String instruments have always been a difficult sound to faithfully capture.
Audiobro’s LA Scoring Strings (affectionately referred to as ‘LASS’) has become an industry standard for scoring–and one of the standard tools in media composers’ collective belt when it comes to string sampling. But how does it really stack up? I’ve had some time to play with my copy of LASS Lite.
Check out my review after the jump!
While Skyrim wasn’t playable at on the show floor here at E3, Bethesda was showing guests a demonstration of what the game can do throughout the day, and what we saw was quite incredible. It has everything from a brand new game engine to tweaks and modifications to the interface to make the game more accessible along with a brand new score by Jeremy Soule.
We heard a number of pieces from the game during the demonstration, and also got a feel for the game’s sound design, and on top of being one of my most anticipated games of the year, it’s also one of my most anticipated soundtracks.
Find out what we heard in our preview after the jump. (more…)
During our separate hands-on and hands-off demos of Final Fantasy XIII-2 at E3 2011 last week, there was a lot of music to hear. While the game pretty much controlled the same way as Final Fantasy XIII, it sounds like Masashi Hamauzu (confirmed to be working on the title) has a number of tricks up his sleeve to make sure the game’s soundtrack provides something familiar yet refreshing.
We heard a number of pieces throughout the demos, but what stood out most were the battle themes. We heard four in all, and I think you’ll be surprised by what you’ll be hearing. Hit the jump for more! (more…)
A part of the fun of having a full orchestra and choir assembled for Nintendo’s press conference this morning was the live scoring of the events on stage, from a grand entrance by Miyamoto to various jingles that Miyamoto asked the orchestra to perform as he enacted various scenes from the franchise.
One of the most comical moments was when Miyamoto had the orchestra perform the item discovery jingle as he pretended to open a chest and raise the contents above his head in typical Zelda fashion. Sounded quite nice with a live orchestra, too!
Do you think the use of an orchestra at their press conference bodes well for the Skyward Sword soundtrack and other game soundtracks from Nintendo going forward?
A lot of people have been watching this game very closely. Created by Hironobu Sakaguchi at Mistwalker, people immediately drew comparisons to Final Fantasy, at least in game title. What we were most interested in, however, was Nobuo Uematsu’s involvement, which is almost always a sure thing when Sakaguchi is making a new game.
The game was released in Japan in January, and from what I saw on my trip there, it was being heavily promoted. The 3-disc soundtrack was released in February, and while there isn’t even a release date for regions outside of Japan, many picked up the soundtrack and were surprised by what they heard.
What was so surprising about The Last Story’s soundtrack? Read our review after the jump to find out. (more…)
Okay, not really. But when it was announced long ago that Kow Otani would be working on Sengoku Basara 3, I think a lot of fans, myself included were excited about the possibilities. As it turns out Kow Otani only provided a portion of the game’s soundtrack, and he composed music in his distinctive orchestral style, letting the other composers on board tackle the rock music.
I’d been a fan of Dynasty Warriors titles in the past, so why not Sengoku Basara? Different developers, yes, but similar styles.
Prepare to rock out in our review after the jump! (more…)
Runic is finally talking about the music in Torchlight II, which will once again be composed by Matt Uelmen. In the internally-produced interview, Uelmen shares his thoughts about the direction for the soundtrack this time around, his recording sessions in Bratislava, and on his past works at Blizzard North. Max Schaefer, CEO of Runic, also chimes in about the decision to record with the orchestra and the experience traveling to Prague for the recording.
Not only is the above sample provided, but there’s a streamable version of the game’s main theme, which is the true highlight of the interview that you owe it to yourselves to go over and check out. I’m really impressed by the live orchestral sound that Uelmen has achieved. Uelmen also reveals that there are multiple towns in the game, so let’s all hope he’ll bust out the 12-string once again and give us some awesome town themes (the original Torchlight’s town theme was pretty amazing).
Let us know what you think of the original game and it’s music. Are you excited about Torchlight II after hearing the main theme?
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