This month on Pixel Symphonic we’re doing things a little bit differently. I was on vacation, renting a house with a big group of friends, and I took the opportunity to ask those friends a simple question: what’s a video game soundtrack that is meaningful to you? Ten answers from ten people, ranging from games people played as kids to their favorite games of all time to specific moments they have found impactful over the years. They all did great, and I hope you enjoy listening to what they had to say!

There might be some audio volume and quality weirdness in this episode, it’s just unfortunately something that comes with the territory of recording in a different environment with a different recording setup. I did my best, hopefully it still sounds good!

This episode features music by Nor, Hiromu Takano, Hitomi Sato, Nobuo Uematsu, Bear McCreary, Koji Kondo, Yoko Shimomura, Kenji Yamamoto, Kouichi Kyuma, Terry Taylor, Steven Serafino, Shoji Meguro, and Motoi Sakuraba.

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This is a small solo talk where I reflect on some of the games and soundtracks that make me think about grief during a period of mourning. I hope that makes sense and that it finds you well.

This episode features music by Kan Gao, Laura Shigihara, Max LL, and Nobuo Uematsu.

This month’s guest is the host of YouTube channel Stop Skeletons From Fighting, Derek Alexander! Uncle Derek has been talking about video games on the internet for a very long time and I talked with him a bit about some of the video game soundtracks that he finds impactful, from the charm and whimsy of Earthbound to the chiptune stylings of artists like Chipzel.

This episode features music by Nor, Keiichi Suzuki, Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka, flashygoodness, Magnus Palsson, Chipzel, Bobby Prince, and Lashmush.

SUPPORT DEREK’S WORK

Stop Skeletons From Fighting on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@StopSkeletonsFromFighting

Derek’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stopskeletons.bsky.social

Starship Amazing on Bandcamp: https://starshipamazing.bandcamp.com/

Pixel Symphonic is on Patreon now! Get episodes one week early for just ONE DOLLAR! https://www.patreon.com/cw/PixelSymphonic

This month’s guest is John Rairdin of Nintendo World Report, one of the biggest Star Fox fans I have ever met, whom I asked to come on specifically to talk to me about the music of Star Fox in celebration of the series’ return just a few weeks ago. We mostly stay on topic, definitely a tangent here and there. A large portion of the discussion is about how Star Fox 64’s score works with the game’s storytelling, something I really don’t think you want to miss!

This episode features music by Nor, Hajime Wakai, Koji Kondo, Stephen Barton, Rei Kondoh, Kozue Ishikawa, and Yumiko Kanki.

SUPPORT JOHN AND NWR

John’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jtsknight92.bsky.social

NWR’s Main Site: https://www.nintendoworldreport.com/

NWR’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/nintendonwr.bsky.social

Pixel Symphonic is on Patreon now! Get episodes one week early for just ONE DOLLAR! https://www.patreon.com/cw/PixelSymphonic

This month’s guest is Larry Oji, the community manager and a member of the judges panel at OverClocked Remix, one of the oldest video game arrangement communities on the internet. We talk about how he found his way to OCRemix, the process of getting your music accepted to be posted among the site’s thousands of arrangements, our favorite songs from the community’s history, and OCRemix’s stance against AI music on their platform. All that and more!

This episode features music by Nor, Yoko Shimomura, and Uboichi.

SUPPORT OCREMIX!

OCRemix Main Site: https://ocremix.org/

OCRemix on Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/ocremix.org

OCRemix on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ocremix

Pixel Symphonic is on Patreon now! Get episodes one week early for just ONE DOLLAR! https://www.patreon.com/cw/PixelSymphonic

This month’s guest is Alpha Chrome Yayo, one of the composers behind 2025’s Promise Mascot Agency! We talk about his wide range of interesting instruments, how he found his way into doing the soundtrack for Promise, what it felt like to be a Yakuza fan suddenly working on a game starring Takaya Kuroda, and most importantly who his favorite mascot in Promise is. All that and more!

This episode features music by Nor and Alpha Chrome Yayo.

SUPPORT ACY’S WORK!

ACY’s Bandcamp: https://alphachromeyayo.bandcamp.com/

ACY’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alphachromeyayo.com

ACY’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AlphaChromeYayo

Wow, lookie here! This month you’ll be getting two episodes of Pixel Symphonic, this bonus episode today and next week’s regularly scheduled episode! In this bonus interview I sat down with Ramon Braumuller, the composer behind the gaming song of the season in Bluesky’s new favorite 90s platformer Moon Child! I asked him how he ended up working for Team Hoi, how it feels to see a game he worked on suddenly blow up over 30 years later, as well as what he’s been up to in those 30 years since.

This episode features music by Nor and Ramon Braumuller.

SUPPORT RAMON’S WORK!

Ramon’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@nombra101

This month’s guest is Chase Bethea, composer for games like Aground, , On the Peril of Parrots, Sunken Stones, and more! We talk about his background in music, his endeavors to try and make soundtracks out of the sounds he feels video games are missing, the importance of testing your music in context during the development cycle, and more.

This episode features music by Nor and Chase Bethea.

SUPPORT CHASE’S WORK!

Chase’s Bandcamp: https://chasebethea.bandcamp.com/music

Chase’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chasebethea.bsky.social

It’s time for the inaugural episode of a brand new outing! Pixel Symphonic is a show about video game music. We’re here to learn and talk about it with the people who make it, the people who listen to it, and everything in between. This new show will be releasing one episode a month, with a new guest each month.

For my first guest it just felt right to bring on my old Original Soundchat cohost Peter Spezia. He may be retired and out of the game now, but there’s nobody else in the world I like talking about game music with more. Our conversation goes into how we got into video music through largely the same entry point, and also Peter’s favorite soundtrack from his adult years.

This episode features music by Nor, Takahiro Nishi, Shogo Sakai, Masaaki Iwasaki, David Wise, Michiko Naruke, Jun Senoue, Nobuo Uematsu, Yuka Tsujioko, Kenji Ito, Jun Ishikawa, Noriyuki Iwadare, Kenichi Nishimaki, Yoko Shimomura, Shoji Meguro, and ACE.