08 April 2015

LMH Mixtape #21: Jeff van Dyck

Jeff van Dyck's music is some of the most instantly recognizable in 16-bit gaming, and for Episode 21, the boizz invited him on the air to explain why.  Jeff graciously accepted and dropped some serious knowledge about Super Nintendo and Genesis hardware, how their strengths and limitations affected his compositions, and whether or not he thinks his tunes have held up over time.  After you enjoy this skitchin' mix be sure to check out Jeff's current projects at www.jeffvandyck.com, because this guy is still doing awesome stuff!

NOTE TO THE DETAIL-ORIENTED:  In the original episode, a track from NBA Live 96 was played, which was actually composed by a different composer (Jeff pointed this out to Brent and Rob after the podcast was released), so that track was not included in this mix.


KEYGLYPH'S AWARDS & COMMENDATIONS, JUST BECAUSE

Instant new favorite:  FIFA International Soccer - Title

Brewed new favorite:  FIFA International - Soccer Menu 2
Other brewed new favorite: FIFA Soccer 95 - Menu 4


Track listing (except for the NBA Live 96 track) and original episode:

http://legacymusichour.blogspot.com/2011/03/legacy-music-hour-episode-21-jeff-van.html

5 comments:

  1. First LMH mixtape I've listened to in a while, reasoning being that I can't live without Brob's banter. But I forgot how fun the Jeff Van Dyck episode was. It really emphasized the tendency of North American composers at the time to favor samples, to the point where EA spent what must have been a significant amount of time and money figuring out how to squeeze, wrench, and wring better sample performance out of the Genesis. I am continually impressed how good the Genesis samples were on Van Dyck's games compared to those from other developers' games. Comparatively little of that Genesis trademark ringing distortion that we all love to hate.

    Considering the above, I'd have to say his SNES work comes out on top. As I said, North American composers were starting to fancy sampling(or using samples as instruments), and that is what the SNES sound chip was designed to do. As impressive as EA's sampling performance was on the Genesis, they were kind of hobbling themselves by severely underutilizing the FM capabilities. And if I remember correctly, I think Van Dyck rarely used the noise channel, if at all. But that's just my two yen's worth.

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  2. I've searched all over Zophar and 2612 for the FIFA tracks to listen to on my mobile player, but no dice so far. Anybody have any tips?

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    1. Hey Anonymous! I ran into the very same problem and had to pull a lot of Jeff's stuff from his website, www.jeffvandyck.com. He's very graciously put up almost all of his compositions MP3 format. Just scroll down until you see a list of games in the right-hand column. Those links will take you straight to the tunes.

      Sorry for the late response!

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  3. Why is it I can only access the mix abut can't listen to the interview? :-/

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    1. You should be able to access the interview here:

      http://legacymusichour.blogspot.com/2011/03/legacy-music-hour-episode-21-jeff-van.html

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