Eveline Fischer

Game Music

Women Working in Video Game Audio: The Video Game Music Database Report

October 6, 2017 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Women Working in Video Game Audio: The Video Game Music Database Report Share this

About a month ago I reached out to the administrators at the Video Game Music Database (VGMdb) to ask if they could make some modifications to their advanced search. I wanted to be able to search for something specific: Women artists involved in game music. With the help of VGMdb admin Bigblah the advanced search was updated and here’s what you can search for now:

You can now refine the database search results by Male, Female or Unspecified genders, and isolate the results by Composer. Performing a search to include composers who were female for an original game soundtrack revealed 1,040 results! You can also make further refinements to your search to reveal more women that have worked in the video game audio industry.

Part of my motivations behind refining the advanced search was because a while back Original Sound Version began a series called Matron Maestras which highlighted some of the women working as composers in the video game industry. The composers included Winifred Phillips, Tomoka Sasaki, Eveline Fischer, and Michiru Oshima. We wanted to let you know that this series will be making a comeback in the coming months. In the meantime, please feel free to re-visit our previous Matron Maestras articles or perform some searches of your own with these new options in the VGMdb.

If there are woman composer or artist that you would like to see covered in OSV’s Matron Maestra series? Please let us know!
Game Music

Arrangement of the Week: My Monkey Drives a Maserati

November 27, 2015 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Arrangement of the Week: My Monkey Drives a Maserati Share this

Here on the Arrangement of the Week we’ve had a lot of the metal rock entries. So this week I thought it would be a good change of pace to feature a cover from a different rock sub-genre. Enter our chiptune rock arrangement of the Donkey Kong Country 3 track “Hot Pursuit” from artists jmr and streifig, who make up the duo Marshall Art.

The soundtrack to Donkey Kong Country 3 has an interesting history. Most notably that it has two completely different soundtracks. The SNES version was mostly written by Eveline Fischer, while the Game Boy Advance version has a completely reworked soundtrack by David Wise. This arrangement of the DK3 track “Hot Pursuit” is from the former and is titled “My Monkey Drives a Maserati.”

The track takes off right from the start, evoking much of the same energy present in the original piece. At first the chiptune instruments dominate the track, but the electric guitar and drums steadily build a presence. At various points, like the 1’30” and 2’30” mark, the synth instruments drop out to allow the guitars to have the spotlight. In each instance they act as brief interludes that contrast well with the rest of the arrangement.

What I enjoy about the track is the overall blending of the chiptune sounds with the modern rock instruments. The track sounds like it could exist as an actual track within the game. As I mentioned, the chiptune elements start off as the primary sound source, but the guitars eventually find space to show off and really add to the piece. All in all, it’s a fun arrangement with plenty of energy.

Have you heard any good chiptune rock covers, arrangements, or remixes this week? Feel free to share them with us in the comments below. You can check out Marshall Art’s “My Monkey Drives a Maserati” on OC ReMix.
Featured, Game Music

Matron Maestras – Eveline Fischer (Spotlight)

November 21, 2014 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Matron Maestras – Eveline Fischer (Spotlight) Share this

We’re continuing our spotlight on women in video game composing with one of the components of the Donkey Kong Country musical experience and beyond with Eveline Fischer! (Eveline Novakovic if you’re looking her up under her married name, but we’ll be referencing her under the name she used when composing the majority of the works we’ll be listing) We’ll also highlight some of her non-composing works, including some voice work you may not have known was her!

And what good timing too, as the DKC Mix’t Ape ’94 arrangement album just released today with much of Fischer’s work arranged by several artists! How’s that for relevance?

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