Gaming's Rhapsody Second Movement

1up.com has a feature up today probing further into the making of gaming music. The article is a follow up to a similar piece last month. From the article: "Though before we dig in to its case histories, it might do to define what we're talking about. The key difference is OST (original soundtracks) or OSV (original sound versions) vs. arranged or remix albums, both of which present a spin on the original music that wasn't there before. Arranged music means nothing more than the original chiptunes arranged by a musician for live musicians to play, whether it's a small chamber group or a full symphony orchestra. So now that you know what it is, how did it begin?"

Re:Whoa

[Gogo0]

Perhaps in those six minutes, everyone who reads Slashdot during the day stopped refreshing every two minutes and did some work (all Slashdot reading is done on company time).

Well, everyone except you, me, and the first poster at least...

Good grief...

[david.given]

...how can you possibly talk about arranged video game music and not mention OverClocked ReMix [ocremix.org]? Game music, rewritten and reimagined by fans (and in some cases, by the original composers), all at a consistently high level of quality.

And no, it's not all repetitive electronica. Check out this beautiful (and live) piano arrangement of Chrono Trigger's Kingdom Trial [ocremix.org], or this quiet and contemplative, and brilliant, adaptation of Final Fantasy 6's Terra [ocremix.org].

Or, for a change of pace, try this version of Metroid Prime's Phendrana theme [ocremix.org]. Or for sheer old-school energy, this powerful adaptation of Raiden's theme [ocremix.org] --- nothing subtle there, but god, it wakes you up.

Oh, yeah. There's also the differently good --- one author did, for a joke, A Boy And His Blob [ocremix.org] using samples constructed from the game data itself. Damn, that's freaky...

Re:Good grief...

[Durinthal]

That's (hopefully) coming in the third installment, as "unoffical remixes" were mentioned at the end of this article.

I disagree with the article about the Brink of Time CD being bad, too. Okay, maybe a lot of people don't like acid jazz, but that doesn't mean it isn't well-made.