News & Events

Materia Collective celebrated their 3rd anniversary as a company at Optimism Brewing Company in Seattle, WA. Materia Collective is a community that started from passionate artists that wanted to create music together. Today, it is now one of the leading labels and publishers in the game music space. We got to talk with founder Sebastian Wolff about his journey over the last four years. EL: Tell us the story of how Materia Collective started. SW: Materia Collective community grew out of a small cover song project in 2015: An 87-track musical love letter to FINAL FANTASY VII and Nobuo Uematsu’s rousing soundtrack,

Composer, game audio specialist and Game Music Connect co-founder John Broomhall curates and hosts the annual audio day at the Develop Conference in Brighton – the largest gathering of videogame talent in the UK – which attracts developers from all around the world.  We had the opportunity to chat with him about what took place at Develop:Brighton. EL: How was Develop Audio Day 2019 for you? JB: The audio day was one of the best we’ve ever had – I was really happy with how it went down – informative, thought-provoking and entertaining. We enjoyed another stellar line-up of speakers who delivered

(Photo by: Sewon Barrera) The Future is Female April 23rd, San Francisco Conservatory of Music  There is a powerful new generation of women media and concert composers taking shape, inspired, in part, by a relatively recent, yet significant increase in successful visible female role models such as Pinar Toprak, Jessica Curry and Angelica Negron to name only a few. This younger cohort of up and coming artists are impressive to say the least and are in evidence both in schools and increasingly in the field. On April 23rd, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music presented “The Future is Female”, a group performance highlighting

Composer and conductor Anthony Parnther was recently named Music Director of the San Bernadino Symphony Orchestra, beginning with the 2019-20 season. Since 2014, he has conducted scoring sessions and live concerts for eSports juggernaut League of Legends, which boasts over 100 million active gamers, and is the most played video game on earth. Anthony has conducted League of Legends concerts in Beijing, Seoul, Los Angeles, and Barcelona, which have outpaced the World Series with over 40 million viewers internationally. Anthony has also collaborated onstage and in the recording studio with luminaries spanning every musical genre, including Joshua Bell, Yundi Li, Frederica von

Austin Wintory moderated a panel at this year’s ASCAP Expo to discuss songs in video games. The panel featured Jack Wall (Wall of Sound), Cindy Shapiro (Wall of Sound), Darren Korb (supergiantgames), and Lydia Andrew (Ubisoft). We got more insight about writing songs for games from Austin and Jack.   EL: When are composers typically brought into the process of creating a song? Are you often involved in the creation of the lyrics, or are you given lyrics to write to? JW: Usually it’s sometime after they’ve realized they need a song (as opposed to score), but normally it’s at a point that

Attention Members of G.A.N.G.: We have 1 FREE Pass to attend the ‘NYU Scoring for Videogames Workshop’ this summer! June 30 – July 5 Led by videogame composer powerhouse Tom Salta (Halo, Killer Instinct) and featuring industry professionals such as Gina Zdanowicz (Serial Lab), Jason Kanter (Avalanche Studios), the NYU Videogame Scoring Workshop will engage participants with the aesthetic and technical aspects of composing music for videogames. During this week-long workshop students will learn to use industry-standard software such as Wwise, approach nonlinear and multi-layered compositions, interface with industry professionals, and demonstrate their music in live-demos of gameplay. Over the course of the workshop, you’ll receive professional instruction how to:

Last night, the 17th Annual G.A.N.G. Awards took place at GDC in San Francisco. The second floor of the Moscone Center was filled with audio extraordinnaires from all over the world. The event began with a Red Carpet photo op, and was hosted by the dynamic duo of Bonnie Bogovich and Jason Hayes. Below is a list of winners from the event! Photos and more to come soon! Audio of The Year Battlefield V – EA DICE Far Cry 5 – Ubisoft Montreal Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games God of War – Santa Monica Studios – WINNER Moss – Polyarc Assassin’s Creed

G.A.N.G. GDC Demo Derby Submissions for the G.A.N.G. GDC Demo Derby are now open and will close March 13. The G.A.N.G. Demo Derby is one of the highest rated and longest running annual sessions at the GDC.  Participants bring in examples of their work, and a panel of game audio experts review their work and provide constructive feedback.  G.A.N.G. hosts two separate categories in the Demo Derby (Sound Design and Music), and GDC attendants are invited to submit to either or both. All submissions will be considered in the order received.  We can not guarantee that all submissions will be able to be heard (so get your

Audio of The Year Battlefield V – EA DICE Far Cry 5 – Ubisoft Montreal Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games God of War – Santa Monica Studios Moss – Polyarc Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – Ubisoft Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Eidos Montreal & Crystal Dynamics Music of the Year Torn – Aspyr Games Far Cry 5 – Ubisoft Montreal God of War – Santa Monica Studios Moss – Polyarc Forgotton Anne – ThroughLine Games Frostpunk – 11 bit studios Sound Design of the Year Marvel’s Spider-Man – Insomniac Games Battlefield V – EA DICE Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Eidos

Tim Larkin recently had the opportunity to kick off the soundtrack to Valve’s newest title, Artifact, a card game based on the lore of DOTA. While it remains in the DOTA universe, the music follows more of a traditional game-state approach than the heavily dynamic timeline a player may experience in DOTA 2. He was also recently interviewed by podcast-extraordinaire, Emily Reese, and author Randall Larson. In his interviews, Tim speaks about his orchestration, the live recording sessions, and shares his experiences throughout his career. Below are links to his two interviews, as well as the soundtrack to Artifact! “Last August, I

The Music and Gaming Festival occurred the first week of January at the Gaylord National Resort in Maryland. Over 20,000 music fans came to the Gaylord National Resort in Maryland to celebrate video game music. G.A.N.G. hosted a special competition for remix enthusiasts that featured over $8,000 in plug-in prizes from Music Marketing. Nearly 100 entries were narrowed down to a top 5 in 9 different categories. A panel of well-renowned judges selected winners of each category. Winners of each category are bolded. Best Chiptunes/Retro – Judged by – Dale North, Gerard Marino, David Wise “Spider Dance” | Benny Blue “Legendary Princess”