zircon

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…)
Gear, Music Production, Reviews, Software

Celestia: Heavenly Sound Design (Review)

April 9, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Celestia: Heavenly Sound Design (Review) Share this

Here on OSV we focus primarily on the music of videogames. However, we do occasionally review music software, as these programs are a vital aspect of music writing and creation. While there are some game composers that are lucky enough to work with live musicians and orchestras, many still rely on sound libraries and samples to produce our favorite game music.

Today, we are looking at the Impact Soundworks library Celestia: Heavenly Sound Design. The library was created by Andrew Aversa, Jordan Aguirre, and others at Impact Soundworks. Many videogame music remix fans may be more familiar with Aversa and Aguirre by their artist names, Zircon and bLiNd respectively. This latest library is advertised as a collection of atmospheric and ambient hybrid synth sounds. The focus is more on the softer and ethereal synthesizer instruments, rather than heavy hitting and dramatic instruments. With all that said, let’s take a look at this latest product. (more…)
Chip Music, Featured, Indie Music, Reviews

The Glory Days (Review)

February 24, 2014 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on The Glory Days (Review) Share this The Glory Days (Review)

With the help of Kickstarter, another chiptune album has been brought into existence. Most people probably know Jimmy Hinson (a.k.a Big Giant Circles) and his music from games like Mass Effect 2 and Call of Duty Black Ops 2. It might surprise some people that in addition to the game music he writes, he also composes chiptunes. This latest album, The Glory Days, is a new collection of original pieces written by Hinson. The Glory Days was funded through a very successful Kickstarter campaign that far exceeded its original goal. Not only did the Kickstarter hit the goal of $5,000, but every single stretch goal was met as well. The Kickstarter receiving over $60,000 in pledges, allowing Big Giant Circles to hire several remixers and fellow game composers to help construct an extra remix album for release at a later date.

The Glory Days is a sequel to Hinson’s first album of original music, Impostor Nostalgia. This original album was a collection of music written by Hinson and featured several music remixers and composers. The concept behind Impostor Nostalgia was that while the music mimicked the sound and energy of chiptunes from older videogames, the music itself was original work that was never featured in any game, past or present. It was a cool experiment and generated some excellent new tunes. This time around, Hinson is flying solo with this sequel album, The Glory Days. Like the first album, this one aims to celebrate the sound of older game tunes while enhancing it with modern synth and electronic sounds that weren’t available years ago. Does Big Giant Circles pull this off on this second solo album? Read more to find out. (more…)
Miscellaneous

“Just Fun” Kickstarter Fully Funded!

February 5, 2014 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

Well that didn’t take long, now did it!

Looks like within 24 hours of it’s launch, the “Just Fun” album Kickstarter headed by composer Alexander Brandon and featuring a plethora of contributing composers and arrangement artists, has reached it’s $6,000 base goal thanks to feverish pledging by fans and supporters. So what happens next for the project? More stuff, that’s what!

The original goal might be reached, but that doesn’t mean those who didn’t get in on the rush can’t still pledge and reap the rewards of pushing the funding through multiple stretch goals! A digital version of the album available for just $10, a signed physical copy for $25, other albums in Brandon’s catalog and even a custom-created single just for you at the highest backer level of $500. If potential pledgers need additional incentive, how about the full album song list? (Courtesy of our friends at Scarlet Moon Productions)

01. “Introduction”

02. “A Thousand Words” (Feat. Jameson Sutton and Stemage)

03. “On a Dark and Stormy Night”

04. “Chronophasia” (Feat. virt)
05. “Twilight Floating” (Feat. Erik Peabody)
06. “Oath of the Matron” (Feat. Andrew Aversa and Jillian Aversa)

07. “More”
08. “God bless the child that’s got his own” (original by Avery Brooks)
09. “Infinity” (Feat. Big Giant Circles, original by Andrew Sega/Paul Schultz)
10. “Overture of the Avatar” (Feat. DJ Bottles)
11. “The Blue Hour” (Feat. Bryan Rudge)
12. “Hypercontrol” (original by Andrew Sega, guitar by Craig Rundels)
13. “The Willowdale Handcar” (Feat. Danny Baranowsky)
14. “Epilogue”

With 28 days to go in the campaign, getting an entire second album worth of music doesn’t seem that far a reach for a project this star-studded. Check out the “Just Fun” Kickstarter for updates and more goodies!
Featured, Game Music, Music Production

Original SoundCAST: Episode #014 (feat. Andrew “zircon” Aversa)

July 17, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 8 Comments Share this

To us, Andrew Aversa is one of the few people who really represents what game music is all about. That’s because, even in the past year, Andrew has shown himself as a force to be reckoned with on all fronts: AAA game music, indie game music, and fan-made arrangements.

In this episode, Brenna Wilkes and I talk with Andrew for a solid hour about his work on Globulous (which Brenna recently reviewed), on Soul Calibur V, and the super-funded Kickstarter campaign for the OCRemix album under his direction: Final Fantasy VI: Balance and Ruin. This last topic takes up over half of the episode, and it should! At the time we recorded this (Saturday), the campaign was at $60,000, 400% of the $15,000 goal. As I’m writing this post, they’re now at $75,000. I also got *this* in a Kickstarter Backer’s email:

What does that mean? Well, everyone who’s getting a physical copy of “Balance and Ruin” will also get a newly-printed, *all 4 disc* version of Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream as well. That’s good stuff.

Anyway, listen to the episode to learn about everything zircon’s up to. And if you want even more podcast-delivered info on the Balance and Ruin project, please check out this great Nitro Game Injection “after-show” recording with Larry “Liontamer” Oji, which was just recorded on Sunday.

Download: Original SoundCAST Episode #014

If you want to know what BGM we have behind all that talk-talk-talk, click the “more” button. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

All Falling Into Place – Globulous OST (Review)

July 13, 2012 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on All Falling Into Place – Globulous OST (Review) Share this

So there once was a game called Tetris. It was a captivating and innovative puzzle game that took simple block-in-hole concepts and a few 8-bit tunes and just ran with it. There have since been dozens of varieties and variations of the game in the past 25+ years.

Then you have Globulous from Canadian indie game producer Firestarter Games. Not only does it take the basic concepts of Tetris and rev them up with 3D graphics and spherical gameplay, but the music of the game has been given the royal treatment with fresh and original sounds from Mass Effect 3 violinist Jeff Ball and Soul Calibur V composer Andrew “Zircon” Aversa. With such a team of effective melody maestros, Globulous manages to set itself apart from several of the other Tetris-clones of the gaming world with classy beats and ambient resonance.

Sit back and don’t let the colorful moving blocks distract you from enjoying the atmospheric themes of Globulous after the cut. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Zirconian Darwinism: Fittest OST (Review)

June 8, 2012 | Patrick Gann | 1 Comment Share this

I’ve listened to a few tunes from zircon (real name Andrew Aversa, husband of vocalist Jillian Aversa) in my time. He’s done some cool arrangements for OverClocked ReMix in his time, he’s released some original albums, and he’s worked on a number of games as well (most recently, on Soul Calibur V, which is a pretty big deal!).

As part of the Indie Game Music Bundle 3, zircon offered up his soundtrack to the 2009 XBLA release Fittest. Real talk: I hadn’t even heard this soundtrack until the bundle’s release. So it’s safe to say that I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the VGM scene, at least not as thoroughly or as often as I tell myself I do. Shame, shame, Mr. Gann!

But enough about me. What about zircon’s soundtrack for Fittest? You’ll find out by joining us after the jump. (more…)