100 game audio professionals to be featured in two-volume BEEP book set
In August 2014, Karen Collins‘ BEEP: A Documentary History of Game Sound came to Kickstarter to raise money to film a documentary about the history of video game sound (music, voice, and sound design). Having secured funding, they travelled three continents to interview professionals in all aspects of game audio. Over the course of a year, the project managed to interview over 100 game audio professionals in person about what they do and why. In doing so, they documented the history of video game sound from the earliest days of arcades and pinball through to the major console, PC, mobile, online and indie titles of today, covering a diverse range of people involved in the industry. These interviews are going to be presented through three formats: a feature-length documentary film, a series of webisodes, and a two-volume book.
The Beep Book presents these interviews with 100 game audio professionals in an exclusive two-volume collector’s set. These interviews provide a more indepth perspective on game audio sound than most journalistic interviews and include a full range of individuals: the composers, sound designers, voice actors and directors, the software and hardware developers, audio directors, and chip musicians. Of course, plenty of legends such as Nobuo Uematsu, Chris Huelsbeck, Yoko Shimomura, Alexander Brandon, Hisayoshi Ogura, and George Sanger are featured along the way. All interviews have been carefully edited to provide a fascinating read and have been professionally laid out as can be seen by the sample chapter with Forza Motorsport director Nick Wiswell. Many of these interviews were coordinated and conducted in collaboration with VGMO.
BEEP promises to cover “just about everything you can imagine in its interviews”: Amiga, Arranging, Atari 2600, Audio direction, Audio games, C64, Casual, CD-ROMs, Chiptune, Colecovision, Composers, Conducting, Dreamcast, Facebook games, Festivals, Fighting games, Film sound, FM synthesis, Foley, game remakes, GameBoy, GameCube, Getting into the industry, Handhelds, Implementation, indie games, Instrumentation, Intellivision, Interactive/adaptive audio, iPad, Jaguar, kids’ games, licensed music, live performances, middleware, MIDI, mixing, MMOs, Mobile, MOD, MSX, music games, N64, Nintendo DS, online gaming, orchestration, PC, pinball, Playstation, programming, prototyping, PSG, synthesis, Quality Assurance (QA), racing games, ringtones, Sega Genesis/MegaDrive, SID, singing voice, slot machines, sound cards, sound design, sound recording, soundtracks, sports games, Super Nintendo, technical sound design, technology, tools training & education, Turbografx 16, voice acting, voice directing, Wii, Xbox, etc., etc., etc.
If you didn’t back the original Kickstarter, it is possible to secure your copy of the books through a newly-launched campaign. Those who pledge 35+ USD will receive digital copies of both book volumes as well as the film. Those who pledge 110+ USD will receive hard copies of both volumes of the book. These books are estimated to ship in April 2016. The film will also be released in the timeframe. A 22-minute featurette from the film, “BEEP: Big in Japan”, was recently premiered at Game Music Connect and can be viewed in full above. This gives a taste of what to expect from the final product.
Posted on October 9, 2015 by Chris Greening. Last modified on October 9, 2015.
About the Author
Chris Greening I've contributed to websites related to game audio since 2002. In this time, I've reviewed over a thousand albums and interviewed hundreds of musicians across the world. As the founder and webmaster of VGMO -Video Game Music Online-, I hope to create a cutting-edge, journalistic resource for all those soundtrack enthusiasts out there. In the process, I would love to further cultivate my passion for music, writing, and generally building things. Please enjoy the site and don't hesitate to say hello!
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