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Game Music, Gear, Reviews

Mondo of Blood – Castlevania Rondo of Blood & Symphony of the Night OST Vinyl Review

November 16, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | 2 Comments Share this

[Disclaimer: I received copies of both of these vinyls from Mondo specifically for review purposes.]

I’ve admittedly had a lot of opinions on the Mondo releases of the various Castlevania soundtracks on vinyl LP, but until now had not gotten the chance to do an in-depth review of any of them. Mostly I never reached out because I assumed my bias towards the franchise music would make my opinions too cynical, and it wouldn’t be fair. However, after four previous vinyl releases from Mondo for the series, and the announcement of both soundtracks to Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, I figured that perhaps now was the time to offer my critique.

The soundtracks from both games are held in high regard both with fans of the series and casual gamers alike. While far more have played through Castlevania Symphony of the Night than they have Rondo of Blood due to the latter’s limited release in the states via ports, the soundtracks for both offer different things while still bringing depth to the history of Castlevania music.

So, how do these releases stack up; both as individual offerings as well as compared to the other Mondo releases in the series?

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Game Music, Gear

Data Discs Teams Up with Capcom to Release OKAMI Limited Edition Vinyl

August 2, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Data Discs Teams Up with Capcom to Release OKAMI Limited Edition Vinyl Share this

As I mentioned in the last post, the VGM vinyl craze certainly has not lost any steam in the past year or so. While it continues to chug along and while we can’t cover every single vinyl release of video game soundtracks, there are still some coming out that bare special mention. The release of the soundtrack to beloved Capcom game OKAMI is one such special mention.

While Data Discs have, up until now, only released the soundtracks of SEGA-published video games, they have done a special team-up with Capcom to create a 4xLP boxset, with over two hours of remastered audio, 40-page artbook, double-sided litho print & download code.

Originally released in 2006 and composed by Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh and Akari Groves, the music of OKAMI perfectly embodies the creative beauty of the game and its recurring themes of restoration and resolve. Using traditional Japanese instruments and inspired by distant folklore, the score moves between peacefulness and danger, colour and darkness, echoing the dualities of the natural world and transporting the listener to an ancient Nippon that never existed, yet feels like a half-remembered dream. OKAMI is one of the most contemplative, unique and unequivocally beautiful game scores ever made.

OKAMI is presented as a quadruple LP boxset, comprising over two hours of newly remastered music and packaged in a spot-varnished hardboard slipcase. It is accompanied by a 40-page artbook and double-sided lithographic print, featuring original illustrations from the CAPCOM archives in Japan. A download code for the album in both lossless and lossy formats is also included.

The OKAMI 4xLP boxset is currently available for pre-order with a projected shipping of October of this year. They note that the limited edition frosted Clear vinyl with “Cherry Blossom Pink” and “Amaterasu White” splatter will only be available to pre-order through August 15th and only one can be pre-ordered at a time due to packaging, so collectors should act sooner rather than later.
Game Music, Gear, Music Production, Software

Black Friday 2017 Game Music & Game Audio Sales

November 24, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Black Friday 2017 Game Music & Game Audio Sales Share this
It’s yet again the time of year to batten down the proverbial hatches for Black Friday chaos. Thankfully, the internet makes the whole daunting task of taking advantage of post-Thanksgiving sales a lot easier, what without the stabbings and trampling. We’ve put together a list of some of the Black Friday Sales we’ve found for video game soundtracks, game audio production software and gear, and anything else game music related. (Disclosure: Some products may include affiliate links)

Video Game Soundtracks & Albums
- Limited Run Games – Breach & Clear: Deadline Soundtrack Vinyl (new, on sale!)
- GOG.com – 50% off The Metronomicon Original Game Soundtrack
- GOG.com – 40% off Furi Original Soundtrack
- GOG.com – 25% off Owlboy Soundtrack
- GOG.com – 80% off This War of Mine Soundtrack
- Square-Enix – 10% – 30% off All Game Soundtracks (83% off Infinite Undiscovery OST)
Game Audio Software
- Impact Soundworks – 25% off nearly all audio bundles & plugins (including Super Audio Cart & Ventus Shakuhachi)
Audio Gear
- Ebay – 25% – 60% off Musical Instruments & Gear (with free shipping)
- Newegg – $299 (save 35%) Audio Technica Direct Drive Professional DJ Turntable with USB Output
- Newegg – $159 (save 29%) Blue Microphones YETI Mic w/ Knox Boom Arm Stand & Pop Filter (Midnight Blue)
- Newegg – $79 (save 29%) Blue Microphones Snowball iCE Condenser Microphone w/ Knox Pop Filter & Full-Size Headphones (Black)
- Newegg – $89 (save 29%) Blue Microphones SNOWBALL-GB Mic w Knox Mic Desktop Boom Arm & Pop Filter
- Newegg – $18 (save 28%) ENHANCE USB Condenser Microphone with Adjustable Stand
- Amazon – $15 (save 40%) On Stage Stands Tripod Boom Microphone Stand
- Amazon – $6 (save 25%) Hantwin Chromatic Guitar Tuner
Miscellaneous Albums & Music
- Screen Archives – Misc. Film Scores
Music & Rhythm Games
- Steam – 40% off Thumper
- Steam – 80% off Crypt of the Necrodancer (69% off Amplified Pack)
- Steam – 40% off Rez Infinite
Gear, Music Production

Waves Audio Monster Deals Halloween Sale

October 30, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Waves Audio Monster Deals Halloween Sale Share this
Waves Audio is having themselves some “screaming” deals for this Halloween season with a bunch of their plugins and sound production software being marked down for Pumpkin day!
- Renaissance Channel – $149.00 regular, on sale for $29.00
- LS Ultramaximizer – $149.00 regular, on sale $29.00
- J37 Tape Saturation – $299.00 regular, on sale $29.00
- IR-1 Parametric Reverb – $249.00 regular, on sale $29.00
- LoAir Subharmonic Generator – $79.00 regular, on sale $29.00
- Abbey Road Collection – $1199 regular, on sale $299.00
You can also “Build Your Own Bundle“, with 20% off the second plugin you choose, 30% off the 3rd – 5th plugins and 40% off the 6th plugin and beyond! With so many plugins on sale, it’s worth taking a look at for anyone looking to pad their audio software repertoire.

The sale does not have a expiration date, but will likely only last this week at best, so nab those plugins while you can!
Game Music, Gear, Miscellaneous

Community Question: Is it time to move on from MP3?

May 31, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | 8 Comments Share this

While the recent headlines touting “The MP3 is DEAD!!” have over-sensationalized the real news, it got me thinking about my own digital collection again. So I’ll ask you, dear readers, the same thing I asked myself: is it time to move on from MP3?

Sadly, I am not much farther along in my quest to reorganize my music collection than I was when I asked for reader responses in 2015. Over the last two years I’ve been sporadically re-ripping CDs as 320kbps MP3s but with the “death knell” headlines I finally decided to take a look at other formats, namely AAC/m4a.

I’m no audiophile when it comes to sound. My ancient MP2 files are just now sounding crusty to my ears but AAC has impressed me with smaller file sizes. Support is also more widespread than the last time I peeked out from my MP3 safe zone: all the apps, programs, and even consoles I might use to play digital files now support it. So that’s where I’m at right now, surrounded by my CD collection once again.

How about you? What’s your format of choice? What do you think about the MP3 news or even the future of digital music files? Let us know in the comments.
Featured, Game Music, Gear, Music Production, Reviews, Software

Super Audio Cart (Review)

June 27, 2016 | Michael Hoffmann | 28 Comments Share this Super Audio Cart (Review)

In the world of game audio there’s often a need for the sounds of the earlier game consoles. Whether this is to help emulate a feeling of nostalgia of the 80s and 90s or to create all new styles of music with the older sounds, the tones of these classic consoles have had a persistent presence in the gaming world. This has been especially true with the rise of the indie game scene and the emphasis on the styles of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras.

Through the years there have been a number of software tools available to composers and audio designers for recreating these sounds. Programs like FamiTracker and Little Sound DJ have allowed composers to generate chiptune music, but they require considerable time to learn the various functions and limitations of the software. Meanwhile different FM synthesizers can be used to create sounds similar to the Sega Genesis, but often didn’t have the same limitations or imperfections of the sounds that you would hear on the original system hardware.

Now after many years of planning and development, Impact Soundworks, in collaboration with OverClocked Remix, has come forward with a collection of samples recorded from the systems themselves. The result is the sample library Super Audio Cart, which aims to provide a simple way of producing the authentic sounds of these consoles, while also presenting tools to let you do some new and complex things with the available instruments. I’ll be taking a look at the core functions of the library and examining how it stacks up against other methods of creating these sounds. (more…)
Gear, Music Production, Software

Drum Sample Library ‘Martin France Drums’ is Now Available

October 11, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Drum Sample Library ‘Martin France Drums’ is Now Available Share this

The sound engineers over at Rattly and Raw have just released a drum kit sample library for Kontakt 5 titled Martin France Drums. The collection includes a wide range of recordings of vintage and modern drums. The library contains over 32,000 samples to cover the recording of 36 different drum kit pieces. The demo video below shows off just some of the library’s capabilities and features.

The Martin France Drums library is available at the Rattly and Raw site for £99, or about $150 USD. The software is also compatible with the free Kontakt 5 Player, so you won’t need to shell out extra money for Kontakt 5 to use this collection. You can find out more information about Martin France Drums at the Rattly and Raw website.