photo caption: Rick Buonincontri CEO of Solid State Networks

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I know this isn’t exactly audio, but it’s still cool. There is plenty of this kind of stuff at the GDC giving it a very unique flavor. If you’re a sound designer/composer, how would you “score” the Rhino?

The item pictured above gets the highly unnoficial “Mix Magazine Coolest SWAG So Far From The GDC” award. Inside the slick-looking cannister bearing the APM Music logo is an umbrella. Unfortunately, you’ll never use this in San Francisco!

photo caption: l to r, Sharon Jennings (APM), Sarah Jones (Mix), Erika Lopez (Mix) and Rob Cairns (APM)

As Tom mentioned in his Bob Rice post, the APM/Four Bars party at Gordon Biersch in the Embarcadero was quite an event. We took a bunch of Mix March issues down and the crowd poured over them commenting on the cool Game Audio section (no brag, just fact :-). Be sure to check it out on the website.

photo caption: l to r, Erika Lopez (Mix publisher), Bob Rice, Tom Kenny (Mix Editor)

At last night‘s composers dinner/party, put on by APM and Four Bars Intertainment, the room was filled with the energy that creative minds bring. Fifty of the top game composers and developers in the country just hanging out. But the highlight of the evening for this Mix editor was sitting down and eating dinnner with Bob Rice, the CEO of Four Bars and manager/rep for many in the room. He‘s worked with film composers and in TV. He‘s promoted and marketed and produced. He‘s represented the business side of the music business for nearly five decades now, and he‘s not slowing down. He‘s pushed for videogame music since 1982, when he produced the game Journey Escape, and now, finally, he‘s beginning to see the rest of the entertainment world take notice. He‘s relaxed, and he‘s smiling, a bit quiet by nature until he gets going with some rare, fine stories. But his eyes reveal the wisdom of his 48 years in the music business.

Bob put on his first show at the age of 15. He lived in Cleveland, and sensing the craze that birthed rock ‘n‘ roll, he thought he‘d put on a dance. He booked a hall on the east side of Cleveland, then drove 150 miles to Erie, Pa., and booked the bands. Saturday night sold out, so he added Friday. It sold out, so he booked a hall on the west side. It sold out both nights. He retired from the “concert” business at 24 as the biggest promoter in Ohio.

Then he went to L.A. and danced right into the glory days of the recording industry in the ‘60s and ‘70s. He‘s always been in music, and he‘s long worked in film. He has a love for the orchestra, and many credit him with helping to bring the symphony to games. When we talk about those people who live in the music industry because they just couldn‘t imagine doing anything else, we‘re talking about people like Bob Rice. Expect to read a few of his stories in the coming months of Mix. That was a good night, Bob. Thanks.

To end the first day, Associated Production Music and Four Bars Intertainment invited more than 50 of the game industry‘s top composers and developers down to Gordon Biersch for a night of slammin‘ good fun. Good food, good drink, and damn fine company. It was a networker‘s paradise, but it felt more like a college reunion…one where all the cool people showed up.

Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall were there, a couple days away from Video Games Live and with a 9 a.m. panel the next morning. We ran into Tom Salta, who was profiled in Mix for Red Steel but was anxiously awaiting Thursday‘s release of Ghost Recon 2. Dori Amarillo said between composing gigs he was designing rooms for fellow composers working at home. Rod Abernethy was at our table, and Gerard Marino was right next door. Robert Navarro, who works for APM, was telling us about his ESPN Monday Night Football work and his fondness for sports, while Doyle Donehoo touted the benefits of SONAR and expressed his desire to let the Mix audience know what it really takes to write music for games.

The positive, forward-thinking vibe, the sense of community among this crowd, was infectious. APM president Adam Taylor and marketing director Sharon Jennings co-hosted a great party, and their affection and respect for the composers was evident; they have obviously done this before. A great party all around.

Legends can be made in a moment, or they can be made over a lifetime. They can be made through mass media, or they can be made in the underground. But something makes others stand up in reverence. Late Wednesday afternoon, Koji Kondo, the man who created the music for Mario and Yoshi and Zelda and many others, an interactive composer who is seen by gamers as George Martin and Paul and John and George and Ringo all wrapped up into one, addressed a packed house of 300 and shed a little light on the mindset that went into the creation of the first truly unique interactive scores.

The audience was outfitted with headset translations into English and Korean (Koji speaks Japanese), and two large video screens flanked the composer and his laptop. Pulling examples from the Super Mario and Zelda series, Koji broke his talk on Painting an Interactive Musical Landscape into three parts: Rhythm, Balance and Interactivity, the latter occupying the lion‘s share of the time.

The simplest move toward interactivity, he began, was by simply adding percussion to Mario when he powered up and jumped on his power-host‘s back. Next, he showed how changing an arrangement within one piece can drive the action. When Mario is on shore, a solo electric piano. He dives in the water and strings are added. He swims into the cavern and the drums and bass kick in. As the scenery changes, the music changes. Seems simple, but in the context of early game play…

Next, he used Shadow Mario as an example of changing the music with character movement. Using Dolby Surround, Koji, placed a trumpet around the field to indicate the Shadow‘s whereabouts. Or, he offered, you can have the music change randomly. Showing Zelda in a field where the music changed each time following an intro passage, then shiftiing again when combat was imminent, Koji illustrated the importance of variety built into the implementation of the original composition.

There were more examples and more fun scenes from the now-seems-almost-primitive days of early Mario. He received a prolonged standing ovation. But most importantly, the MIDI scores held up, even here in 2007. Koji was certainly limited by technology, both in the production and the playback, but his music had emotion and matched character with story. Truly an original.

Koji Kondo will be honored Thursday night with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Game Audio Network Guild, and he will perform Friday night at Video Games Live. We at Mix salute him.

Day One Podcast from the 2007 GDC with interviews from FMod, Creative, Sonic Picnic, Noren and more. Click here to listen.