| 06/03/2004:Emperor's
Tomb music gets GANG awards |
Clint Bajakian's Indy score gets nominations
in 4 categories
The Game Audio Network Guild (www.audiogang.org)
has announced its 2nd Annual G.A.N.G. nominations. Clint Bajakian's orchestral
score for the LucasArts title Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
has got nominations in four(!) different categories: "Best Live Performance
Recording", "Best Interactive Score", "Best Arrangement of a Non-Original
Score" and last, but definitely not least "Music of the Year".
These awards are so important since the
nominees have been chosen by many other top composers and sound designers
of the industry. The winners will be announced during a ceremony held at
this year's Game Developers Conference.
Congratulations to Clint Bajakian and his
company BA Sound!
Link: Complete
nominees list @ music4games.net
|
| 29/12/2003:Another
new fan remix |
Zak Mc Kracken remix
We've been sent a fan remix of the Zak
McKracken main theme. Check it out!
Secret Weapons over Normandy Soundtrack
LucasArts has released another soundtrack
CD: Michael Giacchino's score of Secret Weapons over Normandy that
has been played by a 76-piece orchestra, a 50-person choir and a 10-member
Taiko drums ensemble can now be enjoyed on 2 Audio-CDs (30 tracks and a
total playing time of over 80 minutes). The good news for all the people
living outside North America: This soundtrack has been produced in cooperation
with La-La
Land Records and is sold world-wide on their website.
Link: SWON
soundtrack
Source: Mixnmojo.com
|
| 22/11/2003:New
fan music |
3 new fan songs
We've got new fan music. Batu
Eritenel has sent us two great remixes of Escape from Monkey Island
cues (the Scummbar theme and the Menu music). They are very stylish and
special, you should definitely give them a try! Also, Humpert
Matthew has created a remix of the opening music from Tie Fighter.
Link: Fan music
Another interview with Peter McConnell
Besides our own
interview with Peter McConnell, our host Mixnmojo.com
(which is finally back to live) has also published an interview with this
brilliant composer. The interview mainly focuses on the upcoming Psychonauts
and the canceled Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels. It also contains
three exclusive music cues from Psychonauts.
Link: Peter
McConnell @ Mixnmojo.com
|
| 04/11/2003:Photo
fun |
Exclusive photo material from recording
sessions
LucasArts has provided us with some exclusive
photo material from the recording sessions with live orchestras for Indiana
Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, Gladius, Secret Weapons
over Normandy and Wrath Unleashed. If you always were interested
in learning how such orchestra recordings are handled and want to have
a look behind the scenes, check out these pictures now!
Link: Photo
Gallery
|
| 27/10/2003:Exclusive
interview with Peter McConnell! |
Interview with
the composer of many LucasArts games
Peter McConnell worked for about 10 years
as an in house musician at LucasArts. He has been co-composer on Monkey
Island 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of
the Tentacle, Sam and Max Hit the Road, and he has been lead
composer on Full Throttle and Grim Fandango. After his departure
from LucasArts, he has also been hired as a freelancer to contribute to
the score of Monkey Island 4, and is currently working for Doublefine
Productions on Tim Schafer’s upcoming Psychonauts.
We had the chance to ask him a few questions
about all these games, and the result is a really long and interesting
interview. This is the second part of our special. Expect nice foto material
from recording sessions for Gladius, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's
Tomb, Secret Weapons over Normandy and Wrath Unleashed
soon.
Link: Peter
McConnell interview
|
| 30/09/2003:Exclusive
interview with Jeff Kliment! |
Interview with
the manager of the LucasArts sound department
IMuse Island today
offers you an exclusive interview with Jeff Kliment. Learn more about voice-acting,
sound and music production for LucasArts games directly from the source.
This interview is
the first part of a big special that will go on during the upcoming days.
Expect other interesting features soon!
Link: Jeff
Kliment Interview
|
| 15/08/2003:World
Premier of Michael Giacchino's Secret Weapons Over Normandy Score! |
Listen to the main theme now!
Music4Games
has now uploaded an exclusive MP3 of the five minutes long main theme from
Secret
Weapons Over Normandy. You can download the MP3 (6,79 MB) directly
from the article
that we already mentioned in our last news entry. Tell us your impressions
in the forum!
|
| 13/08/2003:Back
to life |
About hackers, servers and admins
A few months ago, our host, Mixnmojo.com,
has been attacked by a hacker (there was a security lack in the forum script
from one of the hosted sites). Normally, this wouldn't have been too big
of an issue, but unfortunately, during a reinstall of the server's operating
system (to shut the hacker out), all the data was lost by the admin of
the colocation facility... no backups available.
Since this situation is quite intolerable,
Mixnmojo.com
decided to go to a new location. A totally new server at a totally new
facility with a totally new admin. The hard-drive had been sent to a recovery
facility, and they are still waiting for their data. To read more about
this whole, dreadful story, check out their temporary
page or this
forum thread.
Fortunately, iMuse Island's whole data
was still on my private hard drive, so it has now been possible to reopen
the site. Special thanks to DJG from Mojo for setting up our server space
and domain again!
Anyway, sorry for the inconvenience and
welcome back! Also, some new features are in the pipeline right now and
will be published soon!
RTX Red Rock: Official Soundtrack
CD and interview
An official soundtrack from RTX Red
Rock has been released by LucasArts. It features 14 full length tracks
and can be ordered at the LucasArts
Company Store for $12,95 (together with a free comic).
Also, Music4Games
has published an interview
with Dave Levison, composer of the music in RTX Red Rock. You can also
download two MP3s with music from the game there.
Wrath Unleashed: Interview about
the live performance with Northwest Sinfonia
Music4Games
has also published an interview
with Jack Wall. Jack Wall has composed the music for LucasArts' upcoming
Wrath
Unleashed. This soundtrack has been performed by Northwest Sinfonia,
the same orchestra that has also been used to perform Clint Bajakian's
score for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. They have used 57
instrumentalists and 16 choir singers for this recording session.
Secret Weapons over Normandy:
Article about the live performance with Northwest Sinfonia
Similarly, Music4Games
has also published an article
about the music in Secret Weapons over Normandy. Yet again, LucasArts
has used the same orchestra, the Northwest Sinfonia. For this game, they
have used a 76-piece orchestra, a 50-person(!) choir and a 10-member Taiko
drums ensemble. As already mentioned before, the score has been composed
by Michael Giacchino, who has also composed the music for Call of Duty
and the Medal of Honor series.
So, with Indiana Jones and the Emperor's
Tomb, Secret Weapons over Normandy and now Wrath Unleashed,
LucasArts has already used Northwest Sinfonia for three game soundtracks
by now. A new tradition? Discuss this new trend in our forum!
We are looking for Frank Polster
Are you Frank Polster? If so, please click
here!
|
| 31/05/2003:A
few composer details |
Sam and Max: Freelance police (Mark
Griskey)
Adventuregamers.com
revealed in their interview
with lead designer Mike Stemmle that the soundtrack of Freelance Police
will be composed by Mark Griskey.
So who is Mark Griskey, you might ask?
Well, we've found the answer in the "Ask LucasArts" section of LucasArts.com
(check out the entry
of 19/07/2002; free member account required):
Mark is LucasArts' new in house composer.
You can hear his work in the "LucasArts Logo Animations" video (directly
downloadable at 20th.lucasarts.com;
the music from this video is also featured as "20th Anniversary Fanfare"
on LucasArts' new soundtrack CD).
He is also currently composing the orchestral
soundtrack for Gladius (from which some cues can be heard in the
new E3 video on the official
page; a few sketches are also featured on the soundtrack CD).
Mark has also been involved in the music
production of Jedi Starfighter, Racer Revenge and Obi
Wan.
Secret Weapons over Normandy (Michael
Giacchino)
Our last news is being confirmed by Mixnmojo.com's
new E3
feature of Secret Weapons over Normandy: the game score will
indeed be performed by a real orchestra. However, the orchestra seems to
become even bigger than we thought: they now talk about a 109 piece orchestra
(instead of a 90 piece orchestra). Mixnmojo also reveals that Michael Giacchino
will compose this orchestral score, that even might be released on a soundtrack
CD.
Michael Giacchino is perhaps best known
to gamers for his work on the Medal of Honor games, but he has also
composed soundtracks for many other games, movies and television series.
Find out more about this musician on his official
homepage.
|
| 25/05/2003:
Fan
music and news |
New fan music
Humpert
Matthew has submitted two new fan remixes, one from Star Wars: Dark
Forces and one from Sam and Max: Hit the Road. Check
them out!
First music from upcoming LucasArts
titles
LucasArts has published new video clips
from their upcoming titles on their E3
page. The music from following games seems to be particularly interesting:
Sam
and Max: Freelance Police: Great Jazz tunes in the style of Hit
the Road, just with a way better sound quality. Absolutely impressive!
Full
Throttle: Hell on Wheels: Groovy Hard Rock! As mentioned before,
Peter McConnell will compose the original music for this game. According
to Mixnmojo.com,
Grammy nominated slide guitarist Roy Rogers (roy-rogers.com)
will be one of the live musicians used to perform this original score.
Besides, some well known bands (that are yet to be announced) will also
be contracted to provide some of the songs. Read Mojo's preview
to learn more about the music in this game.
Secret
Weapons over Normandy: Glorious orchestral score. By the way, we've
learned that the soundtrack for this game will be performed by a 90
piece orchestra!
Gladius:
The orchestral score seems to be slightly inspired by Carl Orff’s style
(e.g. the use of ostinatos). Besides, the music also reminds us a little
bit of the movie soundtrack from Gladiator (especially towards the
end).
Poll at lucasarts.com
For your information: LucasArts.com
is currently running a Quick Poll with this question: "Which member exclusive
feature would you be most interested in?"
"Downloadable music" is one of the options,
and it is currently second with 19% of all votes!
|
| 03/05/2003:
News
roundup |
Peter McConnell to compose Full Throttle
2 score
According to our dear host, The
International House of Mojo, the soundtrack for Full
Throttle: Hell on Wheels will be written by no one less than Peter
McConnell, who has also composed the brilliant music in Grim Fandango
and has also been one of the composers for Monkey Island 2 and 4,
Indiana
Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle,
Sam
and Max Hit the Road. He is currently also writing music for Tim Schafer's
Psychonauts.
He has also written the orchestral
parts in the original Full Throttle and has been the man to
"bring in" the Gone Jackals. However, the Gone Jackals won't be involved
in the sequel. But perhaps Peter McConnell will find another band to play
some live music for this game?
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
available for PC and X-Box
Emperor's
tomb is out now for a couple of weeks, and the original music
written by Clint Bajakian really works fantastic in the game! Each location
has its own musical flavor (for example, you do hear some chinese references
in Hong Kong or some calm flute tones in Ceylon), but it all fits together
in one coherent orchestral style.
By the way, the music is saved as MP3 files
(that are fortunately not premixed with the ambient sound) on the CD, so
you can also enjoy it outside the game.
A PC demo
has also been released, so those of you who don't own the game yet can
already listen to some new music there.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
On the official
site, you can now download a few music clips from the game. Unlike
most other Star Wars games, this game does not use the movie score from
John Williams, but will contain original music composed by Jeremy Soule.
To learn more about this composer, check out his official page JeremySoule.com.
Soundtrack news
Adventuregamers
has published a very interesting review
of the Grim Fandango soundtrack. Be sure to give it a read!
After having been sold out almost the first
day of its appearance, The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks
is now again available for people who live outside North America at SynSoniq
records (unfortunately, the price is still quite high). Those who live
in the United States or Canada can of course still buy it at the LucasArts
company store.
|
| 14/02/2003:
Indiana
Jones: First music teasers downloadable now! |
Finally, LucasArts.com
has uploaded the promised clips from Indiana Jones and the Emperor's
Tomb. Clint Bajakian did a fantastic job, and the symphony orchestra
that was used during the recordings just sounds awesome!
You can download two great clips here,
or read more about the recording sessions here.
By the way, the version of the Raiders
March that plays in the background of the official
page also seems to have been re-recorded for this game, as it sounds
slightly different than in the movies (with some nice French horn variations
etc.). You can download it directly here
on iMuse Island.
Don't forget to tell us your opinion about
these clips in our Forum!
|
| 09/01/2003:
Soundtrack
review |
Happy New Year
First of all, I wish a happy new year to
all of you. (Well, better late than never, you know.) May all your dreams
and hopes come true!
The Best of LucasArts Original Soundtracks
Finally, LucasArts has decided to release
another official soundtrack CD with some of their best original game music.
The CD, which has been edited to celebrate LucasArts' 20th anniversary,
contains tracks from The Dig, Outlaws, Grim Fandango
and the Monkey Island series.
Read our review
about LucasArts' new "Best of" soundtrack CD now.
Fan Music
Once again, Steve
Mc Crary has written a new fan medley, called "Shades of Dark Forces".
As you may have guessed by the title, it's a medley with songs from Outlaws...
no, just teasing you, it is of course a medley from the classic Star
Wars game Dark Forces. Check it out!
Clint Bajakian Interviews
As we mentioned already some time ago,
Clint Bajakian has written an original soundtrack for the upcoming Indiana
Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. What makes this score so special, is
the fact that LucasArts hired a whole symphony orchestra (72 musicians)
to perform this score. You can read about this new Indy score in the following
interviews:
Music4Games
Interview
Mixnmojo
Interview
Also, be sure to check out lucasarts.com
regularly, because they promised
to publish some clips from that score this January.
Conroy Bumpus finally sounds like in
the old days
In the United Kingdom, LucasArts has released
a compilation called The
Entertainment Pack, featuring fully windows compatible versions of
Sam
and Max Hit the Road, Full Throttle, The Dig and
Grim
Fandango (well, the latter was of course already a Windows title).
I've contacted Aaron
Giles, one of the programers that was responsible for this compilation,
asking him if the midi music in Sam and Max would sound "right"
(on many new sound cards, the music from older LucasArts games sounded
pretty bad, with wrong instruments, sometimes even percussion instruments
playing as a piano, which caused some awful disharmonies). This is what
he had to assure us:
"At least for Sam & Max, the original
GMIDI stream is sent through DirectMusic. DM has a pretty decent (IMHO)
software GMIDI synth that will play the music."
|
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News archive
|
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Top features:
Interview
Peter McConnell
Interview
Jeff Kliment
Interview
Clint Bajakian
Exclusive Photos
(orchestra recordings)
The Music of
Monkey Island
4
Soundtrack
Review
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