Game Audio Hour

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 - ht...

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...

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 too...

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 (r...

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 Shapi...

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...

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, Mich...

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,...

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,...

Mike and Vince chat about Vince's latest toy: a fancy new surround system. While it's quite capable, it raises some issues for both consumers and creators when it comes to audio latency. Also: Vince talks about writing a theme song for an anime! Notable mentions include: Sony HT-A9, RetroTINK-5X, The Orbital Children, Oarana, and The Book of Boba Fett. Oarana Music Video: https://www.youtube.com/w...

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....

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 At...

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...

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...

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....

The trio of Vince, Mike, and Alex are back and talking about various musical ideas, starting by briefly touching on the anniversary of the Spitfire/Westworld competition, then moving on to the long-running KVR One Synth Challenge, and finally spinning out onto various subjects after Alex reveals that he's done something rather out of character: Purchasing a modern and robust orchestral sample libr...

The GAH duo of Mike and Vince talk composition, starting with Vincent's anxieties about effectively working with assistants leading to talk of high-level workflow, composition techniques, and other related topics here and there before ending with: (SURPRISE!) more anxieties about the future of music composition work. Featuring: Michael Gordon Shapiro, Vincent Diamante Recorded: June 25, 2021

The Game Audio Hour hits a bevy of audio topics, including: Apple Spatial Audio, Algonaut Atlas 2, searching sound libraries in Cubase and Reaper, computer silencing, old software far removed from the Apple Silicon era, and developing haptic feedback. Featuring: Alex May & Vincent Diamante Recorded: June 10, 2021

The Game Audio Hour crew returns... in audio-only form, appropriately enough! Mike visits an arcade for the first time in a while, which prompts a discussion that connects development for arcade hardware and mobile phones... and they somehow start talking about connecting 80s-90s consumer keyboards (Yamaha PSR-510!) to their sound cards, eventually coming back to modern sample libraries like EastW...