We worked very closely with hyper-talented composer Greg Edmonson to create a truly remarkable aural experience for Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. Created to fit a wide variety of daring situations and subtle moods, Greg’s music is expertly crafted to evoke the high action, interactive cinematic feel that the UNCHARTED franchise is known for. The sounds and tones Greg uses help to fill the atmosphere at the proper moments of action, tension or drama and help drive the pace of the gameplay. Those stirring, and at times delicate or aggressive and hardened, acoustics can now be downloaded directly to your PS3.

The Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception original soundtrack is available now for $9.99 (US) on the PlayStation Store. You can buy and download it today or it will also be available physically in-store from the following retailers on 11.15.2011: Best Buy, Barnes and Noble and Fry’s Electronics. The soundtrack can also be ordered from LaLaLandrecords.com, Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com. It can also be downloaded via iTunes, and is the only video game soundtrack appearing in iTunes Top 10 Soundtrack Albums category. Additionally, an exclusive 2CD Limited Edition version, limited to 3,000 units and containing extensive liner notes by Daniel Schweiger, is available for purchase from LaLa Land Records and can be ordered from their website.

We’re bringing back some of your favorite gaming memories as well. The Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves soundtracks are both currently available for $5.99 (US) from the PS store. Which is great news, as this week’s release of all three soundtracks to the PS Store marks the first time ever that the UNCHARTED soundtracks have been available for purchase on the PSN. And next week, we’ll be releasing a special bundle that includes the Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves soundtracks for a value price of $9.99 (US). The Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune soundtrack is also available on iTunes and Sumthingdigital. If you’re more into physical goods you can purchase the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves soundtrack from Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com, and GameStop.com as well.

Greg Edmonson is a film and television composer best known for composing the soundtrack to the cult space western TV series Firefly, which was written and directed by Joss Whedon. Greg is the winner of the Best Original Music award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts for his work on the Uncharted 2: Among Thieves soundtrack.

We hope you’ve been enjoying your time with Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and can indulge in various UNCHARTED musical landscapes. It was our goal to create a truly unforgettable interactive cinematic experience that everyone can enjoy, and it takes awesome music such as the music that Greg has composed to help make that happen. Listen well and enjoy the game and its music today!

I’ve worked on Mortal Kombat for most of its life, starting with the early arcade versions, and moving on through the first two console versions – Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance and Mortal Kombat: Deception. I took a hiatus with Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, but am back with this latest and deadliest version and having a great time working in the audio department with a super-talented and experienced team.

As Audio Director, Rich Carle provided excellent leadership and guidance for the team in addition to writing music, creating sound effects and mixing movies. Senior Sound Designers Matt Grimm and Michael Caisley created a ton of sound effects for the characters and environments in the game as well as for the story mode movies and Senior Sound Designer Brian Chard wrote a lot of the story mode and recorded and edited pretty much every vocal sound in the game in addition to wrangling localization and arcade endings. Chase Ashbaker helped us out at the end with sound design and in-game audio scripting. I wrote a lot of music, created some sound effects for characters and environments and scripted most of the character audio in the game.

This time around, we’ve made an effort, spearheaded by Rich, to create a cinematic game audio experience. While we definitely wanted to keep and enhance the bone-crunching audio design of the past, we also wanted to create a dynamic experience, so that big events really stand out but we can also hear things like the rustling of the fighter’s clothes and details in the fighting arenas like branches creaking in the Living Forest, insects buzzing in the Courtyard, and people screaming in the distance in the Dead Pool. With nearly two hours of cinematic cut-scenes, we really wanted the player to have a cinema-quality audio experience throughout the story mode, yet still get the in-your-face game experience during the fights.

Regarding the music, our initial approach was to re-work the original music with better instruments and audio tools. This is apparent on backgrounds like Living Forest, Courtyard and the Subway. As we went along, it felt appropriate to allude to some of the melodies in the older tunes, but create a completely new arrangement, as in the Pit, the Temple and the Armory. In a few cases, Rich and I wrote completely new material as in the Street and the Desert, so there’s a broad spectrum of music from the familiar to the brand new in this game. We also went in an orchestral direction with some of the music which was a lot of fun. Matt Grimm mixed all the music in quad (four speakers), so fire up your surround sound system to hear how immersive the musical experience is.

A lot of people ask me about where “Toasty” came from. Before we worked on Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon developed the arcade football games High Impact and Super High Impact. We used to play these a lot and, as the offense and defense approached the line of scrimmage, I’d say something like “You’re toast!”, which turned into “I predict Toasty!”, delivered in high operatic falsetto. Another developer there, George Petro, suggested we put some of our silly taunts into our games as Easter Eggs. Ed decided to go ahead and try it in Mortal Kombat II, so we did, and the rest is history… or something…

I hope everyone enjoys the game as well as the audio experience. Remember, be sure to play it loud!

We enjoy the SOCOM 4 soundtrack so much, in fact, that we’ve decided to release it for purchase on both iTunes and the PlayStation Store starting today for just $9.99 — a great deal that your speakers should thank you for.

Here’s a note from Bear himself:

“SOCOM 4 has been a long musical journey. I first began writing music for this game in 2008, and now, almost three years later to the day, my soundtrack is simultaneously available for download from iTunes and the PlayStation Network, and in an exciting expanded edition two-disc set from La La Land Records coming in a few weeks.

I’m a gamer myself, and had played all the previous games in the SOCOM series. So, I was familiar with the traditional military orchestral sound that accompanied them. However, I quickly realized that Sony and Zipper Interactive were ready to take the SOCOM franchise in a more cinematic direction. The characters were drawn out, and the player would face difficult ethical decisions. The entire story takes place over six days in an unspecified Southeast Asian country, opening the door for me to explore exotic local instrumentation. There was a lot for me to be excited about. I look forward to SOCOM fans, gamers and soundtrack buffs alike having the opportunity to explore this music, thanks to the digital and CD releases of this soundtrack.”

Recorded at the legendary Skywalker Ranch in beautiful Northern California, the SOCOM 4 soundtrack merges the dissimilar instruments of eastern and western orchestras to create a unique, symphonic sound unlike any other action-shooter out there — press the play button below to hear the official SOCOM 4 theme and you’ll immediately understand what we’re talking about.

We hope you enjoy the soundtrack as much as we have enjoyed putting it together for you. Oh, and before we go – keep your eyes on the Official SOCOM blog in the coming weeks, when we’ll have more details on an upcoming limited edition disc-based release of the soundtrack as well!

I was so excited to be asked to perform music for the soundtrack. Combining music and technology has always been something I’m passionate about, and this was the perfect opportunity. It might seem incongruous at first – classical music and video games – but the more we delved into what we could do with the music, the more excited I got. Classical music reflects the same passion and intensity as racing, and hearing these musical pieces that have stood the test of time for centuries brings a whole new element to sensation of racing.

When I recorded the music for GT5 in the studio, I felt like I was racing on the track – it was really thrilling. I’m sure this music will bring more passion and excitement to the game when you play too.

About the soundtrack:

World-renowned pianist Lang Lang is known for his passion for new technologies and his constant endeavors to bring classical music to new audiences. Recently, Lang Lang recorded the classical music that appears throughout Gran Turismo 5. The official soundtrack features famous piano works by Chopin, J.S. Bach, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Joplin, Holst and Beethoven – all works being used in the various parts of the game. Prokofiev’s “Precipitato” appears prominently in its entirety in the first half of the opening sequence. Sony Classical will release the soundtrack digitally via all major service providers on December 14th and physically the week of December 20th.

Lang Lang says, “Gran Turismo is the most exciting racing game in the world and I have been a fan of it for many years. I feel honored to have this opportunity to connect with people who have never been in a concert hall before and show them that classical music is not just a part of history, but is actually very present and relevant today.”

1. Kratos PSN Avatar (More here)
2. Original Soundtrack
3. Legionnaire Skin
4. PSP Theme
5. God of War Live (Creative Directors Documentary)
6. PS3 Dynamic Theme

Joel Yarger, the Music Supervisor of God of War: Ghost of Sparta leads the charge this week with a behind-the-scenes look (and audio samples) for the Original Soundtrack.

I’m Joel Yarger, Music Supervisor on God of War: Ghost of Sparta, and I bring the sound of music to the PlayStation.Blog today. As you probably already know, God of War: Ghost of Sparta is the second God of War game from Ready At Dawn Studios and I think it outdoes their previous effort, Chains of Olympus, in pretty much every way! I’ve personally been involved with the music for the God of War franchise since God of War 2 and it’s always fun to see where we can go with it.

The original music for Ghost of Sparta was written by Gerard Marino and Mike Reagan, both of whom have worked on the previous God of War games. They really had the hard jobs of creating something new yet keeping it all within the God of War musical universe. That’s no small task as there are four other games worth of music written, so kudos to Gerard and Mike for nailing it! Dana Jan, the game director for Ghost of Sparta, really wanted the new music to contribute to the game’s identity: You know you’re playing a God of War game, but it still feels fresh. Some quick factoids: There were roughly 13 minutes of new music composed for Chains of Olympus (all Gerard writing) and then we re-worked music from the other titles. Ghost of Sparta features roughly 37 minutes of new music and uses significantly less cues from the previous games.

There were many new elements in this game to draw inspiration from, everything from the new story and main characters to the new environments and cities. We had plenty of concept art, good screenshots, some gameplay videos, and of course both the script and game director (Dana) to help us along the way. Here are four samples from the game that I think help showcase some of the inspired work both Mike and Gerard contributed.

Atlantis and The Caldera are both pieces written by Mike Reagan. Mike did some really interesting things given our tight budget on the project. Since we weren’t able to record most of the music with live musicians, Mike took it upon himself to record some of his own live elements. He bought a double bass, a cello, a didgeridoo, and even modified a hammer dulcimer to have a curved bridge so you can reach individual strings with a bow. The sounds he achieved were just awesome and worked very well for establishing that “fresh feeling”, but sounded much older, even ancient. The hammer dulcimer especially lends itself to Atlantis, an ancient, mysterious city that has hints of splendor and regality. In The Caldera you can hear the cello and bass as they carry both the melody and rhythm that are very much inspired by the ebb and flow of lava.

For Gerard’s contribution we should mention the story for a second (don’t worry, it’s all vague and spoiler free!). The story in Ghost of Sparta has some very strong emotional moments and we felt that the music needed to pay appropriate attention to them. Kratos goes through what amounts to an emotional roller coaster and that was yet another opportunity to introduce something musically new for this title. We leaned heavily on Gerard to turn on the emotion for the 2 pieces highlighted here. Both cues are based on the same theme but they each showcase very different emotions, and different character’s perspectives, which was essential for this score in order to have a good balance. One more factoid: If you listen even more closely you can hear that these themes are based on non-other-than the original Gof of War melody — one part of it, anyway. Because much of the actual story in the game is for you to discover when you play it, I won’t say any more than I already have.

Be sure to pre-order the game to get the full soundtrack directly through PSN starting November 2nd, 2010.

Once we decided to go for the old school, side scrolling, beat ‘em up style with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Video Game, we wanted to go all in! We brought in pixel artist extraordinaire Paul Robertson.

The next step was creating an amazing soundtrack. We immediately thought of Brooklyn chiptune rockers, Anamanaguchi. They wowed us (and 5,000 others) at PAX and really captured the sound we wanted for the game. Here, the guys share their favorite songs from the game.

Ary Warnaar

“Twin Dragons”

I really enjoyed how the Twin Dragons cue came into existence. It was very unexpected. A couple months ago we were playing a show here in Brooklyn with Ok, Go. I was hanging out backstage with one of my good friends Damon who also happens to be one of the most talented chip artists I know (he goes by Starscream with his drummer George). We were kinda bored and decided to start a collaboration italo-disco song on Game Boy. He started with an awesome bass line and beat, and I started writing some melody stuff. We didn’t get past the loop that night, but the next day I couldn’t get it out of my head, and kept working on it. I don’t remember at what point I realized it would work perfectly for the game… it sort of just transformed into that cue naturally. So yeah, it’s my favorite because it really started as a song for myself that ended up being for Scott Pilgrim. That natural transition is a great example of what made the project so fun. It never really felt like writing for a video game, it felt more like composing music for life stuff we’ve all experienced – stuff that Scott Pilgrim happened to have experienced as well…

Luke Silas
“Suburban Tram”

I’m especially proud of the track we wrote for the train level – Suburban Tram. When we were working on it, Pete had brought up giving it a sort of Hot Water Music-type sound, and it actually came very naturally after that. I really love positive, uplifting punk and post-hardcore music, and it was a lot of fun to try and translate it into our distinct style. Something about the final version of this track evokes real motion, as in makes you want to move, both from the heart and on the road.. at least that’s how i hear it!

James DeVito
“This is the End”

It was really interesting to hear ‘This is the End’ (yes, it’s for the perfect ending only!) go through many different phases as it was being written. At first it was just a straight ballad, but it needed something more… more epic and triumphant. Obviously it’s gotta be the best song ever if you have to be perfect to get there. That’s when Ary mentioned to Pete to think of it more as an epic Queen ballad, and it all came together after that. Pete absolutely nailed it. Not only will this song be extremely gratifying to the player as they perfect the game, but it also ended up being one of the last songs we wrote, and the last song we mixed, so us too were even treated to the ‘perfect’ ending of an incredibly amazing project.

Peter Berkman
“Scott Pilgrim Theme”

It’s really difficult for me to pick just one track to talk about, so I guess I’ll approach it in the big picture and discuss the theme. This was the first song we wrote for the game, I wanted the theme to be everything that epitomizes “Scott Pilgrim” to me. I wanted a melody that was both melancholy and triumphant, I wanted it to evoke a sort of nostalgic John Hughes world and the deluge of emotions and gut feelings that present themselves when you’re completely smitten, which Scott Pilgrim undoubtedly is. That’s what the second half of the song is about, the first half is about punching people, obviously.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World debuts exclusively on the PlayStation Network on August 10th.

Don’t forget to pre-order for a free Sex Bomb-Omb tee for your PlayStation Home Avatar!

“How do I enter?” you inquire, leaning forward in excitement. Easy! Just tell us what you’re most excited about regarding the upcoming P3P as a comment under this post. Maybe it’s the fact that you can take one of the highest rated RPGs of all time on the road now? Or the cast of memorable characters you just can’t get enough of? Or the dating sim elements? The fantastic music? The great art? The addicting gameplay? The original story?

10 lucky winners will be randomly (or as close to randomly as possible) chosen and sent a SIGNED soundtrack CD. Only North American residents are eligible to win, however. It’s not that we don’t love you rest-of-the-world’ers; we just want to focus this giveaway on the region in which the game is actually releasing.

Why are we doing this? Well, we’d love to use this opportunity to remind you that:

a) Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable, Atlus’s upcoming handheld RPG epic, is right around the corner, releasing in stores and via PlayStation Network on July 6th.

b) It features one of the best soundtracks ever, and in order to further emphasize that point, we want to give a few of those soundtracks away. SIGNED.

In case you all are a bit unfamiliar with the P3P soundtrack, perhaps we should share a sample with you:

For more music samples, visit the official Persona 3 Portable website!

“The music seems awesome,” you say, pensively prodding your chin with your finger, “but I’m not guaranteed to win it. I just wish there was some cool bonus with Persona 3 Portable that I was guaranteed to receive.”

Funny you’d say that, because there’s still time to pre-order your copy of Persona 3 Portable at a participating retailer (GameStop and Amazon in the United States and Canada) and receive a collectible Junpei Baseball Cap. It’s modeled after the one he wears in the game!

“Wow, they’re sure giving us a lot of physical awesome to celebrate the release of the game, but what about the game itself?” you muse aloud to no one in particular, gently tapping your pointer fingers together in front of your mouth.

We’ve already told you in previous posts about how Persona 3 Portable puts you in the shoes of a team of gifted high schoolers forced to use their developing supernatural abilities to save the world from destruction, and how the game cleverly mixes addicting RPG dungeon crawling with social sim elements. And how the PSP system release introduces a new female protagonist who experiences the events of the game from a new perspective, not to mention the addition of one-button menu shortcuts, a streamlined user interface, and more.

We’d say more about the game, but really, why not let others speak for us? Early reviews are in, Blog readers, and they’re glowing:

Gaming Nexus – A
“Atlus added enough new content to make this the first must-own PSP RPG of the year!”

Gamervision – 10 out of 10
“Persona 3 Portable is one of the strongest games in the PSP catalogue, and a shining example of a role-playing game done right.”

GamerTell – 99 out of 100
“Simply said, Persona 3 Portable is a system seller. If you own a PSP and can purchase “Mature” games, you should own it. If you don’t own a PSP, Persona 3 Portable is easily a game to inspire you to pick one up.”

PlayStation Illustrated – 95 out of 100
“It’s a fantastic RPG stuffed with things to do and interesting, yet unusual, ideas.”

1UP.com – A-
“I’d actually recommend Persona 3 Portable as the best introduction to the series — even ahead of the console versions of Persona 3 or Persona 4. But I’d also highly recommend P3P for longtime fans of the franchise…”

gamrReview by VGChartz – 9 out of 10
“PSP fans can rejoice that such a grand RPG has arrived on their system of choice…”

GameZone 8.5 out of 10
“…a solid version of a great RPG.”

Look for Persona 3 Portable on retail shelves and in PSN Store on July 6, 2010! For more info about P3P, visit the game’s official website.

Don’t forget: What about the upcoming Persona 3 Portable are you most looking forward to? Tell us below for a chance to win a SIGNED soundtrack CD! We’ll try and choose winners by the game’s release date (winners will be notified with a message sent to their PSN account).

We are now happy to announce the release of the ModNation Racers soundtrack on PSN for only $7.99. The 16-track soundtrack, featuring 15 songs from the game as well as a bonus track, can also be found on iTunes.

Here are a few of my favorite tracks:

ModNation Theme

This bonus track is the official anthem for ModNation Racers and everybody who worked on the game is required to sing it to themselves once a day.

Here to Have Fun

This track always elevates my mood… probably has something to do with the vocals saying something about partying all day.

Put Your Headphones On

This track invariably gets me nodding my head when the chorus kicks in. It’s good driving music too, although I have to remind myself when I am in my car not to boost too much and that drifting is probably not a good idea.

We hope you enjoy the soundtrack as much as we are and, of course, if you haven’t already, pick up ModNation Racers out now on both PS3 and PSP!

Also, if you have any questions on how the music or soundtracks are put together — ask away and I’ll do my best to answer them.

With all that in mind, we wanted to round out the experience with a stellar soundtrack, one that would help define the franchise’s next big release. We’re very excited to announce that the score is being handled by none other than Bear McCreary, who is best known for his critically-acclaimed work on Battlestar Galactica.

No stranger to blending genres of music, Bear’s work on the soundtrack is largely influenced by Asian instrumentation, which corresponds to the Southeast Asia setting of SOCOM 4. Making use of ethnic soloists and gamelan ensembles, SOCOM 4′s score will perfectly fit the mood and atmosphere of OpsCom and company’s operation.

If you’d like to be one of the first people in the world to not only hear SOCOM 4′s soundtrack, but do it in person and even meet Bear McCreary, science fiction website io9.com is running a contest to send one lucky fan to a recording session for the game’s score. How can you pass on that chance?

echochrome’s music soundtrack is a departure from traditional games, featuring string quartet compositions that combine classical music with modern musical sensibilities. The original score is composed by Hideki Sakamoto of noisycroak Inc.

You can get a sampling of the music from the game’s trailer below:

Actually, we’re releasing two soundtracks on May 18th. Here are the details.

echochrome Original Soundtrack
Contains 12 original tracks from the game, plus one all-new bonus track.

echochrome Remix Soundtrack
Features five tracks from the original soundtrack re-done with special piano arrangements that add a completely new flavor to the mix. The remix soundtrack also features a mysterious bonus track.

Each of these soundtracks will be available on the PSN Store for $2.99. Or, you can pick them both up for $4.99 and save a buck. If you’re a fan of the franchise and are going to pick up the soundtracks anyway, we have a special deal for you. For a limited time only, when you buy the soundtrack bundle the “echochrome Gallery Demo” will be added to your download queue automatically.

What’s this “gallery demo” I speak of? Basically, we have created a special demo using 1,000 hand-selected user-created levels. There is no main menu. Instead, you see all 1000 stages on the screen, playing and rotating around. Use the analog sticks to zoom in and out and pan around. Zoom in far enough on a stage and you can jump right into it and start playing. This demo was actually featured at the Portland Art Museum “M.C. Escher Exhibit,” as well as a well-known art and cultural center in Tokyo, Japan! It’s a unique and fun way to interact with echochrome that I’m sure the fans will really enjoy.

So watch for all of this exciting new content hitting the PSN Store tomorrow. And watch for some cool new echochrome Avatars for your PSN ID that will hit PSN in the coming weeks. And if you still haven’t tried out the game yet, there’s no excuse. There’s a PSN demo, and you can pick up the PS3 and PSP versions for $9.99 each. And if you like echochrome’s unique puzzle elements and have a PSP, be sure to check out echoshift as well.