How to Create an Album in 72 Hours
A few weeks ago, I had the distinct pleasure of helping to organize a 72-hour charity album jam for VGM CON, and I'm proud to announce that the fruits of that labor have finally come to bear in the form of VGM CON Album Jam Vol. 1. The rules for the charity album were simple—create a video game cover that featured at least two artists in less than 72 hours. The six tracks that were completed for the album jam exceeded my expectations in every way, so I had to find out more by asking the arrangers (and one performer) on the album.
PURCHASE THE ALBUM TODAY!
How did you hear about the Charity Album Jam?
Raymusique: I think I found out about it on Twitter. The Toader and I did a project together a couple of years back, and I knew he was part of the VGM CON team. I believe I saw either his or VGM CON’s tweet about the album! The album was actually the thing that made me excited to join VGM CON as well!
The Arkadian: I heard about the album through the GameGrooves blog as well as the VGM CON schedule!
General Grunt: Ro Panuganti mentioned it to me in his Discord (on the last day to sign up, as a matter of fact), and it piqued my interest!
Mattmatatt: Katajun posted about it in the Dwelling of Duels Discord.
Tony Dickinson and John Stacy: Katajun (Austin, the current DoD runner) found it and passed the link around in the DoD Discord.
Ian Martyn: It was on the VGM Con website somewhere. I remember seeing it on Friday of the con and immediately trying to throw something together.
What made you want to participate?
Raymusique: Ooh, that’s an easy one—it’s definitely the possibility to get to work with live musicians from all over the world who are passionate about VGM! As I’m mostly an arranger and not much of a performer myself, I usually only work with my own set of digital instruments. I’ve always had a bit of a hard time approaching live musicians to join me for a project, so I’d really only experimented with recording bits and bops in the past before this project. Getting to work with live recordings on a bigger scale was something I’d always wanted to do!
The Arkadian: I love the idea of an album jam. I’ve always wanted to do something like that at a convention.
General Grunt: I’ve been trying to get better with my remixing, and I love collaboration, so when I heard about this, I jumped on it.
Mattmatatt: Seeing the possible interest of people I knew beforehand, then later seeing what people’s suggestions were in the kickoff meeting and wanting to be a part of them.
Tony: I love arranging within deadlines and parameters (hence my regular involvement in DoD), and a 72-hour arrangement marathon sounded like a particularly fun challenge. John Stacy and I had been talking about arranging some Big Band Swing Metal for a couple months when I heard about the charity event, so I thought this would be a fantastic event to get that ball rolling.
Additionally, the collaboration encouraged through the event motivated me to want to do the Big Band thing as opposed to a normal Tiberian Sons arrangement, for instance. It seemed like there was a lot more opportunity to bring in many people. I was actually surprised at how many people we were able to involve. We even added in a couple instruments that we weren’t planning on doing because we had access to them. All of our players stepped up and delivered!
Ian Martyn: I love creating tracks for VGM compilations, and I love a challenge like that. I had been talking to Brandon Harnish about collaborating on some a cappella VGM tracks for a while, and we decided to jump in on this.
How do you think your arrangement compares to the original?
Raymusique: I wanted to give the piece my own twist by bringing it into a more orchestral setting, while staying instantly recognisable. I knew the guitar arpeggio from the original had to stay, but I decided to change it to piano and celeste, adding some other instruments throughout. Besides that, I really tried to do my own thing by filling in the rest of the arrangement with my own ideas. I’m particularly happy with the different woodwind lines I managed to fit in! Fun woodwind lines and trills have become a bit of a signature for my work!
The Arkadian: I feel like the arrangement I went for does a great service to the original tune. It’s already an epic track, so I decided to make like Chef Emeril and kick it up a notch.
General Grunt: I’ve made it my goal in video game remixing to go a “Weird Al” route, where every remix is the complete backwards genre of what it was supposed to be. So whilst the original was a dark, brooding militaristic pirate march, I turned it on its head and made it sound like a certain theme park ride with the maddening soundtrack that gets stuck in your head…which in many ways is almost scarier.
Mattmatatt: I'm really happy with how my arrangement came out! I turned a 30-second song into a big, long, weird thing, while (I think) staying true and calling back to a good amount of the original.
Tony: I mean, c'mon, Masato Nakamura is a legend, and a lot of people are attached to these early Sonic tracks, myself included. “Mystic Cave” is a track I always thought would work really well with this Metal Big Band idea, so I pushed for it after we were thinking about doing a Kirby 64 song (we gave up on that because we weren't 100% sure it could be licensed). It was important that we remained faithful to the original and that the nostalgia is not lost with a new arrangement. At the same time you want to breathe new life into a song that is nearly 30 years old, made with sounds from an FM synthesizer chip.
It honestly turned out better than I expected, and it was crucial that we were able to get so many great players on board to properly execute the idea (EVERY instrument was played by a person). I think we did a good job at maintaining the original track’s vibe and groove while delivering a new fusion of genres that aren’t placed together very often.
John: Unlike a lot of people in the VGM community, I am not familiar with older Sonic music as a whole, so nostalgia is completely removed from the equation for me. As a result, I approached arranging the winds much like I would any other arrangement—bridge the gap between the source material and other music found “in the wild.”
Thankfully, I was given clear boundaries to work within so I could contribute to the arrangement in my own unique way, but also let the original spirit and nostalgia shine through.
Ian Martyn: It's pretty faithful to the original, but obviously, the instruments change. Brandon ended up doing the whole arrangement himself.
Was it difficult coordinating with the other artists on the track?
Raymusique: Being in the Netherlands, the most difficult thing for me was probably overcoming the time difference between me and all the musicians! Recordings or questions would often come in when I was asleep, and I’d send out new parts when the others were sleeping, but besides that, everything went super smooth!
When Sarah offered to do vocals for a project, and I decided to do “Still Alive,” I opened the project up for as many people as wanted to join, as long as they’d fit within the orchestral setting I had in mind. Writing out parts for the flutes, piano, and brass wasn’t too difficult because of my own orchestral experience. For the vocal parts and drums, I recorded demos to give a general idea of what I was looking for, and they did the rest!
The Arkadian: I didn’t find much difficulty in coordinating it. The biggest challenge was getting as many voices as possible for the shouts/cheers. Everything else was a little easier to handle.
General Grunt: Not difficult at all. It was amazing and fun to collaborate with other artists, and I want to do more of that in the future!
Mattmatatt: The actual coordination part was easy because I had everything written out and just sent people stuff over Discord messages. The only hard part was getting parts on time since my arrangement was decided a little late into it, and then mixing at the last minute O.O
Tony: Not at all. A lot of responsibility was on John and I to be very deliberate and clear about what should be done, so it makes it as easy as possible for the musicians with such a fast turnaround. Thankfully, John is a pro horn arranger and was able to notate charts that were easy to read for the horn players. I worked on keyboard and vibraphone charts, and particularly for rhythm section charts you can get away with chord symbols, rhythmic notation and slash markings to let the player fill in the blanks.
John: Definitely not. As was mentioned, I was given very clear boundaries and instructions, then allowed to roam free within those boundaries. I was also able to take experience in how to make the process as plug and play as possible as for performers.
Ian Martyn: No. The Discord channel made it very easy, and all of the other singers were very responsive, easy to work with, and professional about their parts. Other than some basic mixing, I didn’t have to spend much time cleaning up their tracks because they all turned in quality work. Even finding other singers through the VGM CON Discord was really easy, and I’m really glad that we were able to use everyone who wanted to sing.
Would you do another VGM CON Charity Album Jam?
Raymusique: Oh yes, without a doubt. This whole Charity Album Jam was so much fun, and it was such a great learning experience for me as well. I absolutely loved connecting with the VGM community in a completely new way, and if the opportunity strikes again, I’ll take it!
The Arkadian: I would absolutely love to contribute to a future album jam. It’s for a good cause, and it’s a great opportunity to come together as a community and deliver some amazing music. This entire album is filled with amazing submissions from peers I admire and respect.
General Grunt: Absolutely! This was one of the most fun things I’ve ever been a part of. If I can think of another crazy idea for a remix, I’d be totally down for another one.
Mattmatatt: YES.
John: Yes.
Tony: In a heartbeat!
Ian Martyn: Definitely, and I hope to do more in the future, and not just for VGM CON. I love the album jam concept.