Difference between revisions of "David Whittaker"
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− | {{ | + | {{Infobox Composer |
| Name = David Whittaker | | Name = David Whittaker | ||
| Picture = David Whittaker - 5.jpg | | Picture = David Whittaker - 5.jpg | ||
− | | Born = | + | | Born = 1957-04-24 (Age 58) |
| BirthPlace = Bury, England | | BirthPlace = Bury, England | ||
| Nationality = British | | Nationality = British | ||
| Flag = UK | | Flag = UK | ||
− | | | + | | Aliases = D. Whittaker, Dave Whittaker, David Whitaker, Dave Whitaker, D. Whitaker, DialogueGuru, David Whittaker Using Quartet |
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| Website = youtube.com/user/dialogueguru | | Website = youtube.com/user/dialogueguru | ||
}} | }} | ||
− | '''''David Whittaker''''' is a British musician who was born on April 24, 1957 in Bury, England. He is one of the most popular video game musicians in the world. He is known for composing such gems as Lazy Jones and Shadow of the Beast, which are the top soundtracks that made him popular. | + | '''''David Whittaker''''' is a British musician who was born on April 24, 1957 in Bury, England. He is one of the most popular video game musicians in the world. He is known for composing such gems as Lazy Jones and Shadow of the Beast, and Glider Rider, which are the top soundtracks that made him popular. Whittaker has probably created more game soundtracks than any other video game musician. Sometimes he was offered so many jobs to do music for games, he would sometimes have to decline and have the jobs given to other composers. David started to compose game music at age 24. According to Whittaker, he claims to have done about 100 game soundtracks for just about every computer and over 400 Commodore 64 soundtracks. He started out playing in a band called Beu Leisure, which he says got quite well known around Altricham. After he bought a Commodore VIC-20, he started to program on it, which he said led him to Mr. Micro and music programming. After some time, it became a full time job for him because he excelled at game music more than other programmers at the time. He was the main composer and sound designer for various developers such as [[Audiogenic]] and [[B.I.T.S.]] |
− | Whittaker | + | While Whittaker no longer composes or programs, he still works on video games, doing speech dialogue editing/recording formerly with Electronic Arts and currently with Traveller's Tales. He got the job at E.A. from a call from Rob Hubbard telling him they needed a sound designer, so David lived in the US at that time and got a mansion there. David eventually moved back to the UK since he wasn't pleased with the U.S. economy and he was a little homesick. While some fans call him the best SID composer, Whittaker beleives that [[Rob Hubbard]] is truly the best. His favorite computers that he liked to compose on were the Commodore 64 and the Commodore Amiga, with the Commodore VIC-20 being his least favorite. Whittaker says he appreciates the fans' support over the years. |
− | In 1999, ZombieNation, a video game music remix group, stole David Whittaker's Lazy Jones tune for the Kernkraft 400. This got David's attention | + | Whittaker was usually good about lending his music engines to other companies. When [[Manfred Trenz]] was developing the NES version of Turrican, Whittaker let him use his music engine, which was then modified by Trenz himself. In the SNES era, he lent his sound driver to the Japanese developer [[Imagineer]]. |
+ | |||
+ | When Dark Technologies developed the NES and Game Boy versions of The Lion King, they used David's sound engine without his permission. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In 1999, ZombieNation, a video game music remix group, stole David Whittaker's Lazy Jones tune for the Kernkraft 400. This got David's attention, so when he called them up, they apologized about it and paid him 9000 GBP to use his song, which he claims he was paid more by ZombieNation than he got paid for the game. | ||
Whittaker also composed the music for some unreleased games including NES ports of Populous and Tip-Off, a basketball game. | Whittaker also composed the music for some unreleased games including NES ports of Populous and Tip-Off, a basketball game. | ||
Line 26: | Line 24: | ||
==Music Composition== | ==Music Composition== | ||
− | Whittaker has been notorious for copying and pasting his music and transposing it to a different key. This is especially true in his NES soundtracks. | + | Whittaker has been notorious for copying and pasting his music and transposing it to a different key. This is especially true in his NES soundtracks. This was probably because of the difficulty of having to write most of his music in machine code. |
===Amiga=== | ===Amiga=== | ||
Line 42: | Line 40: | ||
===Game Gear/Sega Master System=== | ===Game Gear/Sega Master System=== | ||
David created a sound engine and wrote the music in [[assembly]]. Because David Whittaker did not know FM synthesis programming, he never made a sound engine for the Genesis/Mega Drive. | David created a sound engine and wrote the music in [[assembly]]. Because David Whittaker did not know FM synthesis programming, he never made a sound engine for the Genesis/Mega Drive. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Genesis=== | ||
+ | Because David Whittaker wasn't familiar with FM synthesis, he used [[Don Veca]]'s sound driver. He created MIDI files in an unknown sequencer which were converted into Veca's driver. | ||
===NES=== | ===NES=== | ||
− | Whittaker converted his Commodore 64 sound driver to work on the NES. Not too difficult since they both used the same [[assembly]] language, but he had to account for the difference between the Commodore's SID chip, and the NES chip. Whittaker arranged [[Neuromantic Productions]] music in many ports of Krusty's Fun House. David was known for lending out his driver to companies that needed it. Whittaker licensed his audio driver to [[Manfred Trenz]] for him to use in his Super Turrican NES game. The sound driver was later modified and used by Manfred to compose music. David also | + | Whittaker converted his Commodore 64 sound driver to work on the NES. Not too difficult since they both used the same [[assembly]] language, but he had to account for the difference between the Commodore's SID chip, and the NES chip. Whittaker arranged [[Neuromantic Productions]] music in many ports of Krusty's Fun House. David was known for lending out his driver to companies that needed it. Whittaker licensed his audio driver to [[Manfred Trenz]] for him to use in his Super Turrican NES game. The sound driver was later modified and used by Manfred to compose music. David's driver was also used by Dark Technologies for their only NES title The Lion King. However, David says that he didn't give them permission to use their driver and that he didn't lend it to them. |
===SNES=== | ===SNES=== | ||
− | David wrote his own audio driver in [[assembly]]. His instruments were sampled from his Amiga samples from the Korg M1. | + | David wrote his own audio driver in [[assembly]]. His instruments were sampled from his Amiga samples from the Korg M1. He would sell his sound driver to companies like Psygnosis for £5000. |
− | |||
==Gameography== | ==Gameography== | ||
− | { | + | {| class="wikitable" | |
− | | | + | ! Released |
− | + | ! Title | |
− | + | ! Sample | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
|- | |- | ||
− | | | + | | 1983-??-?? |
− | | [[ | + | | [[Humphrey (C64)]] |
− | | | + | | {{Song-Box|01 - Humphrey - C64 - Humphrey (Title).ogg}} |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |- | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
|- | |- | ||
| 1983-??-?? | | 1983-??-?? | ||
Line 96: | Line 75: | ||
| [[Tetris (BBC)]] | | [[Tetris (BBC)]] | ||
| | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1986-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[180 (A8)]] | ||
+ | | Composer? | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1986-??-?? | | 1986-??-?? | ||
| [[180 (C64)]] | | [[180 (C64)]] | ||
− | | | + | | Composer? |
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1986-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[180 (CPC)]] | ||
+ | | Composer? | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1986-??-?? | | 1986-??-?? | ||
| [[180 (ZXS)]] | | [[180 (ZXS)]] | ||
− | | | + | | Composer? |
|- | |- | ||
| 1986-??-?? | | 1986-??-?? | ||
Line 331: | Line 318: | ||
| 1987-??-?? | | 1987-??-?? | ||
| [[Super Robin Hood (ZXS)]] | | [[Super Robin Hood (ZXS)]] | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 418: | Line 401: | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1988-??-?? | | 1988-??-?? | ||
− | | [[Beyond | + | | [[Beyond the Ice Palace (AMI)]] |
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1988-??-?? | | 1988-??-?? | ||
− | | [[Beyond | + | | [[Beyond the Ice Palace (CPC)]] |
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1988-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Beyond the Ice Palace (ZXS)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1988-??-?? | | 1988-??-?? | ||
| [[BMX Simulator 2 (CPC)]] | | [[BMX Simulator 2 (CPC)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1988-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Circus Games (CPC)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 471: | Line 462: | ||
| 1988-??-?? | | 1988-??-?? | ||
| [[Quadralien (AMI)]] | | [[Quadralien (AMI)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1988-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Pandora (AMI)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 479: | Line 474: | ||
| 1988-??-?? | | 1988-??-?? | ||
| [[Professional BMX Simulator (ZXS)]] | | [[Professional BMX Simulator (ZXS)]] | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 531: | Line 522: | ||
| 1988-??-?? | | 1988-??-?? | ||
| [[Super Stuntman (C64)]] | | [[Super Stuntman (C64)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1988-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Super Stuntman (CPC)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 608: | Line 603: | ||
| [[Arcade Flight Simulator (ZXS)]] | | [[Arcade Flight Simulator (ZXS)]] | ||
| | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1989-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Beverly Hills Cop (C64)]] | ||
+ | | {{Song-Box|01 - Beverly Hills Cop - C64 - Axel F.ogg}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1989-??-?? | | 1989-??-?? | ||
Line 639: | Line 638: | ||
| 1989-??-?? | | 1989-??-?? | ||
| [[Captain Fizz (ZXS)]] | | [[Captain Fizz (ZXS)]] | ||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 775: | Line 770: | ||
| 1989-??-?? | | 1989-??-?? | ||
| [[Pub Trivia (CPC)]] | | [[Pub Trivia (CPC)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1989-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[SAS Combat Simulator (CPC)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 810: | Line 809: | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1989-??-?? | | 1989-??-?? | ||
− | | [[ | + | | [[Wonder Boy in Monster Land (AMI)]] |
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1989-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Wonder Boy in Monster Land (CPC)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 876: | Line 879: | ||
| [[Back to the Future Part II (ZXS)]] | | [[Back to the Future Part II (ZXS)]] | ||
| | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1990-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Beverly Hills Cop (AST)]] | ||
+ | | {{Song-Box|01 - Beverly Hills Cop - AST - Axel F.ogg}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1990-??-?? | | 1990-??-?? | ||
Line 919: | Line 926: | ||
| 1990-??-?? | | 1990-??-?? | ||
| [[Gazza II (ZXS)]] | | [[Gazza II (ZXS)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1990-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Golden Axe (AMI)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 1,011: | Line 1,022: | ||
| 1991-??-?? | | 1991-??-?? | ||
| [[Soccer Pinball (CPC)]] | | [[Soccer Pinball (CPC)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1991-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Supaplex (AMI)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1991-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[Supaplex (DOS)]] | ||
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 1,146: | Line 1,165: | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1993-??-?? | | 1993-??-?? | ||
− | | [[Camp California ( | + | | [[Camp California (TGCD)]] |
| | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
Line 1,268: | Line 1,287: | ||
| [[The Lion King (GB)]] | | [[The Lion King (GB)]] | ||
| Sound Driver | | Sound Driver | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | 1995-??-?? | ||
+ | | [[NHL 96 (GEN)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 1996-01-04 | | 1996-01-04 | ||
Line 1,291: | Line 1,314: | ||
| 2005-11-14 | | 2005-11-14 | ||
| [[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (PS2)]] | | [[The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (PS2)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Unreleased | ||
+ | | 007: License to Kill (NES) | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Unreleased | ||
+ | | [[Batman: Revenge of the Joker (SNES)]] | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Unreleased | ||
+ | | Ferrari Grand Prix (NES) | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Unreleased | ||
+ | | Infection (CPC) | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Unreleased | ||
+ | | Infection (ZXS) | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Unreleased | ||
+ | | Populous (NES) | ||
+ | | | ||
+ | |- | ||
+ | | Unreleased | ||
+ | | Tip-Off (NES) | ||
| | | | ||
|} | |} | ||
Line 1,302: | Line 1,353: | ||
File:David_Whittaker_-_5.jpg|David with his Korg M1; [http://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?view=1655&detail=photos]. | File:David_Whittaker_-_5.jpg|David with his Korg M1; [http://amp.dascene.net/detail.php?view=1655&detail=photos]. | ||
</gallery> | </gallery> | ||
− | |||
==Links== | ==Links== | ||
− | * [http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=43051881&locale=en_US&trk=tyah2 linkedin.com/profile/view?id=43051881&locale=en_US&trk=tyah2] - | + | * [http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=43051881&locale=en_US&trk=tyah2 linkedin.com/profile/view?id=43051881&locale=en_US&trk=tyah2] - LinkedIn. |
* [https://twitter.com/dialogueguru twitter.com/dialogueguru] - Twitter | * [https://twitter.com/dialogueguru twitter.com/dialogueguru] - Twitter | ||
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/DialogueGuru youtube.com/user/DialogueGuru] - YouTube. | * [http://www.youtube.com/user/DialogueGuru youtube.com/user/DialogueGuru] - YouTube. | ||
− | * [http:// | + | * [http://youtu.be/iFH5vS1EqNs?t=1m34s youtube.com/watch?v=iFH5vS1EqNs] - Video Interview. |
* [http://www.karsmakers.nl/metal-e-zine/david.htm karsmakers.nl/metal-e-zine/david.htm] - Interview. | * [http://www.karsmakers.nl/metal-e-zine/david.htm karsmakers.nl/metal-e-zine/david.htm] - Interview. | ||
* [http://craigsretrocomputingpage.eu5.org/davidwhittaker/davidwhittaker.html craigsretrocomputingpage.eu5.org/davidwhittaker/davidwhittaker.html] - Interview. | * [http://craigsretrocomputingpage.eu5.org/davidwhittaker/davidwhittaker.html craigsretrocomputingpage.eu5.org/davidwhittaker/davidwhittaker.html] - Interview. |
Revision as of 06:54, 25 September 2016
David Whittaker | ||||||||||
|
David Whittaker is a British musician who was born on April 24, 1957 in Bury, England. He is one of the most popular video game musicians in the world. He is known for composing such gems as Lazy Jones and Shadow of the Beast, and Glider Rider, which are the top soundtracks that made him popular. Whittaker has probably created more game soundtracks than any other video game musician. Sometimes he was offered so many jobs to do music for games, he would sometimes have to decline and have the jobs given to other composers. David started to compose game music at age 24. According to Whittaker, he claims to have done about 100 game soundtracks for just about every computer and over 400 Commodore 64 soundtracks. He started out playing in a band called Beu Leisure, which he says got quite well known around Altricham. After he bought a Commodore VIC-20, he started to program on it, which he said led him to Mr. Micro and music programming. After some time, it became a full time job for him because he excelled at game music more than other programmers at the time. He was the main composer and sound designer for various developers such as Audiogenic and B.I.T.S.
While Whittaker no longer composes or programs, he still works on video games, doing speech dialogue editing/recording formerly with Electronic Arts and currently with Traveller's Tales. He got the job at E.A. from a call from Rob Hubbard telling him they needed a sound designer, so David lived in the US at that time and got a mansion there. David eventually moved back to the UK since he wasn't pleased with the U.S. economy and he was a little homesick. While some fans call him the best SID composer, Whittaker beleives that Rob Hubbard is truly the best. His favorite computers that he liked to compose on were the Commodore 64 and the Commodore Amiga, with the Commodore VIC-20 being his least favorite. Whittaker says he appreciates the fans' support over the years.
Whittaker was usually good about lending his music engines to other companies. When Manfred Trenz was developing the NES version of Turrican, Whittaker let him use his music engine, which was then modified by Trenz himself. In the SNES era, he lent his sound driver to the Japanese developer Imagineer.
When Dark Technologies developed the NES and Game Boy versions of The Lion King, they used David's sound engine without his permission.
In 1999, ZombieNation, a video game music remix group, stole David Whittaker's Lazy Jones tune for the Kernkraft 400. This got David's attention, so when he called them up, they apologized about it and paid him 9000 GBP to use his song, which he claims he was paid more by ZombieNation than he got paid for the game.
Whittaker also composed the music for some unreleased games including NES ports of Populous and Tip-Off, a basketball game.
Contents
Music Composition
Whittaker has been notorious for copying and pasting his music and transposing it to a different key. This is especially true in his NES soundtracks. This was probably because of the difficulty of having to write most of his music in machine code.
Amiga
He wrote his own audio driver which used a form of Music Macro Language. Whittaker said his instrument samples were taken from his Korg M1, a popular keyboard at the time, and also programmed some waveforms of his own.
Atari ST
The Atari ST version of Loopz says Whittaker used Quartet, a popular music program for the Atari ST. Whittaker probably used this method for all (if not some) of his games, though he also probably coded his own sound engine.
Commodore 64
In an interview, David Whittaker said he used a Yamaha CX5 and Jupiter 6. He then wrote his own audio driver in assembly and programmed his music.
Game Boy
Whittaker converted his NES music to the Game Boy using his own audio driver. The music was written in assembly.
Game Gear/Sega Master System
David created a sound engine and wrote the music in assembly. Because David Whittaker did not know FM synthesis programming, he never made a sound engine for the Genesis/Mega Drive.
Genesis
Because David Whittaker wasn't familiar with FM synthesis, he used Don Veca's sound driver. He created MIDI files in an unknown sequencer which were converted into Veca's driver.
NES
Whittaker converted his Commodore 64 sound driver to work on the NES. Not too difficult since they both used the same assembly language, but he had to account for the difference between the Commodore's SID chip, and the NES chip. Whittaker arranged Neuromantic Productions music in many ports of Krusty's Fun House. David was known for lending out his driver to companies that needed it. Whittaker licensed his audio driver to Manfred Trenz for him to use in his Super Turrican NES game. The sound driver was later modified and used by Manfred to compose music. David's driver was also used by Dark Technologies for their only NES title The Lion King. However, David says that he didn't give them permission to use their driver and that he didn't lend it to them.
SNES
David wrote his own audio driver in assembly. His instruments were sampled from his Amiga samples from the Korg M1. He would sell his sound driver to companies like Psygnosis for £5000.
Gameography
Picture Gallery
- David Whittaker - 2.jpg
Unknown Source.
- David Whittaker - 3.jpg
Unknown Source.
- David Whittaker - 04.png
Unknown Source.
David with his Korg M1; [1].
Links
- linkedin.com/profile/view?id=43051881&locale=en_US&trk=tyah2 - LinkedIn.
- twitter.com/dialogueguru - Twitter
- youtube.com/user/DialogueGuru - YouTube.
- youtube.com/watch?v=iFH5vS1EqNs - Video Interview.
- karsmakers.nl/metal-e-zine/david.htm - Interview.
- craigsretrocomputingpage.eu5.org/davidwhittaker/davidwhittaker.html - Interview.