Gamasutra - Game Audio Gallery: Tommy Tallarico

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Game Audio Gallery

	Tommy Tallarico President, Tommy Tallarico Studios, Inc., and Host/Co-Producer, The Electric Playground television show Home: San Juan Capistrano, CA Email: tallarico@aol.com Web: www.tallarico.com
Current Project:
Unreal 2, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, Casper, Street Hoops, Evil Dead 2, Bounty Hunter, RMX Motocross, The Electric Playground: Season 7
Credits:
PSX: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Spider-Man, Tomorrow Never Dies, Evil Dead, Time Crisis: Project Titan, March Madness 2000, March Madness 2001, Blitz 2001, Pac-Man World, NHL Face-Off '98, Treasures of the Deep, Skeleton Warriors, Test Drive 4, Test Drive 5, Test Drive 6, Test Drive: Off-Road 2, Demolition Racer, MDK, MTV Skateboarding, MTV BMX Racing, WWF Wrestling, Bass Masters Fishing, Army Men: Air Attack, Stunt Copter, Wargames, Wild 9's, Point Blank 2, Apocalypse, Tales of Destiny, Deuce, Black Dawn, Burning Road, Earthworm Jim 2, Spot Goes To Hollywood, Hardball 99, Major Damage, Felix the Cat, Agile Warrior, VMX Racing, Powerslave, Golden Nugget, 1st Sony PlayStation Demo Disk Playstation 2: Knockout Kings 2001, Maximo, Street Hoops, Casper Xbox: Munch's Oddysee, Street Hoops N64: Blitz 2001, Knockout Kings 2000, WWF Wrestling, Bass Masters Fishing, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Spider-Man PC: Unreal 2, Unreal Mission Pack, Wheel of Time, Spider-Man, Evil Dead, Messiah, Sacrifice, Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, MDK, Wargames, Test Drive 4, Test Drive 5, Test Drive 6, Test Drive: Off-Road 2, Jeff Gordon Racing, Beavis & Butthead Do U., Beavis & Butthead Mini Golf, Redline, MTV Skateboarding, Luftaffe Commander, Akolyte, Adrenix, Ultra Fighters, Jetz, Hardball 6, Hyper 3-D Pinball, Duckman: Legend of the Fall, Powerslave, Agile Warrior, Golden Nugget, Monopoly Deluxe, Shuttle Dreamcast: Spider-Man, Evil Dead, Blitz 2001, MTV Skateboarding, Test Drive 6, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, ESPN Basketball Saturn: Earthworm Jim 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Skeleton Warriors, Rampage, Hyper 3-D Pinball, Spot Goes To Hollywood, Black Dawn, Major Damage, VMX Racing, Powerslave, Golden Nugget Genesis: Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Aladdin, Cool Spot, Global Gladiators, Robocop vs. The Terminator, Madden '96, Spot Goes To Hollywood, Muhammad Ali Boxing, Jungle Book, Ceasars Palace, Clayfighter, Out Of This World, Demolition Man, Batman: Revenge of the Joker SNES: Earthworm Jim, Earthworm Jim 2, Madden '96, WildC.A.T.S., Cool Spot, Jungle Book, Super Ceasars Palace, Super Slap Shot, Chuck Rock Sega CD: The Terminator, Earthworm Jim, Demolition Man 3DO: Demolition Man Game Boy: MTV Skateboarding, Berenstain Bears Extreme Sports, Arthur, Arthur 2, Prince of Persia, Wings of Fury, Jeep Jamboree, Earthworm Jim Game Gear: Global Gladiators, Earthworm Jim Sega 32X: Spot Goes To Hollywood MAC: MDK, Club Raquetball NES: Color a Dinosaur, Jungle Book Discography: Tommy Tallarico - Greatest Hits Vol 1. (1994) Capitol Records, Tommy Tallarico - Greatest Hits Vol 2. (1995) TT Records, MDK Soundtrack (1997) SynSonic Records, Tomorrow Never Dies Soundtrack (1999) Chapter III Records, Evil Dead Soundtrack (2001) Mars Colony Records
Bio:
Tommy Tallarico is the most successful and accomplished video game composer in history. He has helped revolutionized the video game industry and has shown time and again his ability to create unique soundtracks that truly enhance the overall gaming experience. His music has been heard by hundreds of millions of people all over the world on mediums such as video games, television, motion pictures, radio, soundtracks and even on floats in the New Years Day Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena. Some of Tallarico's top titles include: Earthworm Jim 1 & 2, Disney's Aladdin, Cool Spot, The Terminator, Madden Football, Prince of Persia the Test Drive series, MDK, Tomorrow Never Dies, Tony Hawk Skateboarding, Spider-Man, Pac-Man World, Knockout Kings and the Blitz, Unreal and Time Crisis series. Upcoming titles include the highly anticipated Unreal 2, Maximo and Casper. Tommy has been writing music for video games for over 10 years. Founded in 1994, Tommy Tallarico Studios, Inc. is the industry's largest multimedia post-production audio house on the planet having produced over 30 titles in 2000 alone. Tallarico and his team have won over 20 industry awards for best video game soundtrack and have worked on over 175 games totaling over 50 million units sold and grossing over 2 billion dollars in revenue! Tallarico was the first musician to release a video game soundtrack worldwide (Tommy Tallarico's Greatest Hits Vol. 1 - Capitol Records). He has released five soundtrack albums since, including the highly acclaimed James Bond Tomorrow Never Dies soundtrack available in record stores across the globe. Tommy was also the first to use 3-D audio in a game (Q-Sound) and is currently working on one of the very first interactive 5.1 (6-channel) games. Tommy has written, recorded and produced a wide range of talented musicians that include the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra and Budapest Chamber Choir to the band Fear Factory. While being the head of the music & video department of Virgin Interactive ('91-'94), Tommy was the executive producer of filming for over 20 green screen shoots including the first ever "big-time Hollywood star" shoot with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes (Demolition Man). Tommy has worked in the industry as a games tester, product manager, producer, writer, designer and heads of both music and video departments. Tommy is a consultant for DTS (5.1 audio), Intel and Apple, he has given lectures all over the world about audio & video games (including the 1999 Keynote Address at the Game Developers Conference & Milia 2000 in Caanes, France). He also teaches courses and has been the guest speaker at many schools, organizations & universities including UCLA. Tommy has been featured on numerous nationwide and worldwide television shows which include CNN and MTV. He has appeared on the covers of national and international magazines and newspapers including the L.A. Times and the Chicago Tribune. In his spare time Tommy is the host, writer and co-producer of the worldwide weekly video game television show, The Electric Playground (www.elecplay.com).
Inspiration:
Beethoven, John Williams, Enigma, Delerium, Sting, Eddie Van Halen, Hans Zimmer, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eagles, Pink Floyd and hundreds upon hundreds of movie soundtracks scores.
Advice for Game Audio Artists:
1. You must be passionate about video games! If you don't like playing games you should look for another profession. 2. Try to do something that no one has ever done or heard before. It's getting harder and harder to do so, but something that stands out will catch people's attention. I think one of the things you'll notice about the tunes I've included is that they don't sound like "video game music" at all. 3. Write a great tune! Sometimes people get caught up in "exactly" what the look or feel of the game is. If you just write a great tune... players will remember and like it!! 4. Network!! VP's, Producers, designers & programmers travel from company to company all the time. If you can impress them initially they'll keep coming back and your database will become huge within a short period of time.
Why I Got into the Industry:
I get to wake up each and every morning and do the two things I love most in this world... Music & video games!
Tools I Can't Live Without:
Software on the PC: Cakewalk, Sound Forge & Cute FTP Software on the Mac: Digital Performer Hardware: Grand Piano, Roland Samplers, Portable DAT Others: Hammer, Needle-Nose Pliers and a shovel.
Most frequently asked question:
What's with the gold jacket, funny clothes, bodyguards, models, midgets & entourage? IT'S A JOKE!! Lighten up people!! Sheesh! Remember we make VIDEO GAMES!! Just trying to have a little fun. Don't believe everything you read on Fatbabies.
Back to: Game Audio Resource Guide

Finale 2: This was the final tune for Evil Dead: Hail to the King. I used the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra and the Budapest chamber choir. We had 80 players total. I wrote the entire score in Latin. This tune is kinda like Carmina Burana meets The Omen meets Conan the Barbarian. This was some pretty heavy and evil type stuff. [MP3]

Metamorphosis: This was a song from The Terminator on Sega-CD. I can still remember one of the producers coming in my office and saying "Yeah, but it doesn't sound like a video game tune". Uh... no kidding, that's the idea. Believe it or not it was quite a battle to get people to want something different from bleeps & bloops in those days! [MP3]

McRock: This was officially the first song I ever wrote for the video game industry. It was for Global Gladiators for the Sega Genesis (Dave Perry's first game in the U.S.) This is the CD version that was recorded for my first album with Capitol Records. Hey! Leave me alone the 80's had just ended! [MP3]

Aquarian: This was for an underwater scene for Spot Goes To Hollywood. I always liked this one because it was so far removed from any video game music at the time. [MP3]

Battle: Yet another tune from Evil Dead: Hail to the King using the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra. You can definitely hear the Conan the Barbarian influences in this one. I love French Horns! [MP3]

Banjo Race: Here's something a bit different! This is from Earthworm Jim. I originally wrote this tune in six voices for the Genesis. This is the CD version. [MP3]

Falling: Another CD version of a tune from Earthworm Jim. For some reason people always e-mail me wanting a copy of this song? It's weird going on to Napster and seeing about 20 to 30 people with this tune. Oh wait... did I say I go on Napster... uh, never mind. [MP3]

Destinationz Unknown: Another tune from The Terminator Sega-CD. This was the first CD-Rom game I ever worked on. I'm pretty sure that it was the very first video game to have live guitars (although I could be wrong). I can't wait until the "guitar solo" comes back into music again! hehehehehehee. [MP3]

Subterranean: This is the CD version of a tune from Earthworm Jim 2. You can definitely hear the Enigma and Delerium influences here! When Beethoven was asked what the motif in his 5th Symphony represented he responded "That is fate knocking on your door." The vocal in this is one of my friends saying that phrase in German. [MP3]

Moonlight Sonata 3rd Movement: This is another CD version of an Earthworm Jim 2 song. This song is the result of 60 takes spliced together (it's over six minutes). I hate watching television at four in the morning and seeing some six-year-old girl rip through this entire song and not make one mistake! Very humbling. Makes me wanna bang my face into the piano! [MP3]