I had an internship at EA in 1997 and Traz had an small studio in the building that he showed me. I still remember the analog scope he used to check things. After the little tour I thought he was pretty much the coolest person I had ever met in my life. If I'd known then he was going to end up doing a collab with Skinny Puppy folks I would have thought he was even cooler than that.
Request: Kohta Takahashi. He's made some of the best Ridge Racer music on the planet! Move Me and Synthetic Life are really great. He has also composed for the Ace Combat and Klonoa series.
I always wondered how the people who made the music for FIFA, NBA, NFL and so on felt about the switch to licenced music. Must be wild that for years it had original music only for it to change to licensed music and a bunch of people lose their jobs.
You can’t always be worried about jobs being lost if a social security system is in place. It’s not like they closed the coal mines, creating widespread poverty for an ideological government policy.
I know I've said it before but the way you do these transitions... It just adds so much to your videos and using on screen text allows the music to remain the focus!
one of the two humble brothers! actually, I'd like to give Hiwatt a shoutout too. he's active on youtube and has even shared some stories about some of his game work: www.youtube.com/@hiwattmarshall
Grew up as a little kid with a few of those basketball games when they first released. Did not care for sports sims at all then (my older brother adored them), but did enjoy the tracks. Never knew they were all made by the same guy.
Awesome mix as usual! Those NBA Live tracks are still absolute bangers for sure. One work he did early on that's quite neat that not many people know about is his contributions to J.League Virtual Stadium on 3DO, the localized version of 3DO FIFA; that one featured optional in-game music, with two tracks by Traz and the other two by fellow Distinctive/EA Canada sound guy Michael Sokyrka, and they may have been his first redbook/streamed audio compositions, as this was a couple months prior to DOS NBA Live 95. I should upload them to YT later, they're quite good. Also what's funny about those is that, while the original songs from 3DO FIFA just have generic filenames, the filenames for these new ones are helpfully labeled to their corresponding composers... even if kinda generically too. lol (they're labeled as "Mike1"/"Mike2" and "Traz1"/"Traz2" respectively)
Have you ever made a video about Olof Gustafsson? My favorite music of his is from the Pinball Dreams series of games, which includes Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies, and Pinball Illusions.
So Traz was one of many people behind many original Simlish songs. Interesting. The Humble Brothers did 360, Hero, Neighborhood and DJ Funktronic, I think.
Did not see this. Oh well. Next time. Kind of surprised the intro for Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit and some songs from Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 did not make it to the video unless it didn't flow well or there's a mistake on the info I know.
It was a flow thing! There was a lot of funky NBA stuff I wanted to feature and it didn't quite mesh with the intensity of his NFS work. though looking again, I might've been able to fit it in before moving to Freekstyle... 🤔 alas
I found the video underwhelming. Redbook audio is troublesome for me, as a soundtrack for a game. Something is lost when limitations are removed and the ambitions of the composer outpace the requirements of the background music. A rich and complex sound created in a studio, I often find at odds with the visual information of a 16 or 32bit game, who’s graphics are kinda rough. Notgonnalie. In that there is somehing about Mega CD music which is tinny and focused on high tones and bright snare drums. More video gamey. I think Rayman marked a shift into fully orchestrated music in some way, no longer ‘gamey’. The theme of the Rayman games is music.
Unpopular Opinion but I think Redbook was a blessing in disguise in some parts, since there some composers who were never good at Chiptune in the first place that did better when streamed audio was introduced. Personally it's not about pushing the limitations and making great tunes but rather making the music really decent then anything. As someone told me it's not about the tools being bad it's how you use it. Also none of the Rayman games were live orchestra either since they use samples then anything.
@@Jimbo_LandreyI think the limitations of chiptune leave nowhere to hide with your compositions because the channels are so limited and loud - you are forced into bold melodies. They might suck or be boring but the impetus to create catchy tunes was more pronounced. So VGM now is more about atmosphere than strong themes.
@iwanttocomplain Actually that is a fair criticism, I understand where your coming from since most modern VGM is very sound design heavy and atmospheric. Once again, it's kinda hard to find very strong melodic soundtracks in games due to current filmscore trends. At least there some few dedicated composers who rely on chiptune music to this day I don't think the art is dead.
weirdly never heard of this guy before, but there's some great tunes here. I really should have tracked down SimCity 4 music before now...
I had an internship at EA in 1997 and Traz had an small studio in the building that he showed me. I still remember the analog scope he used to check things. After the little tour I thought he was pretty much the coolest person I had ever met in my life. If I'd known then he was going to end up doing a collab with Skinny Puppy folks I would have thought he was even cooler than that.
Request: Kohta Takahashi. He's made some of the best Ridge Racer music on the planet! Move Me and Synthetic Life are really great. He has also composed for the Ace Combat and Klonoa series.
How did I miss this one? I'm a big Traz Damji fan.
Also, you should've added "Paint Dance" from NBA Live '98.
Ah yes, channel OGs know we're coming full circle with this mix. Y'know, like a basketball.
...
I'll see myself out.
One of my favorite artists of all time!
I always wondered how the people who made the music for FIFA, NBA, NFL and so on felt about the switch to licenced music. Must be wild that for years it had original music only for it to change to licensed music and a bunch of people lose their jobs.
You can’t always be worried about jobs being lost if a social security system is in place. It’s not like they closed the coal mines, creating widespread poverty for an ideological government policy.
absolute banger video. So much care and craft put into these, great work GST 🎉
Traz and his collaborators have always delivered excellent tracks, this mix is fantastic!
I know I've said it before but the way you do these transitions... It just adds so much to your videos and using on screen text allows the music to remain the focus!
Y E S !!! My favorite RUclips channel :D
Welp, time to dig up a bunch of chip tunes and add them to my collection...
If this ain’t the one….NBA Live 96 on Genesis had slaps lol
Ohhhhhh so this is the man (at least one of them) who wrote my favorite SimCity 4 tracks like Oasis and Epicentre
one of the two humble brothers!
actually, I'd like to give Hiwatt a shoutout too. he's active on youtube and has even shared some stories about some of his game work: www.youtube.com/@hiwattmarshall
Grew up as a little kid with a few of those basketball games when they first released.
Did not care for sports sims at all then (my older brother adored them), but did enjoy the tracks.
Never knew they were all made by the same guy.
I’d love to see a video about Neil Voss
Your channel is the tops, man. Seriously one of my favorite finds here on RUclips!
Awesome mix as usual! Those NBA Live tracks are still absolute bangers for sure.
One work he did early on that's quite neat that not many people know about is his contributions to J.League Virtual Stadium on 3DO, the localized version of 3DO FIFA; that one featured optional in-game music, with two tracks by Traz and the other two by fellow Distinctive/EA Canada sound guy Michael Sokyrka, and they may have been his first redbook/streamed audio compositions, as this was a couple months prior to DOS NBA Live 95. I should upload them to YT later, they're quite good.
Also what's funny about those is that, while the original songs from 3DO FIFA just have generic filenames, the filenames for these new ones are helpfully labeled to their corresponding composers... even if kinda generically too. lol (they're labeled as "Mike1"/"Mike2" and "Traz1"/"Traz2" respectively)
woah, you're right, I completely missed that one! from the dates, it indeed looks like his earliest redbook work. wild!
Have you ever made a video about Olof Gustafsson? My favorite music of his is from the Pinball Dreams series of games, which includes Pinball Dreams, Pinball Fantasies, and Pinball Illusions.
that's an artist I'm aware of but haven't focused on yet!
doh, i missed it!
I'm so so happy you chose adlib for the dos games! That was my childhood
So Traz was one of many people behind many original Simlish songs. Interesting.
The Humble Brothers did 360, Hero, Neighborhood and DJ Funktronic, I think.
And more! there's actually a list of their contributions on wikipedia if you'd like to dig around
Did not see this. Oh well. Next time. Kind of surprised the intro for Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit and some songs from Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 did not make it to the video unless it didn't flow well or there's a mistake on the info I know.
It was a flow thing! There was a lot of funky NBA stuff I wanted to feature and it didn't quite mesh with the intensity of his NFS work. though looking again, I might've been able to fit it in before moving to Freekstyle... 🤔 alas
I found the video underwhelming. Redbook audio is troublesome for me, as a soundtrack for a game. Something is lost when limitations are removed and the ambitions of the composer outpace the requirements of the background music. A rich and complex sound created in a studio, I often find at odds with the visual information of a 16 or 32bit game, who’s graphics are kinda rough. Notgonnalie. In that there is somehing about Mega CD music which is tinny and focused on high tones and bright snare drums. More video gamey. I think Rayman marked a shift into fully orchestrated music in some way, no longer ‘gamey’. The theme of the Rayman games is music.
Unpopular Opinion but I think Redbook was a blessing in disguise in some parts, since there some composers who were never good at Chiptune in the first place that did better when streamed audio was introduced.
Personally it's not about pushing the limitations and making great tunes but rather making the music really decent then anything.
As someone told me it's not about the tools being bad it's how you use it.
Also none of the Rayman games were live orchestra either since they use samples then anything.
@@Jimbo_LandreyI think the limitations of chiptune leave nowhere to hide with your compositions because the channels are so limited and loud - you are forced into bold melodies. They might suck or be boring but the impetus to create catchy tunes was more pronounced.
So VGM now is more about atmosphere than strong themes.
@iwanttocomplain Actually that is a fair criticism, I understand where your coming from since most modern VGM is very sound design heavy and atmospheric.
Once again, it's kinda hard to find very strong melodic soundtracks in games due to current filmscore trends.
At least there some few dedicated composers who rely on chiptune music to this day I don't think the art is dead.