xtal said
That said, I love Uncharted's theme music, or "Drake's theme" I guess as that track is called. It's kind of more memorable than anything in the games themselves. It's got a nice timelessness to it. Unlike...oh, I don't know...Hotline Miami's trendy crust-crunk-neon-flufuzzle music; when people are over this obsession with a fake 1980s where everything only came in pink and blue everyone is going to look back on HM and see it for the shit game it really is. (That's another one that is filled with weak gameplay and then lazily says "it's satire, cause like, violence 'n' stuff", a la Rockstar Games.)
Just listening to some of the LotM soundtrack now and if the bit that I just heard is supposed to be the bit that sounds like the 'feels' bit then... I'm not so convinced. There's a similar key change but the way the Uncharted tune swings in with such confidence then steadily falls off is pretty glorious. Kind of appropriate I suppose.
This is interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mM1Nv3Anqw
Timbaland is a tosser (I think this was settled outside of court after a lot of messing about):
And this is incredible (I think this was also settled but from what I read on a C64 music forum the case went to some pretty bizarre places with regards to David Whittaker (the original composer) having to prove that he was indeed the original composer which is pretty fucking stupid when it was over 25 years ago!):
That was a huge hit over here (and features in Shaun of the Dead on the bus near the beginning). I always liked the tune but hate the video. The Lazy Jones video explains why I like the tune...
About LotM-Uncharted, I know it's just one tiny bit, but it was very reminiscent to the point that I think there was a pinch of inspiration, whether conscious or not.
Plagiarism in general in music...well it's hard. Some things are seemingly innocent enough, and then there are your blatant rip-offs. I didn't really know any of that about Timbaland ... but I've known for a long time that I don't care for him because he chose a terrible name that is unpronounceable!
There's that quite entertaining group of folks who do the whole "half the songs ever written, played in the same 3 chords in 10 minutes" thing which is an effective way to illustrate that sometimes re-use is just that. There was also a fascinating video by the YT channel Vsauce asking "will we ever run out of music?" Answer: probably not, though a lot will sound similar.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
Probably not, and while ever we've got tracks like this from Hotline Miami we're golden!
I think the Hotline Miami soundtrack is fantastic and while I enjoyed the game for the most part it was downright infuriating and tedious at times.
What bugs me about the whole Timbaland thing is his stance on sampling and stealing. Look, sampling is using someone else's music with their permission and appropriate credit. Stealing is using someone else's music without their permission and without appropriate credit. That's it. It's that fucking simple and he still tries worming his way out of it. As for the public domain nonsense: as a graphic designer we have to use stock libraries to source properly released images for commercial use, we can't just go on Google image search and pull off what we want, for obvious reasons. And no, "I ain't got time fo' all that" doesn't cut it. You're a pro, act like one. A pro rolling in money I might add.
A pro rolling in money I might add.
Which frankly makes a hell of a big difference, given the cost to license some of this stuff. Not to take us off track but I feel compelled to share that I recently got a call from Getty Images wanting to sell me a subscription to one of their lower end stock photo sets. For five thousand dollars a month.
The nice lady then said - no shit - "isn't it exciting that iStockPhoto is part of the Getty family now?"
To which I said no, no it is not exciting nice lady, we've stopped using iStock because the minute Getty bought it the prices increased by a factor of ten and haven't stopped rising. If it weren't for Envato, budget-conscious folk unwilling to steal images off Google would be in a tough spot. Then I slapped my forehead and quickly hung up because I realized I'd mentioned Envato to her so they're aware of it now, meaning they'll probably run off and try to buy it.
I don't know who Timbaland is (god I feel so old), but he sounds like a dill-hole. Sampling three notes without permission? Probably okay. Anything more, pick up the god damned phone and write a check.
Back to your regularly scheduled programming. With a contribution! How I failed to use this as my first one I don't know.
Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.
The Hotline Miami soundtrack is indeed a lot easier to enjoy than the game (which maybe I've ranted about? ) ... I still think it's going to age poorly. Like most of that fuzz-glo-sparkle-crust music. Except wavves and no age. They are good examples of well done west coast faux-punk sunshine floozle pop, which Hotline attempts.
Completely unrelated: I didn't at all like the much-raved-about music game Sound Shapes. The gameplay was less than average and the mechanic of waking up music notes was ... meh. Maybe it was because the demo levels I played heavily featured Beck, someone who has been mostly irrelevant (aside from a bit of pleasant output) since the late '90s, and having listened to a lot of his stuff back when he was relevant it just doesn't seem interesting anymore. I guess if you've never heard someone like him, ever, and then you do you have a thought like oh, well he's unusual and enjoyable in a funny way ... but ... yeah. That was the essence of Sound Shapes for me:
"Play this barely average game and listen to music that was groundbreaking 20 years ago!"
That probably sounds pretentious but it's not meant as a slight to anyone who does enjoy the game precisely because they had stopped listening to new music before Beck was a thing. I've largely stopped following new music myself because there's so much ... so when Sound Shapes 2030 comes out I'll probably be nodding my head to all the seemingly-groundbreaking Miley Cyrus Jr. music. Yeah!
This is probably normal to happen around 30. I always thought I could stay up to date but now I just don't give a shit. In 30 years I'll probably just be listening to the Beach Boys and Kraftwerk and DJ Shadow...just like I am today! One thing I will never do, though, is say "kids today." It'll never happen. No matter what they do. If they dance naked in the streets to alien rave music with their eyeballs pierced I still won't say "kids today." They can leave a flaming bag of shit at my door, mock physical input devices and then hack into my Google Brain and give me a virus. I won't take it personally. But I will play some music from Journey out on my porch to annoy them.
If being wrong's a crime I'm serving forever
I'm pretty sure you made up half the words you used to describe Hotline's music.
So since we've strayed a little into thoroughly unnecessary game music, I can't help but think of the two - count 'em, two! - remixes of the Imperial March that were recorded for Star Wars: Force Commander.
"Home is not a place. It is wherever your passion takes you."
Rule #2: Double-tap
I'm fond the orchestral version they did for the PlayStation rerelease:
"Home is not a place. It is wherever your passion takes you."
That is lovely Botch. I never did play Chrono Trigger. I reckon after FFVI I was a little dubious about pouring even more time into another 'classic' I wouldn't particularly enjoy. I've heard it's amazing though.
I bet none of you have heard of Turrican but over here it was a pretty big game series by Rainbow Arts and scored by Chris Huelsbeck. It's basically a linear and more action oriented Metroid but the soundtrack was fucking badass. So badass that a recent Turrican Soundtrack Anthology was kickstarted for Huelsbeck to gather up all the music in the series, remaster it and release it as a cohesive entity. He wanted $75,000 and it raised $175,000 which is incredible really. Anyway, here's one of the original tracks called 'Traps' followed by a classical guitar cover by mymorningjackets (check out their/his channel, there's some lovely stuff on there). The loop's roughly 1:30 long including lead-in but it's a fantastic tune transformed into something majestic on a real instrument.
This thread needs some love!
It's time to get EPIC:
And beautiful:
And downright joyous:
Apparently it wasn't Kondo that composed that track, it was Mahito Yokota, so bravo, it's one of my favourite pieces of Mario music along with this:
TEN HOUR MARATHON.
That music has a great epic flavor. I'd forgotten how orchestral it was - but WC would've been among the first midi-capable games, right? I was late to that franchise, starting a few years later in college after WC3 came along, but people must have been blown away by the soundtrack when it first shipped.
I had to check back to see if I'd used this one before. Jakkar and I were discussing it in some other thread. It's just right. Sad, too, that this game was so unappreciated. Maybe not a classic like the first but worth a look if you're needing something new.
Life is the misery we endure between disappointments.
Yikes!! You just made me realize that the link I posted isn't actual in-game music. I thought something was off when I first listened but it just hit me when I read your comment. Here's some from the actual game. For some reason I vastly prefer the midi. I guess it's because it's what my mind truly associates with the thrill I had playing it back then. Makes me wonder why I haven't backed Chris Roberts' kickstarter. Not like he needs my money at this point...
And yes, PC game music before this time was largely boops and beeps.
Rule #2: Double-tap
God, MIDI was terrible but I've got some great memories tied up to that particular sound, namely Day of the Tentacle and Simon the Sorcerer. It didn't help that I'd been exposed to the sonic powerhouse that was the Amiga many years earlier.
Anyway, here's some MIDI that doesn't sound bad at all to my 2014 ears:
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