Soundtracks

Neptune's soundtrack production, for video games and digital media in general, grew alongside engineering and got to a level which is ready for the limelight. In particular, the focus here is on the vintage gaming, as well as the modern remasters and neo-retro games, which require one of two particular styles associated with the early gaming:

• MIDI soundtracks,

  

  LucasArts' games from the early nineties still
  serve as excellent examples of MIDI tracks

   very common in the 1990's, especially in their first half when the sound cards became standard equipment for gaming. Their FM synthesis, which allowed reasonable flexibility of sounds and arrangements at minimal storage and processing cost, is still inseparably linked to the games of the era―and there are many famous examples with brilliant soundtracks;
• trackers, which began with the Amiga and had a strong stint on PC's and other platforms until the fully-sampled soundtracks became technically viable in the 2000's. These were assembled from individual samples and offered higher quality in return for slightly higher processor and storage usage. Like MIDI, they are instantly recognizable for their particular feel.

Prehistorik 2 - a notable example of early
soundtracks done with trackers

These Neptune Lab will happily wrestle, encompassing arrangements, programming (or tracking), recording and creating tracker samples when necessary, and producing in the desired format(s). Of course, they don't need to be confined to games: e.g. a podcast dealing with vintage gaming could use such soundtracks just as well.

How does one prepare for such a project?

There are several options. In any case, a storyline will be needed to give clues for the atmosphere required. Ideally, the game will be in the playable or semi-playable prototype stage, but also screenshots, sketches, artwork, and similar resources help a lot.

Of course, some games require soundtrack sets, which change and mix them on-the-fly depending on what is happening in the game. Others just require a static composition which changes when a level or a chapter is advanced. Depending on the requirements, we can figure out which approach will serve best.

Get some samples

🎶 Click here for a sample of a Star Wars-inspired 7-minute soundtrack Neptune did, which got released in the mission Prelude to Harkov's Defection for TFE.

🎶 Or here for a sample of a C64-style tracked composition intended for a retro podcast.