Reviews
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Featured, Game Music, Reviews
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sound Selection (Review)
I was fortunate enough to acquire a copy of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Special Edition released in North America. The soundtrack CD that comes in the package is a gorgeous Digipak case which make me very happy after the release of the simple cardboard sleeve that North Americans received for the Twilight Princess Sound Selection CD.
The Breath of the Wild CD offers 23 tracks from the game, and a 24th track with a live recording. Read of for my review of the album, and if you didn’t get the Special Edition I have some tips on where you can grab your own copy of this CD, and details on its various releases.
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Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews, Software
Small game, Big Sound: Side Slider Original Soundtrack (Review)
December 16, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Small game, Big Sound: Side Slider Original Soundtrack (Review) Share this
Side Slider is a free to play mobile game available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. The arcade style game was the brainchild of Long Island University Post graduate students and was designed to jog your Geometric memory. Gameplay involves sliding shapes off of your screen and getting a set target down to zero. Side Slider hearkens back to a time when striving for high scores was all-important.
The music for the game was composed by Eric Guadara using LMMS, using an open-source music-making tool available at lmms.io. I have listened to the full soundtrack and was pleasantly surprised with the overall sound which is engaging and large. This is the type of sound I would expect to find in an arcade cabinet game. Listening to the music at times took me back to my teenage marathon sessions of The Next Tetris on Sega Dreamcast.
You can see a brief clip of the game in action in the video above. The a soundtrack runs just under 20 minutes, but contains a solid amount of music for a mobile phone game. My favorite track is “Heart BeepBop” which sounds a bit like a Marble Madness tribute, which I think might be one of the composer’s favorites after I visited their personal website.
You can grab a copy of it on bandcamp for $3 which should buy at least one cup of coffee for the composer, as it’s one of their album release goals.
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Experimental, Game Music, Japanese, Reviews
The Last Guardian ‘Mini Soundtrack’ App (Review)
With The Last Guardian (actually, really, finally) shipping this week I was able to redeem one of the Amazon pre-order bonuses ahead of time, a 4-song Mini Soundtrack. It serves as a preview of both the game’s orchestral score by composer Takeshi Furukawa and the ‘Last Guardian Composer’s Choice PS4 Music App’ that Sony announced in early November. Let’s take a look at the app and the music inside.
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Game Music, Reviews
Soaring High – Owlboy Original Soundtrack (Review)
November 30, 2016 | Hassan DuRant | Comments Off on Soaring High – Owlboy Original Soundtrack (Review) Share this
Gather ‘round, video game music nerds—I’m not going to let you sleep on what I’m calling right now as my favorite video game score of the year: the Owlboy OST.
After a lengthy development process, D-Pad Studios released Owlboy earlier this month to wildly positive reviews. I sat down to play the game the literal minute I got home from work, and was instantly enraptured—not because the gameplay blew me away, but because of the sheer beauty of the score.
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Featured, Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews
Burly Men at Sea Original Soundtrack (Review)
November 16, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Burly Men at Sea Original Soundtrack (Review) Share this
Who doesn’t appreciate a good viking story? How about one that’s a little less on the fantastic side and a bit more realistic? Well, that’s what you get with Burly Men at Sea.
Burly Men at Sea, developed by husband-and-wife team Brain&Brain, is described as “A folktale about a trio of large, bearded fishermen who step away from the ordinary to seek adventure.”
The indie adventure game isn’t your typical viking romp, however. It’s a tale you craft from the story choices presented to you, or rather the Beard Brothers, based on something as simple as a chart stuffed in a bottle you happen across that starts the whole thing in motion. The game surrounds itself with stylist art and a subtle soundtrack that appeals to the wayfarer in all of us.
The music, done by Chicago studio Plied Sound, is simplistic yet appropriate for the equally simple and charming construction of the game. Plied, whose work includes commercials and sound design for companies like Apple and Google, make their first foray into game music composition and uses their previous experience with stylistic sound design to bring the story of the Bearded Bros to life.
“Adventurous Deeds” – Burly Men at Sea (Plied Sound)
Brian&Brian along with Plied Sound went the way of making it so all of the sound effects in the game is comprised of vocalizations. While sound effects are emphasized over the background music, the soundtrack is no less captivating in its creativity. Acoustic guitar and individual flute work highlight a good amount of the music featured in the game, with other more native-sounding instrumentation being featured to bring about a sense of an adventure on the not-so-high seas. While a good portion of the music features a unique classical take on northern European music, some of the more creative sounds featured in the game’s music invoked the slightest bit of a Scandinavian twist on some of the sound from Katamari Damacy with a bit of a Disney cartoon flavor thrown in for good measure. This is a compliment to Plied Sound, as in a world of indie music, it’s never a bad thing to be a bit different.
“Maelstrom!” – Burly Men at Sea (Plied Sound)
The vocalizations woven within the game’s sound to help emphasize the music truly help to bring a folklorish-tint to the overall sound of the soundtrack as a whole. It captivates the player as they venture through the storybook settings and basic gameplay without getting too heavy or clashing with the feel of the game.
Burly Men at Sea is currently available on Steam and the Humble Store, as well as for mobile platforms, with the Maestro Beard Edition netting you the game’s soundtrack alongside the game. You can also pick up the soundtrack separate on Bandcamp.
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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
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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Music Production, Reviews, Software
Ventus Series: Shakuhachi (Review)
When creating music with virtual instruments, there are plenty of tools out there for getting authentic acoustic instrument sounds. There’s an almost endless list of software for emulating strings, brass, woodwinds, and other western instruments. However, it can get a little trickier when looking for a specific instruments from other parts of the world. There are ethnic instrument sets out out there, but the libraries rarely allow for the same amount of precise performance control as their western instrument sample library counterparts.
Impact Soundworks is taking a shot at filling this need with their new Ventus: Ethnic Winds series of instruments, the first of which is a sample library of the Shakuhachi. For this review, I’ll be taking a look at the software’s different patches (or default load-outs), the various controls and functions available, and how intuitive the software is for the average user. So without further delay, let’s take a look at the Ventus Series: Shakuhachi. (more…)
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