with Nobuo Uematsu after the concert
• One copy of the OverClocked ReMix exclusive Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream CD set

The first runner-up will receive:

• A free Distant Worlds CD
• One copy of the OverClocked ReMix exclusive Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream CD set

The 3rd through 5th place finishers will receive:

• One copy of the OverClocked ReMix exclusive Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream CD set

In the event that the grand prize winner is unable to attend the concert, that person will receive a copy of the Distant Worlds CD hand-signed by Nobuo Uematsu. We will try to film the signing of this album for the winner, but we cannot guarantee this. In addition, this person will receive a $100 gift certificate from our store. The tickets will then be offered to runners-up in succession until we find a contestant that is able to attend the concert.

Once we determine who has won the tickets, we will arrange for them to be placed at the will-call window at the concert venue (the Rosemont Theater) for pickup prior to the show. Tickets may not be sold or transferred.

That about wraps things up! Today is the last day to submit arrangements for those who registered, and the winner should be announced within a week. Good luck everyone!

Sure, there are a lot of VGM cover bands that encourage fans to rattle off songs to them as ideas for an upcoming album. But for an orchestral concert performance? Ok, I’ve seen Tommy Tallarico take dozens of suggestions for Video Games Live. But how about material from even further back?

Well, that’s what you’ve got in the C64 Orchestra working with nothing but Commodore 64 classics. With their initial concerts and debut album, Run 10, under their belt, they need your help deciding on what tracks to add to their concert series.

Officially attached to the concerts, Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel have their own nominations ready that you can pick from. Beyond that, however, you can also send by other suggestions for any C64 game music.

I’ve yet to mail in my picks, but you can be sure Tim Follin will be on my list. Be sure to read through the official MySpace message below for all the details you need to contribute your thoughts to a piece of video game music history. Auf Wiedersehen!

Dear C64 orchestra fan,

We hope you enjoyed the looks of RUN 10 as well as the tunes on the cd. As you will know this is only a small selection of the vast amount of tunes available!

For the coming live shows we want to broaden our repertoire with new tunes and we are looking for your help with picking the nicest. To make life a little easier for us we asked Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel to nominate a couple of games.

The C64 game tunes nominated by Jeroen Tel are:
1. Cybernoid 1
2. Poseidon: Planet Eleven (Title tune)
3. Rubicon (Title tune)

The C64 game tunes nominated by Rob Hubbard are:
1. Spellbound
2. Nemesis the warlock
3. Rasputin
4. Kentilla
5. Dragons Lair
6. Auf Wiedersehen Monty

So help us by mailing your most favourite selection and please limit your choice to 3! We also want to know which C64 game tune of other composers we definitely have to play in the future.Feel free to forward this question to your friends and anyone who will have an opinion on this quest for the best C64 game music.

Send an email to C64orchestra@ONinternet.nl

Regards

The C64 orchestra
www.myspace.com/c64orchestra

1UP.com recently conducted an extensive interview with legendary game composer Yasunori Mitsuda, covering his career, his creative process, who he’d like to work with in the future, and even his surprising thoughts on how Japanese companies compare to American ones in their respect for video game music. (Here’s a hint: not favorably.) You’ll even learn which of Mitsuda’s trademark compositions came to him in his dreams.

I keep waiting for someone at 1UP to ask questions about the fan arrangement community; I’m biased, but then again OC ReMix did just release the Radical Dreamers arrangement album Thieves of Fate. Otherwise, this was a solid and informative read, so be sure to check it out.

Industry mover-and-shaker Tommy Tallarico follows up last month’s Electronic Musician spotlight on entering the video game audio production with his own appearance in the magazine describing the evolution and challenges of scoring games, as well as his own advice on the importance of networking in order to help the other important aspect of an artist, talent, shine through.

If you’re a composer interested in a very informative Reader’s Digest version of how to break into the business, as well as fun stuff about the premiere video game concert series Video Games Live, then check out the January edition of Electronic Musician this month!