FamilyJules7X

Doujin, Game Music

FamilyJules to Release Album of Metal Arrangements of Octopath Traveler Music

October 16, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on FamilyJules to Release Album of Metal Arrangements of Octopath Traveler Music Share this

Let it never be forgotten that Square Enix games tend to have soundtracks that inspire a lot of musicians and artists in the video game field, and certainly the arrangement communities. Jules Conroy, aka. FamilyJules7x is one such musician whose penchant for taking melodic VGM and turning it into rocking remixes has gained him some measure of distinction. Sure enough, he’s taken a significant portion of the soundtrack to Square Enix’s most recent offering, Octopath Traveler, and given it the rock/metal treatment in his soon-to-be release The Eightfold Road: Metal Arrangements from Octopath Traveler.

The two-disc album takes from composer Yasunori Nishiki’s compositions for Octopath Traveler and gives them full metal, rock and acoustic arrangements while staying true to the source material.

<a href="http://familyjules7x.bandcamp.com/album/the-eightfold-road-metal-arrangements-from-octopath-traveler">The Eightfold Road: Metal Arrangements from Octopath Traveler by FamilyJules</a>

The Eightfold Road: Metal Arrangements from Octopath Traveler is currently for pre-order on Bandcamp and will release October 28th.
Game Music, Music Production, Software

Learn About Music Production With Twitch Music Streams

October 28, 2016 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Learn About Music Production With Twitch Music Streams Share this

The popular video casting service Twitch TV and its earlier incarnation Justin TV has allowed gamers to show off their skills to audiences for many years. Recently Twitch has been expanding the streaming content to include creative streams. Under the Creative category, casters have been live streaming painting, cooking, and even metal work. One of the other emerging types of creative streams has been music production.

There are a number of music artists, composers, and arrangers who have decided to use their Twitch channel to give their fans a behind-the-scenes look at how the music that they love is made. A lot can be learned by observing how a music producer writes, mixes, and arranges music, so streams like these can be valuable tools for other music creators or for fans who want to see the creative process. Today I’ll be highlighting some of the Twitch streams that you can tune into on a regular basis. (more…)
Events

MAGFest 2016 News Rundown & New Performers

December 17, 2015 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on MAGFest 2016 News Rundown & New Performers Share this

It’s almost exactly two months until MAGFest 2016, and there have been a decent amount of musician and guest announcements in the past few weeks. We reported on the attendance of Grant Kirkhope and Gavin Blaire, as well as Austin Wintory as composer guests. Dues Ex composer Alexander Brandon will also be making a repeat appearance this year, as well as several other returning games industry guests.

On the performing side of the event, Metroid Metal was the first big band to be announced as returning to MAGFest after a two-year hiatus. Other former MAGFest bands currently on the roster include 8-bit Disaster and The World is Square, as well as chiptune artists Sammus and Rekcahdam. More recently announced is the inclusion of FamilyJules7x (feat. on Crypt of the Necrodancer) and yesterday’s reveal of I Fight Dragons making their first MAGFest appearance. We’ll be featuring our usual “Know Your MAG” rundown of new artists as the event draws near so you know all about the fresh faces of this year.

Pre-Registration for the event is currently $65, and will be climbing to $70 by the toll of New Years Eve. We’ll keep coverage coming of all the new announcements right up until the very end, so keep checking back for updates.
Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews

Diagnosis? Rhythmortis: Crypt of the Necrodancer Original Soundtrack (Review)

May 25, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | 2 Comments Share this

The Original Soundtrack to Crypt of the NecroDancer is my first experience with music composed by Danny Baranowsky who has composed the music for Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac and who has also worked on some excellent arrangements including Super Metroid: Relics of the Chozo.

The soundtrack contains 42 tracks and is a blend of chiptune rock and electronic melodies with a runtime of just under two hours. I listened to the soundtrack through at least three times and was blown away with the blood pumping beats and pleasant repetition and alternate versions of tracks. My first play through of the album was during a drive from Ottawa to New York State to camp over the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada. If you’re in the USA you can look forward to Memorial Day weekend next week. Read on to find out if you should pick up this soundtrack to kick off your weekend.

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Chip Music, Game Music, Indie Music, Reviews

MMMMMM (Review)

June 16, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on MMMMMM (Review) Share this MMMMMM (Review)

Back in 2010, Terry Cavanagh released a game titled VVVVVV, usually just pronounced “Vee”, for PC and Mac. The game is a 2D puzzle platformer that uses gravity reversal as its primary platforming mechanic. The game has seen release on several other platforms since and has earned a large following from the indie game fan base. Not only is the game engaging in its central mechanic, it’s also fairly difficult. The music of VVVVVV was composed by chiptune artist Magnus Pålsson, aka Souleye. If you’ve never heard the original soundtrack, fix that immediately. It’s easily some of the best indie chiptune music that’s been written in the past few years. Pålsson has also written music for a number of projects including Extreme Roadtrip, Drop Sort, and has even written an intro theme for Twitch caster MANvsGAME.

The original soundtrack, titled PPPPPP, has already received an arrange album in the form of PPPPPPowerup!, which featured arrangements by several indie composers and remix artists. This new album, titled MMMMMM, is a power metal re-imagining of the original soundtrack. This new work features a collaboration between Magnus Pålsson and music remix artist and composer Jules “FamilyJules7x” Conroy. As we covered recently on OSV, Conroy has been creating some impressive metal covers of videogame music for a few years on Youtube. His talent seems to have caught the attention of Pålsson, which has led to the creation of this new album. So how does this metal re-imagining of the music stack up against the original soundtrack? Read on to find out. (more…)
Featured, Game Music, Music Production

Check Out This 17 Minute Tribute to the History of Videogame Music

June 2, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Check Out This 17 Minute Tribute to the History of Videogame Music Share this

If you frequently explore YouTube for videogame music covers, chances are that you’ve encountered the videogame rock arrangements by Jules Conroy, aka FamilyJules7X. If you haven’t, then today you are in for a treat. For the past three years Jules has been arranging and performing music from videogames and uploading videos of these arrangements to his YouTube channel. He’s covered games including Donkey Kong, Pokemon, Binding of Isaac, Final Fantasy, and Elder Scrolls to name just a few.

This year, to celebrate the three year anniversary of his videogame cover projects, Jules put together a seventeen minute long medley of game music. As the title suggests, “Replay: A Metal Tribute to the History of Video Games” is a guitar cover tribute to videogame music and covers the medium’s more than thirty year history. The medley starts off at the year 1972 with the original Pong, works it’s way through classic Nintendo and Sega games, and proceeds to go through every year up to 2014.

As if the size and scope of this medley alone wasn’t impressive enough, Jules completed this project, start to finish, in just eight days and during the same week as his college finals. According to his video description, he only had four days to record the guitars, one day to do the arranging, one day for the drums, one day to mix and master the music, and only one day to edit all of the video footage. He set it up as a challenge for himself and the results are quite amazing. It’s an impressive feat to get all of that done in such a limited time frame. If you’ve never seen or heard his arrangements before, definitely give the FamilyJules7X channel a look. Metal fans and videogame enthusiasts will not be disappointed.