VG Frequency

July 22: It’s 2:26 AM, i.e. it’s pretty late. The current music of choice is a great new mix that has yet to be posted to OCR by DrumUltimA and his mom, who I’ve been given to go-ahead to now refer to as MomUltimA. It’s from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, so if you’re a fan of the series, you’ll definitely have to check it out. If you’re not a fan of the series, you’ll nonetheless have to check it out. It’s that well-done. Right now, I’m sitting in the darkness of djpretzel’s living room. His dual screens are dark. zircon’s laptop on my left is off and pixietricks’s Apple laptop on my right is running a very trippy screensaver. Over in OCR-land, we’ve had a quite an eventful weekend.

At Otakon 2006 last year, I had to wait in line to get into the Baltimore Convention Center, and I spent a lot of time worrying about the potential attendance in the back of my head. Being OCR’s first year at Otakon in 2006, I wondered whether the audience of a predominantly anime-themed convention would be there for a panel on video game music. That year, I only managed to get my convention pass and make it into our panel’s room with 2 minutes to spare. As I ran as fast as I could to join the OCR staff on stage, it was only having made it 3/4ths of the way into the room that I noticed the room was packed. For a 750-seat capacity room, I’m pretty sure we had about that almost number of people. For any scattered empty seats, we had people standing or sitting on the side.

This year, I was able to preregister and get in immediately, so I spent much of the hour before our panel handing out glossy OCR fliers and plugging the pending festivities. “Video Game Music, 10 o’clock, Panel 4!” was heard by many people over and over again as they neared the escalator that would take them up to potential VGM bliss. As I went up at 9:50 (10 minutes before showtime) to refill on fliers, the room couldn’t have been more than 15% full, and I was worried that we had a complete bomb on our hands. I mean, what could have rationalized not having a full house this year compared to last year?

So I grabbed more fliers and made sure I continued pimping the panel. It was only at 9:55 when I went back up that I realized how much traffic was actually going into our room. That’s not to say the credit goes to me, but I was certainly relieved to know that we hadn’t lost our touch.

The panel itself was absolutely great. I’m not sure why the lights were low, but the atmosphere was also brighter last year. But it was the fans who came by to see us that really made everything click. The crowd was more independently enthusiastic last year, perhaps because it was our first time there, but once we got more interactive with the panel (including a Name That Tune contest), things really lit up and we connected with our audience more. Plus I’m a big fan of keeping things fun and loose in terms of presentation. A lot of panels are too dry, and I felt we initially came off that way, so cracking jokes made the time fly by and kept the presentation light.

After the formal presentation was over, we sold a lot of t-shirts and hoodies, as well as original CDs by SGX and zircon. The clothing was all non-profit and able to help pay for bandwidth costs and printing the gear in the first place. One thing we’ll definitely do next year with the presentation is upgrade things to more of a video format. We definitely don’t wanna have people staring at PowerPoint slides all day when we can do more to trick it out and give it a more entertaining feel. Feedback from OCR regulars as well as panel attendees encouraged us to make our presence felt at other fan conventions, so we’re now looking into expanding our con schedule, and hope to have some news in the next couple of months.

July 23: Briefly, besides the actual panel presentation, I had the great pleasure of meeting lots of OC ReMixers for the very first time, including old schoolers Dale North, Injury, MIDIman, and Xaleph as well as Final Fantasy Tactics/Breath of Fire V/Final Fantasy XII composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, Eminence concertmaster Hiroaki Yura and Electronic Arts’ Michael “Piano Squall” Gluck, who provided us on staff with copies of his MS benefit album GAME: Game & Anime Music Emotions. We had a great time getting OCR contributors to sign the brand new OCR guitar, part of pixietricks‘ costume as OCR-tan, our official mascot. After all was said and done, zircon and pixietricks killed time at the apartment of myself and The Lady, where Paige and I cooked a huge Italian dinner for 4 and shot the shit with them before I saw them off at Union Station that evening as they headed back to Baltimore.

As per last year, Otakon was huge success in getting the word out on OCR. As I mentioned, this year (along with the great reception last year), has motivated us even more to pursue other convention appearances and performances in the future. When we get idea of when that will be, we’ll certainly let y’all know over at the OC ReMix main page and forums. Thanks to everyone who turned out at Otakon to learn more about video game music and show their support for OCR. We look forward to seeing you next year!

I’m going to be gone on a trip for the next couple of days, and so I’m not going to be able to get the post that I wanted to finish done. So what is this special filler edition of VGF about?

Well why don’t you just read the post title, you lazy good-for-nothing. Pretty much everyone, their mother, family pets, and great-aunt Tilly who’s never used a computer before has a Facebook account; it’s like MySpace except apparently less objectionable for some reason.

I found out earlier today that there is a group dedicated to composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, with whom I have been locked in a violent struggle since before this universe was created. In retrospect, it’s pretty obvious that there would be Facebook groups like this, but until now I never bothered to search for them.

Unfortunately, Facebook’s current group classification system doesn’t make it easy to find these groups, which are listed under, among other categories, “Entertainment & Arts - Fine Arts,” “Just for Fun - Fan Clubs,” “Music - Songwriting,” and “Music - Instruments.” So, I did a little legwork in searching for some interesting groups. If you know of any others that look good or start your own, please let me know!

General

• Game Music Fans
• Mega Man series
• Videogame Music Doesn’t Get Enough Credit

Live Performances

• Eminence Symphony Orchestra
• MAGFest
• Press Play on Tape
• Video Games Live

Remixes

• C64 Remixes
• OverClocked ReMix

Composers

• Michael Giacchino
• Masashi Hamauzu
• Rob Hubbard
• Yuki Kajiura
• Yoko Kanno
• Jake “virt” Kaufman
• Koji Kondo
• Yasunori Mitsuda
• Hitoshi Sakimoto
• Motoi Sakuraba
• Yoko Shimomura
• Koichi Sugiyama
• Kumi Tanioka
• Kazumi Totaka
• Nobuo Uematsu
• Akira Yamaoka

Now I’m no anime geek, but I do love spreading the gospel and playing video games with the peeps. So I look forward to Otakon in Baltimore, Maryland once again this weekend. Courtesy of our crew of djpretzel, zircon, pixietricks and myself, OC ReMix will be officially representing there on Friday, July 20th for our second annual panel. OCR’s latest press release gives the dirt.

Last year featured two hilarious guys cosplaying Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle. Who knows who’ll be there this year. The Phoenix Wright girls from Video Games Live plan to make an appearance.

Dale North (providing coverage for Destructoid), Injury, José the Bronx Rican, MIDIman, and Xaleph plan on being there, and SGX will be arriving later in the day on Friday.

I’m also looking forward to two of the con’s musical guests in particular. Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy Tactics, Breath of Fire V) with be at the con, also performing alongside part of the Eminence symphony orchestra.

If you see anyone with OC ReMix t-shirts on, let them know how sexy they look. Hope to see you there.

Having attended both nights of concerts (June 29th & 30th) from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, I finally wanted to get my thoughts down. My girlfriend, The Lady, has her own take on the concerts, available at Century Fille. She has a great outsider perspective on things, and always speaks her mind.

As the OC ReMix group stopped by after rehearsal was over on Friday, one thing I really liked about Tommy Tallarico was that he wears what he wants whenever he wants. His outfits are crazy (love his Spider-Man shirt; wish they had it in black), but I relish the freedom he has to do as he pleases.

Tommy and his brother Mike Tallarico (VGL’s merchandise manager) dipped their hands everywhere trying to coordinate things leading up the show. As noted by my colleague Jimmy “Big Giant Circles” Hinson, Mike in particular was very attentive and integral to getting djpretzel and the OCR representatives set up for prize giveaways on both days, as well as stocking OCR t-shirts for sale alongside VGL merchandise.

Every time we needed help, Mike was more than willing to assist, and we were thankful for his help the whole way. “Merchandise Manager” doesn’t begin to describe the amount of things Mike assists with or is responsible for. In lieu of djpretzel’s unavailability for Saturday’s show, Mike provided Jimmy & I (and our respective ladies) with the backstage hook up, which we greatly appreciated. Luckily, one of Jimmy & I’s last memories of VGL was taking a picture with Mike and saying our goodbyes as he and the rest of the tour got ready to leave DC and head to Detroit for the July 6th leg of the tour.

I was very impressed with The Lady, as she worked effortlessly to get djpretzel involved in media coverage of the Friday night show, working the room and obtaining interviews with the National Symphony Orchestra’s in-house media team as well as National Public Radio and Wired Magazine. She also spoke afterwards at length with Cindy Wall (Jack Wall’s wife) regarding both Video Games Live and OverClocked ReMix and also provided each of the celebrities at the Friday meet-and-greet with Andrew “zircon” Aversa’s latest CD Antigravity. She’s very well suited to be OC ReMix’s press liaison, and I liked watching her in action.

The shows themselves were a great experience. It was rewarding hearing OC ReMixes playing in the Concert Hall as people entered in to take their seats. DjSammyG of our meetup group managed to snag top honors in Friday night’s costume contest as a red L-block from Tetris. (Check him out in the Washingtonian’s blog, hoping to be outdone by Mega Man.) Sammy won, thanks to the crowd’s nostalgia of Tetris over all other games. The OCR delegation made sure to whoop it up.

The music itself was excellent. My lady thought the more traditional-sounding orchestral arrangements (e.g. God of War, Medal of Honor, World of Warcraft) felt too similar, and that you only got a substantial change of pace from the arrangements based on non-orchestral soundtracks (Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog). I’m a fan regardless of genre, and I felt like the pieces arranged from orchestral originals were significantly different. For more modern game scores, the soundtracks are more to create moods rather than hooks, thus seeming less defined by any one particular aspect. It gets into the debate of the values of older vs. newer game music, but that’s neither here nor there.

During the Metal Gear Solid portion, one could tell that Tommy was the guy under the box on stage due to his telltale shoes. What I didn’t learn until I hung out backstage the following day was that Mike was actually the soldier who ended up being alerted to “Snake’s” presence, with real armor (but a plastic gun). Definitely a cool tidbit just illustrating how into the nitty-gritty these guys are in terms of putting on the show.

djpretzel got a little of the VGL shine reflected on him not just via the interviews and autographs he gave, but also being able to head up on stage and give away the swag from Friday’s Space Invaders intermission (courtesy of DreamAuthentics and the very affable Rick Baretto [President & CEO]), including a DVD full of OC ReMixes. Having gone on stage Saturday night, I can confirm the excitement one feels. It’s just good to be involved in something that helps legitimize the quality and professionalism of video game music, which is a mutual goal of OCR and VGL.

Martin Leung, the Video Game Pianist, also tore it up with a 10-song medley from the Final Fantasy series. There was a cool video crossfade effect that was done on Friday but not Saturday (one camera on keys, one on Martin), so I was glad to be in the audience when it was possible. The guy reminds me of Shnabubula’s material, not in terms of writing, but in terms of sheer speed. The speed Martin maintains on the keys was impressive, straight up.

Martin seemingly almost had to have his set trimmed down in order to maintain the show’s rigid schedule (a Kennedy Center issue, not VGL’s), but it was cool seeing Tommy check in with Martin every few minutes just keeping him aware of what would end up happening. Luckily, Martin’s planned Final Fantasy set went off without a hitch, though we didn’t get to see him perform blindfolded.

Laurie Robinson of Advent Rising was on board for soprano for AR’s portion of the show, with some amazing vocals. Being a regular part of the tour, Laurie really seemed in her element backstage on Saturday in terms of simply enjoying the show and chatting with the other performers, frequently joining we backstage onlookers at the right wing of the stage to check out her colleagues in action. The power in her voice was only made better being a mere 10 feet or so away just offstage.

At any point, I would have loved to have gotten anonymous comments from members of the National Symphony Orchestra on their feelings regarding the concert. The Lady mentioned that one member loved the God of War set in particular, while another member seemed pretty dismissive of the whole affair. I’d think it would be a great thing to play two back-to-back sold out shows with very enthusiastic crowds, but crowds aren’t everything.

The meet-and-greet Friday night was fun, and I enjoyed getting acquainted with the pros there, who were all very friendly. Along with other pros, I also met Laurie’s husband, fellow composer Emmanuel Fratianni, Brothers in Arms‘ Stephen Harwood, Jr., as well as Civilization IV’s Christopher Tin. The post-show was pretty long though, and I could tell by Jack Wall’s demeanor that he was hoping to get elsewhere. As the conductor, he’s got as busy a time as anybody as compared to some of the pros who were merely part of the crowd and after-events. Jack was nice enough to snap some quick pics with Jimmy and I on Saturday before getting the hell out of dodge, hopefully for some relaxation.

After mentioning Mazedude’s recent God of War ReMix “Minatour Nightmares” (arranging material by Cris Velasco), Gerard Marino gave me his business card and mentioned that if anyone wants to arrange pieces from God of War, he’d hook them up with sheet music, MIDIs, SFX samples, anything they needed to help get the job done. Indeed, Big Giant Circles was yet another person who was astounded by God of War’s set in particular, so he confided that he may take Gerard up on the offer.

It was a real pleasure meeting up with the OverClocked ReMix group for our Washington, DC meetup. After traveling to other meetups in the Mid-Atlantic area, it was nice to have one right in my backyard that didn’t involve any meaningful travel on my part. Meetups are always fun, and I met a lot of new faces, especially arrangers I’d never met in person yet. I finally got to meet face-to-face with former judges panel colleague Shariq “DarkeSword” Ansari, as well as successfully have Vinnie “Palpable” Prabhu, Wilbert “bustatunez” Roget II, and Brandon “Harmony” Bush all snap up loose tickets on very short notice. I missed having pixietricks and zircon there, especially zircon (who had unexpectedly suffered from appendicitis on Friday and had to convalesce). If I had to “trade them away”, I was glad to at least substitute in a lot of really talented musicians who I’d never officially met before.

We all had a great time attending the festivities. One of the most encouraging things I’d heard from Tommy backstage was that ticket demand for the back-to-back shows was so strong, both in pre-sales and walk-ups on the day of the event, that DC could have run a third show. Very promising news in terms of future shows for a concert series that, in its infancy, almost ceased to be soon after it started. Looking healthy and gaining momentum, whenever Video Games Live swings by again (Tommy hopes for next year), I’ll certainly be there.

2005 has been another eventful year in the video game music arrangement community. Now that we’ve reached 2006, join us for an informal retrospective at some of the important goings-on in the scene last year.
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Two foundations of the Commodore arrangement scene received facelifts late last night as Remix.Kwed.Org creator Jan Lund “Kwed” Thomas and C64Audio.com creator Chris Abbott each revealed their respective sites’ new looks.

Following up AMIGAremix’s redesign earlier this year, Kwed collaborated with John Mirland to streamline R:K:O, featuring the addition of randomized SID downloads to encourage the remixing of broader material, as well as community links, donor thanks, and better integration of the C64 Take-away podcast.

C64Audio, noted vendor of professionally released Commodore community music from both C64 arrangers & composers, debuted its first major redesign in roughly 5 years, with emphasis placed on frontpage listings of its CD catalog. Soon-to-be-available releases there include Makke’s new album It’s Binary, Baby, as well as the Back in Time Live DVD/CD Set.

Discussion of the revamped sites is ongoing in the thread @ the Remix64 message boards.

Liontamer wrote…

Ormgas.com, OverClocked ReMix’s unofficial internet radio station, wants YOU for its jingle contest, now underway and set to end on July 10th. We need artists, remixers and anyone willing to have some fun with a microphone to check out the contest and submit 20-to-40-second station identification style jingles, and if you’re one of the top 3 entrants, you can clothe your body with hot OMG FREE Ormgas.com gear. As long as your entry is quality, you can potentially earn radio infamy along with other legends (like Liontamer) as one of Ormgas.com regular jingles, so be sure to check out more information at the OCR forums thread as well as the full set of contest rules over at http://oc.ormgas.com/news.php?extend.36. Antonio Pizza, SgtRama, Neskvartetten & OverCoat are already in the game with their own entries, and I encourage you reading this [Larry points at you] to consider submitting your own jingles in support of Ormgas while you get in the hunt for free, fashionable swag. Please don’t delay. July 10th’s the final deadline.

Y’all need to make some Ormgas jingles, or I’ll kill you. Pick the fun choice. Make a jingle. Let’s check out what was going on for the week ending Saturday, June 19th:
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