Favorite Video Game Composers

@leejacksonaudio Now that you are here, Mr. Jackson, I wanted to ask you: do you have favorite video game composers of your own?

 

Just now, leejacksonaudio said:

/* pops his head in */

/* looks around */

/* says a huge... */

 

THANK YOU!!!!!

 

/* ...to all who've mentioned him */

/* pops back out */

1 minute ago, Rudolph said:

@leejacksonaudio Now that you are here, Mr. Jackson, I wanted to ask you: do you have favorite video game composers of your own?

 

To be fair, the only ones I've ever really heard any decent amount of their music are Bobby Prince and Andrew Hulshult. I like both of them. I tried to avoid listening to other composers so I wouldn't be accused of ripping off their ideas. ^_^;

Just now, leejacksonaudio said:

 

To be fair, the only ones I've ever really heard any decent amount of their music are Bobby Prince and Andrew Hulshult. I like both of them. I tried to avoid listening to other composers so I wouldn't be accused of ripping off their ideas. ^_^;

Hey, if Prince was able to put a bunch of Trash and Groove metal riffs in Doom, what stop you?

 

 

Chris Christodoulou is someone I only found last year when I bought Risk Of Rain 2, and his work on that absolutely blew me away. Seriously, if you haven't listened to his stuff before, change that right now.

 

 

4 hours ago, MrFroz said:

Kurt Harland

Oh man, I forgot about him! I absolutely loved his soundtrack for X-Men 2 on the Genesis. It sounded almost like darker Information Society music. Which makes sense given that he helped found that group.

19 minutes ago, Remilia Scarlet said:

Oh man, I forgot about him! I absolutely loved his soundtrack for X-Men 2 on the Genesis. It sounded almost like darker Information Society music. Which makes sense given that he helped found that group.

 

Yea, I think the soundtracks for SR1 and SR2 slap hard. Also Blood Omen's OST was done by a different composer, but still quite good:

 

 

Lee Jackson 

Bobby Prince 

Sonic mayhem

Andrew hulshult

Yuzo Koshiro

Jeremy Soule

I'll echo the Holy Trinity of Bobby Prince, Kevin Schilder, and Lee Jackson for classic MIDI FPS soundtrack. I'll also add Daniel Bernstein et al. from the Blood soundtrack.

 

Also, the various people behind Ultima games soundtracks (especially U7 and UW2), Eric Heberling and Mystery Composer for Arena and Daggerfall soundtracks, and whoever contributed to the Descent 1 soundtrack because it slaps hard. Bonus mention to Rob Wallace, who wrote scores for a few Apogee-published games like Hocus Pocus and Monster Bash.

 

Moving on to non-MIDI era:

15 hours ago, Lippeth said:

Barry Leitch - Top Gear, Horizon Chase Turbo

Also TFX!

10 hours ago, Antroid said:

Paul Anthony Romero (Might and Magic + Heroes of M&M)

Oh yes. Also we need to have John Romero hire Paul Romero just so that we can get a Romero game with double the Romero.

 

1 hour ago, Doom_Dude said:

Jeremy Soule

Definitely.

 

16 hours ago, Sonikkumania said:

Frank Klepacki

Absolutely.

 

Also, Stéphane Picq, for Dune - Spice Opera, and the soundtracks for games like Megarace or Lost Eden.

 

Speaking of Dune soundtrack, I gotta give a shoutout to Jarrid Mendelson and David Arkenstone, who worked with Klepacki on Emperor: Battle for Dune.

 

Finally, for indie game soundtracks, I want to mention Scott Lloyd Shelly aka Resonance Array (Terraria), Ari Pulkkinen (Shadowgrounds, Trine), Christopher Larkin (Hollow Knight)...

I listen to a fair amount of video game music.  Probably my three all-round favourites are:  

Austin Wintory (e.g. Journey, The Pathless),

Gareth Coker (e.g. some Minecraft expansions, Ori and the Blind Forest),

Jeremy Soule (e.g. Elder Scrolls 3-5).

 

Some other names spring to mind for, while not having as wide a range of music that I regularly play and replay, producing one or two soundtracks that I particularly like: 

Bobby Prince (Doom 1), 

Kevin Schilder (Hexen), 

Aubrey Hodges (PSX Doom & Final Doom), 

Mick Gordon (Doom 2016 and especially Doom Eternal), 

Darren Korb (Hades), 

Jessica Curry (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, So Let Us Melt),

Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VII and its remake).

Favourite video game composer? Holy cow I have so many I gotta narrow it down to three:

 

Aubrey Hodges

Akira Yamaoka

Masami Ueda

 

 

21 hours ago, Remilia Scarlet said:

Whoever composed the music for Night Slave on the PC-98

 

Cursory search says this was Izuho Yoshitani who I'm not familiar with but Night Slave's soundtrack does in fact slap.

 

Here's my personal favorites, many of which already got mentioned here, and in no particular order at all:

- Alexander Brandon (he's gotten a lot of love in this thread and it's well deserved)

- Bobby Prince (specifically his more solemn, mournful tracks like Sign of Evil and Wondering About My Loved Ones)

- Lee Jackson (Duke 3D's soundtrack absolutely nailed the 80s Ennio Morricone slash John Carpenter slash Hard Rock sound)

- Jesper Kyd (basically every era of his work is amazing but I love his 90s trance stuff)

- Yuzo Koshiro (probably the greatest grandmaster of the FM synth ever)

- Michael McCann (DX:HR and XCOM: EU/EW have incredible movie-like soundtracks that still have that punchy, weighty video-game feel, very great stuff)

- Jeroen Tel (The Yuzo Koshiro of the C64 SID chip)

- Andrew Hulshult (his early stuff was generic buttmetal but starting with Dusk and forward he really developed his own signature style)

- Allister Brimble (some incredibly classic music throughout his career)

- Stephan Rippy (The soundtrack for the Age of Empires games are absolutely legendary)

- Jake Kaufman (The time-displaced Yuzo Koshiro of the Ricoh 2A03 + Expansions, but his non-chiptune stuff is pretty good too)

 

However I'd like to take a moment to talk about a particular favorite of mine and proselytize about him because he's a rather obscure figure outside of certain circles. His name was Ryu Umemoto. Here's one of his absolute peak tracks, designed for an "attract mode" to help store owners sell computers and games:
 

 

Umemoto's name isn't very well known because the games he scored just aren't very well known at all -- most of them were visual novels and many of those were erotic in nature, so not a whole lot of those games ever got an English translation, official or otherwise. Regardless of how you feel about the kinds of games he contributed his music to, it's undeniable that his work is utterly stellar. Here's the intro to YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love At The Bound Of This World, which is both visually and musically stunning:

 

 

Like (Bobby) Prince, Umemoto was at his best when his music's introspective, contemplative, and somber. XENON: Fantasy Body's full of these kinds of songs:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5QD52wjnBM

 

Umemoto did some really nice bass rhythms too. This one's my particular favorite:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSWCihT_2Ho

 

To close this out, here's one of his non-FM tracks, from a game he scored that actually managed to get a Western release. Check out the FM version of the song too:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJ_CmHkXgU

 

You may have noticed I referred to Umemoto in the past tense; he had tragically passed away in 2011 at the young age of 37 due to chronic bronchitis exacerbated by a heavy workload. Umemoto was a fixture in the FM synth community until the end, and though his work may not be well known even among most people who appreciate video game music, those that are aware of him treasure his music deeply.

Bobby Prince, Koji Kondo, Nobuo Uematsu, and Mike Morasky

On 10/28/2022 at 3:35 PM, Herr Dethnout said:

Hey, if Prince was able to put a bunch of Trash and Groove metal riffs in Doom, what stop you?

 

Give the man more credit than that, will you? I learned much of what I know from studying his pre-Doom music. The man deserves respect as a pioneer in the industry.

2 hours ago, leejacksonaudio said:

 

Give the man more credit than that, will you? I learned much of what I know from studying his pre-Doom music. The man deserves respect as a pioneer in the industry.

I think the "Trash" word (sic) is an unfortunate typo referring to thrash metal.

Jake Kaufman/Virt. Master of so many styles, from funk to metal to bossa nova. Fantastic musician

 

Andrew Hale for his great LA Noire OST

 

Yasunori Mitsuda for Chrono

I have some real fondness for Robert Holmes' work on Gabriel Knight and later, Gray Matter, with the Scarlet Furies. 

 

 

 

 

I guess I would have to bring up Shoji Meguro even if I really don't care for most of his Persona work at all (or those games), but SMT Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga are probably my favourite game soundtracks period. 

 

I'll +1 on Kurt Harland, that Soul Reaver soundtrack will never leave my head. 

Edited October 30, 2022 by hybridial

On 10/30/2022 at 9:59 AM, leejacksonaudio said:

 

Give the man more credit than that, will you? I learned much of what I know from studying his pre-Doom music. The man deserves respect as a pioneer in the industry.

I was joking, I love Prince music (though Wrack and DN3D not much). In fact, I put him in my list of favorite composers :P

 

23 hours ago, taufan99 said:

I think the "Trash" word (sic) is an unfortunate typo referring to thrash metal.

Eh... didn't realized about the typo until now but yeah, it was a unfortunate error. Sorry :P

18 minutes ago, Herr Dethnout said:

Eh... didn't realized about the typo until now but yeah, it was a unfortunate error. Sorry :P

You're not exactly at fault. The word "thrash" looks and sounds confusingly similar to "trash", and many a metalhead know that problem.

 

Either way, I'm sure Jackson now understands what you meant to write, now that it's been clarified.

8 minutes ago, taufan99 said:

You're not exactly at fault. The word "thrash" looks and sounds confusingly similar to "trash", and many a metalhead know that problem.

 

Either way, I'm sure Jackson now understands what you meant to write, now that it's been clarified.

Yup, a was thinking that they call it "Trash" Metal because it sounds like Trash (as a synonym of rude or raw lo-fi sound like Black Metal or Slayer), and now I'm realizing that is actually Thrash (It doesn't help that in Gumball they made a joke about it too).

I hope so, I don't want any misunderstandings here :/

Going off of my Bandcamp purchases:

 

Aubrey Hodges, absolute genius and masterclass of the dark ambient genre.

 

Lee Jackson, badass soundtracks for badass games, nuff said.

 

Andrew Hulshult, this man has failed to release a single bad song and there's a reason he is everywhere.

 

Floating Door, amazing work on the soundtrack to Severed Steel (which is a brilliant game you should all play).

 

Not purchased on Bandcamp (because I can't find any official entries for them):

 

Mark Knight, did the Duke Nukem Total Meltdown soundtrack, absolutely legendary remixes and new tracks that complement the originals well.

 

Bobby Prince, you know who this is.

 

Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori (Shamefully took me a while to remember the name), legendary work on the Halo Series and a fair bit of very memorable Destiny work before, ultimately, being fucked over by Bungie (in no uncertain terms).

 

Mark Morgan, eerie and wonderfully haunting music for Fallout 1 and 2 (and technically New Vegas).

 

Can think of more, will chose not to spam.

 

Special note to the System Shock 1 composer(s) who I can't find a solid answer to, one of the most bizarre but memorable soundtracks I have ever enjoyed.

Edited October 31, 2022 by mrthejoshmon

On 10/30/2022 at 2:29 PM, Serum said:

Jake Kaufman/Virt. Master of so many styles, from funk to metal to bossa nova. Fantastic musician

 

Andrew Hale for his great LA Noire OST

 

Yasunori Mitsuda for Chrono

 

Virt's really great at doing different styles and seamlessly blending them. waow was the first song I heard of his and its incredible to listen to him jump between baroque and funk as if these aren't two completely separate genres with centuries separating them.

 

 

Bobby Prince (the first guitar riff I ever learned was Intermission From Doom, and he more than anyone got me into writing music)

Frank Klepacki

Akira Yamoka

Shusaku Uchiyama 

 

6 hours ago, taufan99 said:

Either way, I'm sure Jackson now understands what you meant to write, now that it's been clarified.

 

6 hours ago, Herr Dethnout said:

I hope so, I don't want any misunderstandings here :/

 

Received five by five. Thanks for clearing that up. :)

Shout out to hybridial for bringing up Robert Holmes, I've always loved the idea that Jane Jensen had her husband score her work, and the soundtracks always blended wonderfully with the games. I also love most of the composers Gez mentioned. I'll try and list some of my favourites that I haven't seen mentioned (and sit in my Soundtracks music subfolder):

Ben Houge (Aracanum)

Kirill Pokrovsky (most of the Divinity series; sadly passed away not long after Original Sin came out)

Stéphane Picq (especially for Dune; Gez mentioned the Spice Opera album but it's mixed quite differently from the in-game music, which I like even more)

Elia Cmrial (The Last Express; a wonderful soundtrack for an extremely unusual game)

whoever composed the music for No One Lives Forever

Mark Morgan (everyone always mentions Fallout, but it's his soundtracks for Planescape and the two Zork games that I always come back to)

Zak Belica (the Sin series)

Michael Land (a whole bunch of beloved LucasArts soundtracks, my personal favourite being The Dig)

Paul Romero (Heroes of Might and Magic series)

Tim Tully (lots of MIDI soundtracks, including some of the oldie Might and Magics)

Trent Reznor (Quake)

Brian Luzietti (Descent, Stonekeep, Virtual Pool (!); very versatile composer)

The trinity of Prince/Jackson/Schilder of course.

A lot of people have been mentioning Bobby Prince and Lee Jackson as their favorites and I guess I'll chime in with my own opinions on them. I think Bobby Prince's music for Doom, regardless of how much it took after pre-existing rock and metal music, is still pretty good and his spin on those songs have become iconic in their own right. I hate to say it but I was honestly not familiar with Lee Jackson's work and I have managed rectify this to an extent by listening to several tracks from Rise Of The Triad. Liked what I heard so far and I'm interested in checking out his contributions for the other games he has done.

 

Still, in regards to classic FPS music, I think my favorite composers would have to be Mark Klem and David Shaw for their output on the Memento Mori duology. It's especially impressive when one considers that original music of this quality was produced by a mid-90's Doom modding team. Aspects of Memento Mori's soundtracks that I find appealing is their use of fierce guitar riffs, complimented by excellent use of percussion and synth instruments that imbue them with a theatric undertone. Many of the songs also feature lengthy build-ups to these climatic arrangements, which just makes these tracks all the more dynamic.

 

 

 

There are so many great video game composers!  The ones that are foremost in my mind are:

 

Glenn Stafford 

 

Matt Ulemen 

 

Mark Morgan 

 

Lena Raine 

 

Eric Heberling 

 

And whoever did the soundtrack for The Elder Scrolls: Battlespire.  They weren't credited, but it's some of my favorite spooky ambient video game music! 

 

Oh, and of course, Mick Gordon, Bobby Prince, and Andrew Hulshult all go without saying!

On 11/3/2022 at 10:00 AM, Domestic-Weirdo said:

A lot of people have been mentioning Bobby Prince and Lee Jackson as their favorites and I guess I'll chime in with my own opinions on them. I think Bobby Prince's music for Doom, regardless of how much it took after pre-existing rock and metal music, is still pretty good and his spin on those songs have become iconic in their own right. I hate to say it but I was honestly not familiar with Lee Jackson's work and I have managed rectify this to an extent by listening to several tracks from Rise Of The Triad. Liked what I heard so far and I'm interested in checking out his contributions for the other games he has done.

 

Still, in regards to classic FPS music, I think my favorite composers would have to be Mark Klem and David Shaw for their output on the Memento Mori duology. It's especially impressive when one considers that original music of this quality was produced by a mid-90's Doom modding team. Aspects of Memento Mori's soundtracks that I find appealing is their use of fierce guitar riffs, complimented by excellent use of percussion and synth instruments that imbue them with a theatric undertone. Many of the songs also feature lengthy build-ups to these climatic arrangements, which just makes these tracks all the more dynamic.

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, David Shaw turned out lots of generic funk rock tunes when he wasn't doing something atmospheric. Mark Klem probably has slightly broader range, although something like "Scary" was a misery, and not because of the title.

I have Jeremy Soule right there almost, but my favorite videogame composer, ever: Nathan Grigg

The things he did left me with my mouth open many times as a musician myself. I can elaborate a lot on why he's my fav from a technical point of view, beyond the fact of he having done music for games I enjoyed.

On 10/31/2022 at 11:31 AM, hybridial said:

I guess I would have to bring up Shoji Meguro even if I really don't care for most of his Persona work at all (or those games), but SMT Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga are probably my favourite game soundtracks period.

 

Digital Devil Saga is almost absolutely good all the way through with its soundtrack, and generally all the way if you only count the actual game music and not cutscenes

 

I'm playing Devil Summoner Soulless Army right now and the battle theme is classic Shoji Meguro SMT goodness. He makes so many good battle themes, enough that I have a playlist entirely made out of them.