Disney Princess Magical Tiara Adventures Game

November 5th, 2016 | By Lance Hayes

Disney Princess Magical Tiara Adventures Game

Just in time for Christmas, all of your magical princess dreams really can come true! I’m excited to announce my role as composer and sound designer on this inventive and really fun game released by Disney and available in Toys R Us and Target across the US this holiday season.

Of course we have one here and have found that it’s a really fun toy that appeals to both boys and girls. You put the Tiara onto your head and it detects your motion to propel the dancing, adventure and action games. You get to play as many of the famous princesses from the Disney cannon including modern favorites like Tiana, Merida, Rapunzel, Jasmine and Ariel. There are dance party games and it’s beautifully simple to use.

Working closely with Audio Director Korby Sears and the brilliant team at Forrest-Pruzan Creative was an absolute pleasure. A special shout out to the always amazing Deirdre Cross for thinking of me and putting us together.

I can say that the soundtrack was a joy to write and produce while the sound design was a challenge to create that in the end was wonderfully implemented by Korby making the game really come to life with the stellar voice over work. I hope that little princes and princesses enjoy being part of the adventure, I had a great time working on this one!

Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound!

August 2nd, 2016 | By Lance Hayes

I‘m very proud to be featured in the new book Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound! A labor of love for Karen Collins and Chris Greening that has spanned half a decade of work and dozens of interviews with the top game audio talent of this and previous generations. Here’s more info from the Beep site:

The Beep Book is transcripts of interviews with over 100 game audio professionals from a range of areas of game sound’s history. The majority of the interviews were conducted as part of the Beep documentary film project by director and author Karen Collins. These are supplemented by interviews done for Video Game Music Online by Chris Greening. The book is ~410,000 words in length–a huge volume of material spanning decades of video game and pinball audio history. Interviews include artists such as Marty O’Donnell (Halo), George “The Fat Man” Sanger (7th Guest), Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), and many, many more. The interviews aim to explore the changing nature of game audio over time. Interviews are with people from all over the world, including Japan, USA, Canada & Europe, and took place from October 2014 to July 2016. They cover a range of expertise and experience levels, and include composers, sound designers, voice actors and directors, record labels, conductor, orchestrators, chip musicians, hardware and software creators, and more. 

If you’d like to check out my input, head over to Volume 1 page 215. Truthfully the whole thing is a marvel of deep dives and forward thinking that spans the entire history of games. A worthwhile read for the game audio enthusiast as well as students and anyone interested in hearing from a unique perspective on the development of the video games that have shaped our lives.

Beep is currently available on Amazon.

HI SCOR3 – A Video Game Orchestra – Upcoming Performance

August 24th, 2015 | By Lance Hayes

The concert that HI SCOR3 concert put on this last March was a highlight of the gaming and music social calendar. For the lucky crowd that found their way to the exclusive Seattle location that night, it was an evening of fun, endless memories of wonderful games and great music.

And they plan to do it all again on September 19th. HI SCOR3 is bringing back their unconventional style of live video game music performance to Belltown which you can find out more at this link. Suffice it to say, it will be a fun evening of fantastic music, games and more than a few surprises.

Hope to see you there!

Interview – IGN Denmark

May 5th, 2015 | By Lance Hayes

IGN Denmark Profile of Lance Hayes

The interview I did with IGN Denmark just went live, and hey, I made the front page! Interviewer Kristian West was interested in learning about my work in the studio and we talked about my background in the industry. (Some of which ties in nicely with my “A Career In Audio” talk I’m slated to give this weekend at DigiPen) We discussed the tools I use, and since he has a particular interest in Reason, we talk specifics about some of my favorite setups and how I use the Propellerhead flagship software.

I had a great time talking shop and was delighted that he selected some of my lesser known works from my indie soundtracks to showcase among the crowd favorites from the Forza series in this interview.

The entire piece is in Danish so, if you’re like me, you will probably need a translator. If so, Google Translate does a reasonable job. Cheers!

Speaking Engagement: The Annual DigiPen Audio Symposium

April 9th, 2015 | By Lance Hayes

Update: I’ve re-posted the original Keyboard Magazine article retitled “A Career In Audio” LinkedIn.

I’m looking forward to joining the stellar line up of speakers for DigiPen’s annual Audio Symposium held on Saturday May 9th on the DigiPen Redmond campus.

From the site, here’s more about the event:

DigiPen is pleased to host the third annual Audio Symposium, which is being jointly sponsored by the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.). Talks will cover a mix of topics related to sound engineering research, interactive music, and game audio.

This event is free and open to the public. Please register online if you plan to attend.

Come join Marty O’Donnell, Prof. Edgar Choueiri, Greg Dixon, Christopher Mael and myself as we talk about the business, technologies, techniques and the future of audio.

Here’s more about my talk:

Lance Hayes: A Career in Audio
“Taking his cue from a popular blog he wrote for Keyboard Magazine in 2011 featuring career advice from various composers, Lance digs in and shares what it takes to work professionally in sound. Looking back over his two decades in audio, Lance shares insights and lessons learned from his experiences working as a composer, studio owner, studio manager, game audio blogger, sound designer, educator and more.”

Complete Video of AES Lecture Available Online

January 12th, 2015 | By Lance Hayes

Lance Hayes Speaking at Microsoft Research

Update: The PNW AES Section report featuring notes about my Forza 5 presentation is live on the national AES site.

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My session from last weeks PNW AES section January meeting at Microsoft Research was a lot of fun with great questions from the audience. The meeting was well attended by AES members, game audio pros and students. Thanks to everyone that came out!

The video of the talk billed as, “a detailed look at how the soundtrack to the one of the first next gen video game soundtracks for the Xbox One was conceived and executed” is now online here. And, thanks to Microsoft Research, it’s free to view.

This session was lively as well as a little bittersweet as its likely my last public Forza 5 talk. I discuss my work as the lead composer on on the launch title for the Xbox One as well as the cross country recording process so there are audio and video examples and a live demo of the game. I cover composing, adaptive audio, how the soundtrack was prototyped and wrap up by taking questions from the audience.

So if you have an interest in my work on the Forza franchise, next gen game scores and or game audio this talk is for you. Enjoy!

(Special thanks to Gary Louie, Rick Chinn and Ivan Tashev from PNW AES for hosting and coordinating this special event)

Microsoft Research recently reorganized their lecture library, moving all of the talks to YouTube. Here is the new link to the video:

Lance talking about FM5 at the PNW AES meeting

Speaking at GameSoundCon 2014

July 7th, 2014 | By Lance Hayes

I’m excited to be part of this year’s GameSoundCon in downtown LA, Oct 7-8 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. I’ll be discussing composing for AAA games, my work on the Forza series as well as participating in roundtable events. I’m looking forward to catching up with fellow lecturers and game audio maestros of music, sound and VO including the legendary Marty O’Donnell, Guy Whitmore, Paul Lipson, Austin Wintory, Penka Kouneva, Brian Schmidt and Austin Wintory, to name but a few. Anyone identifying as a sound designer or composer should attend GameSoundCon and, as luck would have it, early bird registration is still available. See you in LA!