mrkenallen

You know, I can see why you might think the BSG theme was an influence. So, yeah, probably. I just don't have a clear memory of what influenced my score for the SQ4 opening. Firstly, is was so long ago, and, secondly, it was a prolific and sleepless weekend for me when I produced the music for that sequence. I just wanted to impress the two guys from Andromeda and, to do so, I pulled out all the stops.
 
Hats off to Stu Phillips for composing such a wonderful score that was so inspiring.

You know, I can see why you might think the BSG theme was an influence. So, yeah, probably. I just don't have a clear memory of what influenced my score for the SQ4 opening. Firstly, is was so long ago, and, secondly, it was a prolific and sleepless weekend for me when I produced the music for that sequence. I just wanted to impress the two guys from Andromeda and, to do so, I pulled out all the stops.
 
Hats off to Stu Phillips for composing such a wonderful score that was so inspiring.

You know, I can see why you might think the BSG theme was an influence. So, yeah, probably. I just don't have a clear memory of what influenced my score for the SQ4 opening. Firstly, is was so long ago, and, secondly, it was a prolific and sleepless weekend for me when I produced the music for that sequence. I just wanted to impress the two guys from Andromeda and, to do so, I pulled out all the stops.
 
Hats off to Stu Phillips for composing such a wonderful score that was so inspiring.

We were all on staff and paid a salary.
 

For my last birthday, my wife purchased a USB keyboard controller and a copy of Cubase because I said something about missing being a composer. I'm dabbling. If I create anything new as part of that dabbling, I'll probably post it on my YouTube channel at youtube.com/mrkenallen
 
 

Actually no, there's another which is more similar to the Amok Time battle theme (also heard in the Cable Guy melee sequence between Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick) that Mark wrote.
 
Although I will admit some of the themes in this piece are inspired by several of the battle themes from ST-TOS, maybe even a little subconsciously from Amok Time. And this recording was one of mine. Thanks for posting it.
 
A few years after writing this piece (mid 90s) I enrolled at UCLA for their film scoring program. This is something I mention in the 5/7/2012 podcast for guysfromandromeda.com. What I don't mention in the podcast is that one of my instructors was a gentleman named Gerald Fried (pronounced "freed"), who, by complete coincidence, was one of the composers for several episodes of ST-TOS, one of which was Amok Time!
 
Talk about serendipity...!

We were all on staff and paid a salary.
 

For my last birthday, my wife purchased a USB keyboard controller and a copy of Cubase because I said something about missing being a composer. I'm dabbling. If I create anything new as part of that dabbling, I'll probably post it on my YouTube channel at youtube.com/mrkenallen
 
 

Actually no, there's another which is more similar to the Amok Time battle theme (also heard in the Cable Guy melee sequence between Jim Carrey and Matthew Broderick) that Mark wrote.
 
Although I will admit some of the themes in this piece are inspired by several of the battle themes from ST-TOS, maybe even a little subconsciously from Amok Time. And this recording was one of mine. Thanks for posting it.
 
A few years after writing this piece (mid 90s) I enrolled at UCLA for their film scoring program. This is something I mention in the 5/7/2012 podcast for guysfromandromeda.com. What I don't mention in the podcast is that one of my instructors was a gentleman named Gerald Fried (pronounced "freed"), who, by complete coincidence, was one of the composers for several episodes of ST-TOS, one of which was Amok Time!
 
Talk about serendipity...!

Answering in the order asked.
 

That's first question answered in the podcast and aswered above, but I'm happy to repeat my response. I'm a producer on one of the world's leading MMORPGs called Rift, about which you can read on riftgame.com.
 

I'm not privy to what the Two Guys have planned, I'm sure it will be magical. And being part of that magic is something I find appealing.
 

You know, Colonel's Bequest was the first game I did for Sierra, and not something I talked about in the podcast, but because it was a Roberta Williams game, I was quite intimidated by what I imagined her music expectations were for the game. And I confessed to Mark Seibert that I had reservations that I was up to the task. Mark was very supportive and expressed complete confidence in me. So I started doing the music. I imagined a gumshoe noir detective style and wrote a piece with that style in mind.
 
Roberta hated it.
 
So I took Mark aside and got permission to spend my workdays during the coming week just researching music from the 20's, the period in which the game takes place. Fresno State had an amazing library of recorded music and there were tons of recordings on hand from the 20's. The first thing I wrote after doing my research was the opening theme that exists in the final game, roaring 20's flapper music.
 
As far as the tools, we used Voyetra MIDI Sequencer Plus Gold for the DOS operating system, and IMHO remains one of the best sequencing packages on any OS.
 
To edit sounds, we used a commercial package called SoundQuest, also for DOS which was a universal editing and sound library management software package. We used it to edit sounds for both the MT-32 Adaptive Synthesis device and the 4 operator FM synthesis sound cards from SoundBlaster and similar manufacturers. The 4 op FM sound cards were basically the innards of the Yamaha FB-01, which SoundQuest supported. Actually the software supported tons of MIDI modules, so when Sierra later began supporting other manufacturers, like Ensonic, IBM's Music Feature, and Roland's SCC-1, we already had the music tools to support them.
 
The Adlib card was a 2 operator FM synthesis card and had its own editor.
 
To process sampled audio, I think we use something called Sample Vision. We also had a Tandy PC in the music department that also had sample editing software built in. Sample Vision was great because you could zoom all the way into a single sample and smooth out a sample curve.
 
When I moved over to Windows, I used Cakewalk and SoundForge. In fact I was a beta tester for SoundForge 2, I think I'm even listed in the credits.
 
 

No, the music from Battlestar Galactica had no influence on any of the music I did for SQ4 or any other game. Stu Phillips is a fine composer and his TV themes for Buck Rogers, Knight Rider, Quincy and several other TV classics are quite good. But I studied the music and orchestrations of John Williams for the SQ4 opening.
 
I'm going over the music in my head right now and I think I know which musical phrase might make you think the BSG theme is being referenced, but, hand-on-heart, it's an utter coincidence. If it were the case, I would totally admit it.
 
We did spoof battle music from the original Star Trek shows for the hand-to-hand combat scene Roger Wilco has with some sort of alien cave monster, but I'm fairly certain Mark Seibert knocked out that one.

Hey, here's something most people don't know.
 
The pound sign on the phone keypad is actually called "octotherp" and the star key is "sextile". I learned this while doing the sounds for one of the SQ4 puzzles where you have to punch in a code on a number key pad. I just called Sierra Telephone and asked to speak with an engineer, told them I was working on this game and I wanted learn what frequencies that were used to generate the sounds you hear when pressing the buttons.
 
The engineer was eager to contribute and looked it up for me. As he read each key name and the frequencies, he used the word "octotherp" and I asked, "what's that?" Then he used "sextile" and volunteered that is was the asterisk key.
 
Little-known fact, now slightly less little-known.

Answering in the order asked.
 

That's first question answered in the podcast and aswered above, but I'm happy to repeat my response. I'm a producer on one of the world's leading MMORPGs called Rift, about which you can read on riftgame.com.
 

I'm not privy to what the Two Guys have planned, I'm sure it will be magical. And being part of that magic is something I find appealing.
 

You know, Colonel's Bequest was the first game I did for Sierra, and not something I talked about in the podcast, but because it was a Roberta Williams game, I was quite intimidated by what I imagined her music expectations were for the game. And I confessed to Mark Seibert that I had reservations that I was up to the task. Mark was very supportive and expressed complete confidence in me. So I started doing the music. I imagined a gumshoe noir detective style and wrote a piece with that style in mind.
 
Roberta hated it.
 
So I took Mark aside and got permission to spend my workdays during the coming week just researching music from the 20's, the period in which the game takes place. Fresno State had an amazing library of recorded music and there were tons of recordings on hand from the 20's. The first thing I wrote after doing my research was the opening theme that exists in the final game, roaring 20's flapper music.
 
As far as the tools, we used Voyetra MIDI Sequencer Plus Gold for the DOS operating system, and IMHO remains one of the best sequencing packages on any OS.
 
To edit sounds, we used a commercial package called SoundQuest, also for DOS which was a universal editing and sound library management software package. We used it to edit sounds for both the MT-32 Adaptive Synthesis device and the 4 operator FM synthesis sound cards from SoundBlaster and similar manufacturers. The 4 op FM sound cards were basically the innards of the Yamaha FB-01, which SoundQuest supported. Actually the software supported tons of MIDI modules, so when Sierra later began supporting other manufacturers, like Ensonic, IBM's Music Feature, and Roland's SCC-1, we already had the music tools to support them.
 
The Adlib card was a 2 operator FM synthesis card and had its own editor.
 
To process sampled audio, I think we use something called Sample Vision. We also had a Tandy PC in the music department that also had sample editing software built in. Sample Vision was great because you could zoom all the way into a single sample and smooth out a sample curve.
 
When I moved over to Windows, I used Cakewalk and SoundForge. In fact I was a beta tester for SoundForge 2, I think I'm even listed in the credits.
 
 

No, the music from Battlestar Galactica had no influence on any of the music I did for SQ4 or any other game. Stu Phillips is a fine composer and his TV themes for Buck Rogers, Knight Rider, Quincy and several other TV classics are quite good. But I studied the music and orchestrations of John Williams for the SQ4 opening.
 
I'm going over the music in my head right now and I think I know which musical phrase might make you think the BSG theme is being referenced, but, hand-on-heart, it's an utter coincidence. If it were the case, I would totally admit it.
 
We did spoof battle music from the original Star Trek shows for the hand-to-hand combat scene Roger Wilco has with some sort of alien cave monster, but I'm fairly certain Mark Seibert knocked out that one.

Answering in the order asked.
 

That's first question answered in the podcast and aswered above, but I'm happy to repeat my response. I'm a producer on one of the world's leading MMORPGs called Rift, about which you can read on riftgame.com.
 

I'm not privy to what the Two Guys have planned, I'm sure it will be magical. And being part of that magic is something I find appealing.
 

You know, Colonel's Bequest was the first game I did for Sierra, and not something I talked about in the podcast, but because it was a Roberta Williams game, I was quite intimidated by what I imagined her music expectations were for the game. And I confessed to Mark Seibert that I had reservations that I was up to the task. Mark was very supportive and expressed complete confidence in me. So I started doing the music. I imagined a gumshoe noir detective style and wrote a piece with that style in mind.
 
Roberta hated it.
 
So I took Mark aside and got permission to spend my workdays during the coming week just researching music from the 20's, the period in which the game takes place. Fresno State had an amazing library of recorded music and there were tons of recordings on hand from the 20's. The first thing I wrote after doing my research was the opening theme that exists in the final game, roaring 20's flapper music.
 
As far as the tools, we used Voyetra MIDI Sequencer Plus Gold for the DOS operating system, and IMHO remains one of the best sequencing packages on any OS.
 
To edit sounds, we used a commercial package called SoundQuest, also for DOS which was a universal editing and sound library management software package. We used it to edit sounds for both the MT-32 Adaptive Synthesis device and the 4 operator FM synthesis sound cards from SoundBlaster and similar manufacturers. The 4 op FM sound cards were basically the innards of the Yamaha FB-01, which SoundQuest supported. Actually the software supported tons of MIDI modules, so when Sierra later began supporting other manufacturers, like Ensonic, IBM's Music Feature, and Roland's SCC-1, we already had the music tools to support them.
 
The Adlib card was a 2 operator FM synthesis card and had its own editor.
 
To process sampled audio, I think we use something called Sample Vision. We also had a Tandy PC in the music department that also had sample editing software built in. Sample Vision was great because you could zoom all the way into a single sample and smooth out a sample curve.
 
When I moved over to Windows, I used Cakewalk and SoundForge. In fact I was a beta tester for SoundForge 2, I think I'm even listed in the credits.
 
 

No, the music from Battlestar Galactica had no influence on any of the music I did for SQ4 or any other game. Stu Phillips is a fine composer and his TV themes for Buck Rogers, Knight Rider, Quincy and several other TV classics are quite good. But I studied the music and orchestrations of John Williams for the SQ4 opening.
 
I'm going over the music in my head right now and I think I know which musical phrase might make you think the BSG theme is being referenced, but, hand-on-heart, it's an utter coincidence. If it were the case, I would totally admit it.
 
We did spoof battle music from the original Star Trek shows for the hand-to-hand combat scene Roger Wilco has with some sort of alien cave monster, but I'm fairly certain Mark Seibert knocked out that one.

Hey, here's something most people don't know.
 
The pound sign on the phone keypad is actually called "octotherp" and the star key is "sextile". I learned this while doing the sounds for one of the SQ4 puzzles where you have to punch in a code on a number key pad. I just called Sierra Telephone and asked to speak with an engineer, told them I was working on this game and I wanted learn what frequencies that were used to generate the sounds you hear when pressing the buttons.
 
The engineer was eager to contribute and looked it up for me. As he read each key name and the frequencies, he used the word "octotherp" and I asked, "what's that?" Then he used "sextile" and volunteered that is was the asterisk key.
 
Little-known fact, now slightly less little-known.

Hey, here's something most people don't know.
 
The pound sign on the phone keypad is actually called "octotherp" and the star key is "sextile". I learned this while doing the sounds for one of the SQ4 puzzles where you have to punch in a code on a number key pad. I just called Sierra Telephone and asked to speak with an engineer, told them I was working on this game and I wanted learn what frequencies that were used to generate the sounds you hear when pressing the buttons.
 
The engineer was eager to contribute and looked it up for me. As he read each key name and the frequencies, he used the word "octotherp" and I asked, "what's that?" Then he used "sextile" and volunteered that is was the asterisk key.
 
Little-known fact, now slightly less little-known.

Answering in the order asked.
 

That's first question answered in the podcast and aswered above, but I'm happy to repeat my response. I'm a producer on one of the world's leading MMORPGs called Rift, about which you can read on riftgame.com.
 

I'm not privy to what the Two Guys have planned, I'm sure it will be magical. And being part of that magic is something I find appealing.
 

You know, Colonel's Bequest was the first game I did for Sierra, and not something I talked about in the podcast, but because it was a Roberta Williams game, I was quite intimidated by what I imagined her music expectations were for the game. And I confessed to Mark Seibert that I had reservations that I was up to the task. Mark was very supportive and expressed complete confidence in me. So I started doing the music. I imagined a gumshoe noir detective style and wrote a piece with that style in mind.
 
Roberta hated it.
 
So I took Mark aside and got permission to spend my workdays during the coming week just researching music from the 20's, the period in which the game takes place. Fresno State had an amazing library of recorded music and there were tons of recordings on hand from the 20's. The first thing I wrote after doing my research was the opening theme that exists in the final game, roaring 20's flapper music.
 
As far as the tools, we used Voyetra MIDI Sequencer Plus Gold for the DOS operating system, and IMHO remains one of the best sequencing packages on any OS.
 
To edit sounds, we used a commercial package called SoundQuest, also for DOS which was a universal editing and sound library management software package. We used it to edit sounds for both the MT-32 Adaptive Synthesis device and the 4 operator FM synthesis sound cards from SoundBlaster and similar manufacturers. The 4 op FM sound cards were basically the innards of the Yamaha FB-01, which SoundQuest supported. Actually the software supported tons of MIDI modules, so when Sierra later began supporting other manufacturers, like Ensonic, IBM's Music Feature, and Roland's SCC-1, we already had the music tools to support them.
 
The Adlib card was a 2 operator FM synthesis card and had its own editor.
 
To process sampled audio, I think we use something called Sample Vision. We also had a Tandy PC in the music department that also had sample editing software built in. Sample Vision was great because you could zoom all the way into a single sample and smooth out a sample curve.
 
When I moved over to Windows, I used Cakewalk and SoundForge. In fact I was a beta tester for SoundForge 2, I think I'm even listed in the credits.
 
 

No, the music from Battlestar Galactica had no influence on any of the music I did for SQ4 or any other game. Stu Phillips is a fine composer and his TV themes for Buck Rogers, Knight Rider, Quincy and several other TV classics are quite good. But I studied the music and orchestrations of John Williams for the SQ4 opening.
 
I'm going over the music in my head right now and I think I know which musical phrase might make you think the BSG theme is being referenced, but, hand-on-heart, it's an utter coincidence. If it were the case, I would totally admit it.
 
We did spoof battle music from the original Star Trek shows for the hand-to-hand combat scene Roger Wilco has with some sort of alien cave monster, but I'm fairly certain Mark Seibert knocked out that one.

Hey, here's something most people don't know.
 
The pound sign on the phone keypad is actually called "octotherp" and the star key is "sextile". I learned this while doing the sounds for one of the SQ4 puzzles where you have to punch in a code on a number key pad. I just called Sierra Telephone and asked to speak with an engineer, told them I was working on this game and I wanted learn what frequencies that were used to generate the sounds you hear when pressing the buttons.
 
The engineer was eager to contribute and looked it up for me. As he read each key name and the frequencies, he used the word "octotherp" and I asked, "what's that?" Then he used "sextile" and volunteered that is was the asterisk key.
 
Little-known fact, now slightly less little-known.

Answering in the order asked.
 

That's first question answered in the podcast and aswered above, but I'm happy to repeat my response. I'm a producer on one of the world's leading MMORPGs called Rift, about which you can read on riftgame.com.
 

I'm not privy to what the Two Guys have planned, I'm sure it will be magical. And being part of that magic is something I find appealing.
 

You know, Colonel's Bequest was the first game I did for Sierra, and not something I talked about in the podcast, but because it was a Roberta Williams game, I was quite intimidated by what I imagined her music expectations were for the game. And I confessed to Mark Seibert that I had reservations that I was up to the task. Mark was very supportive and expressed complete confidence in me. So I started doing the music. I imagined a gumshoe noir detective style and wrote a piece with that style in mind.
 
Roberta hated it.
 
So I took Mark aside and got permission to spend my workdays during the coming week just researching music from the 20's, the period in which the game takes place. Fresno State had an amazing library of recorded music and there were tons of recordings on hand from the 20's. The first thing I wrote after doing my research was the opening theme that exists in the final game, roaring 20's flapper music.
 
As far as the tools, we used Voyetra MIDI Sequencer Plus Gold for the DOS operating system, and IMHO remains one of the best sequencing packages on any OS.
 
To edit sounds, we used a commercial package called SoundQuest, also for DOS which was a universal editing and sound library management software package. We used it to edit sounds for both the MT-32 Adaptive Synthesis device and the 4 operator FM synthesis sound cards from SoundBlaster and similar manufacturers. The 4 op FM sound cards were basically the innards of the Yamaha FB-01, which SoundQuest supported. Actually the software supported tons of MIDI modules, so when Sierra later began supporting other manufacturers, like Ensonic, IBM's Music Feature, and Roland's SCC-1, we already had the music tools to support them.
 
The Adlib card was a 2 operator FM synthesis card and had its own editor.
 
To process sampled audio, I think we use something called Sample Vision. We also had a Tandy PC in the music department that also had sample editing software built in. Sample Vision was great because you could zoom all the way into a single sample and smooth out a sample curve.
 
When I moved over to Windows, I used Cakewalk and SoundForge. In fact I was a beta tester for SoundForge 2, I think I'm even listed in the credits.
 
 

No, the music from Battlestar Galactica had no influence on any of the music I did for SQ4 or any other game. Stu Phillips is a fine composer and his TV themes for Buck Rogers, Knight Rider, Quincy and several other TV classics are quite good. But I studied the music and orchestrations of John Williams for the SQ4 opening.
 
I'm going over the music in my head right now and I think I know which musical phrase might make you think the BSG theme is being referenced, but, hand-on-heart, it's an utter coincidence. If it were the case, I would totally admit it.
 
We did spoof battle music from the original Star Trek shows for the hand-to-hand combat scene Roger Wilco has with some sort of alien cave monster, but I'm fairly certain Mark Seibert knocked out that one.

I have no files from my Sierra days. But there were a few tunes that ended up on the cutting room floor for various reasons. I hadn't heard about the unused SQ6 tunes being left on the CD-ROM. Kudos to whomever discovered them.

I have no files from my Sierra days. But there were a few tunes that ended up on the cutting room floor for various reasons. I hadn't heard about the unused SQ6 tunes being left on the CD-ROM. Kudos to whomever discovered them.

Hi, y'all! What's new?

Hi, y'all! What's new?