Game Audio Network Guild

We like to offer all GameAudioNetworkGuild-members a discount on our "Felt Force One" Orchestral Percussion Package. 50% Off with the couponcode: Olympic From 29,90 for 15 Euros! The discount will be open for the next 19 or so days, so get it while it is hot!!! Enjoy everybody 

Rob Vandenberg 

http://www.sonokinetic.com/feltforceone/ 


The powerful orchestral percussive scoring library 


For fast and efficient scoring, guide-tracking work and full scores building. 
24 bit 44.1 kHz 7 fully percussive scored and performed construction kits 

divided 4 and 8 or 16 bar phrases for quick scoring and transitions 

15+ Massive Slams and Hits, 2 snare ensemble phrases, a metal and iron hits, GrandCassa, BigDrumFX patch and a shout and screaming 'men' patch. 

With this tool we've aimed on the most realistic but composer-audio technician friendly sample library. Providing in highly efficient microphone 
setup mixed from close, mid-stage, far-stage and balcony-far recordings. 

This library provides basic percussion construction kits for building bases for your orchestral symphonic music. Especially those epic and action-loaded trailer tracks sometimes need more kick and a great way to achieve this is by using these authentic performed samples. For this we've created a new and very easy to use construction kit. Providing twelve friendly looped based live recording sessions of a powerful six men percussion ensemble. Felt Force One arrangements contain Grand Cassa, Bass drums, FloorToms, Low, medium and high symphonic toms, Field drums ensembles, snaredrums, Rototoms, Bamboo percussion, Piatta, Tamtam, Cymbals, Anvyls, Iron&Metal Hits/SFX, and Shouts and Screams.

G.A.N.G. is proud to announce the 8th annual 2010 Student/Apprentice Contest. This contest is an outstanding opportunity for student and apprentice members in G.A.N.G., and is a great way to advance your game audio career and get noticed. So, get your creative juices flowing and submit your best material in the competition!

There are two specific categories in the competition: Music Composition and Sound Design. Music winners will be awarded a Nine-Volt Power Pack (worth $500), and Sound Design winners will be awarded a $500 gift certificate to Sound Rangers' online SFX store. Here is an outline of the dates:

Feb 15th – Submissions Accepted

Feb 19th – Submissions Closed (5 day window for submissions)

Feb 22nd – Voting opens

March 1st – Voting Closes

March 12th – GANG Awards Winner’s Announced

CONTEST DETAILS

(Please read all details below carefully before submitting)

Music Composition

Compose an original 1 minute (60 second) theme for an epic, vampire RPG. The piece should be primarily focused on an evolving theme, and must contain either solo vocals, and/or choral elements. In addition to voices, the composition may use any instrumentation and should not loop. You may any tools at your disposal to create your theme.

Judging Guidelines

Composition quality: Including appropriate instrumentation/orchestration and development of a theme throughout the work.

Production quality: including mixing, effective use of samples, and overall quality of work.

Sound Design

Design a 60-second soundscape of a pack vampires attacking a squadron of heavily armed soldiers, that are ambushed by a clan of werewolves in a midnight forest. Remember to illustrate all of the sounds you might hear if you were one of the human soldiers in this event, including the growls of wolves, ambience of the nighttime forest, and how they might effect the surrounding environment. The submission should be in stereo.

Judging Guidelines

Creativity: Ability to create an auditory vision, using appropriate sounds to paint a picture of a werewolf attack.

Production quality: including quality of sounds, mix, and overall quality of work.

CONTEST RULES

(Please read carefully)

1. The contest begins today and submissions will be accepted on the G.A.N.G. Site (similar to the G.A.N.G. Awards) starting February 15th.

2. You must be a Student or Apprentice member to submit. (An apprentice member is one who has NOT received payment for services in the interactive entertainment industry as an audio professional.)

3. You must be a G.A.N.G. member to vote.

4. You may submit only one work per category.

5. All submissions may not exceed the time limit listed in the description. Submissions may be less but not over the time listed. Any submissions exceeding the time limit will be rejected.

6. All submissions must be in mp3 format at 192 kbps compression. Submissions will not be accepted in any other format. Please do not compress the file via zip, .sit, etc.

7. All submissions must be uploaded via the submission form on the G.A.N.G. Site no later than Thursday, February 18th, at 11:59 PM PST.

VOTING GUIDELINES

1. Voting for the Student/Apprentice Contest will be open to all G.A.N.G. members starting February 22nd, 2010, and weill be held on the G.A.N.G. site.

2. All members may vote once for the composition category and once for the sound design category. All contestants may vote and are encouraged to vote for their own work.

3. Please take the time to listen to all of the submissions in each category before choosing the submission you feel is the best. Judging guidelines are written in each category to help you make an objective decision.

The winners will be announced at the Annual Game Audio Network Guild Awards held at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Contestants do not need to be in attendance to win.

Good luck!

Tommy, Jack, Paul, Michelle and Sean
Game Audio Network Guild

Greetings!

 Here is another huge discount from our friends at IK Multimedia, 25% off of all software!!! If you haven't ever use T-racks and are in the market for some great plugins, check them out. Details and the code are below:

IKGANG25


IK Multimedia is offering G.A.N.G. Members 25 Percent off Software-Only
products in the IK Multimedia Online Store for the 2010 calendar year. This
promo code is valid for products like AmpliTube 3, Miroslav Philharmonik,
Sonik Synth 2, T-RackS 3 and other great virtual instruments and effects
processors from IK. Please keep this G.A.N.G. Members only promo code
discreet, and use this promo code only in the www.ikmultimedia.com store, as
it is not valid for use in any other retail store, or online store.

To learn more about how you can save on IK's software/hardware combination
products, please contact your G.A.N.G. Member- IK Multimedia representative,
Joseph DeStefano, for all U.S. And North American inquirie
(jdestefano@ikmultimedia.com) IK Multimedia. Musicians First.

I am pleased to announce that my first concerto for snare drum, which was written for Dame Evelyn Glennie (http://www.evelyn.co.uk/) is being premiered tomorrow November 26, at Cadogan Hall in the UK - http://www.cadoganhall.com/showpage.php?pid=830

 If you are in that area, I encourage you to check it out :) Unfortunately due to the high costs of travelling I will not be in the audience, but it will be a great show nonetheless!

Albeit a day late, here is the latest iteration of my continuing comedy blog, Friday Fun and Fail!

 This week's Friday Fun and Fail is all about music. All of these clips are fun and also are fail... What differs between them is HOW they fail, however I won't be the one to determine that, I will leave that to you :-)

Friday Fun and Fail #1 - Buzz Aldrin Rap

Are we going to the moon again? Are we going to Mars sometime soon? Who knows, but Buzz Aldrin may not be going back as he is now taking up a career as a rapper.

 [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xNBsueJ4wY 425x344]

 Even though we can laff at the sight of an old space-man/legend rapping, you can't help but to admire his determination to make sick talk.

Friday Fun and Fail #2 - A CATcerto?!

Really? REALLY?  Just watch this and enjoy. It is awesome in so many ways yet in so many wants you just want to say WOW.

  [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg 425x344]

I simply don't know what to say about this video :P It is rediculous yet incredibly, and hilariously brilliant! I enjoy the fact that I can laugh at something so serious :) (I am also more of a dog person hehe)

Until next Friday Fun and Fail keep your grandparents away from the turntables, and your cat away from the piano....

Greetings again from Columbus! Today is a rare Friday Fun n' Fail, as I have a lot of fun things, and well not so many fails. (<- I am saving those for the next one hehe)

Ok, so right to the grind! First on the list, CAN YOU BEAT MY SCORE?!

FRIDAY FUN - SPORCLE

If you haven't ever been to sporcle.com, I suggest you go right now. Stop everything you are doing and go!!! It is a sweet site where you can take quizzes, and I am not talking about "Which Harry Potter Character Am I?"

In addition to the mind-numbing common "Name the States" quizzes, they have the real mind-numbing stuff in the form of game quizzes! So, do you feel luck punk? Can you beat my score on this 90's Games Quiz?

 http://www.sporcle.com/games/videogames_90s.php

Ok, so I only got 48 of 50, and I know there are some real nerds here that will manage to get 51 of 50 somehow. But whatever, check out the other games and post your scores here or in another thread and we shall challenge each other!!!

(Can anyone here complete this quiz 100%? Name Pokemon If so, you are the fail  of this blog post :-P I tried and got about 100... lol)

In other news that you want to stop hearing about but is being forced down our throats, the death (or homicide) of MJ is quite tragic.

As a child I used to have a MJ leather jacket (replica) and pants, and I will be darned if I didn't used to get up on tables and dance like him! I tried to find a picture of it for me to post, but I couldn't! He was my hero as a child, and even though he is gone, his music will live on!

 Here is a link to an awesome MJ+game tribute that Tommy sent me last week.

 Michael Quest III

Well that is all I ha... wait, there is something else in my bag :) Time for some great nostalgic music! Any fans of Phantasmagoria or Unsolved Mysteries? (Both of which gave me endless amouns of nightmares...)

For those that are not familiar with either of those shows or their intro music, prepare your eardrums for an adventure :)

 UNSOLVED MYSTERIES THEME

 [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcqWfGjGVZ0 425x344]

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW_d04W8QWY 425x344]

 That is all the fun and fail I have in me for today, but come back in two weeks for more! (Unless my wife goes into labor at which point I will most likely fall of the face of the planet! lol)

Ahh, it is that time again... Good 'ol Friday. I love Fridays for the simple fact that it is one day closer to the weekend. I have strong disdain for Fridays for the simple fact that I rarely get weekends off :) (Fridays feel like Tuesdays to me)

So now on to the festivities. First, the fun. I came across this little gem of a flash game while browsing the web and playing games on my iPhone, which btw, Defender Chronicles rulz! I am quite impressed with the quality of the game and how it really accomplished what it set out to do.  I present to you -

 FRIDAY FUN - MARIO 63

Thats right, a 2d new-make of Mario 64. Plays a fair bit like Super Mario DS, but not quite as grand :) Man, that game brings back memories...

Don't you wish you could relive part of your child hood? Well, now you can! If you drop by this site you can literally dive through hundreds of pages of "old" stuff (that you have most likely forgot out) that will  make you feel young again in no time!

FRIDAY FUN - ONCE UPON A WIN

Just keep hittin' the random button, you will find something awesome! (Unless you are 80, then most of this stuff will probably bore you :-P) The Kaleidoscope was a big win for me. Can I get an iPhone app like that?!

Ahh memories... As I am preparing for the birth of my first child with my wife Laura, I continue to think about to the good times we have had together... Including this one, of which I snapped a video (I do so quickly before Laura threatened to push me of the cliff if I continued taping lol) of us hiking through "Old Man's Cave" at Hocking Hills. Notice my use of the word 'Spelunking'... that was my phrase for that day ;-)

The guy with me is Dan Rogers, also a G.A.N.G. Member, a composer/sound designer, and a great friend.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9-afVNOaWY 560x340]

I can't wait for the family photos... I am really looking forward to making history JUST like these people!

  FRIDAY FUN - AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTOS 1

&

FRIDAY FUN - AWKWARD FAMILY PHOTOS 2

 Obviously I don't need to say much about these...heh. I know at least one person reading this has probably been tortured by the "old west" family picture, (sepia and all) or perhaps a "sports team" family photo, and for that, you have my pity :)

I was fortunate enough to only be punished by Church Directory Photos...

Make some great memories this summer and enjoy every moment (even the embarrassing ones) of life. Until July, stay fail-free :)

(And on a sidenote, Ghostbusters on the 360 is pretty  cool!)