Paul Webb

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Paul George Webb
NoPhoto.png
Born 1956?
Birth Place Salt Lake City, Utah
Nationality American   USA.svg
Aliases P. Webb

Paul Webb is an American composer and sound designer who was the main composer and sound designer at Sculptured Software. Webb attended the Mannes College of Music for Classic Guitar from 1978 to 1981. He originally wanted to teach music but ended up being interested in computer programming, and that is when he decided he wanted to make video game music. He later joined Sculptured Software in 1985 and left in 1997. During his 12 years at Sculptured, Webb did all of their NES games and then during the SNES era, more composers joined Sculptured Software which he worked with, mainly Mark Ganus and Kingsley Thurber. His best known work was for the Star Wars games on SNES. Paul's music mostly consisted of rock or jazz. When the Nintendo 64 came out, Paul quit the video game music industry since he thought there was no more need for his expertise.

Ever since 2007, Webb has been working at CleaOne as a Technical Support Engineer.

When there was a Sega port of a Nintendo game, Neuromantic Productions would usually convert Webb's music. However, Webb composed the music to some Genesis games as well.

Music Development

GEN

Most of Paul's music utilized the GEMS sound engine, but Pac-Mania uses a different sound engine. Because of time, Paul doesn't remember how he developed music for the Sega Genesis.

NES

Paul had this to say about his NES music:

Most of what I did for Sculptured Software I did with audio drivers and tools developed in-house under my supervision. My NES days go way back, but if I recall right, I took the sounds that the NES sound chip could produce and sampled them on a sampling keyboard and then composed using those samples. I don't recall how we converted my compositions over to program code.

I think the key to my success on those early game platforms was that I had a thorough technical understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the hardware and drivers, and tried to push those limits as far as I could, finding ways to "make a virtue of necessity". In the very early PC days I actually rewrote their sound driver in assembly language to provide sound effects with the music.

His Nintendo music sounds similar to that of Michiharu Hasuya's in terms of style and instruments. Paul used a sound engine by Ken Moore.

SNES

Paul had this to say about his SNES music:

There was BMus, which had a rather awkward user interface but allowed you to create music and sound effects and send them directly to the SNES for playback. Later we developed "Wolfgang", which I designed, which was sort of a cross between a score editor and midi sequencer. It also allowed you to put in notes and play them back directly on the SNES. I can't remember if we ever developed a midi converter for that.

The instruments were taken from an Ensoniq EPS workstation. Coincidentally, Bobby Prince who did the original DOS version of Doom (DOS) used this keyboard, and Paul did the SNES conversion.

Paul says that when he was working on the Empire Strikes Back SNES music, he was given the original handwritten scores from John Williams.

Gameography

The game Hoversprint for the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST credit a "P. Webb" for music. It is currently unknown if this is Paul Webb or someone else.

Released Title Sample
1987-??-?? SDI (DOS) Music / Sound Programming
1989-09-25 Bar Games (DOS)
1990-??-?? MetalMech: Man & Machine (NES) (メタルフレーム サイバスター)
1990-??-?? Midnight Mutants (A78)
1990-??-?? Super Solvers: Challenge of the Ancient Empires (DOS)
1991-??-?? Eliminator Boat Duel (NES)
1991-??-?? Fatal Run (A78)
1991-??-?? Kingdom Crusade (GB) (The Legend of Prince Valiant)
1991-??-?? Mickey's Colors & Shapes (DOS)
1991-??-?? Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (NES)
1991-??-?? Pac-Mania (GEN)
1991-05-?? Monopoly (NES) (モノポリー)
1991-10-?? Roger Clemens MVP Baseball (NES)
1991-12-?? Monopoly (GB)
1992-??-?? Hoversprint (AMI) Composer?
1992-??-?? Hoversprint (AST) Composer?
1992-??-?? Jack Nicklaus Golf (GB)
1992-??-?? Jack Nicklaus Golf (SNES) Composer?
1992-??-?? Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (NES) (スター·ウォーズ 帝国の逆襲)
1992-??-?? WWF Steel Cage Challenge (NES)
1992-??-?? WWF Super Wrestlemania (GEN) Composer
1992-02-?? Boggle Plus (GB)
1992-03-?? T&C II: Thrilla's Surfari (NES)
1992-03-?? WWF Super Wrestlemania (SNES) (WWFスーパーレッスルマニア)
1992-05-?? Jack Nicklaus Golf (GB)
1992-06-?? Day Dreamin' Davey (NES)
1992-06-?? High Stakes Gambling (GB)
1992-07-?? Clue (SNES)
1992-09-?? Roger Clemens MVP Baseball (GB) (MVPベースボール)
1992-09-?? WWF Superstars 2 (GB) (WWFスーパースターズ2)
1992-??-?? NCAA Basketball (SNES) (スーパーダンクショット)
1992-10-?? Stanley: The Search for Dr. Livingston (NES)
1992-11-?? Super Star Wars (SNES) (スーパースターウォーズ)
1992-11-?? Tecmo NBA Basketball (NES)
1992-12-25 Tecmo Super NBA Basketball (SNES) (テクモスーパーNBAバスケットボール)
1993-06-?? WWF Royal Rumble (SNES) (WWFロイヤルランブル)
1993-10-?? Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (SNES)
1993-11-?? NHL Stanley Cup (SNES)
1994-09-?? Mortal Kombat II (SNES)
1994-10-?? Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (SNES) (スーパースターウォーズ:ジェダイの復讐)
1994-11-?? The Ren & Stimpy Show: Time Warp (SNES)
1994-??-?? The Punisher (GEN) Composer?
1995-08-?? Doom (SNES) (ドゥーム)
1995-11-?? WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game (SNES) (WWFレッスルマニア:ジアーケードゲーム)
1996-11-?? Space Jam (SCD)
1998-??-?? Stratosphere: Conquest of the Skies (PC)
1998-12-11 Monopoly (GBC) (ゲームボーイ モノポリー)
Unreleased Dino Hockey (NES)
Unreleased The Legend of Robin Hood (NES)
Unreleased War on Wheels (NES)

Links