VG Frequency

zircon’s got a keen eye on the pro audio sites, where he caught Greg “Audix” Michalec receiving a unique honor. Quoted from the OC ReMix forums:

I stumbled on this the other day. Image Line, the company that makes FL Studio and a bunch of other music software, just recently released a new synthesizer called “Biohazard”. It integrates 100% into FL, of course. Check out the product page:

http://www.image-line.com/documents/toxicbio.html

I couldn’t help but notice the demo player has two songs, both by the remixer Audix. No doubt lots of demos were created/submitted, so it’s impressive that his music - and his alone - made it to that front page demo player. Congrats, Greg!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released today in Japan, although final copies made it out before the release date. Advance screenshots have been making their way like wildfire across the internet, as have gameplay videos on YouTube.

One enterprising fellow by the name of ShadowHero1991 is one of those chaps who has been supplying YouTube with videos of the game in action, but he has also uploaded eight videos solely featuring music from the game. As stated in a recent interview between Nintendo Co., Ltd. president Satoru Iwata and SSBB director Masahiro Sakurai, Brawl has “thirty games worth of music.” On the 29th, Sakurai revealed a list of every single song available from the beginning, a list that contains a staggering 101 tracks. And who knows how many more tracks remain to be unlocked.

So, ShadowHero1991’s measly eight videos don’t even begin to scratch the surface of the music contained in SSBB, but they’re our first glimpse at whole tracks from the game, as opposed to the samples Sakurai has posted. In addition, only three of the videos contain full versions of samples from the site; the other five are completely new. Here’s my personal favorite and links to the other seven:

“Meta Knight’s Revenge”
Original pieces: “Revenge of Meta-Knight: Stage” and “Taking Over the Halberd” from Kirby Super Star (SNES)
Composed by Jun Ishikawa and Dan Miyakawa
Arranged by Noriyuki Iwadare

• “Boss Theme Medley” (from Kirby’s Adventure [NES], Kirby’s Dream Land 2 [GB], and Kirby Super Star [SNES], composed by Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando, and Dan Miyakawa and arranged by Kentaro Ishizaka)
• “Butter Building” (from Kirby’s Adventure [NES], composed by Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando and arranged by Jun Fukuda)
• “The Dark World” (from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [SNES], composed by Koji Kondo and arranged by Arata Iiyoshi)
• “Gourmet Race” (from Kirby Super Star [SNES], composed by Jun Ishikawa and Dan Miyakawa and arranged by Motoi Sakuraba)
• “Hyrule Field Theme” (from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [N64], composed by Koji Kondo and arranged by Yutaka Iraha)
• “Ocarina of Time Medley” (from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time [N64], composed by Koji Kondo and arranged by Michiko Naruke)
• “Fire Emblem Theme” (from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragons and the Blade of Light [NES], composed by Hirokazu Tanaka and Yuka Tsujioko, arranged by Shogo Sakai, and performed by Oriko Takahashi and Ken Nishikiori)

Darius Remix was released on December 29, 2007. As I reported earlier, the album was published by SuperSweep in honor of the twentieth anniversary of Taito’s sound team, Zuntata. The album contains arrangements of Darius and Darius II, arranged by members of SuperSweep, the video game music and sound production company founded by Shinji Hosoe, and Basiscape, a similar company founded by Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Ayako Saso and Hosoe arranged a total of six of the thirteen tracks on the album, and while they were competently done, I felt that, given their talents and the source material, they really could’ve blown me away. As they are, the mixes just sound a bit phoned in, with pretty standard sounds and grooves. Still most certainly listenable, but not terribly notable.

Two of the more veteran members of Basiscape, Kimihiro Abe and Manabu Namiki, each turned in a solid arrangement. Abe’s cover of “MUSE VALLEY (Mercury Scene)” alternates light, jazzy sections featuring acoustic guitar and synths with more frenetic and driving sections, all on top of some excellent percussion and bass. Namiki’s “BOSS SCENE 7 (THE LAST BOSS)” starts off laid back, developing a lush texture, before switching lo-fi at the halfway point to very similar instrumentation to the original piece, except with additional lines and much more pumping energy.

What most impressed me were the tracks done by the young guns at Basiscape. The album contains Yoshimi Kudo’s first ever credited work at Basiscape, a sinister and slightly off-kilter arrangement of “BOSS SCENE 6 (IRON HAMMER)” which keeps the rhythm changing from start to finish. Azusa Chiba previously ported the music from After Burner II to the cellular phone with Kimihiro Abe, turned in a breezy arrangement of “Planet Blue (Earth Scene)” with EP, acoustic guitar, flute, and various upbeat synths.

The highlight of the album for me was the track by Noriyuki Kamikura, who has a few brief composition and arrangement credits under his belt. His most significant composition credit is Shijyou Saikyou no Deshi Kenichi: Gekitou! Ragnarok Hachikengou, translatable as “Disciple of History’s Strongest, Kenichi: Fierce Battle! Ragnarok Eight Fist-Gods” and co-composed with Manabu Namiki. The game’s music is excellent, with funk and rock flavors, and Kamikura’s arrangement of “WAR OH! (Boss Scene 1)” would be right at home in the game, with cheesy brass blasts and sexy EP work.

“WAR OH! (Boss Scene 1)”
Composed by Hisayoshi Ogura
Arranged by Noriyuki Kamikura

The album is still freshly purchasable at VGM World. As part of Basiscape, which has scored such recent games as Odin Sphere and Final Fantasy XII, Kudo, Chiba, and Kamikura will certainly get more work in the future, and I look forward to more work by them.

In the beginning, there were Cheetahmen. And life was large.

For no particularly good reason, Japan seems to have taken a fondness to the in-game music from Cheetahmen II, as you can see from quite a few videos on YouTube. While such solo efforts are commendable, they are not adequate tribute to the great Aries, Apollo, and Hercules. We need something more glorious.

What we need is an entire Cheetahmen II arrangement album.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you:

Cheetah in the Dark, a six track doujin arrangement album, set to be released on December 31 at Comic Market 73. The official page for the album (Japanese) has a crossfade demo of three tracks:

Can the finished album possibly live up to the hype and cover art? Only time will tell.

Gotta give it up to this man again. Andrew “zircon” Aversa is sponsoring a competition to remix either (or both) of two tracks from his recent original album, Antigravity. Announced at the OC ReMix forums, as well as several top audio message boards, “Warhead” and “Mindbender” were selected by zircon as the tracks du jour.

Did we also mention prize$$$? Lots of excellent music-creation software is up for grabs as well as presets created by the man himself, with the lucky winner also landing on a future album of zircon’s, including profit-$haring. One would have to infer that a slew of good entries could facilitate the creation of a separate album as well if all goes well. The deadline is January 31st, so you may want to get cracking. Without further adieu, zircon provides all the needed details:

Hey everyone - since I released my third album Antigravity earlier this year, I’ve gotten a bunch of requests from people asking if they can remix some of the tracks. So, here we are. :) I’ve compiled remix packs for two of the songs, “Mindbender” and “Warhead”, and you can download ‘em for free here (plus the original songs):

www.soundtempest.net/zircon%20-%20Warhead.mp3
www.zirconstudios.com/Warhead%20Remix%20Pack.rar

www.soundtempest.net/zircon%20-%20Mindbender.mp3
http://www.zirconstudios.com/Mindben…mix%20Pack.rar

Even outside of the actual contest, you’re free to create AND distribute your remixes, provided;

1) There’s no commercial interest - eg. you can’t sell them. If you want to do this, contact me privately.

2) You credit me as the original artist. Most remixes have a naming scheme like this: “Original Artist - Song (remixer name/remix)”, eg. Fear Factory - Cyberdyne (Junkie XL Remix), or The Crystal Method - Name of the Game (Hybrid’s LA Blackout Remix).

If you’d like to enter the contest, simply email me (admin at zirconstudios dot com) a link to your finished remix. You can do it in whatever style you want, and you can use as little or as much of the original audio files as you want, provided the end result is still recognizably “Mindbender” or “Warhead” in some fashion.

On February 1, 2008 I’ll pick the best of the bunch to be featured on my next album, and the winning producer(s) will of course get a cut of the sales as well. If there are too many entries, or I simply can’t decide, I’ll open up the voting to the public.

Post questions, comments, feedback here… and happy remixing! ;)

NOTE: You can enter more than one remix!

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PRIZES

11/23 - Urs of u-he software fame has graciously offered up a copy of my favorite synth, Zebra 2, as a prize in this contest as well. I’ll also be throwing in all of my custom presets including my two current commercial banks (128+ sounds.) Considering it’s my weapon of choice, it seemed only appropriate. Please give a big thanks to Urs for his generous donation!

11/25 - Thanks to IK Multimedia and eSoundz, I have another excellent prize to offer: the T-Racks mastering suite! T-Racks is my mastering software of choice; I’ve used it on virtually every remix and original track I’ve ever made since 2005 and it’s just awesome. It consists of four low-CPU, analog modeled plugs - a compressor, limiter, EQ, and channel strip with all of those. This software is produced by IK Multimedia, one of the top VI developers in the biz, and distributed by eSoundz, a big audioware retailer which has a massive selection and fantastic deals for loyal customers.

ALSO included are 50 free loops produced by Sonic Reality, another company I love. I used R.A.W. material all over Antigravity, including on Mindbender. :)

Even if you don’t win, definitely hit up both IK and eSoundz next time you’re looking to make a purchase, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find some awesome, innovative gear at sick prices.

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This contest is also posted on…

Nu Skool Breaks
KVR Audio
Reeemix (vote it up!)
Laptop Rockers

Just a quick one today plugging M4G’s latest interview with Stephen Barton. The Harry Gregson-Williams protégé discussed his recent assignment for Activision’s Call of Duty 4 (available this coming Tuesday), stepping in for the very busy Gregson-Williams and securing a unique opportunity to score a video game.

Barton spoke on the criticism of video games as an art form, the ease and support of working with Call of Duty 4 developers Infinity Ward, the approach of the soundtrack relative to the game’s modern setting, and most importantly (for you music-making fetishists with pro aspirations) his comprehensive studio setup. That last one’s over my head, but that certainly didn’t detract from the interview being an excellent read.

In the May 2006 issue of the Japanese DTM Magazine, three people were interviewed about the sound of Final Fantasy XII: Hitoshi Sakimoto, the composer, Tomohiro Yajima, the sound effects director, and Keiji Kawamori, the synthesizer programmer. In the interview, Sakimoto revealed the samples he used to compose the game’s orchestral soundtrack:

• East West/Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra (volumes 2, Woodwinds, and 3, Brass)
• Miroslav Vitous - Symphonic Orchestra Samples
• SAM Orchestral Brass (trombones and French horns)
• Sonic Implants Symphonic String Collection

Thanks to Cedille at the Soundtrack Central Forums for the scoop.

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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