VOWOL podcast on Voicebank

Roy Samuelson has over 20 years experience as a voice actor. He's booked national voice over ad campaigns for TV, including Jeep, Dodge, Nestle Wonka, and Intel. He has voiced the killer in "Midnight Movie," various voices in "The Beacon" and Universal's "The Express" and "Van Helsing," as well as in the upcoming Jerry Bruckheimer / Disney feature "G-Force." He has recorded many promo spots for Los Angeles' NPR station KCRW. He is also the founder of Los Angeles workout group VOWOL (VoiceOverWorkoutLounge), which we host in the DMG VO Booth!

The Music Department of Soundelux DMG Welcomes Kevin Riepl

We are very excited to announce that Kevin Riepl has joined our DMG Music Department.

Kevin's edgy style of hybrid and orchestral music signify the diversity and excellence that Soundelux DMG strives for.

Composer Christopher Tin interviewed by OC ReMix

Our own composer Christopher Tin did an interview with OCR recently where he talks about his work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on his debut album Calling All Dawns, the changing public perception of game music, and his favorite video game soundtrack (which turns out to be Katamari Damacy).

The crew at OC ReMix was taken with his hit piece Baba Yetu, written for Civilization IV and featured in the renowned Video Games Live concert tours.

Jeremy Soule joins the Music Department of Soundelux DMG

We are extremely proud to announce that Jeremy Soule of Artistry Entertainment Inc., who is known as a BAFTA Award-winning composer of film, television and video games has joined forces with the Music Department of Soundelux DMG.

Jeremy is a talented artist and business man whose built an astounding career around his passion and insight into creating great partnerships. So if you want to know more... look for us at GDC, he'll be there!

Fable II Wins at BAFTA Awards

This past Tuesday, March 10th 2009, the British Film and Television Association held their Video Game Awards in London. Microsoft and United Kingdom-based Lionhead Studios have taken home the golden mask for Action & Adventure with the ever-epic Fable II. We are pleased that our small role in this amazing title has continued to help garner it the recognition it deserves. Wish us luck with the G.A.N.G. awards later this month at the Game Developer's Conference, as Fable II competes against Gears of War 2!

12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards @ D.I.C.E.

Game developers and other industry professionals had a chance to put their heads together at the 2009 D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit, which kicked off Thursday, February 19th, 2009 in Las Vegas.

Also at the Summit was the ceremony for the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, honoring notable games released in the past year. These peer-based awards recognize the outstanding products, talented individuals and development teams that have contributed to the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.

Among the winners were past DMG projects Prince of Persia for Art Direction, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, and God of War: Chains of Olympus for Handheld Game of the Year. These peer-based awards recognize the outstanding products, talented individuals and development teams that have contributed to the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.

Ubisoft, Kojima and Sony, we tip our gigantic collective hat to you.

MPSE and the 56th annual Golden Reels

At a beautiful event this past Saturday, February 21st, 2009 The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) held their Golden Reel Awards ceremony at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

The Golden Reel Awards are given to honor audio professionals in the entertainment field, and the ceremony has been held annually since 1953. Alongside the traditional categories surrounding Film and Television, Soundelux DMG has taken home the award for Best Sound Editing: Computer Entertainment with Epic's epic Gears of War 2. CSS Studios (our parent company) was well represented at the event, both in terms of nominations and the sheer size of our delegation.

We would like to take this opportunity to recognize the achievements that were honored by the MPSE and congratulate the teams who made it happen. Great job!

• Best Sound Editing: MUSIC IN A FEATURE FILM
• The Dark Knight
• Warner Bros. Pictures
• Produced by: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas & Charles Roven
• Directed by: Christopher Nolan
• Supervising Music Editor: Alex Gibson
• Music Editor: Alex Gibson
• Music Editor: Daniel Pinder


• Best Sound Editing: COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT
• Gears of War 2
• Microsoft
• Produced by: Mike Larson
• Supervising Sound Editor: Scott Martin Gershin
• Supervising Foley Editor: Shannon Potter
• Supervising Dialogue/ADR Editor: Mike Larson
• Foley Artist: Jimmy Moriana
• Foley Artist: Jeffrey Wilhoit
• Foley Mixer: Nerses Gezalyan
• Sound Effects Editor: Peter Zinda
• Sound Effects Editor: Brad Beaumont
• Sound Effects Editor: Chad Bedell
• Sound Effects Editor: Steve Robinson


• Best Sound Editing: SPECIAL VENUE
• Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk
• MacGillivray Freeman Films Educational Foundation
• Produced by: Greg MacGillivray
• Directed by: Greg MacGillivray
• Supervising Sound Editor: Andrew R. DeCristofaro
• Sound Designer: Tim Walston
• Sound Designer: Michael Payne
• Supervising Dialogue Editor: John Stuver
• ADR Editor: Nancy Nugent-Title
• Music Editor: Steve Wood
• Foley Artist: Jeffrey Wilhoit
• Foley Artist: James Moriana
• Field Recordist & Dialogue Editor: Robert Walker
• Foley Editor: Patrick Cusack

G.A.N.G. Awards 2008 finalists announced

On Thursday, March 26th, 2009 the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) will hold its seventh annual G.A.N.G. Awards at GDC. The finalists have been voted upon and judged by professionals in the game audio industry and the Guild's 2,000+ members, and we are pleased to announce some projects we have worked on have made it to the final round.

Gears of War 2 pops up in several catergories, including Best Cinematic/Cut-Scene Audio, Best Use of Multi-Channel Surround in a Game, and Audio of The Year.

Another DMG project contending for Audio of The Year is Fable II, which is also being recognized for its soundtrack. Congratulations Microsoft, Lion's Head and Epic! Good luck at the show.

• Audio of The Year
• -Fable II
• -Gears of War 2


• Best Cinematic/Cut-Scene Audio
• -Gears of War 2


• Best Use of Multi-Channel Surround in a Game
• -Gears of War 2

BAFTA Video Game Awards 2008!

You may remember BAFTA announcing in April 2008 they would postpone their Video Game Awards show until March 2009, allowing for the annual rush of games released just before holiday. And it's a good thing they did! By most accounts it was the best gaming season in recent memory.

We'd like to extend our best wishes to the nominees, along with our thanks for those titles we were fortunate to work on. Congratulations to all the production crews for their hard work on these excellent titles.

• Action & Adventure
• -Fable II
• -Prince of Persia


• Artistic Achievement
• -Assassin's Creed
• -Gears of War 2
• -Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots


• Best Game
• -Fable II


• Handheld
• -God of War: Chains of the Olympus


• Multiplayer
• -Gears of War 2


• Original Score
• -Assassin's Creed
• -Fable II
• -Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots


• Story and Character
• -Assassin's Creed
• -Fable II
• 
  
• Technical Achievement
• -Assassin's Creed
• -Fable II
• 
  
• Use of Audio
• -Gears of War 2


• Game Award of 2008
• -Gears of War 2

Former Blizzard Entertainment Music Producer, Gloria Soto, joins Soundelux DMG

We are proud to announce that Gloria Soto, formerly of Blizzard Entertainment, has come on board at Soundelux DMG as our new Music Producer. Gloria brings more than 11 years of developer experience working at both Blizzard and Interplay.

At Interplay as the Audio Operations Manager and at Blizzard as the Cinematic Sound producer, Gloria focused on hiring contractors for titles such as "Baldurs Gate" and "Wrath of the Lich King".

"When game development gets tough, Gloria remains positive, insightful and incredibly motivating. She has a deep understanding of the creative process which allows her to balance business requirements and creative demands. As a music producer, she is able to work with top talent and enables the process of production to run smoothly. Gloria is an excellent addition to any music production that needs to be delivered on time and at world-class standards."
Quote from Jeremy Soule, CEO, Co-Founder, Artistry Entertainment Inc.

We are very excited to have Gloria join Soundelux DMG. She is a true professional in the industry which makes a great addition to our team. If you're going to GDC, Gloria will be there... finally!

Tomi Tomita Now Working With DMG

We are pleased to announce a new addition to our team, Masanobu "Tomi" Tomita! Tomi, born in Japan, has been active in the Hollywood entertainment industry for the past 20 years, most notably garnering 6 Emmy Nominations and 1 win for "Outstanding Sound Editing for a Series" during his 15 years on the Star Trek TV series.

"Most shows are mundane sounds - you see a car, you grab sfx for that type of car." For Tomi, creating sounds that don't exist in the real world is much more interesting. We know he'll find the right creative atmosphere here at DMG. Welcome to the team!

TEA's THEA Awards 2008

For fifteen years, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) has held its annual Thea Awards to recognize excellence in themed entertainment. This includes amusement parks, museums and the like.

Soundelux DMG designed sound for two winners this year. The Arizona Science Center's "Forces of Nature" and Washington DC's "Newseum", a museum dedicated to journalism. Last year (2008) we won with the Shuttle Launch Experience at the Kennedy Space Center.

Dutch Hill has spent time mixing on location. Mixing for traditional entertainment such as film, television or games, requires the mixer to consider the various and often differing playback environments. The benefit to Location Based Entertainment is that the mix is performed in the final playback location, thereby allowing for more control over the final listening experiences. We can all understand Dutch's enthusiasm for designing sound in the only place it will ever be experienced.

Spike's 2008 "Video Game Awards" Show / X-Play update

Spike aired its annual VGA show last night, delivering winning nods to several games worked on at Soundelux DMG. Gears Of War 2 (Best Xbox 360 Game, Best Shooter), Shaun White Snowboarding (Best Individual Sports Game), and of course Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots (Best Original Score, Best Graphics). Following hot on the heels of Khary Payon's X-Play win, Debi Mae West was recognised for her performance as Meryl in Metal Gear Solid 4, taking home the award for Best Performance By A Human (Female).

In other good news, Brutal Legend has been picked up and will be published! We're all thrilled for Jack Black, Time Schafer, and everyone up the coast at Double Fine!

XPlay "Best Of 2008" Nominees!

G4 TV's X-Play has nominated Fable II for Best Sound Design "Best Of 2008" Awards. This is an honor for the DMG family, Fable II was a long project that often FELT like an arduous journey across Albion (and just as fun!).

Also up is Drebin 893 from Metal Gear Solid 4 for Best New Character! Kudos to Khary Payton. And good luck with all your other nominations, Kojima. Except maybe sound design.

AFTRA extends contract!

AFTRA, the second largest actors' union in America, has agreed to extend their Interactive Media Agreement contract through December 31, 2009. In these trying times, one headache has been alleviated.

Several relatively small changes have been made to the contract.

CSS studios

As part of Ascent Media Group's (AMG) previously disclosed spin-off from Discovery Holding Company, the companies formerly comprising AMG's Creative Sound Services group have announced the creation of CSS STUDIOS, LLC.

CSS Studios, a wholly owned subsidiary of Discovery Communications, the world's number one nonfiction media company, will include Soundelux Design Music Group as well as Todd- AO, Soundelux, Sound One, POP Sound, Modern Music, and The Hollywood Edge. All the facilities will continue to carry on with their individual brand identities. The new company will be headed by Robert C. Rosenthal, who formerly served as Chief Operating Officer of AMG's audio division.

CSS Studios provides creative services to major motion picture studios, independent producers, broadcast networks, cable channels, advertising agencies and interactive producers. With more than 50 years of experience in providing creative sound services and technical solutions, the companies, collectively, have garnered more than 50 Academy Award nominations and won 26 Academy Awards�.

Tokyo Game Show Grand Prize Winners!

As we wrap up the Tokyo Game Show, which was held in ... Tokyo this year, a few DMG projects have been honored in the award announcements. To start, Monster Hunter 3 (DMG sound supervisor: Bryan Celano) and Resident Evil 5 (DMG sound supervisor: Alan Rankin) were two of the twelve games awarded "Best In Show", traditionally given to the most exciting unreleased titles on the floor. If these games continue to get recognition, it could be a very good year for Capcom :) Devil May Cry 4 and Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G were both in the "Award for Excellence" category (DMG sound supervisor for both: Bryan Celano), with Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G winning "Game of The Year", the centerpiece award at TGS.

The Passing of Don LaFontaine

In a world where all know his voice but few knew his face, stood Don LaFontaine. His life was an adventure, beginning as a sound engineer and living as "The Voice Of God". One man, with his voice in over 5,000 film trailers, Don was still working seven or more voiceover sessions a day at the end of his career. He passed away September 1st 2008 at the age of 68, and the DMG family sends our deepest condolences to his. LaFontaine is survived by his wife Nita Whitaker, and three daughters.

G4 Awards Best VO Acting to MGS4

Metal Gear Solid 4 has beaten Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Portal to win the GPHORIA 2008 award for best voice acting. These awards are derived purely from the votes of viewers - that's right, everyone loves David Hayter & co! Congrats to Kris Zimmerman and the cast, the engineering crew, and especially Kojima for dreaming up such an amazing game.

"Metal Gear Solid 4: The Guns Of The Patriots wraps up Hideo Kojima's epic saga of Solid Snake, with hours of cinematics carried by some of the best voice actors in the business."

Wwise Press Release

Our affiliate partner, Audiokinetic recently announced the release of a new version of its award-winning audio pipeline solution, Wwise, and the official launch of its highly-expected motion solution for games, Wwise Motion. Here is an excerpt:

"In order to illustrate the functionalities of Wwise and Wwise Motion, Audiokinetic collaborated with partner Emergent Game Technologies. Audiokinetic was responsible for the entire audio aspect in Emergent's new demo, The Forbidden Terror on Station Z (Zorsis), which was also presented at GDC 2008. Audiokinetic worked with long time partners Michael McCann and Soundelux Design Music Group: McCann created an amazing music score for the demo, and Soundelux Design Music Group provided all the sound effects to include weapons, creature voices, ambiances and the UI. "Working with McCann and Soundelux was extremely satisfying," commented Simon Ashby. "These guys are so pro; most of the content they deliver is right on target and almost never need retakes." The assets were then integrated and managed in Wwise to create the final audio in Zorsis. Audiokinetic then used Wwise Motion to generate the motion effects in the demo."

VOWOL article on Blog.Voices.Com

The Voice Over Work-Out Lounge (VOWOL) offers an affordable place for VO actors to take home pro-recordings by working out their acting chops in a playful and positive gym  at a top quality recording studio, while connecting to like-minded VO people, and learning from very special guest hosts.

VOWOL meets evenings at Soundelux DMG with the full support of our engineers and equipment.

Soundelux attends S.F. Game Developers Conference

For those with a role in the booming video game industry, the place to be was the San Francisco Game Developers Conference, held February 18-22.

Pictured here (right to left) are SAG New Media Committee members David Sobolov and Vyan Pham, both of whom frequently voice characters on high profile games, as well as SAG Business Representative Pierre Debs, who specializes in interactive contracts for the Guild and Soundelux Design Music Group's VO Manager, William "Chip" Beaman.

The SAG team met many new game developers interested in using professional talent, but they also strengthened ties with current guild signatories such as Soundelux DMG.

Chip Beaman and Kris Zimmerman featured in Bionic Commando podcast

Bionic Commandos Top Secret Podcast goes on location at the voice recording session of Bionic Commando in Hollywood, California, as CAPCOM's Gearoid Reidy talks to Soundelux VO Manager William "Chip" Beaman, and the Voice Director of Bionic Commando, Kris Zimmerman. Find out what it takes to make a game sound great, and explore the mixed past of CAPCOM voiceovers.

Former Gametracks/Danetracks Director Joins DMG

We're extremely pleased to announce that Becky Allen, the former Director of Interactive Audio at Gametracks/Danetracks, has joined forces with Soundelux DMG. Becky brings a wealth of talent and expertise adding depth and breadth to the Soundelux DMG team.

Some of you may not know this, but Becky was the Ops Manager here several years ago. She now rejoins us as Manager of New Business Development. She received her MFA at CalArts in Music composition and then proceeded to Microsoft in 1994. While at Microsoft, she became an Audio Lead in the consumer products division. Becky joined Soundelux DMG in 1998 and later became Operations Manager. In 2005, she left the game biz to pursue her music career. In 2006, she joined Dane Davis of Danetracks.

We are very fortunate to have Becky back with us. She is truly a terrific addition to our talented team. If you're going to the GDC, you'll probably see her smiling face!

DMG PROJECTS WIN DICE AWARDS

The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences announced the winners of the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards at the 2008 DICE Summit in Las Vegas on February 7th. Soundelux would like to congratulate our clients Ubisoft and Crytek for their individual successes. We are honored to have helped lay the sonic landscape for each of these outstanding projects.

Outstanding Achievement in Animation:
Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft)

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering:
Crysis (Crytek)

DMG receives MPSE Nominations

Each year the Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) presents the MPSE GOLDEN REEL AWARDS, in which they acknowledge the year's best work in the various areas of sound editing: Dialogue & ADR, Effects & Foley, and Music. The 55th GOLDEN REEL AWARDS will be held February 23, 2008 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel

We are honored to have been nominated in the following category;

Best Sound Editing– Made for Computer Entertainment

DMG has now garnered three of the five nominations in this category.

TRANSFORMERS THE GAME
UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3
CRYSIS

Click Here

DMG Nominated for Several Gang Awards

Soundelux DMG is once again proud to be nominated in several categories for the 6th Annual Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) Awards, taking place on Thursday, February 21st during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco . The G.A.N.G Awards identify the highest quality and achievement of those individuals, projects and products offering a significant and positive impact on the art and craft of producing interactive audio, its community and the interactive industry as a whole.

We are honored to be nominated in the following categories:

Best Arrangement of Non-Original Score
Pirates of the Carribean Online (Disney Online)
Music by Jamie Christopherson, Chris Tin, Deddy Tzur

Best Article, Publication or Broadcast
" The Golden Compass Composer Diary" (GameSpy)
Authored by Jamie Christopherson

Best Original Instrumental
" Main Menu"/ Golden Compass (Foundation 9 Entertainment)
Music by Jamie Christopherson, Cody Westheimer

Best Original Vocal – Choral
" Joan of Arc" / Bladestorm (Koei)
Music by Jamie Christopherson

Best Dialog
God of War II (SCEA)
Dialog Recording and Editorial by Soundelux DMG VO & Talent Services

Sound Design of the Year
Crysis (Crytek)
Design by Scott Gershin & Peter Zinda

Music of the Year
Golden Compass (Foundation 9 Entertainment)
Music by Jamie Christopherson, Cody Westheimer, Deddy Tzur

Audio of the Year
God of War II (SCEA)
Dialog Recording and Editorial by Soundelux DMG VO & Talent Services

Spike TV VGA 2007

Spike TV unveiled its list of nominees for its 2007 Video Game Awards ceremony. The winners were announced on December 9th. Soundelux DMG takes special pride in having had the privilege to have been a partner in the creation of such spectacular games and we honor our clients whom were nominated in several categories:

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed
Best Action Game

SCEA's God of War II
Best Action Game, Best Original Score

Crytek's Crysis
Best PC Game, Best Graphics (WINNER), Breakthrough Technology

SCEA's Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow
Best Handheld Game

Midway's Stranglehold
Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show

Japan Game Awards 2007

We take great pride in celebrating the achievements of two of our clients, CAPCOM and Konami/Kojima Productions.  These award winners received their accolades at the Japan Game Awards at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show in Japan.  We are honored that we have been able to collaborate on such outstanding games with these magnificent clients.  Our congratulations!

Grand Award:
- Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)

Award for Excellence:
- Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops Plus (PSP)
- Monster Hunter Portable 2nd (PSP)
- Lost Planet Extreme Condition (Xbox 360)

Global Award Japanese Product:
- Dead Rising (Xbox 360)

For more information click here

BAFTA Video Game Awards

Representatives from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) have announced the organization’s nominations and winners for the 2007 British Academy Video Games Awards. The winners were announced at the gala awards ceremony, in London on October 23rd during this year's London Games Festival. We would like to congratulate and offer our best wishes to our client Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) on their 2007 BAFTA Game Awards nominations in the following categories: (winners are in bold below)

Action and Adventure
God of War II (PS2)

Original Score
God of War II (PS2)
Lair (PS3)

Story and Character
God of War II (PS2)

Technical Achievement
God of War II (PS2)

Use of Audio
God of War II (PS2)

For more information

Team DMG burns rubber

After a grueling first quarter, the DMG team kicks back and kicks some ass at Malibu Speedzone.  Click here to see some photos of the fun.  Game companies take note:  we challenge you to a duel! 

Making Music for John Woo’s "Stranglehold"

Soundelux DMG composer Jamie Christopherson discusses his contribution to this adrenaline-pumping project in an interview with the Stranglehold music team.

The Music Team Interview

Peter Zinda discusses Lost Planet

A Senior Producer and Director from Capcom travelled from Osaka to thank Soundelux DMG for a job well done on the game Lost Planet which has set new standards for audio in games.

Read Peter Zinda's Interview

The Voices of MGS 4

The voice of Raiden, Quinton Flynn and DMG VO Director Kris Zimmerman Salter join Ryan to discuss performing the lead role of MGS2 and Quinton’s new approach to his character in MGS4.  Plus Kris clears up some rumors circulating about some of the MGS 4 actors click here.

Metal Gear Solid 4 Podcast

Click here to listen to VO Manager Chip Beaman and Kojima Productions' Ryan Payton talk about the latest Metal Gear Solid trailer, which debuted at Sony's E3 2007 press conference. Click here for a follow up conversation as they discuss Metal Gear's upcoming 20th Anniversary Party in Tokyo.

The Voices of MGS 4 Continued...

Click here to listen to voice actor Christopher Randolph who joins Kojima Productions Producer Ryan Payton to talk about his experience recording Otacon's voice in Metal Gear Solid 4. 

IESD in Mix Magazine

Click here to read the Mix Magazine article about the launch of the Interactive Entertainment Sound Developers.

Tricks of the Trade

DMG founder and creative director Scott Gershin reveals his approach to sound design in this Electronic Musician article.

DMG Welcomes Composer Christopher Tin

Christopher Tin is an award winning composer whose career spans all major markets: film, television, video games, advertising, and the record industry. Click here for more info.