Paul Webb

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

Paul Webb is an American composer and sound designer. He was the lead audio designer for 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. Webb's music mostly consisted of rock or jazz. When the Nintendo 64 came out, Webb 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.

Audio Development

Commodore 64

Webb's music for Scooby Doo: Microillusions (C64) is in the same driver as Rob Sisinni's for Main Frame (C64). Both games were programmed by Peter Ward and published by Microillusions. Ward programmed Scooby Doo at Sculptured Software.

Genesis / Mega Drive

Most of Webb's music utilized the GEMS sound engine, except for Pac-Mania. Because of how much time has passed, Webb doesn't remember exactly how he developed music for the Sega Genesis.

NES

Webb 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. According to Webb, the sound engine was by Ken Moore.

According to Mario Gonzalez, the driver required the music to be entered in assembly.

SNES

Webb 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 Webb did the SNES conversion.

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

Mark Knight, who used the driver while working for Mindscape, recalled a sound system called "Berlioz", so this is most likely what the B stood for.

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 Notes
1987-??-?? SDI (DOS) Music / Sound Programming
1989-04-?? Dark Chambers (A78) Composer?
1989-09-25 Bar Games (DOS)
1989-??-?? Mario Bros. (A8) Arranger?
1989-??-?? Super Solvers: Midnight Rescue! (DOS)
1989-??-?? Super Solvers: Outnumbered! (DOS)
1990-??-?? Alien Brigade (A78) Composer?
1990-??-?? Commando (A78) Arranger?
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) Music Orchestration with William Susman
Sound Effects
1990-??-?? Treasure Mountain! (DOS)
With William Susman.
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)
Arranged John Williams' music.
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) Arranged John Williams' music.
1992-11-?? Tecmo NBA Basketball (NES)
With George Sanger.
1992-12-25 Tecmo Super NBA Basketball (SNES) (テクモスーパーNBAバスケットボール)
With George Sanger and Mark Ganus.
1993-06-?? WWF Royal Rumble (SNES) (WWFロイヤルランブル) With Dean Morrell and Kingsley Thurber.
1993-10-?? Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (SNES) (スーパー・スター・ウォーズ 帝国の逆襲) Arranged John Williams' music.
1993-11-?? NHL Stanley Cup (SNES) With Mark Ganus.
1994-09-?? Mortal Kombat II (SNES) Sound effects with Dean Morrell and James Hebdon.
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) Arranged John Williams' music.
1994-11-?? The Ren & Stimpy Show: Time Warp (SNES)
1994-??-?? The Punisher (GEN) Composer?
1995-08-?? Doom (SNES) (ドゥーム)
Arranged Bobby Prince's music.
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) Sound Design with Kingsley Thurber.
1998-??-?? Stratosphere: Conquest of the Skies (PC)
1998-12-11 Monopoly (GBC) (ゲームボーイ モノポリー)
2000-11-?? Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (N64) Sound Effects
2014-08-04 Scooby Doo: Microillusions (C64)
Unreleased Dino Hockey (NES)
Unreleased The Legend of Robin Hood (NES)
Unreleased Trivial Pursuit (NES) Composer?
Unreleased War on Wheels (NES)

Links