The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Ambient sounds, game effects and music creation.

The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby YokaI on Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:02 am

Please only reply if you plan to suggest, discuss, or correct mistakes on the list. No spam please.


I love listening to soundtracks. I'm sure many of you in the Audio section do as well! So, to commemorate the start of this wonderful and new section of interlopers, I have compiled a large index of composers for other composers to reference to when either looking for inspiration or trying to figure out what types of music can make games successful in portraying a message. Without further ado...

For sake of thread size, some less important games have been ommited from discographies, please reply with any concerns if an important game is missing from a musician's discography. Thanks.



Nobuo Uematsu

Birth: March 21st 1959 (He was born on the same day as me! March 21st ftw!)

Biography: Nobuo started music at the age of 12, when he taught himself how to play the piano. Nobuo remained a self-taught musician, and eventually landed a job with Squaresoft (now: Square Enix) in 1986. Nobuo is a very well renown video game composer, and is one of the most respected composers in the field. His style is an interesting mix between musical genres, which often times mix between rock, jazz, and orchestrated. His biggest influence was Elton John and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Russian orchestra influence is found presently in his character themes, in which each character is assigned specific melodies that represent the character's personality. Best known for his work in the Final Fantasy series. He left Square-Enix in 2004 to form his independent company, Smile-Please.

Discography


Koji Kondo

Birth: August 13th, 1960.

Biography: Koji was hired by Nintendo in the 1980s, and was assigned to make many soundtracks for their upcoming game system the "Famicon" (Or NES). Kondo-san is another highly regarded composer for his work on both the Mario and Zelda series, and many more Nintendo produced games. Some heavy Jazz influences can be found in his work, but also works on the more contemporary level of classical music.




Jason Hayes / Matt Uelman


Biography : Works as a composer for Blizzard entertainment. Frequently works with Derek Duke and Glenn Stafford.

Discography


Shogo Sakai


Biography: Born in 1960, started working for Data East in the 1980s to late 1990s. Recently employed by Hal Laboratories. Classical style with a bit of beatles influence present in his music, and also seems to be a fan of Mariachi!

Discography


Yoshihiro Sakaguchi


Bio: Briefly worked as a sound designer at Capcom from the 1980s to mid 1990s, but he has also contributed a few popular compositions.

Discography


Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka

Biography: HIrokazu studied Piano from the age of 9 to 11, when his musical training ended. He often listened to his mother's music, which was often either clasical songs or movie soundtracks. Hirokazu studied Electric Engineering in college when he came across an advertisement from nintendo looking to hire a Sound Engineer. Needless to say, he got the job, and is responsible for designing a lot of the sound chips for cartridges. He also composed a few songs, with a lot of Jamaican influence. Often times his music will be made melodic while also maintaining a sound of ambient or sound scape-ish.

Discography


Harry Gregson Williams

Biography: A very well renown British movie composer who has also had his feet wet in the video game soundtrack production.

Discography


Kelly Bailey

Biography: American composer and senior audio producer for Valve Software.

Discography



Michael Z Land.

This is the man who composed the music for almost all of the old LucasArts adventure titles and other games by them. Born in 1961, he has composed music in MIDI format and in standard audio format for:



Yoko Kanno

Yoko is more well known for her works on Anime soundtracks such as Cowboy Bebop and Wolf's Rain, but she has also put her feet into the world of video game composing several times. She is a very big composer in japan and renown for her works in commercials, films, anime, and the few video games she as contributed to.



Inon Zur

An award wining music composer for his works in movies, video games, and television. His style is predominately orchestral.



Hideyuki Fukusawa


A independent composer who is known for his work with orchestral + techno remix esque composing.



Yoko Shimomura




Trent Reznor

Birth: May 17th, 1965
Biography: Michael Trent Reznor was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania (halfway between Pittsburgh and Erie) to Michael Joseph Reznor and Nancy Lou Clark on May 17, 1965. Reznor was referred to by his middle name to avoid confusion with his father. After his parents divorced, he lived with his grandparents, while his sister Tera lived with their mother. At the Mercer Area Junior and Senior High Schools, Reznor learned to play the saxophone and tuba. He was a member of both the jazz and marching band. While still in high school in Mercer, Reznor was the keyboardist and one of the vocalists in a local band called The Klikz. Later became a member of the Nine Inch Nails.



Magnus Bigersson a.k.a. Solar Fields

Bio: Solar Fields is the stage name of Swedish electronic music artist Magnus Birgersson. He has released six albums, and has also scored all interactive in-game music for the Electronic Arts game Mirror's Edge


Stephen Rippy

Born in Texas, wrote the soundtracks to all three games in the Age of Empire series, the Age of Mythology game and more recently Halo Wars.


Tom Salta

Tom Salta also known as Atlas Plug, composer of the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter soundtracks, Red Steel, Cold Fear and H.A.W.X. Has also done TV work with various trailers like Astro Boy and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as well as for the 2006 Winter Olympics. He's also worked with people like Peter Gabriel, Mary J. Blige and Sinead O’Connor


David Wise & Robin Beanland (Rareware):
Snake Rattle 'n Roll - listen
Donkey Kong Country 1 - listen
Donkey Kong Country 2 - listen
Battletoads - listen
Killer instinct - listen
Goldeneye - listen
Banjo-Kazooie - listen
Banjo-Tooie - listen
Diddy Kong Racing - listen
Perfect Dark - listen
Conker's Bad Fur Day - listen


Kenji Yamamoto

Super Metroid (1994). Listen

Metroid Prime (2002). Listen

Metroid Fusion (2002). Listen

Mario Kart: Super Circuit (2005). Listen

Advanced Wars: Dual Strike (2005). Listen


[center]Jeremy Soule
A composer with many songs and contributions. His full list of works and biography can be found here: http://www.jeremysoule.com/index2.html



Replies I would like to see.

Feel free to reply to this thread with suggestions as to what other composers should be added to the index. Please follow the general format I used when forming your own suggestion for the index (Meaning Name, Date of Birth, Biography, Discography.) Please correct any mistakes I may have made as well!


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Last edited by YokaI on Thu Feb 04, 2010 1:35 am, edited 21 times in total.
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby thebeanie on Sat Mar 14, 2009 6:24 am

Well, of course, we must consider:

Kelly Bailey

Biography: American composer and senior audio producer for Valve Software.

Discography
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby YokaI on Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:43 am

Done, but did he really compose the TF2 and portal soundtracks? I believe he only composed the Half Life series.
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby Jitterbug on Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:03 pm

I propose:

Michael Z Land.
This is the man who composed the music for almost all of the old LucasArts adventure titles and other games by them. Born in 1961, he has composed music in MIDI format and in standard audio format for:

The Secret of Monkey Island - 1990 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjvD3C_nvBk
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - 1991 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lTz2nkPNXA
The Curse of Monkey Island - 1997 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0NRwWFnoX8&feature=related(main theme starts at around 2:15)
and various others...

I, personally, hold great respect for Michael Land. His work in music on the games that made up part of my young life in part got me started in music. I still love these classic games to this day.
Old school, beeyatch.
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby YokaI on Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:28 pm

Yeah dude, totally forgot about him!

Nice, going to add once I get back from the theatre (Watchmen, moment of truth.)
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby 1447 on Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:31 pm

You might want to add Inon Zur to your list. He's the guy behind the soundtracks of Crysis and Fallout 3, to mention a few.

Also, since when did we have an audio section?
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby Mess on Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:53 pm

Eric Brosius, who did the System Shock 2 soundtrack and also worked on the music for the Thief series.

System shock 2 soundtrack - http://www.sshock2.com/ss2mmdb/music.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Brosius
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby Jitterbug on Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:54 am

1447 wrote:You might want to add Inon Zur to your list. He's the guy behind the soundtracks of Crysis and Fallout 3, to mention a few.

Also, since when did we have an audio section?

since a few days ago, when the "where is the music score thread" was under discussion. Blink added an audio section.
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby YokaI on Mon Mar 16, 2009 12:46 pm

Update: Just (partially) updated the list, and will update it once more when I get back from school.

Spring break is starting for me soon and I am going to be gone for a few days on a trip with a few friends: keep posting and I will do a mega update when I get back. (Saturday, I presume.)
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby Oakley on Mon Mar 16, 2009 1:18 pm

You really need to add the two 'The Black Mages' albums underneath Nobou there. That's his best work in my opinion. It would be nice to see more video game composers getting a group together and performing them live.
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby whiffen on Mon Mar 16, 2009 3:26 pm

Here is a neat site where you can see and listen to some game ost's.

http://bluelaguna.net/

I thought Shadow of Colossus had some pretty epic music. I would love to see that game remade with some next gen graphics :D

Can't wait to play whatever game Ico makes next ^^
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby Phott on Mon Mar 16, 2009 3:44 pm

Who composed the music for TES 3: Morrowind? Because that is a really awesome soundtrack right there.
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby stoopdapoop on Tue Mar 17, 2009 2:06 pm

Wikipedia wrote:Morrowind's soundtrack was composed by Jeremy Soule, a video game composer whose previous soundtracks for Total Annihilation and Icewind Dale had earned some acclaim from the gaming press. In a Bethesda press release, Soule stated that the "epic quality" of the Elder Scrolls series was "particularly compatible with the grand, orchestral style of music" that Soule enjoys composing "the most".[60]


I'm at school so I can't create some listen buttons, but if someone doesn't do it before me I'll get to it eventually.
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby Sentura on Wed Mar 18, 2009 12:18 pm

hideyuki fukasawa - freelance composer that did the SFIV soundtrack. has worked on some earlier games as well. without doubt this man has caught the capcom sound entirely, and must therefore be awesome.

jesper kyd - freedom fighters, hitman, assassin's creed, kane & lynch soundtracks. definitely a man of awesome. www.jesperkyd.com
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Re: The BIG Reference Index of Video Game Composers

Postby YokaI on Thu Mar 19, 2009 7:39 am

So instead of leaving and having a fun time with my friends, I got incredibly sick. Temperatures way past what they should be! So I am lying down with ice on my head.

I updated a teeny bit, but not enough. I'll update again tomorrow.

Again, if the format is followed, it helps me A TON! If you don't follow it, I'll cough on you. :smt005
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