Today EA released this expansion to the OST, now including 9 tracks at nearly 25 minutes of additional music from the game, all for only $4 US!  As the title suggests, these tracks are more atmospheric in nature, including cues from loading screenes, menus, conversations, explorations, etc.  This release coincides with their DLC Layer of the Shadowbroker.  Pick them up today!

Hey everyone, I’m super excited to say that our Mass Effect 2 soundtrack has been nominated for the Soundtrack of the Year category for the Golden Joystick Awards!  It’s survived round 1 from the long list and is now in the final shortlist voting stage. It’s up against some tough competition, and truly I would say that each one probably deserves to win, but well, since I have your attention right now please do me and the rest of the Wall of Sound team a huge favor and take a couple mouse-clicks and vote for us!   Oh, and if you’re not big into games, you can vote in as many or as few categories as you like, so no pressure!  Click the image above (or here)

These are truly the “people’s choice” awards, and your support means the world to me.  And on behalf of Jack Wall, David Kates, Sam Hulick, and Brian DiDomenico at Wall of Sound, thanks so much! And don’t forget to tell your friends to vote too!

“Samara the Mystic Asari Justicar” by Axl99

So through the wonder of modern social networking, I’ve had the recent pleasure of becoming acquainted with a super talented artist by the name of Jessie “AXL99″ Lam. Jessie’s a fan of Mass Effect 2, and has done some rather fine work based on the series. She contacted me recently and asked who my favorite character was. It’s hard to say, because I really love them all, but I suppose since Samara was the first character theme I wrote for the game, I tend to be a little partial to her. Shortly after, Ms. Lam produced the  previous image, which you can click on for the full image as well as many other awesome works of hers.

From someone who had fairly top-secret access to concept art and other various non-public files during the development of Mass Effect 2, I can honestly say that I’m blown away by Jessie’s ability.  Her work is right up there with all the official art I’ve seen.  BioWare, if you’re paying attention, please keep Jessie on your radar, I think she’d be an asset to your team!

For more info on AXL99’s work, please visit her sites:

http://axl99.cghub.com/ * http://axl99.net/ * http://axl99.deviantart.com/

Or, you can follow her on twitter here

]]> http://www.biggiantcircles.com/misc/awesome-fan-art/feed/ 0 http://www.biggiantcircles.com/misc/zircon-trax/ http://www.biggiantcircles.com/misc/zircon-trax/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:23:34 +0000 admin http://www.biggiantcircles.com/?p=438

Do you need cutting-edge, music right away for your project?  Check out http://zircontrax.com! Created by acclaimed Philly-based composer and producer Andrew “zircon” Aversa, ZT is a collection of powerful, evocative music in a wide variety of styles written by a powerhouse line-up of composers, whose collective credits include ABC, NBC, Fox, HGTV, DIY, Food Network, Comedy Central, Animal Planet, LucasArts, BioWare, Capcom, Midway, and many more.  To quote the site directly:

“In short, we cut no corners. We do not compromise our music in any way. You will not find dozens of volumes of CDs full of stale, canned music made with 10-year old musical equipment. You will not find incredible “deals” allowing you to buy out 100 tracks for $50. You will not find garage band recordings labeled as “indie”. What you will find is an outstanding collection of unique instrumental and vocal tracks offered at highly competitive rates.”

You’ll find some of my music on there, and also some outstanding tracks by some other highly talented and skilled folks.  Music can make all the difference, so check out their catalog now and let it do so for your project.  Whether it’s a movie, tv show, podcast, webseries, website, promotion, video game, commercial, or whatever else, ZT has something to make it better!

Recently I was the extremely lucky and fortunate winner of a pair of BM5A MKII monitors from the good folks at Dynaudio Acoustics.  Most people I know in the music business are familiar with Dynaudio studio monitors and they are very highly esteemed in the professional side of the industry, and for good reason.  Aside from being a pretty stylish addition to my studio, I am continually amazed by the pristine clarity and accuracy in which they pump my work back into my ears.

There’s plenty of places to read all about the specs and technical info  in greater detail, so I’ll leave that part to google and just focus more on my literal thoughts about this product.  I’ve been a musician most of my life and composed/produced music professionally for the past 5 years.  I worked as an software/keyboard/recording associate at a music retail store for two years.  We had a room full of monitors that ranged from $100/pair to about $2000/pair.  And you could do A/B comparisons on any of them.   In all truth, the BM5A’s were the most accurate.

It’s fair to say that I’m a bit more of a composer than an engineer, but solid production is a prerequisite to success in the music field these days,  and I truly believe that the quality of my mixes has gone way up since the MKII’s retired my former monitors.  I’m so thrilled by the positive impact that these have had on my music that if hypothetically I had to return these gifts or else pay the full retail price, I’d do the latter.  They’re well worth it.  There’s a saying in the music production business that goes “You’re only as good as the weakest component in your signal chain.”  Thanks to Dynaudio, I know my weakest link is not my speakers.   These guys have my highest recommendation.  Thanks again, Dynaudio! You rock!

Recently OC ReMix has been conducting interviews with various game composers and ReMixers.  This is the first time they’ve interviewed an entire team.  As Jack Wall said once, it’s a pretty “epic” interview, put together by the staff AND community forum members of OCR, and it’s very in-depth.  A great read for anyone curious about the process behind writing music for video games.  The good folks at BioWare were even kind enough to plug it on the Mass Effect website, as well as Facebook and Twitter.  There’s a couple ReMixes from Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 to go with it, so head on over today to read up and download the tracks! Or, click “Read More” to stream them on Youtube!

For all the game developers that have found their way here, WALL of SOUND inc (http://wallofsoundinc.com) is a full-service music company providing the highest quality musical experiences for the video game industry. Led by industry legend Jack Wall, the company is a creative collective of individuals working together to produce, mix, master and implement music on any and all gaming platforms.  (Click READ MORE to continue)

Wall of Sound is the team responsible for the music in Mass Effect 2 among other games.  The team currently consists of Jack Wall, David Kates, Sam Hulick, Brian DiDomenico, myself, and Cindy Shapiro.  There’s a lot of solid industry experience spread across a wide field of knowledge.  From scoring, producing, remixing, mastering, orchestrating, editing, and implementing music in video games, all the bases are covered.  It’s a one-stop package for all that a developer needs to ensure that only the highest quality music not only makes it into their game, but works the way that it should.  Stop by our site, learn about our team, learn what we can offer you, and contact us about your project needs!

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.

This year, I’m doing it again.  Josh like many others has lost someone dear to him to cancer, and this year he has raised the bar by asking all of you to help us raise $10,000 by April 23rd, 2010.  The way it works, is a $10 donation will earn you a digital download of the CD, in mp3 and lossless FLAC format.  Dontations of $25 or more will receive a physical CD in addition to the digital download.  Dontations are tax-deductable, of course, but more importantly, they’re going to a great cause!  Please visit the website for more information, including where and how to donate.  Thanks so much for your love and support of not only me and my music, but those who are struggling with the fight against cancer.  I extend my own love and utmost appreciation to all of you.

http://www.cancerdrive.org/

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

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!  (Click READ MORE to listen)