Hi everyone,

it’s been a long, long time since the last update here. Sometimes I post updates in our Facebook page, but it’s just minor things and I feel that after more than a year of silence it’s time to look at where we are, what’s happened so far and where we are heading.

Good news first: I’ll probably start rolling out soundtracks again by the end of this month/start of the next. I’ve finally found a sweet balance between work/friends/projects, so expect new stuff coming!

Meanwhile, what’s happened in the world of videogame music?
Exciting stuff, I’m telling you.
A couple new companies have surfaced recording Mega Drive and other consoles following our strict and precise recording mantras and putting them out on vinyl.
You’ve read it right. Not only are they doing the recording process the right way, but they are releasing those soundtracks in one of the most iconic format in music (second only, maybe, to old cassettes).

First off, Data Discs.
Those guys kicked off with an awesome Streets of Rage release and followed up with many more products, all prepared with the utmost attention to details not only to the recording, but packaging as well.
In the beginning there were so many striking similarities with our project’s recording chain that I was thinking they were stealing our stuff, but after some mail exchange with them, I could definitely tell they were doing their own thing and, most importantly, they were doing it the right way.
Those are great guys and I can’t do much but strongly recommend them if you want to treat yourself with a nice collectible with awesome sound quality.

Next up, Brave Wave Productions.
My first contact with them and their Street Fighter II Soundtrack wasn’t all that exciting, as they used an unfair comparison between their remaster and the original tracks to prove the superiority of their product (for those wondering, they left the original track at its original volume level, which was very low, and put it side by side with their new track which was louder to get the “WOW” effect, a common practice today when showing off remasters). So I just went on to comment on this practice and, to my disbelief, I got a well thought out reply shortly after explaining that the comparison wasn’t with the PCB Board, but rather with a previously released soundtrack.
Even though the comparison was still kind of scummy-ish, I could definitely tell that they’ve done a great job on the recording and remastering process, bringing forth many small details which were lost in the original soundtrack.
All in all, a commendable job and, in the end, definitely worth my recommendation.

But why am I talking about this?
Am I just giving free advertising to Data Discs and Brave Wave?
Of course not.

This project was born because I was completely unsatisfied with the recordings you would normally find on Youtube as well as some OSTs which sounded terrible, but it looked looked like people were fine with that.

I wanted to show that those tracks could sound much, much better and teach people not to settle for emulated or badly recorded music but to look after and pretend better quality.
It looks like that in the long run we made an impact in the retrogaming scene and I like to think that thanks to our efforts, now we’re finally seeing proper soundtracks recorded with precise criteria, doing justice to those old videogame music gems.

Not only this, but now we have a true, high quality solution for properly listening Mega Drive VGM files thanks to Mathieu Demange who managed to do the impossible: perfect emulation of not only the YM2612 chip, but all the filters and output stage of the SEGA console.
RYMCast is one of the finest contributions we’ve ever had in the retrogaming music scene: you must try it, you’ll have a hard time trying to tell apart our recordings from RYMCast.

Well, this is shaping up to be quite a big wall of text, so I think I’ll just call it a day and stop it here.

Thanks to everyone involved not only in our project, but those who have given contributions in preserving the music of those past times and keeping the scene alive.

Stay tuned for future releases!