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 Will's history is wide and varied. A long-time musician and real estate broker (sadly, not a joke), Will played music for over a million people and sold millions in real estate before co-founding Wave Group. Most people are soothed by his friendly and down-to-earth manner, although they do eventually grow weary of hearing him tell how big his band was on the island of Guam. He is, as you might have guessed, a pathological liar, but a harmless one with no apparent homicidal tendencies, unlike some of our other staff. ll how big his band was on the island of Guam. He is, as you might have guessed, a pathological liar, but a harmless one with no apparent homicidal tendencies, unlike some of our other staff i>-From WaveGroup.Com This interview is back from December 2003 when I got the chance to talk to Will Littlejohn of WaveGroup. WaveGroup are the ones responsible for the covers in the game, and have been nominated for Oscars before. This is the first time it's ever been seen by the public. Red Font is me, CoW mAn Blue Font is Will Littlejohn, President of WaveGroup Sound, Inc. Question #1 CM: What was the song you had the most trouble mimicking? WL: Each song had its challenges and unique requirements, but I would have to say that "Celebration" turned out to be the most complex in terms of cloning the sound of the original recording. Although it seems deceptively simple, the song requires everything from a phenomenal singer with great range (think about the ad libs), group vocals, live horns, and a "unique" drum sound. We also went through multiple lead singers in order to get the right sound before we were happy with the results. In terms of mixing, I'd say that "Complicated" was complicated! The original recording was produced by the very talented team the Matrix, and they put together some great interlocking guitar parts that proved to be tricky to reproduce. Question #2 CM: So, How long did it take to make each song? WL: Actually, this is a hard question to answer as we were producing multiple songs simultaneously throughout the production schedule. If I were to make a guess, I'd say that we averaged around 30 hours of time per song from basic tracking to mastering and delivery of final audio to Harmonix. Question #3 CM: So, Where is WaveGroup from? WL: WaveGroup is an audio production company based in Fremont, California. To find us on a map, just look to the south eastern side of the San Francisco Bay Area. We started as the company in 1995, and our first job was creating all of the sound for the ABC Saturday morning series "Bump In The Night". We've been involved in video game audio for about 7 years, and have worked on approx. 20 titles to date. Question #4 CM: So with WaveGroup's incredible popularity, Is WaveGroup going to do the covers for the expansion packs too? WL: Well, do to the secretive nature of the industry, I have to decline an answer to this one. :)(Editors Note: They are, infact, doing the covers for Karaoke Revolution Volume 2. This interview was from Last December.) CM: Wow! Well anyways thanks for stopping by and having some fun wit us! And that's how the west was won. |
