Talk:Dan Forden
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. | ||
| ??? | This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article. [FAQ] | ||
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Video games. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. | |
| Stub | This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the assessment scale. | |
|
CVG To-do:
|
||
 |
|
[edit] More Details
This article seems light on details. One source of info I have that might be useful is the liner notes for the Mortal Kombat II soundtrack (you had to order it direct from Midway, the info was given during MK2's attract mode between demos). The liner notes don't appear to be copyrighted (or at least no copyright is asserted in the notes). I'll reproduce three of the four sections below (the one I won't be reproducing is the "About the DCS™ Sound System" section).
About the music from Mortal Kombat® II...
The music for Mortal Kombat® II was produced using a combination of MIDI synthesizers and live instruments. The final mixes of the music were recorded to digital audio tape (DAT). The music was then transferred from DAT to a computer hard disk. Custom software was used to arrange the digital audio files on hard disk into a format that could be loaded into ROM and played back by the DSP.
The Mortal Kombat® II music on this CD is the actual music found in the arcade game. The original MIDI sequences and multitrack recordings were remixed and edited only to the extent needed to take advantage of the CD format.
Tracks 9 and 10 were written and arranged just for this CD and do not appear in the game or on any other CD.
----
Covert art & design and CD production coordination by Matt Booty
About the music from the original Mortal Kombat®...
The original Mortal Kombat® used Midway's Yamaha/Okidata video sound system. This is the same sound system used in Midway games NBA® JAM™ and Terminator™ 2.
There were three sound generating components in this system: a Yamaha FM synthesizer chip; an 8-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC); and an Okidata ADPCM 4-bit digitizing chip. The FM synthesizer primarily played the music. The drums and some sound effects played through the DAC. All of the speech and most of the sound effects were output from the ADPCM chip.
These sound generating components were controlled by a 6809 microprocessor. Dan Forden wrote the music by programming "note lists" in 6809 assembly language. Note lists also controlled the speech and sound effects.
The music on this CD from the original Mortal Kombat® was recorded by taking the audio output of a standard Yamaha/Okidata sound system into a DAT recorder.
And this is probably the most relevant to this specific article:
About Dan Forden...
Dan is a raucous elf who lives in the base of a tree in the screaming forest. He has a degree in music from Oberlin College with a minor in computer science. He also studied at M.I.T. and at Northwestern University.
He works out of his home studio, which includes a Macintosh computer for MIDI sequencing and digital audio editing, an assortment of MIDI keyboards, synthesizers and drum machines, an 8-track tape recorder, and various effects processors.
Dan plays bass, guitar, keyboards and flute. In his spare time, he plays bass and contrarian for the Chicago underground band CHEER-ACCIDENT.
Some of the more than 15 Williams/Bally/Midway games for which Dan has produced the sound packages include Star Trek: The Next Generation, High Speed 2: The Getaway, Party Zone, The Machine, Super High Impact and Arch Rivals.
The back of the CD case states that "all music composed, performed, recorded and mixed by Dan Forden". The CD itself is cira 1992/1993. -Locke Cole 13:38, 26 October 2005 (UTC)
