Beep webisode #2: Alexander Brandon. From the Expert – MODs and the DemoScene. Music has many forms, and music production has probably at least as many forms as well.
I first started writing music on a computer in 1987, and nearly 30 years later I realized how important simple, fundamental things really are. My youngest son is five, and was taken by a 25 key synthesizer I recently acquired (the Korg Triton Taktile 25). He wanted one too, and I told him “you can have one, but you need to learn at least a little music first. This is no toy.” And with those words I realized the same words were just as true for me. So with that in mind, with this bit of writing I’m going to talk about MODs, and the Demo Scene. I’m not sure exactly where the “Scene” started. From the time personal computers became possible to buy, they were many things to all who brought them home.
Simply put, a demo is like a music video. Bleeps 'n' Bloops S2-Ep4 by WelchCompositions. Alexander Brandon Profile. History Body Over the last 20 years, the multi-talented Alexander Brandon has juggled roles as a sound director, musician, voice actor, and designer on titles such as Unreal, Deus Ex, and Alpha Protocol.
Born on September 29, 1974 in Cleveland, Ohio, Brandon was surrounded by music and technology while growing up. Coming from a classical background, he received piano lessons from the age of eight, sung in his church’s choir, and learned some classical music theory. Pursuing choral music into college and high school, the singer even received the opportunity to perform under the baton of John Rutter at Carnegie Hall.
In the early 90s, Brandon switched to creating tracker music using the Amiga. While working in the demoscene, Brandon also received the opportunity to enter the commercial games industry at the age of just 19. Alexander Brandon's Blog - Initium Squared: an interactive audio postmortem. The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Postmortem: Initium Squared New engines tend to get slammed pretty hard. Unity is no exception, and when it comes to audio, out of the box, it has definitely had its share of criticism. But there’s actually a lot the engine can do if you take the time to look under the hood.
In addition, a few months ago my team at Funky Rustic released “Initium Squared”. Alexander Brandon's Blog - Initium Squared: an interactive audio postmortem. The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company. Postmortem: Initium Squared New engines tend to get slammed pretty hard. Unity is no exception, and when it comes to audio, out of the box, it has definitely had its share of criticism. But there’s actually a lot the engine can do if you take the time to look under the hood. In addition, a few months ago my team at Funky Rustic released “Initium Squared”. Alexander Brandon's Blog - Initium Squared: an interactive audio postmortem.
Interview with Alexander Brandon (November 2007) Alexander Brandon is the man behind the music of such games as Tyrian, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Deus Ex, and Deus Ex: Invisible War.
He is currently employed by Obsidian Entertainment in California as the company's audio director, working on projects such as Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer and Alpha Protocol. A few weeks ago, Brandon realized one of his dreams with the release of a digital album entitled Era's End. I sat down (virtually) with the composer to learn more about his career, his opinion on the game music industry, and the recent projects he worked on. Composer Interview: Alexander Brandon. New Interview with Alexander Brandon.
While OCR was interviewing Alexander Brandon for their joint remix with BigGiantCircles, I was searching for some credit information on some of the Unreal and Unreal Tournament tracks on behalf of beyondunreal.com, and Alex graciously agreed to an interview.
It got pretty in-depth at times, with questions about individual U/UT songs and Alex’s experiences composing the game.Authorship Identification (AB’s notes in parentheses) – “UNREAL.S3M”, also used as “Undrwrld.umx” in the Unreal 1998 beta version (myself and Michiel, first iteration) – “UNREALS.S3M” (me) – “UNREALT.S3M” (me, yuck… not bad for the time I guess J) “WarLord.s3m”, Warlord Theme (Michiel) “Opal.it”, ALF (me, borrowing Michiel’s style liberally) “Starseek.s3m”, Star Seeker (DAMN I haven’t heard this in ages! Yep, mine… thank heavens for you people for keeping this stuff alive) “Title.it”, Return to Na Pali (Michiel and myself) “menu2.it”, “XYZDMenu2.it” (ugh, this was mine) General Q&A 1. 2. Alexander Brandon TinkTink Interview.
Instrumentation: The Game Composer's New Challenge. There are a lot of hot topics out there now, that game music is "coming into its own"--surround sound; the ever-present live orchestra; the latest pop license.
However, whether you're doing surround sound or using a hit band or the Boston Pops, one thing stays the same across it all: your instrumentation. The voices of your art. Just why is instrumentation important? Take a listen to some of the most respected game soundtracks: Wipeout XL Icewind Dale Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb The Dig Myst 3 Each of these uses instrumentation effectively and dramatically.
When guys like me started in this business 10 or more years ago, instrumentation was easy by comparison. When faced with limited instrumentation more attention was paid to composition. Technological limits Take a listen to this sample from a GameBoy Color track. Not bad for something that only needs to provide additional atmosphere for something already perceived as an electronic escape. New composition Instrumentation examples.