Video Game Music Mixes

Matt Pollard writes: "A group of video game music fanatics and musicians have opened up a new website at VGMix.com. If you're like us, sometimes you can't get the snazzy tunes of today's video games out of your head. Also, if you're up for a bit of nostalgia, this is certainly the place to go to relive the days of youth when you hummed the Super Mario Bros. theme under your breath during class grade school."

Comments

What do you mean, YOUTH?

[ebbomega]

"this is certainly the place to go to relive the days of youth when you hummed the Super Mario Bros. theme under your breath during class grade school"

So I was in my Calculus class about four months ago, hanging around, being relatively bored, so I started singing the "dada Da dada da, da..." and charged into the entire Super Mario Brothers song. My friends sitting next to me start chiming in and joining up. Now this would have been fine and all, If I hadn't then broken into the end bit with the flagpole and the fireworks... and then continued on to level 1-2 (Dada da dada da, da... Dooo! Dooo! Dooo! Dananananana.... Dananananana...). My friend sitting next to me collapsed over in laughter... I think I broke her.

The end.

VGMix.com: The long and the short (okay, the LONG)

[Jake K]

Hi folks, I'm virt, the guy who came up with the idea and helped design and implement the site (and whose wallet will ultimately suffer for the slashdotting ;))

I just wanted to say thanks in advance for the support and the interest, and to get a couple of things cleared up.

First of all, we KNOW we're not the first. Believe me, we know. We're just the first site designed from the ground up for the purpose of multi-platform game arrangements. Most of us are people who are also (or have been) active contributors to remix.overclocked.org - OverClocked ReMix is the site that really started it all with game music arrangements, and it's incredible how a real living, breathing community can form around a single niche interest. However, OverClocked started out as a personal site that gradually featured other people's music until it became MOSTLY about other people's music. VGMix was made, back-end and all, specifically for harbouring a community. Few things are done by hand, because we want people to be able to put their stuff up without us babysitting, and let the moderation and reviewing dictate what's enjoyed without any one person trying to decide for the whole community. We're mostly musicians first, game players second, but the entire spectrum of musicians/gamers is represented here, and we all really love what we do. We DO, however, have a Panel of trusted arrangers who can pick what they consider to be exceptional songs and give them separate, "official" attention - but it in no way supersedes the original purpose of the site because it's a "side project." :)

I consulted with an attorney (got 5 of them in the family, holidays are JUST LOVELY) a long time before I set this site up, and there's nothing illegal about writing music inspired or derived from another's work. If it were REMIXES -- the original audio with a new beat slapped on, for example -- it would not only be illegal but immoral, too, if we didn't ask first. But what we're doing here is interpreting the original song in a new and very changed form. IANAL, but I don't like being sued so I made sure I talked to people who are. OverClocked ReMix is in the same boat. I'm sure someone could disagree or be misinformed and bring a suit against either site, but before it came to that we'd probably skip the hassle in the first place and zap the song. Not likely, though. Us game composer types (I also freelance commercially) are usually laid-back and flattered by arrangements, as long as there's no money being made from them.

Now, VGMUSIC.COM is another story entirely. They have nothing to do with us, but they are a fantastic resource for people who ARE with us. Vgmusic is a place where people submit General MIDI arrangements of game music, usually done by ear by a talented (or not) sequencer. It's like sheet-music transcriptions, just a database of music MIDI files. How is this a fantastic resource? Not everyone who arranges has the kind of ear that allows them to capture the melodies and harmonies by ear, so having a file that they can examine visually is a good thing for them.

So, to sum up, we are well aware that we're not the first, we're just the first set up this way; we're not doing anything illegal, though we'll have to work hard to ensure that our system is not abused; and there are other sites in the game music community that can help us through cooperation. We're not so arrogant as to think we're movers and shakers, we're just guys who love game music and we're trying to provide place to share it that is unlike the others that already exist.

It's a really tiny niche community but it's ...really fun.

-j