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Editorial, Featured, Game Music

Original Soundcast Special – Castlevania (with VGMO)

October 31, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Original Soundcast Special – Castlevania (with VGMO) Share this

We have a special team-up between OSV and VGMO for the return of the podcast! (One that will likely continue moving forward.) To celebrate the Halloween season, I talk with their Oliver Jia and go into a complete nerd-out about all things Castlevania!

Special thanks to the VGMO crew for allowing me in on the podcast, and for their editing and mastering. You can check out the podcast notes here – VGMO Podcast Episode 6: Castlevania

You can also download the episode on their iTunes to listen on the go!
Featured, Game Music, Miscellaneous

Community Question: Your Favorite Halloween Game Music

October 24, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | 5 Comments Share this
Happy Halloween (to those who subscribe to the holiday)! We’ve shared some of our personal favorites over the past weeks and years and now we want to hear some of your own. Truly terrifying or playfully macabre. Squirming out of ancient PC sound hardware or freshly ~~released~~ deceased. Or anywhere in between.

Share some of your favorite spooky game music in the comments below and if you need a little inspiration here are a few of our recent and popular Halloween themed features:
Featured, Film, Game Music

Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound (Review)

October 20, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | 3 Comments Share this

The Beep Movie was officially released on September 30, 2016. I’ve watched the film, which is just short of two hours and a wonderful examination of the history of sound in video games. This includes a look at how music and sound design evolved from the penny arcade era to the modern era of gaming today.

Although I been writing for Original Sound Version for close to two years I still consider myself a bit of a N00b when it comes to game audio. Most of my game audio experiences have come from playing games, and listening to soundtracks. Until now, I did not have a decent understanding of the behind the scenes of the game audio world and Beep pulls back the curtain for its viewers. Read on to hear my full review of the film and the Blu-ray release.

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Chip Music, Featured

Original Sound Version Feature: WASD

October 19, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 4 Comments Share this Original Sound Version Feature: WASD

Last month, Original Sound Version partnered up with the Dwelling of Duels game music competition and Impact Soundworks at MAGFest Labs to debut “Opposing Bloodlines“; a video game music competition specifically for established game music cover bands, be they instrumental, chiptune, acapella or otherwise. The competition was a success with one of the prizes for the winner being a feature on OSV!

The grand winner of the competition was a one-man band out of southern Maryland known as WASD. Who and what is WASD?

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Featured, Game Music, Interviews

Cosmic Star Heroine / HyperDuck Interview and Giveaway!

October 5, 2016 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on Cosmic Star Heroine / HyperDuck Interview and Giveaway! Share this

Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to catch up with everyone’s favorite Irish musical duo. Okay, maybe not everyone’s favorite … there are probably loads of Irish musical duos out there. But if we narrow it down to Irish VGM duos, it might be safer to say that Chris Geehan and Dan Byrne-McCullough of HyperDuck SoundWorks top the category.

In the past few years, their work on Dust: An Elysian Tail and Penny Arcade’s On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness 4 have defined their sound and given them a strong fanbase. In the following interview, we get set for what’s to come, as well as how you can win a free digital version of the upcoming Cosmic Star Heroine OST when it arrives (digitally, via Bandcamp) on December 7th of this year. (more…)
Featured, Game Music, Reviews

Mafia III Expanded Game Score (Review)

October 4, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Mafia III Expanded Game Score (Review) Share this Mafia III Expanded Game Score (Review)

If there’s a genre of music I don’t hear often enough in games, it’s the blues. A few titles come to mind that have borrowed the style for a single level or licensed a blues song for a cutscene but very few go all the way with their soundtracks. Even fewer big budget titles these days would dare reach beyond the safety of orchestral bombast that has become the norm. That’s what makes Mafia III (Expanded Game Score) extra special. It comes from a mainstream AAA title in a series whose orchestral soundtracks were already well regarded, bucking the trend of what even fans may be expecting. It’s also an exceptionally listenable album with highs and lows to accompany the drama and action but with a graceful, consistent feel overall.

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Featured, Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews

Pixeljams Volume 2 (Review)

September 17, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Pixeljams Volume 2 (Review) Share this Pixeljams Volume 2 (Review)

Pixeljams Volume 2 comes to us just under four years after the original album and features many of the same artists from Pixeljam and their circle of friends. While Volume 1 was simply a collection of “new and used tracks”, Volume 2 has a more focused goal in mind. As Pixeljam co-founder and musician Miles Tillmann puts it, “we’re looking to express how games have influenced our sound aesthetic… music inspired by the technology behind game development, you could say.”

That translates into an album of bouncy electronic tunes and wafting soundscapes that echo retro consoles and PCs without simply sounding like typical chiptune. With a roster of seven artists (providing solo songs and collaborations) the 10-track album is diverse but maintains a few consistent sounds that work well throughout. Click inside to find out more about this array of new pixeljams.

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