Posts Tagged ‘Video Games’

T|M Produces New Radio Commercial for Video Game:
Racers’ Islands – Crazy Racers

Welcome back everyone.  Apologies for the lack of post last week.  The ol’ schedule is getting crazy.  The wedding is this upcoming Saturday, which keeps us quite busy.  And just a warning, please don’t expect a post early next week; Amber and I will be on our honeymoon.  However, I’ll be back closer to the end of the week, so I’ll try to post then!

On to the news!  This week brings an exciting addition to the list of advertisements that T|M has worked on.  Gaming Union signed an advertising deal with Zallag, a video game publisher based out of France.  They have several games coming out, but for the month of July, they are advertising one game called Racers’ Island – Crazy Racers.  GU and I sat down and discussed how we might best do this, and we came up with two commercials: a 15 second and a 30 second.  We had a load of fun making these and it was a lot of fun to act as the producer.  Each spot features new and original sound design.  It was a great eye opening experience for the GU staff to learn just how difficult it can be to fit in a lot of information into a tiny amount of time.  However, the results were really fantastic!  Check them out here:

15 Second Spot:

30 Second Spot:

The spots are being aired in all of the GU podcasts for the month of July, so be sure to check them out!  We also have more commercials coming, so don’t go far.  I’ve also been working on 2 new animation films, a flippin’ cool DeFranco remix, as well as a new/original track.  We’ve got LOTS of stuff coming up, so check back soon!

New Remix Under Review Installment:
Sephiroth’s Wake

Well, needless to say, it has been a busy week and a half since the last time I posted, but now I’ve been able to steal away for a short time to post again!  This week, we’re returning to Remix Under Review with a new track to look into!   Not too far back, I reviewed a piece from Final Fantasy 7 called Frozen Landscape. That arrangement was done for the OC Remix project Voices of the Lifestream.  Well, this time around, I’ll be reviewing the other remix I did for the project: Sephiroth’s Wake.

Source:

Remix:

As you can hear, the original source material doesn’t really lend itself to much interpretation.  Nobuo Uematsu really used the piece to create a very dark and ominous feel to this particular section of the game.  He didn’t seem to use any kind of tempo or rhythm scheme, so that was left up to me.

At the time of doing this remix, I was going though a major Harry Gregson-Williams kick and was really vibing his work on the Metal Gear Solid series.  Harry has a very particular style of music that he does very VERY well.  I classify it as the “infiltration” genre.  Check this YouTube Video to hear what I’m talking about.  After listening to this style from HGW a bit, I decided I wanted to try it.  From that idea, this remix was born and my goal was simple: What would it sound like if Harry Gregson-Williams composed music for Final Fantasy 7?

I never really anticipated being able to replicate the genre as well as I did, so I was extremely happy for how it turned out.  This piece was done in the late winter/early spring of 2007 which means this was in the day of me using nothing but Reason for any music I wrote.  I ended up primarily using the samples that come with the program when you buy it.  There were a few samples that I used from the Total REX sound library that really helped with the ambiance in addition to some ethnic drum samples from the Sonic Refills: World Percussion sample set.  The french horn sample came from a sample package I bought called Quantum Leap Brass (this is the same company that makes the orchestral sample package I currently use.  QL Brass is an OLD sample package they produced long ago).

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of incorporating orchestral elements in different genres, so you can imagine I had a great time with this piece!  The string samples came from Reason’s default library, and while they are certainly not the best things in the world, I’m still very pleased with how well they worked.  I’ve contemplated going back into this piece and replacing the orch samples with the awesome library I now have.  Create Sephiroth’s Wake 1.5, if you will.  That may happen, but maybe not.  Either way the track was a major stepping stone in my growth as a composer, programmer, and arranger and it has stood the test of time so far.  You can see what OTHERS HAVE SAID about the mix too!

T|M is working on several animations, original tracks, and in the process of planning a new potential project.  Be sure to check back very soon as there will be some very exciting updates on the way!

Original Track Composed for Video Game:
Jason’s Gallery

For those of you who may not remember, a few weeks back I announced that the Tweex Music site had been redesigned in some areas (read the original announcement HERE).  Along with the redesign, there were many new music pieces released.  This week, I want to officially release one of those and bring it to the forefront!

Spring semester of 2005, I was involved with a 3D game design class at The University of Georgia.  I was brought on to compose original music for the game that the students decided to make.  It was quite an ambitious class with a lot of great talent.  The students came up with the concept of a 3D gallery space that could feature various forms of art.  To say the very least, I was very surprised by this decision as most of the classes before this one did some kind of action game.  However, the opportunity FORCED me out of my typical comfort zone and the idea that I came up with ended up being a pretty decent concept!

Now, I openly admit that my real “birth” into electronic composition didn’t start until Spring of 2006 (more than a year later) so the piece I’m showcasing this week is NOT the original, but rather the rearrangement of the piece.  My execution of the original was decent for the time I did it, but it certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the new arrangement.  I’m sure I’ll do a Before/After installment for this piece in the near future, so be sure to watch for it.

However, onto the music.  The piece was inspired by some of the softer acoustic pieces that Jason Mraz had written around that time, but being as big of a fan as I am for orchestral fusion, I wanted those elements in there as well when I originally wrote it.  Now that my library of samples is much more advanced, I was able to turn this piece into what I had envisioned over 5 years ago!  See for yourself:

The piece really turned out well and, if I ever have the opportunity, I would love to be able to put this into the original game.  C’est la vie I suppose .  Until next time, enjoy the music!

Tweex Music Website Gets New Design!

T|M is back this week with some exciting additions!  Website redesign, new music, new videos, and a new sleek look is what has been brought to the table! After spending some time looking over the site, there have been some changes that have been screaming at me, so I decided to go ahead and work on redesigning a few of the pages.

First challenge was the MUSIC Page.  The old version was stale and contained a lot of text.  Most importantly, it didn’t showcase the music that T|M has done over the past few years at all, really.  So, after some thought and hard work, the page has been completely over hauled to allow listeners to hear a LOT of the work that Tweex Music has produced most recently.  You can check out the “Commercial Music” section that features music from advertisements, film, TV, theatre, podcasts, and much more.  If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, “Personal Projects” will allow you to listen to pieces that I’ve done for fun here and there!  And if all else fails, “Video Game Remixes” will let you escape in nostalgia to a time you may have spent as a kid!

Some of you may have already noticed that the old SFX Page has suddenly disappeared.  Fear not!  This was by design…or re-design rather.  What has replaced it is the new and sleek VIDEO Page.  All the audio work that T|M has done for a video can be found here!  Thumbnails for all the different productions has been made to help get rid of the wall of text that plagued the old SFX page.  The new layout really helps show the diversity of the productions that T|M has worked on!

Finally, the CONTACT Page was tackled!  A brand new layout very similar to the new VIDEO Page helps show everyone the MANY ways that you all can contact me to talk about productions you may be working on, projects that may need audio, or just to chew the fat about the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy…uh, I mean the Speed channel.

All the pages have never before seen/heard content on them.  Check out the new music and videos and enjoy the brand new layout!

T|M Composes New Theme Music for Podcast Series:
LiveWareNetwork

Tweex Music brings new music and the announcement of a new GU and T|M podcast series this week!  We have been in the process of developing a new podcast show for a while and Friday was the day that the pilot episode was released.  The show is called LiveWareNetwork and it focuses on the VG industry, but in a very different way.  LWN reports, previews and reviews downloadable/indie games from the Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and the WiiWare Channel.  If the game industry follows the paths of the music and movie industry, independent games have quite the future ahead of them, and we want to make sure people know what to look for!  The show will air every other Friday, so expect to see another episode on April 30th.  You can listen to the show or you can subscribe to the iTunes channel.  I highly recommend iTunes as it will let you download each episode as SOON as they are released!

When we were discussing the concept of the show, I began to think about what kind of music would match the tone.  Indie music is only defined by how diverse it can truly be, so one particular genre would never fully define it.  I found inspiration from the Katamari Damacy franchise and the truly incredible music that has come from it.  From that spawned the idea for the theme song that we are now using.  I wanted to create a track that was ridiculously catchy, memorable, and that had infusions of many different genres in it.  Well, I am quite happy with what we have as it contains acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals, mandolin, electro drums, acoustic drums, human beat boxing, organ, piano, orchestral strings, synth leads, a horn section, and whistling.  To hear just how well this worked, take a listen here:

Like the other podcast shows that GU has, we wanted to create internal cues for the episodes to help accent the change in segments.  LWN required 4 different cues that all came out very well!  Each cue represents a certain section of the main theme.  And before any of you comment, yes, I know that the beginning of the fourth cue sounds like the beginning of “Free Bird”…..it wasn’t intentional .  Take a listen to them here:

LWN has already been received VERY well and we are excited to see how it will grow.  In the meantime, enjoy the music, check out the podcast, and subscribe to the iTunes channel!  Also, check back here soon as T|M has a couple new projects that will be released.  You can look forward to a new string arrangement for a old pop song and a new animation with custom sound and music!  Don’t go too far!

New Voice Actress Interview from Final Fantasy XIII AND New Music:
Oerba Yun Fang

T|M is back this week with the announcement of a new interview.  This time around, Gaming Union in association with Tweex Music has produced a conversation with Rachel Robinson, the voice of Oerba Yun Fang from Final Fantasy XIII.  Rachel talks about her past in voice acting, her experience in voicing Fang, and some funny stories from the recording booth!  She is a great actress and brings a lot of information to the table for anyone interested in the “behind the scenes” from one of the biggest VG titles in 2010.  Make sure that you listen to the interview: FANG INTERVIEW.

T|M and GU produced a new promotion for the show to remind people to tune in and ask questions.  This gave us the opportunity to compose a new piece of music!  This interview falls under the Final Fantasy Union podcast series, so we wanted the promo music to reflect the FFU Main Theme.  Well, after some work and discussion, we created something that sounds incredible.  For those of you who just want to rock out to the music, you can listen to it right here:

This is actually the THIRD Final Fantasy XIII interview that GU and T|M have produced.  You can hear the two previous interviews, Snow (Troy Baker) and Lightning (Ali Hillis), on the Gaming Union site, iTunes, or you can simply click on their names here in the post!  Be sure to listen to them as they really help give a great idea as to what goes into these kinds of projects!  There are also other interviews to come, so check back soon on the GU site.  In the meantime, enjoy!

New Remix Under Review Installment:
Flying with the Funk

T|M is back this week with a new installment of Remix Under Review and this time around, we’re taking things back into the past with a classic: Donkey Kong Country.  I have been a huge fan of this game every since I bought it for my SNES years ago.  OCRemix came out with a remix album a few years back for the game and there is one track from the project that is still one of my favorite remixes of all time.  It was done by composer and remixer Jordan “bLiNd” Aguirre and his track is called Aerofunknamics AND is a slammin’ house track!  Well, years after the remix was released, I decided to do a remix of the source material myself.

The source tune:

The Remix:

This remix represents one of the first tracks I did in Logic but there is also a healthy dose of Reason in there as well.  The main elements of the track came from several different third party plugins.  The drums primarily came from Sylus RMX with some additional help from Native Instrument’s Battery; the main synth lead came from Native Instrument’s Pro-53;  the bass came from one of Logic’s preset samples; the majority of the synths came from Reason, and most of those came from the Thor sample collection.

When I sat down to do this track, it actually started out as an original track and not a remix.  After working on it a little, I heard the theme song from the game fit into the track, so I decided to turn this into a full fledged remix.  Since I haven’t done a lot of just straight up electro Drum n’ Bass tracks, I wanted to try something using the new production tools I had at my disposal.  It was great to dive into the genre.  The automation with the LFO, filtering, gating, and everything else was a blast to work with.  I’ve never used the mod wheel on my keyboard as much as I did for this track!  This track, while it has the melody line in throughout, was an attempt to pay more attention to the textures of the sounds and the soundscape of the whole track.  I’m quite pleased with the results.  This track also marks the first ever synth solo that I’ve done for a song.  Not being much of a piano player, I can can say with complete pride, that the solo was played live with minimal quantization!  All in all, I feel the track turned out very well.

This ends another episode of Remix Under Review!  As always, be sure to check back soon for new updates as they will be here very soon!

Interview with Shanelle Gray, Actress for Kingdom Hearts and New Music!

T|M is proud to present the first of several interviews done alongside Gaming Union!  This first interview comes from the Kingdom Hearts game series and features the talent of Shanelle Gray, who voices the character of Larxene from Kingdom Hearts 2 and Re: Chain of Memories.  Shanelle talks about her involvement in the series, how she got into the franchise, her background in voice acting, and what the future may bring for her and her fans!

GU released a promo for the interview that features a new composition from T|M.  The track is orchestral in nature and follows the same genre as the Kingdom Hearts Union main theme (which can be heard HERE).  For those of you who have played KH, the music was crafted to sound much like the battle music that might be heard in a KH game in a location like Traverse Town or something similar.  You can hear the promo here: LARXENE INTERVIEW PROMO.  And you can hear the music by itself here:

The interview can be found in several places.  You can listen to it directly here: LARXENE INTERVIEW.  You can also subscribe on iTunes to the podcast series that produces all the interviews.  GU has released a few other interviews such as Richard Epcar and Quinton Flynn, and I strongly recommend checking them out.  There are many more on the way, so subscribe so you can check them out as they are released!

New updates coming very soon!

T|M Introduces New Podcast, New Remix, and New Project Announcement!

Greetings to all!  It has been quite sometime since I last posted news here and there is much to cover.  First allow me to announce that the Tweex Music studio has officially relocated from Nashville to Atlanta, GA.  The move went smoothly and quickly and I was “down” for less than 48 hours which is much better than I expected!  Now that things are back up and there is a slight lull in project work, let’s play some catch up!

T|M has been very busy working with Gaming Union for the past couple weeks and has produced several new podcast episodes and several new pieces of music, but more on the music in a future post (coming soon).  However, GU released Final Fantasy Union Episode 35 yesterday and it is quite the special show.  The episode is GU’s focus on Final Fantasy XIII (13), which was released about a week ago.  Also, in this episode, I (Brian) was a guest on the show and sat down with the guys to discuss Square Enix’s recent decision to terminate its music department.  It was great to be on the show and talk about an area of the music/sound industry that I have really been experiencing in the past couple of years: outsourcing/freelancing.

Episode 35 also marked a debut remix/rearrangement from Final Fantasy XI!  I released the first FFXI rearrangement back in July of 09, Battling Despair as Dawn.  This new Remix is entitled City of the Humes and comes from the source tune, The Republic of Bastok.  For those not familiar with the game, this is the theme for one of the major cities.  The original song is unbelievably catchy and the rearrangement turned out exceptionally well.  In the show, the hosts asked me a few questions about the process of making the mix and why I did it.  Be sure to check the full episode out.  For those of you are are interested in hearing the section of the show that I’m in, you can can find an edit of it here: Podcast Edit with Brian.  And make sure that you check out the new remix which is here:

The debut of the remix also marks the first “announcement” of a project that T|M is working on.  Details will be forthcoming, but there is much more on the way!  Anyone who is a fan of Final Fantasy 11 or orchestral/cinematic music will be pleased with what’s to come! Take a listen to the show to get a little more info!

There are several new projects that T|M has recently completed and will be announced very soon!  A new string arrangement for a classic song and a new airline commerical are among a few of them but more info on that soon.  Don’t go too far as there will be more updates VERY soon (i.e. the next day or two)!

New Music for Gaming Union Podcast Series: Kingdom Hearts Union

T|M returns this week to present the final installment of new music for all of the Gaming Union (GU) podcast series.  The last two weeks, we’ve presented new music for Final Fantasy Union and MiniGUP.  Last, but certainly not least, we bring you the music for Kingdom Heart Union!

T|M and GU teamed up in August of 2009 to work on the theme song for the newly created KHU podcast series.  The theme was inspired by a song from the Kingdom Hearts game and was received especially well!  Needless to say, when we evaluated the work we needed to do in the KHU series, creating a new theme song wasn’t one of them!  T|M posted a news article about the new theme back in August, but you can listen to it right here:

Today Episode 8 was released on the GU site.  We put in a lot of time and energy in creating new internal cues that matches the tone, genre, and feeling of the main theme.  In other words, we wanted to create epic orchestral cues that each had their own little theme.  The results are nothing short of fantastic and the music has already been complimented by the GU listeners. For those of you who would like to hear the cues by themselves, then go no further:

Now that the Gaming Union podcasts have been addressed from a music standpoint, we are setting out to provide new material for all the GU followers to enjoy and experience.  Needless to say, don’t stray too far and make sure you check back in often for new updates to the Gaming Union repertoire.  And as always, be sure to come back to T|M for other exciting updates as there are quite a few on the way!