Alberto Gonzalez
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Alberto Jose Gonzalez is a Spanish composer, sound designer and programmer who has worked on numerous video games. Gonzalez originally started his work in the video game world at New Frontier as a graphic designer. Due to problems with management and finances, he and the other staff left to found Bit Managers. However, the company did not have a music composer. Gonzalez had no prior musical experience, but decided to try and write music and sound effects anyway. When he saw he was successful, he decided to become a sound designer and composer, still doing graphics on the side.
Gonzalez wrote primarily for the 8-bit platforms such as the Game Boy, Game Gear, MSX, NES, and Sega Master System.
His musical influences while doing game music included Ben Daglish, David Whittaker, and Tim Follin.
Contents
Audio Development
One thing to note about games Gonzalez scored across multiple platforms is the differing soundtracks they have. For example, The Smurfs on the Game Boy, Game Gear, Master System, and NES have a few different songs from each other. Gonzalez explained that this was to test limitations for each separate platform.
GB/GG/NES/SMS
Gonzalez's music was composed on a program for the ZX Spectrum called Compact Editor which was an inspiration from NoiseTracker on the Amiga. Gonzalez then used a program he made called "The Sourcer" which converted his music from Compact Editor to the consoles. Gonzalez also programmed the sound drivers for the consoles he worked on, including NESM. However, he didn't always write music this way. Sometimes he would write the music completely in assembly, or when he did convert songs from Compact Editor, he would modify the songs. He would usually work on the Game Boy versions of songs first before moving on to the console versions.
SNES
Gonzalez used OctaMED for the Amiga. The music was then output to Nintendo's Kankichi-kun MIDI sequencer, and the sound driver was modified by Gonzalez. The instruments were taken from a Turtle Beach Maui sound card. Gonzalez also programmed his own MIDI sequencer, but never used it for his works.
GBA
Gonzalez programmed a driver in C language for Asterix & Obelix: Bash Them All!, which was the only game to use this driver. He later programmed mks4agb synth, a tool which was an emulator of the official GBA sound driver by Nintendo.
Gameography
Gonzalez says that he composed the music to all Bit Managers games with only a couple exceptions; In Radikal Bikers, he only programmed the sound driver and the audio was taken from the arcade. The arcade Bang! was done by Gaelco's in-house composer Joan Sanmarti. It is currently unknown if any Bit Masters games lack credits. However, there are a few games that only credit the Bit Managers staff without listing their roles.
Aliases
Some games credit Gonzalez under the pseudonym Joe McAlby. Gonzalez cites the popularity of his real name for this alias. He also used the name of his company, Bit Managers as an alias. This was because some companies outsourced music to the company.
Picture Gallery
Facebook page.
Unknown source.
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberto_Jose_González - Wikipedia.
- facebook.com/albertojgp - Facebook
- es.linkedin.com/in/albertojgp - LinkedIn.
- soundcloud.com/joemcalby - SoundCloud.
- legacymusichour.blogspot.ca/2013/06/episode-138-alberto-jose-gonzalez.html - Interview.
- http://www.vgarc.org/vgarc-originals/interview-with-alberto-gonzalez/ - Text Interview.
