1) My friend C-Jeff, a crazy talented chiptuner, runs a label called Ubiktune which has rocked the chiptune world, with its incredible quarterly seasonal albums, featuring some of the best and brightest in the scene, like Malmen, Lunar, Shnabubula, and Coda. The latest release is Autumntunes, which would be one of my favorite releases of the year even if I hadn’t contributed a track to it.

I wrote a J-rock-ish song about an ancient Japanese Buddhist monk who sojourned in China, following his writings about traveling the autumn months, armed with a chaingun and targeting computer. Features simulations of such instruments as the chinese Erhu violin, the Yangqin hammered dulcimer, and the shakuhachi, a legendary Japanese bamboo flute favored by the Fuke Zen school, and later by Peter Gabriel and that one Revlon commercial.

2) They interviewed me over at Original Sound Version for Red Faction: Guerrilla. Sorry if none of it makes sense, I was pretty amped at the time.

So: I’m relocating to northern LA at the beginning of January.

Wayforward Technologies, my favorite game developer and longtime client, has enjoyed great success lately, and they have enough going on to keep an audio guy busy year-round. So I’ve made the utterly nerve-wracking choice to leave Volition, despite the incredibly good time I’ve had there, and be that audio guy.

So.. at Magfest 2010, I intend to celebrate with whichever of you foolios can make the trip out there.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Starting December 18, I’m back in the freelance business too. Street team, start your engines — it’s open season. I”m especially angling for iPhone and Flash games I can take on in my spare time, but I’m going to shoot for everything from handhelds to feature films — I want to make music and/or sounds for anything I can, and keep meeting brilliant people who love what they do.

Other reviewers, however, think audio is as worthy of critique as any other aspect of a game’s presentation and style — whether or not it stands out on its own, or involves unusual hype or big names. My rainbow hat goes off to them! Here is a sampling of what they have said about Red Faction Guerrilla:

“…the various explosions, gunfire, building collapses, and other sound effects are uniformly impressive. The solid “thunk” you’ll hear every time you use your sledgehammer is especially satisfying.” –Gamespot.com

“…The audio quality is likewise just as wonderful in that the sound effects are full and rich. The weapon sounds are accurate and that naturally makes for better game play. The music really adds a great dimension to the game.” –GameSHOUT.com

“…the weapons look the part and sound authentic, and the quaking of toppling towers and the thunder of explosions have real weight to them. Throw in some excellent music that genuinely adds tension and substance without overpowering the action..” AceGamez.co.uk

“Some serviceable music tracks and sound effects.” –IGN. Oh, IGN. :))) But hey, that’s 7 more words than sound got from Kotaku or 1up, and Destructoid used the word “sounds” twice as a synonym of “seems” without ever talking about audio. Come on, guys, seriously?

“Forget vengeance. Forget liberty. The cheesy action movie story is background noise to the sound of 12 bombs crippling a skyscraper, tires tearing across a craggy Mars, and a sledgehammer smashing the skull of EDF infantry. Good times.” –Gameshark

“Almost as good as the graphics is the professional voice acting and brilliant soundtrack that just adds to the atmosphere of the title. The sound effects truly RUMBLE through a surround sound system and sometimes you need to play this game loud.” –ImpulseGamer.com

“Lets start out with the cons…or con of this game. I couldn’t wrap my mind around any problems beside the music, which is annoying. After you simply turn off the music, the game doesn’t really have any problems at all.” –Gamer-pulse.com

“The sound effects are decent but not extremely remarkable and the music is absolutely top notch. Yes, out of all the noise, booms and bangs the game offers, the most aurally pleasant aspect is the symphonic yet futuristic music that surrounds and adjusts to whatever may be happening at that given moment. They are definitely the kind of tunes you will find yourself humming after shutting off the game for the night.” — Game-Over.com

“com agrado que se ouve por vezes uma música de fundo orquestral que tanto prazer voz irá dar. Não opta por OST com músicas a passar na rádio mas sim por uma abordagem mais clássica.” –Eurogamer.pt

“I wouldn’t mind a stand-alone soundtrack of this game, the music is excellent and the composer has done a top job of capturing each musical theme for the various sectors. The music is dynamic so it shifts to match what’s going on and can serve as an audio cue for impending doom.” –GamesXtreme.com

“Sound: 10.0. Stunningly great music, crystal clear sound effects (though they need a little tweaking to not have the music drown out some radio chatter) and wonderful voice acting. This is treat for your sound system.” –TotalPlaystation.com

If you’ve gotten this far and are wishing you could post reviews like this about something you worked on.. Well, come work across the hall from me! I have a never-ending bowl of jellybeans, pixel art posters with carefully hidden naked girls, and something like 825 terabytes of sound libraries.

Paris-based Yullaby has been climbing the ranks since 2006, and they are very close to releasing an awesome-looking puzzle game on WiiWare called Magnetis. It has a really cool mechanic and an incredible soundtrack by Nino himself. Check it out:

http://wiiware.nintendolife.com/news/2009/06/magnetis_wiiware_trailer

Support startup developers! Keep an eye out, or check back here often; I’ll announce as soon as it’s through Nintendo approval and released to the public.

Know that I’ve shifted some priorities today, with the intent to send him off musically through my own expression of lifelong gratitude and love.

A fine fingerstyle guitarist, banjo picker, bass player, and singer, he taught me never to stop learning, to always be curious, and that sometimes people will think you’re nuts, no matter how hard you try to explain yourself, and that’s okay. It was following in his example that I became a self-taught musician. After a childhood during which he and Mom could easily have justified shipping me one-way to Mogadishu, I have grown up to feel mighty proud of all the good he’s done — not just for me, but for hundreds (thousands?) of students.

The local newspaper had this to say about him, last year:

Sixth-graders at Hammocks Middle School can’t wait to get to their science class. Walking up the stairs with anticipation, they already can hear their teacher, Harvey Kaufman, warming up.

Kaufman has been teaching science for 14 years at Hammocks Middle, 9889 Hammocks Blvd. When school began this year and he was faced with a less-than-desirable textbook, Kaufman searched for a way to increase interest in learning. While outlining his next lecture, the words on the paper formed into a song, and he grabbed an upright bass. Immediately, he had his first song, Heart of the Matter. Since then, Kaufman has been combining his passion for teaching science with his love for playing the guitar and creating a series of songs that teach his students basic scientific concepts.

I think it’s pretty easy to see how this kind of mindset has affected me, and made it clear that I can do anything I set out to, as long as I do it passionately. Now, conveniently, it’s my turn to make my Dad proud:

Red Faction Guerrilla, my first big next-gen console game, is now in stores, with ads all over TV. It is an action game set on Mars with a destruction simulation that antiquates anything seen before. The game is based around the fact that you can destroy any structure — no hiding place is safe, no building too fortified — and when you do, it breaks apart realistically, not in a pre-determined manner, but with real physics. Glass raining down, rebar everywhere, clouds of dust. It is literally a summer blockbuster.

For an audio team, this is a huge challenge. On top of the normal list of sounds any game needs, we had to design and perfect a system that hooked into the physics simulation, and create a massive array of breaking, crunching, rolling, tearing, shearing, and shattering noises for each type of material. Buildings groan audibly under stress, bridges create a hellish racket as they catastrophically fail, and each chunk of concrete makes its own distinct smack as it rains down on the rusty Martian landscape.

If you can’t already tell, I’m extremely passionate about this game, and highly satisfied with the results. I did the following things:

- Collaborated with Raison Varner, Dan Wentz, and Josh Davidson (all current or former in-house Volition sound men) to compose all of the in-game music. Tim Wynn scored the titles and cinematic cut-scenes with a live orchestra, and I tied his various themes back into the in-game music, so the whole presentation was cohesive and flowing. Music4Games wrote an article featuring the score.

- Revised, mixed, processed, and implemented all of the above music. We used a Raison-designed interactive music system which reacts to how badly you’ve pissed off the bad guys at any given time. It transitions between spacey underscore and two intensities of heroic combat. Each of these, in turn, consists of dozens of segments several bars long, which traverse a flowchart semi-randomly. It was important to write each segment with this in mind, since you never know which of 6 other segments may come next. There are several distinct “collections” of segments, each with about an hour of material, which are introduced as the story unfolds. I also wrote 6 shorter but more intense “collections” to get your blood pumping when you’re engaged in a mission, and for a certain activity where you race a timer to inflict property damage.

- Did a ton of sound design under my freakishly energetic coordinator Kate Nelson, who organized everything from music to voice acting under ridiculous pressure. I made sounds for weapon firing and handling, “clutter object” collisions / explosions / ambient noises, multiplayer “backpack” power-ups, the main destruction system which is the centerpiece of the game (polishing and revising Raison’s first pass), the little fanfare that plays on the news kiosks (the notes spell out the name of the game’s villains, or “EDF”), and various odds and ends.

- Stress-tested functionality of music and sound with the help of programmers Steve DeFrisco and Aaron Gresch, and ultra-skilled QA Testers Kelly McMorris, Mike Bianca, and Kristi Kaufman, who ensured that few audio bugs were shipped in the final game, and that I kept my sanity.

So, Dad, it’s my hope that by relishing every minute of life, using the talents I inherited to their fullest, and loving my family throughout challenges and celebrations alike, I can make you feel justified not only for the twinkle in your eye in 1980, but for resisting the near-daily temptation to drive us to the Everglades and throw me to the alligators. Happy Father’s Day!

Because that’s exactly what’s about to happen. Talk about big shoes to fill.

It is yours now, free.

Please, please, please show your support for the producer, Ed Glaser, and buy the film for yourself and your loved ones. It’s not something you have to be an internet meme nerd to “get”, it’s simply an awesome dubbed foreign action film. There are many reasons to get the DVD: amazing box art, a collectible poster, commentary tracks, and interviews with me and the actors. It will put all of these cues in context, but I felt it was important to get the music out there — I put a lot of work into it and wanted to share it with all of you. Enjoy!

RAMPAGE.

Also known as Korkusuz. Also known as TURKISH RAMBO.

To quote from the site,

“From the director of TURKISH STAR WARS and TURKISH JAWS comes RAMPAGE, an epic tale of murder and mayhem, vengeance and destruction, betrayal and kebabs. Now, Dark Maze Studios is bringing it to DVD for its first official release in 23 years! We sent an elite commando squad to rescue the film from a remote Turkish vault and digitally remastered it… because no one else would dare.”

The film is out on DVD right now, and I’ve spent the past bunch of months giving it a COMPLETELY ORIGINAL soundtrack, sound design, and hilariously straight-ahead English dub along with my super-awesome friend and creative cohort, Ed Glaser. Yes, that Ed Glaser. And the crowd is going wild — even the inimitable Spoony is giving it love.

You can (and should) read (a lot) more about the film at Dark Maze’s blog, including details on all the special features, and ways you street-team types can help us promote the film.

For the virt junkies out there, you may also be excited to know that I’m about to give the entire feature-length soundtrack away for free. I’m working on the post production right now, and will soon have a special page set up for it, where you can download the entire score. If that isn’t reason to buy the film and support our efforts (all donated for the love of Turkish cinema, by the way), I dunno what is. Way I see it is, you buy the film, watch it with your friends on “movie night”, and then come back and download the score. What could be more awesome than that?

Go forth and conquer, for your nation and your country! (And right now your country is Türkiye).

Turns out I won first place in both Music compos (Regular Music: Lorem Ipsum and Oldschool Music: Micro Media Broth), which shocked me because the competition consisted of #mod_shrine, some of the most talented trackers and demoscene musicians active today. Really fun guys to hang out with, too.

I also won the main demo competition, as the musical half of a collaboration between my group (Brainstorm) and my friends The Northern Dragons. They needed help with music for their entry at the last minute, so I wrote them a piece on site, and we took first place. Part of the prize for winning was ..the actual computer on which the demos were displayed — a $1000 gaming rig — and the Dragons insisted that I take it home! I was shocked, and utterly honored to have worked with such talented and generous guys.

Lastly, I also made music on site for a cell phone demo by my friend nrr, an unbelievable first foray into the (horrifyingly frustrating) world of MIDP Java hackery. I’m completely amazed that he was able to learn the toolkit, write effects, and put together a demo in basically under a day. This is a prime example of demo scene brilliance at work. And it got 4th place out of 9 entries, holy hell! Just insane.

In between competitions, I played an impromptu chiptune set, and you can see video of it here. You never can tell how a crowd will react to chip music, but these were straight up nerds, and were 100% rocking the hell out to Nintendo music. Even (especially) the Fat Man was jumping around, which my brain is still only beginning to process.

Anyone who’s into music, programming, or art, or wants to become involved in any of them, please join our scene full of crazy geniuses. Drop me a line and I’ll fill you in, tell you where to find stuff, and gush about Blockparty, which is, for my money, the most enjoyable demoparty in North America.

Oh yeah, also. I freaking drove both ways with NECROS AND TRIXTER. Necros tracked in my car, and Trixter coded in my car. You have no idea how close I came to swerving off the road, because it blew my mind. We had a moving demo party. NECROS WAS TRACKING. IN MY CAR. If you had told me ten years ago that this would occur, I would have laughed at you.

Onward to 2010!

Also, Turkish Rambo is out tomorrow. Check back.