Game Audio Hour

We're a little past 10 years now, but we're still celebrating this milestone, this time with another of our cohort from years past. Chase Bethea joins the duo of Alex and Vince to chat a bit about game audio, this time answering some questions from listeners as well as keeping us abreast of all the goings-on in his music career!

Featuring: Chase Bethea, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded March 15, 2024

It's been 10 years and one of our illustrious cohort from the early days, Jack Menhorn, joins the trio of Mike, Alex, and Vince to chat a bit about game audio! The group chat about audio moving between indie and AAA, middleware, and even some of the current anxiety about AI.

Other notable mentions include:

State of Decay (horror game series, Undead Labs)
The Greatest Night in Pop (Documentary, Netflix)
Angela Aki (J-pop artist)
Pianoteq (Software piano instrument, Modartt)
Baldur's Gate 3 (RPG, Larian Studios)

Featuring: Jack Menhorn, Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded February 28th, 2024

The duo of Mike and Vince wax lyrical of their recent Apple purchases... or should I say: Mac-quisitions? Newer tech talk then moves to talk of some older gear that is still supported by its creator, then the ever conspicuous Conspicuous Consumption!

Notable mentions include:

Apple Mac Pro M2 Ultra (computer workstation)
Oeksound's bloom plugin (adaptive tone shaper)
RME Fireface series (audio interface)
Blue Eyes Samurai (animated series, Netflix)
Level with Emily Reese (game music podcast series)

Featuring: Michael Gordon Shapiro and Vincent Diamante

Recorded February 2nd, 2024

The Game Audio Hour crew is a trio again, as Vince emerges from the vortex of new fatherhood! As befits a New Year's (-ish) episode, the team reflects upon audio creation and production habits, and how to refine them. Also, we learn how effectively RX can remove the sound of a lawnmower outside Mike's studio.

Alex and Mike discuss the heavenly acoustics of Wiener Musikverein, the tribulations (and surprising benefits) of moving one's audio rig to the new Mac Pro, and the utility of the term "genre" in game audio.

The trio of Vince, Alex, and Mike end up chatting about gear for much of this episode: little keys, big keys, and just right keys figure prominently! Games and music do come in as well, but you'll have to listen to the end to hear some of the fun albums that get brought up!

Notable mentions include:

Yamaha Montage M8x (workstation keyboard)
Yamaha Reface DX (mini keyboard/synth reissue)
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (game expansion)
Neuromancer (Science Fiction novel, William Gibson)
Sail Away (Music Album, Randy Newman)
Christopher Cross (Music Album, Christopher Cross)

Featuring: Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded October 15th, 2023

Mike, Vince, and Alex are back for another episode and are still wading in the wake of big business moves. Unity, Unreal, Bandcamp... there's all sorts of uncertainty on the horizon. Still, there's plenty of straightforward game audio and music talk to be done!

Notable mentions include:

Bandcamp (acquired by Songtradr from Epic)
Tron (film, Disney; soundtrack by Wendy Carlos)
Starfield (role-playing game, Bethesda)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (role-playing game, Bethesda)
North by Northwest (film, Alfred Hitchcock)
War of Being (progressive metal album, TesseracT)
Run with the Wind (anime, Production I.G.; soundtrack by Yuki Hayashi)

Featuring: Michael Gordon Shapiro, Alex May, and Vincent Diamante

Recorded September 29th, 2023

Vince and Alex commiserate and discuss some of the major issues hitting the game dev and music world right now. However, not even the double-whammy of Unity's latest changes and fraudulent DMCA claim soundtrack takedowns can dampen their enthusiasm for games, audio, and game audio!

Notable mentions include:

Two Feathers Studio (game audio design studio)
Unity (game development platform)
Starfield (role-playing game, Bethesda)
Eternights (dating sim action role-playing game, Studio Sai)
Metal: Hellsinger (rhythmic first person shooter, The Outsiders)
BPM (roguelike rhythmic first person shooter, Awe Interactive)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded September 15th, 2023

Just like the previous episode, Vince recounts going to a big video game show and Alex reels in excitement! This time, it’s the California Extreme classic game show and Vince talks about all the fun retro and modern video games he came across… but eventually, the duo get to talking about straight up audio design, mixing, and some of the tools and techniques that go along with it.

Notable mentions include:

California Extreme (classic arcade show and auction)
Tempest (vector shooter, Atari)
Xevious (scrolling shooter, Namco)
After Burner Climax (3D flight action game, Sega)
Bazille (modular synthesizer, U-he)
The ProResu 2 (pro wrestling game, Yuke's)
Celestion Speaker Shaper (modeled speaker plugin, Softube)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded August 25th, 2023

Alex and Vince are at it again! This time, Vince starts off by chatting about cool things happening at the EVO fighting game tournament in Las Vegas, while Alex grounds things with some of the sound design work he's currently doing. Synths, workstations, and even some Japanese manga figure in the discussion as well!

Notable mentions include:

EVO (fighting game tournament)
Twinbee (scrolling shooter, Konami)
Sequential Pro-3 Synth
Roland Fantom-6 Workstation
Doepfer Dark Energy Desktop Synth
Witch Hat Atelier (manga, Kamome Shirahama)
Mirror's Edge Catalyst (EA)

Featuring: Alex May and Vincent Diamante

Recorded August 11th, 2023