This Week in Video Game Inspired Music

pixt0r

I have decided to start a brand new weekly section. Every Sunday I shall bring together the smaller links I dig up every week and introduce them to you in this segment. As well as update you on the latest releases out ofRemix: Tha Sauce and OverClocked ReMix.

I also hope to toss up some random art to kick off every article, like this awesome painting above byfunnelbc.

As with any other article or news, if you have a good link to send my way for this article, definitely get in touch!

Articles
Sound Current: 2 Player Productions – Reformatting PAX for DVD from GameSetWatch

An audience with Video Games Live’s Tommy Tallarico from geeks.co.uk

Designers Announced for Exclusive Visualist T-Shirts from Blip Festival

Shows & Podcasts
Digital Ensemble #207 and #208 with Special Guests!
A bicycle built for three
Alphabutt Soup

Podcast: NLFM Episode 1 – Open For Business! from Nintendo Life

Remixes
Latest Remix: Tha Sauce songs
Battle in the Ancient Temple (Zelda: Majora’s Mask) by Liquid Wind

Altar Perception (Tales of Symphonia) by Monobrow

Autumn in Yesteryear Guardia (Chrono Trigger) by Protricity

Smithy is Going Down (Super Mario RPG) by NintenJoe 64

Smoothe Criminals (Xenogears) by The Vagrance

Meteorites and Rabbits (Super Mario Galaxy) by jmr

Tryst With the Enemy (Metroid Fusion) by Protricity

Worm Grinder (Super Metroid) by Liquid Wind

Pangaea’s Onomotapoeia (Secret of Evermore) by Meteo Xavier

Crepuscle Results (Sonic 2) by Xenon Odyssey

Investigating Outer Heaven (Metal Gear) by Mutherpluckin’ B

Latest OCReMix releases
Berinstar (Super Metroid) by 8 Bit Instrumental

The Masked Man (Street Fighter II: The World Warrior) by Nutritious

A Mighty Enemy on the Battlefield (Lost Odyssey) by The Dual Dragons

Minibadass (Aquaria) by Daniel Baranowsky

Ravaging Reptile (Mega Man 3) by AeroZ

Psi Piano Omega (EarthBound) by Shnabubula

BTMNTBAMLOL (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project) by Danimal Cannon, KBart, Stemage

And finally, we end with this recent video from dntsje called Bad Apple!! on LCD Screen 128×64 pixels.

Nekofrog presents: The Agony of Man ALBUM PREVIEW

Fricken Metal, Bro

Nekofrog posted on OverClocked ReMix:

My debut album is nearing completion, but for a few reasons that cannot be revealed here, it will be some months before it finally sees an official release. Until then, I figured I’d throw up a preview of what’s to come. This preview consists of two fully completed (length-wise) songs, and one abbreviated song.

Entitled “The Agony of Man”, this album features a trilogy of songs depicting the birth, life, and death of a man, detailing the major events that define his tragic life. It also spans various different genres of metal, including thrash metal, progressive metal, death metal, melo-death, and many others.

Track 1: This song is entitled “Overdose”, and is unrelated to the trilogy. Some of the other musicians that I’ve shown the project to have described this song as progressive/melodic death metal, however it lacks any type of vocals. So if you’re one of those types who likes the guitar of melodic or progressive death metal but can’t get past the cookie monster vocals, this is probably right up your ally.

Track 2: This song is entitled “The Funeral”, and is the middle part of the aforementioned trilogy. It details the death and laying to rest of the man’s wife, and his regret at having ever met her and inadvertently causing her death. EMO FAGGOT. Vocals (yes, this song has vocals) were recorded by DrumUltima of, derp, OCR fame.

Track 3: This song is entitled “Descent”, and is unrelated to the trilogy. This song takes elements from thrash metal more than anything, with some fast riffing near the fadeout. This track is going to be a doozy when the full thing is unleashed 🙂

In the coming months, a few more tunes might be “leaked” up until the album’s final release. Thanks for listening, I’d appreciate some comments if you enjoyed it, or otherwise.

Nerdapalooza Highlights Video

The Grammar Club

Z poster on Hipster, Please!:

I’m really trying to stop rambling on about Nerdapalooza, as I understand that it’s sort of asinine for me to do so. I mean, I wasn’t even there!

Still, I think this is just a little too interesting not to pass along. It’s an event recap by Corey Clark that my boy MadHatter turned me on to. 

It features music by Schaffer the Darklord, performance clips from The Grammar Club, The Megas, MCs Frontalot and Lars, and some great interview snippets with the fans, performers and organizers. Give it a look-see. Then be sure to rate, comment and/or pass it on.

 

McVaffe Launches McVaffe.com

McVaffe posted on OverClocked ReMix:

I’m not that comfortable with shameless plugs, but I told people who
have asked me through the years that as soon as I was able to put
together a new site of my new and old work, that I would do so. And so
I have, so here it is:

http://www.mcvaffe.com

So far the site contains the vast majority of my work, much of it which
was created in the late ’90s and early 2000’s when I joined the site
and began submitting remixes. It’s no coincidence that my discovery of
Overclocked led to what was one of my greatest periods of regular
output.

The fact that I owed such a huge debt of gratitude to OCRemix and to
its community members through the years for supporting, inspiring, and
shaping the way I developed my sound led me to post about the site
here. I searched for all of the old original remix WAVs I could find,
and uploaded them in higher bitrates than I originally submitted here.
As well, there are some remixes there that either didn’t fit the
guidelines of OCR, or ones I never quite felt polished enough to
submit.

For any Youtube fans, I spent over a week creating original game
captures and editing videos to some of my remixes, which to me
increases the nostalgia factor tenfold. It was a ton of work but it was
a great experience playing the games again and seeing Sonic snowboard
down a mountain, or Mario chase a giant eel. It reminded me so much of
why I loved games and game music in the first place. Link is below:

http://www.youtube.com/mcvaffe

Finally, I wanted to share part of a new project I’m working on with a
close friend and artist. It may somewhat be considered an original
album, but the presentation will be revealed once we figure out how we
will put everything together. Short version: It’s a personal project of
original music based on the inspiration of the amazing composers who
originally got me into game music composing and remixing. It’s simple,
sweet, and hopefully will remind listeners of the good old days of
Super NES and PS1 RPGs from which I’ve drawn so much inspiration
through the years. The music can be found on the front of www.mcvaffe.com or from the youtube link.

And as for a new remix, Jimmy Hinson told me to work on Earthworm Jim. And I can’t not listen to Jimmy Hinson now…

Thanks for reading all my crap guys! For those who don’t know I lost my
job of over 11 years about 3 months ago, which was especially hard for
the farewells I had to say to people I’ve spent years working with day
in and day out. The silver lining to that event was the extra time I’m
having to refocus, and work on projects like this. I hope you enjoy the
site, find stuff you like, and that I may continue to create stuff that
you can enjoy in the future. Thanks for reading, and for lending your
ears.

I’ve taken this time to add McVaffe’s website, as well as Anosou’s, to the Artists tab on ThaSauce. I’ll be looking for more artist blogs and websites to add to the pages soon, and if you have any suggestions, be sure to let me know.

OC ReMix Special on NEW Groove Bias Drum Library!

Special offer for OCR members only! $10 off and $10 of each sale gets donated to the site! Click here to get the Kontakt 2/EXS/Halion version, and here for the Reason version.

I’m proud to announce that the newest Impact Soundworks sample library, Groove Bias: Vintage Drum Sounds, is officially available at a special price for OC ReMix members! Not only arebustatunez and I offering this sound collection at a discount, but for every copy we sell we’ll donate $10 to OCR.

Just remember to use the purchase links in THIS POST. We’ve spent over half a year working on this collection and we’re really proud of the final result – but don’t take our word for it… read on for more info + demos.

The goal of this project was to create a set of deeply sampled acoustic drumkits inspired by classic 50s, 60s and 70s records and the timeless breakbeats we all know and love. For decades, these sounds have been imitated and sampled over and over, but many producers have preferred to try and capture old kits with pristine, modern recording methods. Not so with this library. Our motto was “the more tubes, the better,” and we armed ourselves to the teeth with beat-up mics, analog gear, vintage drums and tape machines.

Key Features:

* Three custom drum kits and a set of percussion recorded at three separate studios
* Only classic kits, gear, mics and techniques used for a true vintage sound.
* 3,500 samples (4gb) of unlocked audio content for your editing pleasure.
* Recorded into Pro Tools|HD in 24/96 format (16/44.1 for NNXT)
* Intensive sampling – a minimum of 5 RRs and 5 velos per kit part, up to 10 RRs and 16 velos!
* Full kit patches AND individual components so you can construct your own Frankenstein kits.
* Custom scripted patches for Kontakt and combis in NN-XT.
* Intuitive GM mapping for compatibility with any project or MIDI.
* Simplified mixing; designed with a great sound right out of the box.
* Additional overhead/room patches for user-controllable ambiance.
* A total of five snares, four kicks, nine toms, three hats (closed, loose, open, pedal), two rides, two crashes, two splashes, two rims, handclaps, tambourine, shaker, agogo, bongos, woodblocks, cowbell and triangle!

A little about the kits…


“Superfreak” (Milkboy Studios, Ardmore, PA) – As the name suggests, most of this 60s Ludwig ‘Silver Comet’ kit is rumored to have originally belonged to a certain funk music icon. The drums were recorded using high-end ribbon mics into an all-analog signal path, most notably a 70s Neve console with a few busted channels and lots of character. Outboard processors in the chain included gear by Empirical Labs, Tube-Tech, and Anthony DeMaria Labs. The saturation present on the higher velocities of some of the sounds, like the kick and snare, came solely from high gain running through all the tubes; no overdrive, distortion, or compressor saturation was applied! 

“Tape” (The Audio Lab, Milville, NJ) – This one was a real hybrid, the centerpiece being a 30s Ludwig Pioneer Black Beauty snare. The kicks and toms were Tamburo original series, along with an extra 22″ Tama kick. Our hats, cymbals and rides were a mishmash of faded, junked up old metal… just what we wanted. Everything in the kit was recorded through an analog signal path then finally to an authentic, 24-track Otari tape machine before being dumped into Pro Tools. Mics used for this kit ranged in age and manufacturer. Various workhorse mics from EV, Sennheiser, Shure and Audix were used throughout, and to get the trashy, crunchy room sound, we used a trashy 70s General Electric cassette recorder mic along with an RCA SK-30. 

“Herodotus” (Real Music Media, Minneapolis, MN)) – John Gump (a.k.a. KVRAudio member Herodotus) recorded this drum set, which is the same make and model as Cream drummer Ginger Baker’s drums! Mics used were a pair of Neumann KM-184s and Sennheiser 441s plus a Royer R-121. All of this went into some serious outboard gear like a classic UA 1176, Manley Labs VOXBOX, UA 2-610S and Manley Vari-Mu before finally going to a TASCAM reel-to-reel tape machine to seal the deal.

You can purchase Groove Bias today for a special OCR price of $89 (KT/Hal/EXS) or $79 (NNXT) via PayPal: make sure to use these links as they’re for OCR members only!

Purchase -> Kontakt/EXS-24/Halion Version

Purchase -> Reason Version

10% of each sale will be donated to OCR! You’ll receive your download link within 24 hours (usually much faster.) While you’re waiting, check out the PDF product manual and the video/audio demos below!

Live Performance Video Demo (produced by Brandon Bush)

Jake Kaufman – “Slap Them Skins” / Drums Only (classic 60s funk)

Brandon Bush – “Spies Like Us” (Spy Hunter remix) / Drums Only (secret agent funk)

Andrew Aversa – “Ragol Weather” / Drums Only (synth/jazz fusion)

Andrew Aversa – “Acoustic DNB”

Virt (Jake Kaufman) – “World’s Most Wanted Wiener” (GB Edit) (MJ-style funk)

tefnek – “Big n’ Nasty” (big beat)

ps. Thanks to pixietricks for the Groove Bias logo and SgtRama for the product UI!

OverClocked ReMix StarCraft Tournament

StarCraft Tournament

garian posted on the OCReMix forums:

Ok guys! I was saying the other day on IRC that we should have a
small-potatoes SC tournament, and even offered to donate 20 dollars for
a prize (either cash or whatever you guys would deem appropriate)! I
was hearing that there is already some interest (most notably Nekofrog,
Tensei-san, and Battousai) and wanted to see if there were other folks
who’d want to get in on something like this.
I was figuring that we
could even record the replays with commentary if people were
comfortable having other folks watch their games… even though I doubt
many of us here are really “good enough” to warrant actually having a
VOD, it’d be nice to see our own flaws and compare strats.What do you guys think? You can message me on IRC or Steam (add me: https://steamcommunity.com/id/garianse) but please not here because I hardly ever check my messages or email.

Update May 22:
It seems most people want to have two tourneys, a 1v1 series and a 2v2
series pairing people by their skill. Each round of the tournament will
be decided by a best of 3 matches. I’m thinking that we should maybe
aim for a mid-to-late June date to begin playing, but I don’t want that
to be set in stone until we’ve got some more of the details hammered
out. If you’re wanting to “sign up,” go ahead and make a post with the
race you play and the name you’ll be playing under. Check this post for
future updates!

Nerdapalooza; Summer MAGFest? Well kinda…

Nerdapalooza
Most people know by now that I’ve been a resident of Florida all my life, and that I moved to Orlando a few years ago to attend Full Sail University‘s Computer Animation Bachelors of Science Degree problem. Since I didn’t have a car I lived pretty close to campus, and I got pretty familiar with the surrounding area in the Comic Shop down the street. It was through this comic shop that I got to meet one of my favorite musicians, as well as learned about Nerdapalooza where myf (aka Mythril Nazgul) would be performing just a few days later.
I planned to walk the 8 miles it’d take to get there if I couldn’t find a ride, and luckily I did find a ride, because 8 miles is a lot longer than it seems on MapQuest. When I got there I was greeted by myf himself, along with DJ Snyder of the Grammar Club, who happened to be sitting with MC Frontalot and Schaffer the Darklord. Kind of intense stuff, really. Until then I’d only heard/seen MC Frontalot through Penny Arcade and G4, but now he’s sitting in front of me. Inside I saw ytcracker going through songs on his laptop and I met artists like Random and Zealous1 and was completely blown away. I had no idea that Orlando was so rich with nerd culture (though I suppose I should) and I was told by quite a few people that it was getting bigger every day.
Well now Nerdapalooza 2009 is coming up, and it’s bigger than ever. So big that mc chris has already been confirmed as a guest, as well as Beefy and Shael Riley of the Grammar Club in their first ever live performance. Suzu and starla are making serious attempts to come join the awesome, rumor has it AE might be making an appearance, and I’ve recently heard via twitter that OCR may be cooking something up as well. You can bet ThaSauce’ll be out in full force, but what about you?
Nerdapalooza is the closest thing to a summer MAGFest we have going right now. A mid-year nerd gathering with more music than you can handle.
For up to the minute updates, and full line-up as it’s announced be sure to check out the Nerdapalooza website (which recently got a facelift) at http://nerdapaloozafest.com.

Web Game ‘Fathom’ feat. the music of Danny Baranowsky

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to talk to Danny Baranowsky about an upcoming game project for which he was writing music for.  Well, I didn’t have to wait too long, and now have had the opportunity to bring to you news of what appears to be an excellent game, with most excellent music.
Fathom.  A web game by Adam Saltsman, featuring the music of Danny Baranowsky was just recently released, and it is GOOD!

http://adamatomic.com/fathom/

The game features Danny’s music, which is completely chiptune, and most excellent.  In fact, if you’d like to listen to a track directly from the game, there is a free one linked in the article from Offworld.com, where Danny himself linked me to show off the new game and his music.

http://www.offworld.com/2009/05/gimme-indie-game-the-hidden-de.html

Also, be sure to check out db Soundworks, Danny’s personal website which featuers news as well as games he’s worked on.  It also features a chiptune jukebox where you can stream music right ont he site.  It’s absolutely awesome!

In review of the game, let’s just say I haven’t played through as much as I’d like to, but from what I’ve played so far, it looks very, very good.  Plenty of depth to it, and worth the time to just sit and play with it.

Thank you Danny for keeping me up to date with your works!

New ReMixing Site in the Works

Out of the shadows comes quintin3265 with a post on OverClocked ReMix:

Hi,

Even though I’ve been following the remixing community for close to
fifteen years, believe it or not, this is my first post here. I’d like
to call people’s attention to remixSite, a new video game music site
I’ve designed with the significant help of several others.

I started out trying to learn symfony and JQuery, then attended some
video game music concerts, and somehow ended up with an entire website
for originals and arrangements of game music.

The site allows users to post either final versions of songs or works
in progress, which are indicated by a separate flag. Songs can be rated
and reviewed, and artists can post updates to songs (for example, a
better quality sample or a remade passage). You can associate your
songs to original tracks and search to find if others have remixed
those tracks.

Take a look at http://test.remixsite.org
and see for yourself. The site needs further testing and I wouldn’t
consider it worthy of production use until people have messed around
with it a bit more. Feel free to upload some songs and post comments.
There is a bug tracking system set up and feature requests are welcome.

remixSite is not designed to compete with Overclocked Remix, as it has
a different structure and has no judging criteria. In fact, if people
are interested in remixSite, I would prefer to work with community
members to integrate it with the various music sites, instead of, for
example, creating yet another forum.

Comments welcome!

-Steve

In a short conversation in #ocremix everyone had a lot of different opions. Some people questioned the need for yet another site, while others embraced the idea of a functional idea solution to what VGMix has been trying to do for about 3 years.

I agree the site does a much better job filling the VGMix-esque niche and has a pretty different mission than that of OverClocked ReMix or ReMix:ThaSauce. Right now it has some fancy AJAX modules and some nifty effects (with problems of their own); the VGMdb integration is particularly nice, however I feel it’s just not far enough into the project to form any real opinions.

And finally: I think it’s particularly important to note that this site promotes synergy (like a boss).