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Articles and Features

1999-2000 Newsletters

In March of '99, the IA-SIG began publishing (via email) a quarterly newsletter containing the news and information of vital importance to our industry. Each issue included working group quarterly reports, plus as much people, product, technology, and news as we could gather. As of this writing, August 2001, the newsletter will be now in the form of periodic news updates and stories on the website.

Editions

Industry Corner

Interviews, white papers and other information and other news items submitted by our members or that we feel are of general interest to the community. The information contained in this section does not represent the official opinion or position or reflect an endorsement of any kind by the IA-SIG, its management, or its members.

"Guy Whitmore, Composer Profile" 11/15/99
An interview on his use of DirectMusic by Chanel Sommers of Microsoft
"Multichannel Audio: An interview with John Loose from Dolby Labs" 11/15/99
"DirectMusic Producer for the Masses" by David Javelosa 7/99
In this White Paper, David Javelosa provides a great introduction to DirectMusic Interactive and Direct Music Producer...
"Engine Roundup" Part 2 by Alex Brandon 7/99
Our second "Engine Roundup" segment in which we share conversations with and comments from QSound's Scott Willing and Microsoft's Brian Schmidt on the state of their 3D Audio technologies.
Engine Roundup" by Alexander Brandon 3/99
With the advancements in PC audio made over the last five, even last two years, it is becoming clear that we are no longer dealing with merely FM sound and wavetable cards. We have massively powerful 3D surround engines that add realism and dynamics to our games and apps. We also have many different kinds of music.

Featured Articles

Features and columns on varied topics of IA-SIG interest.

"A Look Back" 11/15/99
Ever wonder just how music and sound were implemented in games such as "Asteroids", "Road Blasters", and "Super Mario Bros."? Even if you haven't, here are the answers… a pleasant stroll down memory lane with the former director of technology development at Atari Games, Brad Fuller..
"The Roadmap, Part 1" 8/99
Chris Grigg presents a 'big idea' for component based, plug in achitechture' for Interactive Audio
"The Eidos Interviews" 7/99
Interviews with Jim Hedges and the Soul Reaver sound team at Eidos USA.
A Direct Music Primer" by Alexander Brandon and Mark Steven Miller 3/99
Much has been said in the past few months about DirectMusic and, thereby, about interactive music. In this first column, we will provide a basic outline of DirectMusic and then lay out some real world and theoretical context in which to examine it....
Annotated scrawl from the wall of the audio hall..." by Mark Steven Miller 3/99
Tips on scheduling audio projects (in milestone format), plus quotes from the industry's best with annotation and extended comments from the author.

Developer's Corner

Comments from Developers of Interactive Audio Content:

"A View From The Bridge" 11/99
Quotes on the future of Interactive Audio from Brain Schmidt, Jeff Roberts, Tommy Tallarico, The Fat Man, Andrew Barnabas, Colin Anderson, and more…
Tales from the arcade! 7/99
Words of wisdom from with John Paul of Atari Games and Graeme Norgate, music and sfx wizard at "Free Radical Design, Ltd." (formerly with Rare...)
"Working on Myth" by Marty O'Donnell, Total Audio 3/99
The interactive audio engine used in both Myth games was an extremely powerful and probably under utilized engine....
"Top ten things a video game producer should know about creating great audio" by Mark Miller 3/99
I recently requested input from you all on this topic for a paper that I was working on for GDC. I got some great quotes and thought that I would publish them here....