 |
WILD WOODY
(SEGA CD-ROM VIDEO GAME - Summer 1996)
After hearing the Adventures Of Bumblefoot CD, I was hired to score all the music for the Sega CD-ROM video game "Wild Woody". I had a 1-month deadline to write and record a title song, 16 game level songs, as well as score the 6 animated story-line and transitional sequences, and 5 different "game over" sequences. The game music needed to complement the changing scenarios within the game. There were five "worlds" - Pirate world, Mythology world, Mechanical world, Sci-Fi world, and the final Cemetery world - and each world had 3 levels. My strategy was to start off silly and light-hearted in Pirate World and evolve in intensity to climactic finales in Cemetery World. Within each world, I would also intensify from 1st to 3rd level in the same way while remaining within the musical style that applied to the world.
I laid reference drum tracks with a sequencer and recorded all the bass, guitar, vocals, and keys on a digital 16-track tape recorder. I would send a tape of rough mixes out to Sega for approval, and to drummer Brad Kaiser who would be laying live drum tracks to the music. So I locked myself in my apartment for the month of February 96 and every morning I would write a song, record it in the afternoon, and do a rough mix at night. When all the music was done, I flew out to the Sega recording studio in San Francisco and we spent one day mixing the music for the non-gameplay parts of the game, which would be compressed to 8-bit mono. The next two days were for laying the live drums on an additional 8-digital tracks. The final two days were for mixing the 16-bit stereo songs (the title song and the 16 levels of game play). Tough game - I suck at it - I still can't get past level 2.
Ron Thal