Jimmy named a Power User of FL Studio

Hey friends and fans, some pretty cool news that I’ve been meaning to share for the past few days:  The good folks at Image Line software, the makers of FL Studio have appointed me the honor of being considered a “Power User” when they found out about my use of their software for my work in Mass Effect 2.   I’m very honored and flattered by this, though truthfully I feel a little… out of place, haha.  Most of their other Power Users are successful producers, DJ’s, or performers who largely deal in electronic/pop music.  But it’s all good, I’m proud of my work on Mass Effect, and it looks like Image Line is as well, enough so that they figured it was worth giving me this cool badge, so to speak.

Regarding FL Studio, I’ve used it for some 6 – 7 years at this point as the primary host/sequencer program for probably over 95% of the music I’ve made.  Like any software it has it’s strengths and weaknesses, but it’s definitely played a key role in all the commercial music I’ve written, whether for video games, film, or television.  So thanks again, Image Line.  Keep up the hard work with your software!

For more information, visit my Power User page here – http://flstudio.image-line.com/documents/jimmyhinson.html

Mass Effect 2

TIMELINE:

Feb 22 - Leif Chappelle reviews Mass Effect 2 OST at Original Sound Version

Feb 1 – Mass Effect 2 OST reaches #11 in Top Soundtrack Albums on iTunes

Jan 31 – Jack Wall interviewed by Daily Best Articles

Jan 29 – Mass Effect 2 sales hit over 2 million 3 days after game’s release

Jan 28 – Mass Effect 2 attains top rankings with over 40 perfect scores

Jan 26 – Mass Effect 2 released in North America

Jan 19 – Mass Effect 2 Soundtrack released on Amazon, iTunes, etc.

Jan 11 – Gamespy announces composers

Jan 11 – EA announces composers for Mass Effect 2

Read the rest of this entry »

Songs for the Cure 2010

Songs for the Cure ‘10 from Josh Whelchel on Vimeo.

Hello friends and fans!  As some of you may remember, last year I participated in a cancer drive headed by friend and fellow composer Josh Whelchel in the form of writing music for the “Songs for the Cure ‘09″ album.  My participation is what gave birth to the track “Far Beyond Eyes” which you can hear over in the music player on the right of this page.  and assisted Josh, along with the many other talented musicians who also contributed their work to the album.  Collectively, the album raised over $5000 to help fund the American Cancer Society in the fight against cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Big Giant Highlights of 2009!

So 2009 turned out to be a pretty awesome year for your friendly Big Giant Circles.  I wish I’d done a better job of logging it all, but since I have a new site anyway, I figured this would be a good time/place to share with you all some of the particularly awesome experiences I had :)   So in not-perfect order, here you go!

  1. Attended Magfest 7, rubbing shoulders with folks like Grant Kirkhope, Tommy Tallarico, and many other awesome folks in the game/music industry
  2. 4 ReMixes posted on OverClocked ReMix
  3. Led the OCR Fundraiser month to raise over $5000 for the site, marking the 1st year the site was fully funded by fans
  4. Contributed to Josh Whelchel’s “Songs for the Cure” album, which raised over $5000 to assist in the fight against cancer
  5. “Songs for the Cure ‘09″ graciously covered by Jeremy Cole on Guitar Center’s GAIN website
  6. Attended Video Games Live’s 100th show in Richmond, VA
  7. Music featured on FOX Sports
  8. Received some cool coverage from Capcom’s Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix soundtrack
  9. Interview and first ever composer/remixer collaboration with Alex Brandon in Deus Ex – Siren Synapse
  10. Torley amplifies the awesome with a stellar remastered version
  11. Exciting news TBA very soon!

Read the rest of this entry »

MAGfest

That’s “Music and Gaming festival” if you’re unfamiliar with the word.  It’s a huge celebration of all kinds of things, but mostly video games and video game music.  It’s got everything a nerd (like myself) could ask for–video games (a huge meeting hall filled from end to end with everything from classic Atari to PS3), merchandise, tournaments, “Jamspace” (a non-stop open-mic-type thing which rocks), concerts every night, panels, contests, merchandise, and the company of people who share the same general interets.  For full information about it, please visit their website at MAGFEST.ORG.  At any rate, it’s going on in Alexandria, VA (by Washington D.C.) from Jan 1 – 4, and I will be there.  Hope to see some of you there as well!

Happy Holidays from Big Giant Circles!

Season’s Greetings from BGC! I hope each of you finds joy and peace this holiday season whether it’s from the company of friends and family, good food, the pleasure of giving and receiving, the seasonal music, or anything else that you might look forward to this time of year. As a small wish of merriment to each of you, I’m posting a few songs that I did for a Christmas special for HGTV. I hope you enjoy them, and I wish you all a very happy holiday season!

Read the rest of this entry »

RIP Music 4 Games

Ladies and gentlemen, today I found out some sad news.  It seems a very beloved website has been discontinued, and it’s domain passed onto someone else for different purposes.  That website is music4games.net.  For those of you who don’t know, M4G was an incredible resource for information on video game music and VGM composers.  It had a powerful reputation among gamers and musicians alike.  One of my earliest experiences with the site was a couple years ago when OCR released Voices of the Lifestream, and we had a nice feature article there that highly praised the music.  And it was a big deal to me, to see my name dropped and music praised alongside some of the greatest game composers of our day by such a credible and well-known site.  I can’t help but feel like discontinuing the site is a bit of a disservice to video game music and it’s fans, but for whatever reason the decision was made, I hope it was for a good reason.  I can only hope that we’ll see another website step up and fill the big shoes that M4G left.

Happy 10th Anniversary OC ReMix!

Alright, so this post is about a week old, and I would have posted it on my old site if I wasn’t planning on replacing it, but anyway, better late than never.

:)

Some of you might know that I’ve been honing my music skills over at OCR for the past few years.  It’s given me some great experiences–I’ve made lots of great friends and contacts, as well as sharpened up on my composing and producing skills in general!  And I’ve enjoyed some of the most enriching and diverse music I’ve ever listened to!  I owe a lot to OCR, and I only hope to see it continue to thrive and grow for many years to come!
And now, the official article, taken from the site:

***********

Read the rest of this entry »

New Website!

Hi Everyone, Big Giant Circles here!  Thanks for stopping by my website.  If you’re wondering what the heck happened here, I’m currently in the process of transitioning from my old Joomla setup to Wordpress, which generally seems like it’ll be easier to use.  So please be patient, I’ll have everything back up soon!  In the meanwhile, you should stop by OverClocked ReMix and grab my video game remixes if you haven’t already!  They’re free!

:)

Sample Music (click to play)

Here is the Music Player. You need to installl flash player to show this cool thing!

BGC's Network
  • on Facebook on Facebook on Facebook
  • on Twitter on Twitter on Twitter
  • on Youtube on Youtube on Youtube
  • on Last.fm on Last.fm on Last.fm
  • on Myspace on Myspace on Myspace
  • on Ning on Ning on Ning
  • on OC ReMix on OC ReMix on OC ReMix