Video Game Music Culture - Remixing

Remixing

Though the term is very broad, "remixing" is commonly used to identify the resequencing, live performance, or general adaptation of an original piece from a video game to produce a new work. Presentations vary from straightforward orchestration of old computer-sequenced tunes to heavy-handed departures into rock, jazz, metal, or any other of a number of styles.

A fan culture developed in the 1990s around the practice of transcribing video game music in MIDI files. This allowed fans lacking immediate ability in musical performance, but possessing some computer skill, to take early synthesizer-based game music and re-imagine it with the variety of sampled instruments afforded by the General MIDI standard. More than a few archives of such works can still be found today and have even extended into other MIDI standards.

Fan performances have also gained wide visibility, ranging from concerts to recorded remixes. A rock group called Minibosses was one of the earliest to gain traction on the Internet, hosting mp3s of performances as well as selling CDs.

Many fans are also members of remix communities, where recreational musicians, DJs, and other music talent produce re-arranged or remixed versions of tunes and then share them for download. The scale of the productions varies from artist to artist, ranging from solo pieces to massive multi-controller device soundbanks. Some of these artists have even gone on to received license from the game publisher to publish their own work. Others may simply provide a CD of their work to those who ask.