Talk:Dan Forden

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is within the scope of the following WikiProjects:

WikiProject Illinois (Rated Stub-Class) This article is part of WikiProject Illinois, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Illinois on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion. Stub This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the quality scale. Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale. WikiProject Chicago      (Rated Start-Class) Chicago Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Chicago, which aims to improve all articles related to Chicago. Start This article has been rated as Start-class on the quality scale. Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale. WikiProject Biography     (Rated Start-Class) This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. Biography Portal Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] This article is supported by WikiProject Musicians, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed biographical guide to musicians and musical groups on Wikipedia. WikiProject Video games     (Rated Start-Class) 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. Portal Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale. Low This article is on a subject of Low priority within gaming for inclusion in Wikipedia 1.0. VG To-do: edit  Peer review: Video game, Crash of the Titans, Xbox Live Arcade, List of Final Fantasy compilation albums, Metal Gear Solid, Shigeru Miyamoto, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess‎, Myst III: Exile, Blade Runner, Zanac Cleanup: List of characters from The King of Fighters, Hellgate: London, LeChuck Featured article candidates: List of songs in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (FLC), Crackdown, Halo (series), List of Sega 32X games (FLC), Alleyway Good article nominations: Ayu Tsukimiya, Music of the Final Fantasy Tactics series, Super Smash Bros., Music of Final Fantasy XI, Day of Defeat: Source Article status review: GA Review – None; FA Review – The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, 3D Monster Maze; FT Review – Final Fantasy titles Articles for Deletion: Participate in video game related deletion discussions. Images: Add box-art and screenshots to articles. Make sure to include a valid non-free use rationale. Monitor the following related changes pages: changes to WP:VG and changes to this to-do list. Announce your new articles Sign up for the new VG Newsletter. WikiProject Pinball      (Rated Start-Class) This article is within the scope of WikiProject Pinball, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Pinball and Pinball-related topics. If you would like to participate, visit the project page. Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. ??? This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the importance scale.

[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)