Game Audio Hour

After chatting a bit with him during conferences the past year, we had to invite composer and performer John Robert Matz onto the show to chat about what he's been up to lately! He talks about the score for Tchia but also about things back in the day (indie game dev!) and that GAH staple: conspicuous consumption!

Other notable mentions include:

Udio
Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator
alt.ctrl.GDC
Tchia
For The King II
Horizon: Forbidden West
Community
Alicia De Laroccha
Helldivers 2
Mother 3

Featuring: John Robert Matz, Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded April 12, 2024

We're a little past 10 years now, but we're still celebrating this milestone, this time with another of our cohort from years past. Chase Bethea joins the duo of Alex and Vince to chat a bit about game audio, this time answering some questions from listeners as well as keeping us abreast of all the goings-on in his music career!

Featuring: Chase Bethea, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded March 15, 2024

It's been 10 years and one of our illustrious cohort from the early days, Jack Menhorn, joins the trio of Mike, Alex, and Vince to chat a bit about game audio! The group chat about audio moving between indie and AAA, middleware, and even some of the current anxiety about AI.

Other notable mentions include:

State of Decay (horror game series, Undead Labs)
The Greatest Night in Pop (Documentary, Netflix)
Angela Aki (J-pop artist)
Pianoteq (Software piano instrument, Modartt)
Baldur's Gate 3 (RPG, Larian Studios)

Featuring: Jack Menhorn, Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded February 28th, 2024

The duo of Mike and Vince wax lyrical of their recent Apple purchases... or should I say: Mac-quisitions? Newer tech talk then moves to talk of some older gear that is still supported by its creator, then the ever conspicuous Conspicuous Consumption!

Notable mentions include:

Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra (computer workstation)
Oeksound's bloom plugin (adaptive tone shaper)
RME Fireface series (audio interface)
Blue Eyes Samurai (animated series, Netflix)
Level with Emily Reese (game music podcast series)

Featuring: Michael Gordon Shapiro and Vincent Diamante

Recorded February 2nd, 2024

The Game Audio Hour crew is a trio again, as Vince emerges from the vortex of new fatherhood! As befits a New Year's (-ish) episode, the team reflects upon audio creation and production habits, and how to refine them. Also, we learn how effectively RX can remove the sound of a lawnmower outside Mike's studio.

Alex and Mike discuss the heavenly acoustics of Wiener Musikverein, the tribulations (and surprising benefits) of moving one's audio rig to the new Mac Pro, and the utility of the term "genre" in game audio.

The trio of Vince, Alex, and Mike end up chatting about gear for much of this episode: little keys, big keys, and just right keys figure prominently! Games and music do come in as well, but you'll have to listen to the end to hear some of the fun albums that get brought up!

Notable mentions include:

Yamaha Montage M8x (workstation keyboard)
Yamaha Reface DX (mini keyboard/synth reissue)
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (game expansion)
Neuromancer (Science Fiction novel, William Gibson)
Sail Away (Music Album, Randy Newman)
Christopher Cross (Music Album, Christopher Cross)

Featuring: Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded October 15th, 2023

Mike, Vince, and Alex are back for another episode and are still wading in the wake of big business moves. Unity, Unreal, Bandcamp... there's all sorts of uncertainty on the horizon. Still, there's plenty of straightforward game audio and music talk to be done!

Notable mentions include:

Bandcamp (acquired by Songtradr from Epic)
Tron (film, Disney; soundtrack by Wendy Carlos)
Starfield (role-playing game, Bethesda)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (role-playing game, Bethesda)
North by Northwest (film, Alfred Hitchcock)
War of Being (progressive metal album, TesseracT)
Run with the Wind (anime, Production I.G.; soundtrack by Yuki Hayashi)

Featuring: Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded September 29th, 2023

Vince and Alex commiserate and discuss some of the major issues hitting the game dev and music world right now. However, not even the double-whammy of Unity's latest changes and fraudulent DMCA claim soundtrack takedowns can dampen their enthusiasm for games, audio, and game audio!

Notable mentions include:

Two Feathers Studio (game audio design studio)
Unity (game development platform)
Starfield (role-playing game, Bethesda)
Eternights (dating sim action role-playing game, Studio Sai)
Metal: Hellsinger (rhythmic first person shooter, The Outsiders)
BPM (roguelike rhythmic first person shooter, Awe Interactive)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded September 15th, 2023

Just like the previous episode, Vince recounts going to a big video game show and Alex reels in excitement! This time, it’s the California Extreme classic game show and Vince talks about all the fun retro and modern video games he came across… but eventually, the duo get to talking about straight up audio design, mixing, and some of the tools and techniques that go along with it.

Notable mentions include:

California Extreme (classic arcade show and auction)
Tempest (vector shooter, Atari)
Xevious (scrolling shooter, Namco)
After Burner Climax (3D flight action game, Sega)
Bazille (modular synthesizer, U-he)
The ProResu 2 (pro wrestling game, Yuke's)
Celestion Speaker Shaper (modeled speaker plugin, Softube)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded August 25th, 2023

Alex and Vince are at it again! This time, Vince starts off by chatting about cool things happening at the EVO fighting game tournament in Las Vegas, while Alex grounds things with some of the sound design work he's currently doing. Synths, workstations, and even some Japanese manga figure in the discussion as well!

Notable mentions include:

EVO (fighting game tournament)
Twinbee (scrolling shooter, Konami)
Sequential Pro-3 Synth
Roland Fantom-6 Workstation
Doepfer Dark Energy Desktop Synth
Witch Hat Atelier (manga, Kamome Shirahama)
Mirror's Edge Catalyst (EA)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded August 11th, 2023

Austin Wintory joins the trio of Mike, Alex, and Vince to chat a bit about game music! From the beginning of Austin's game scoring to his latest work on Stray Gods and various forays in-between, the crew have a rollicking good time that, yet again, pushes the GAH to consider naming the podcast after another unit of time rather than a mere hour. 

Notable mentions include:

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (Summerfall Studios)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Thomas Was Alone (Mike Bithell)
Ape Out (Devolver Digital)
Age of Ash - The Kithamar Trilogy, Part 1 (book by Daniel Abraham)
That Total Age (album by Nitzer Ebb)
Donut Dodo (pixel.games)
Tacoma (Fullbright)
The War On Music (book by John Mauceri)
Music for Prime Time (book by Jon Burlingame)

Featuring: Austin Wintory, Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded July 28th, 2023

Alex and Vince are at it, this time with the former making the latter quite envious with tales of roasted wild boar and hot takes on EQ plugins! Vince's Mac is back in the conversation, but plenty of other things also figure, including a decent amount of game playing on Vince's part!

Notable mentions include:

Midsummer (Swedish Holiday)
Acoustica (Audio software / Icon Digital)
Claro (EQ plugin / Sonnox)
Backbone One (Mobile phone controller)
Aether Gazer (Mobile action game / Yostar Games)
Vampire Survivors (Action game / Poncle)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded June 23, 2023

Mike and Vince chat about June announcements... or in Vince's specific case, a lack of ability to announce when one of the not-E3 venues to emerge from the ashes of E3 is shut down. But Apple's WWDC has got both these composers thinking about their newest top of the line entries in computing.

Notable mentions include:

Mr. Coffee
Apple Mac Pro
Synful Orchestra
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour
Humanity

Featuring: Vincent Diamante and Michael Gordon Shapiro

Recorded June 9, 2023

Alex and Mike chat about a diverse range of gear, as well as an even more diverse range of relationships with their gear. Music competitions, old plugins, and new DAWs figure into the discussion as the two consider what make their tool and instrument choices the ones for them.

Notable mentions include:

Eurovision and Melodifestivalen (music competitions)
Luke Black (Serbian musical artist)
PSP 2445 EMT (reverb plugin)
Bitwig Studio (live performance oriented DAW software)
Silo (TV/Book SF series)
Front 242 (Belgian 1980s electronic music group)

Featuring: Alex May and Michael Gordon Shapiro

Recorded May 26, 2023

The duo of Alex and Vince wax philosophical... but not before chatting about various bits and pieces of audio fun. Mic preamp buffers, iLok dongles, and germanium (atomic number 32) figure among the topics as they eventually wind their way through another GAH episode that is (of course!) rather longer than an hour.

Notable mentions include:

Tierra Audio (pro audio manufacturer)
Alesis MidiVerb II (1980s Digital Effects Unit)
Cliff Williams (Bassist for AC/DC)
Cities: Skylines (city-building game by Colossal Order)
Rachmaninoff Vespers (choral work)
Scriabin Op. 8 Etudes (piano cycle)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded May 12, 2023

Alex is back from a trip from Reboot Develop Blue and the remaining crew of Mike and Vince have to imagine the wonders of a beautiful town in Croatia playing host to a few hundred game developers. From there it's off to the races as it's an episode of Game Audio Hour that is... only an hour long? What a surprise!

Notable mentions include:

Dragon Age (RPG / BioWare)
Cuberpunk 2077 (RPG / CD Projekt Red)
Skullgirls (Fighting game / Hidden Variable)
Gods (Platform game / The Bitmap Brothers)
Brown and Friends (animated series / Netflix)
Succession (TV series / HBO)

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Gordon Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded April 28, 2023

Vincent has NAMM happening in his backyard, Alex is moving forward by looking back at some 90s arcade classics, and the two connect for further topics and ponderings on game music in this episode!

Notable mentions include:

Future Music Magazine
Time Crisis (arcade game by Namco)
Radiant Silvergun (arcade/Saturn game by Treasure)
Overwatch 2 (esports game by Blizzard Entertainment)
Death Stranding (PlayStation 4 game by Kojima Productions)
Expressive E Osmose (synthesizer/MIDI controller)

Featuring: Vincent Diamante and Alex May

Recorded April 14, 2023

Vincent, Alex, and Mike are back to chat about stuff the week after Game Developers Conference, and the trio have some thoughts about how they've extracted the most value out of that conference. Then it's on to the latest flavor of AI making the rounds, and then the stuff that the guys have been not-so-conspicuously consuming.

Notable mentions include:

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (game by Summerfall Studios, soundtrack by Austin Wintory)
The Victorian Music Development Office
Star Trek Picard - Season 3 (Soundtrack by Stephen Barton & Frederik Wiedmann)
Turrican II: The Final Fight (Soundtrack by Chris Huelsbeck) WavTool (https://wavtool.com/)
The Tale of Onogoro (VR game by Amata Games)
Last Labyrinth (VR game by Amata Games)

Featuring: Vincent Diamante, Alex May, and Michael Gordon Shapiro

Recorded March 31, 2023

Alex and Vincent are at it again, chatting game audio and going through a bit of history all the while. Hopefully you enjoy our BRIGHT and BUSY conversation!

Notable mentions include:

Citizen Sleeper (game by Jump Over the Age, soundtrack by Amos Roddy) - https://www.fellowtraveller.games/citizen-sleeper
Nigiyaka (賑やか)
Saturn Bomberman (game by Hudson Soft, soundtrack by Jun Chikuma)
Streets of Rage 3 (game by Sega/Ancient, soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima)
As Long As You Are (album by Future Islands)
Tetris Effect: Connected (game by Enhance, soundtrack by Noboru Mutoh)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded March 10, 2023

Alex recounts a tale of woe to Mike and Vince, but this one has a happy ending... and it doesn't even involve compressor plugins, for once!

Notable mentions include:

Logitech MX Vertical Mouse - https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/mice/mx-vertical-ergonomic-mouse.910-005447.html
Civilization V- https://civilization.com/civilization-5/
The Umbrella Academy - https://www.netflix.com/title/80186863
Gran Turismo 7- https://www.gran-turismo.com/
art of rally - https://www.artofrally.com/
Toy Matinee - https://music.apple.com/us/artist/toy-matinee/334815553

Featuring: Alex May, Vincent Diamante, Michael Shapiro

Recorded February 24, 2023

Mike and Vince successfully chat about AI and music without making reference to HAL 9000, Skynet, or any other frightening fictional computer entity. They also spend time reminiscing on some of their first work in the game music space, more than 2 decades back!

Notable mentions include:

John Adams - https://www.earbox.com/
ChatGPT - https://openai.com/
MusicLM - https://google-research.github.io/seanet/musiclm/examples/
SingSong - https://storage.googleapis.com/sing-song/index.html
Better Call Saul score by Dave Porter - https://music.apple.com/us/album/better-call-saul-vol-1-original-score-from-the-tv-series/1216955160
Pukunpa - https://www.satakore.com/sega-saturn-game,,T-16802G,,Joshikousei-no-Houkago...-Pukunpa-JPN.html

Featuring: Vincent Diamante, Michael Shapiro

Recorded February 3, 2023

After passing a couple of new year's thresholds, the trio of Alex, Mike, and Vince are back with a new episode! Vince has returned from Japan, Alex has returned from the opera, and Mike has returned from hibernation to poke at various things through the lens of game audio!

Notable mentions include:

Roland Cloud - https://www.rolandcloud.com/
U-He Hive - https://u-he.com/products/hive/
GForce Oberheim SEM - https://gforcesoftware.com/products/sem/
La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_1OtRt0_ho
El Cid soundtrack by Miklós Rózsa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrP3hNSglAc
The Five Star Stories soundtrack by Tomoyuki Asakawa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbT2Dk6X1dA&list=PL2FQwOaKZzbtUC2Ai7OkNtChCLn_kZKNV

Featuring: Vincent Diamante, Alex May, Michael Shapiro

Recorded January 20, 2023

The duo of Alex and Vince team up to offer a somewhat introspective episode this time around. Between reflections on a very early attempt to record voice actors for a commercial game, navigating the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and chatting a bit about recent game dev achievements, it's no wonder that this episode can't be contained to a mere hour! (But that's seemingly every episode these days...)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded December 9, 2022

The GAH trio is joined by renowned game audio designer and music composer Martin Stig Andersen of Control, Inside, and Limbo fame... but there's more to him than just those titles! Alex, Mike, and Vince pepper him with questions and mostly avoid the usual Black Friday talk on this exciting episode!

Notable mentions include:

Tristan Murail (French composer)
AudioSculpt (software, IRCAM)
Studer (manufacturer of professional tape recorders)
BX15 and BX20 spring reverbs (AKG)
Oddity3 (softsynth, GForce)
chipsynth MD (softsynth, Plogue)
The Midnight Club (TV series from writer creator Mike Flannagan)

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Shapiro, Vincent Diamante, and special guest Martin Stig Andersen

Recorded November 25, 2022

Alex and Vince are at it again!

This episode features Vince trying to cajole Alex into coming to LA for GameSoundCon, but really it's all a front for how envious he is of Alex being able to hangout with Martin Stig Andersen for dinner while they were at the Reboot conference! Still, there's plenty of other fun stuff, from thoughts about Wwise to piano talk and game recommendations to make this a GAH episode for the ages!

Notable mentions include:

Reboot Develop Blue (game conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia)
Martin Stig Anderson (sound designer)
Limbo (Playdead)
Back 4 Blood (Turtle Rock Studios)
Scars Above (Mad Head Games)
Dimitrije Cvetković (audio director)
Wurlitzer spinets (half-decent pianos)
Mason and Hamlin (American piano manufacturer)
Jazz Hanon (piano studies)
Aliens: Fireteam Elite (Cold Iron Studios, music by Austin Wintory)
140 (developed by Jeppe Carlsen)

Mike, Vince, and Alex have a special guest this episode!

Brian Schmidt comes on the show along with his vast experience working on game, starting from pinball and arcade games in the mid-80s, through console hardware audio in the 2000s, and to the present day and his current station as founder and executive director of GameSoundCon. Along the way, the crew hits some great high points in game audio history and geeks out: entirely too much.

Notable mentions include:

Black Knight 2000 (pinball game, Williams)
Tattoo Assassins (arcade fighting game, Data East)
XACT (audio toolset and programming library, Microsoft)
Defender (arcade shooting game, Williams)
Destiny 2 (first-person shooter, Bungie)
Deathloop (first-person shooter, Arkane Lyon)
Ni no Kuni (role playing game, Level-5)
Roel Funcken - https://roelfuncken.bandcamp.com/ (musician)
Canabalt (web and mobile game, Adam Saltsman and Danny Baranowsky)

GameSoundCon, October 25-26 in Los Angeles, CA (www.gamesoundcon.com)

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Shapiro, Vincent Diamante, and special guest Brian Schmidt

Recorded September 23, 2022

The crew of Alex, Mike, and Vince reconvene after a much needed summer break... and they get right back into it! Some new toys, new techniques, and a bit of consideration/prognostication about algorithmic music are par for the course here at the GAH headquarters!

Notable mentions include:

Dodotronic Ultrasonic Microphones - https://www.dodotronic.com/product-category/usb-microphones/?v=2a47ad90f2ae
Chipsynth OPS7 - https://www.plogue.com/products/chipsynth-ops7.html
Pigments - https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/pigments/overview
Phase Plant - https://kilohearts.com/products/phase_plant
Objeq Delay - https://www.applied-acoustics.com/objeq-delay/
Triple Cheese - https://u-he.com/products/triplecheese/
Michael Winslow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Winslow
AIVA - https://www.aiva.ai/
Anthony Jackson - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Jackson_(musician)
City Wars: Tokyo Reign - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1689090/CITY_WARS_TOKYO_REIGN/
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - https://open.spotify.com/artist/6cadOIa5DTh6a5mGo5r4bh

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded September 16, 2022

Mike and Alex convene and chat about game music from some different angles, starting from the perspective of various software and how they treat music input/recording and representation, and moving on to their own interlinked experiences working as a game producer and music composer and those specific experiences working in game development. Eventually they chat about some true classic experiences from yesteryear: Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre and BioWare's classic RPG Mass Effect.

Featuring: Alex May and Michael Gordon Shapiro

Recorded: July 15, 2022

The trio of Alex, Vince, and Mike go through some of the latest things to hit in the world of audio production and music: 32 bit floating point field recorders, the CLever Audio Plugin API, The Mechanical Licensing Collective, and a bunch of other stuff which leads to the now standard longer-than-an-hour episode. Will they be able to rein it in for the next one?

Notable mentions include:
CLAP - https://github.com/free-audio/clap
Zoom field recorders - https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/field-recorders/
The MLC - https://www.themlc.com/
Sound Exchange - https://www.soundexchange.com/
Obi-Wan Kenobi - https://www.disneyplus.com/series/obi-wan-kenobi/
Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War - https://www.crunchyroll.com/kaguya-sama-love-is-war
Top Gun: Maverick - https://www.topgunmovie.com/

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded June 23, 2022

Vince and Alex are up to their usual shenanigans as they rock the mics for this episode. This time around, the duo starts from the 1997 Norwegian film Insomnia and Vince's short academic career in film school before getting to the business at hand of game audio. Notable mentions include: the Roland MC-50 Micro Composer and TR-808 Rhythm Composer, the new Apple Silicon powered MacBook Pro, the RME Babyface and Ladyface audio interfaces, CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077, Capcom's Lost Planet 2, and Fishlabs's Chorus.

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded May 27, 2022

Alex, Mike, and Vince are back to their usual podcast recording ways. This time, they talk a bit about foley instrument software before moving on to Elden Ring and the question of how to score such an immersive and expansive environment as well as commemorating the groundbreaking synth work of Vangelis. Notable mentions include: Eurovision, GameSynth (audio tool, Tsugi), Walker (footstep foley tool, UVI), Elden Ring (game, FromSoftware), John Zorn (composer), Blade Runner (film), Chariots of Fire (film), and Wool (book trilogy, Hugh Howey).

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded May 20, 2022

The trio of Alex, Mike, and Vince is back for this episode. A journey down the rabbit-hole of reverbs gets sidetracked as they talk about how one writes for oneself as well as conveys oneself to a potential client... but you can't completely squash the gear talk. Notable mentions include: Sonsig Rev-A by (reverb plugin, Relab Development), HD Cart by (reverb plugin, Reverb Foundry), FlexVerb by (reverb plugin, SSL), Seventh Heaven by (reverb plugin, LiquidSonics), Elden Ring (game, FromSoftware), Encanto (movie, Disney), and Trek to Yomi (game, Devolver Digital).

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded May 13, 2022

Alex and Mike have talk about audio things new and old, from technical (talking compressors and EQs) to relationships (with potential customers and even the potential changes coming to Twitter). Notable mentions this episode include: the SSL Essentials Bundle, Sonimus Sweetone, the KVR One-Synth-Challenge, A Sound Effect, Daylite, Elden Ring, and iamamiwhoami.

Featuring: Alex May and Michael Shapiro

Recorded April 29, 2022

Alex and Mike are at it with a bevy of current and diverse topics! Computer noise, music distro services, even that (that!) orchestra hit are fair game in this episode! Notable mentions include: TAILS (plugin by Unfiltered Audio), Crystalline (plugin by BABY Audio), Hey Hey Rise Up (single by Pink Floyd), Elden Ring (game by From Software), Project Hail Mary (novel by Andy Weir), Witness (album by VOLA), Chorus (game by Deep Silver).

Featuring: Alex May and Michael Shapiro

Recorded April 8, 2022

Vince, Mike, and Alex go through recent moves involving companies such as Apple, Vienna, and SSL as well as commenting on some of their own personal preferences when it comes to input devices and the basics of tracking note data into DAWs or notation software. Other notable mentions include: GDC, Logitech, Bitwig, Go West (album by Go West), Hadestown, and Gran Turismo 7.

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded March 18, 2022

Alex and Vince engage in a smorgasbord of topics, from Vocaloid to Super Nintendo Land, sound for arcade games, and the culture surrounding arcade play.

Notable mentions include: Hatsune Miku, Vocaloid, Yamaha, Nintendo, Defender, Tempest, 1942, Scritti Politti's Cupid & Psyche 85, and The Red Violin.

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded March 11, 2022

Alex and Vince chat about their recent work on the soundtrack to the VR city-building game Spacefolk City... but not before Vince is nearly had by a scam of an audio plugin sales website.

Notable mentions include: Pluginboutique.com, Solid State Survivor (Yellow Magic Orchestra), Transistor (Supergiant Games), Rhapsody (Nippon Ichi Software), The Expanse (TV series), Vitals (Mutemath), Unpacking, and Spacefolk City.

Music heard in this episode: Galaxy Springs, Happy in the City, and Gamma Rays from Spacefolk City (Original Game Soundtrack) Vol. 1

https://moonmodegames.bandcamp.com/album/spacefolk-city-original-game-soundtrack-vol-1

Alex and Vince chat for a bit about Steinberg's move away from VST2 support in Cubase, their own choices in DAWs and interfaces, and a few objective ways that one can go about finding the best choice for them before getting into the meat of the episode... Alex recreating the latest and greatest in 1980s sound generation: LA Synthesis! (Not Los Angeles...)

Notable mentions include: Cubase, REAPER, Steinberg, RME, Linear Arithmetic Synthesis, Korg K1 and Nils Schneider's K1v plugin https://www.nilsschneider.de/wp/nils-k1v/

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded February 4, 2022

Mike, Alex, and Vince start off the year (and the podcast) by failing miserably at avoiding gear talk before giving some advice to a person interested in jumping into the game industry as well as mentioning some interesting places for free and cheap sounds before diving into: CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION. Notable mentions include: The Lindell 50 plugin, Adventure Construction Set, the Amiga, Freesound.org, Itch.io, Humble Bundle, Sonniss, The Witcher, and Angband.

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Gordon Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded January 7, 2022

The crew of Alex, Mike, and Vince reflect on their gear choices and acquisitions over the last year! Notable mentions include u-he, Spitfire, UVI, Liquidsonics, AAS, Fuse Audio Labs, fabfilter, Oeksound, and Plugin-Alliance. Listen to find out the exact awards being given out!

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Gordon Shapiro, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded December 17, 2021

Alex and Mike chat about other venues to draw interactive audio inspiration from, diving into Mike's experience with musical theater. Notable mentions for this episode include: The Akai MPC, QLab, Ableton Live, Dune, The Wheel of Time, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Gordon Shapiro

Recorded November 19, 2021

Alex, Mike, and Vince start off by running through the latest iteration of Mike's decided low-fi method for managing his library of instruments, followed by Vince's recent struggles with surround sound consumption making him feel surprisingly down on the format. Some of the items mentioned this episode include: Carlos Ghosn; the OmniOutliner, Bear, and Simplenote note-taking apps; The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles; ARC; Sony HT-A9; Dolby, DTS, and uncompressed surround sound; The Chronicles of Riddick; Mortal Engines; Dune; No Time To Die.

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Gordon Shapiro, Vincent Diamante

Recorded October 29, 2021

Vince and Mike chat about musical sound and workflow, especially with regard to some new and old tools acquisitions. Some of the things mentioned include: Rupert Neve Designs Master Buss Converter, Brainworx bx_console, Black Box Analog Design HG-2, East West Hollywood Orchestra Opus Edition, ReaControlMIDI, various Roland, E-mu, and Korg romplers, Roland Cloud Zenology, Civilization V: Brave New World, Punishing: Gray Raven, Girl Cafe Gun.

Alex and Vince chat about older games and game consoles and their capabilities and use that topic to branch off to other aspects of music and sound design for games. Mentioned: Castlevania III, Turrican, Super Stardust, Mr. Gimmick, Blade Runner 2049, Dune, Bach, Megalith (T-Square), and a smattering of others of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it variety.

Featuring: Alex May, Vincent Diamante

Recorded September 24, 2021

Vince decided to invest in a very expensive piece of analog gear to give his music a finishing touch, Mike and Alex consider the digital/analog hybrid model in terms of both workflow and quality, and the trio look at some fun things for conspicuous consumption.

Mentioned: Rupert Neve (audio engineer), Master Buss Converter (product), bx_console (plugin), Dan Worrall (Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQnz5mUTDkGwKvIQ9uyqiXw ) , LOW (band), HEY WHAT (album - https://open.spotify.com/album/6S6jg2LuEwGdo9iYMSwCBS?si=BXmZ7zzfTZ-tg8rarttQGQ ), Horizon - Zero Dawn, Forspoken ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdZUrXCqUck )

Featuring: Alex May, Michael Gordon Shapiro, Vincent Diamante

Recorded September 10, 2021