Paul Webb
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Paul Webb is an American composer and sound designer. He was the lead audio designer for Sculptured Software.
Webb attended Mannes College of Music from 1978 to 1981 and got a diploma in Classical Guitar. He originally wanted to teach music, but then got interested in computer programming and decided he wanted to make video game music. From 1985 to 1997, he was employed at Sculptured Software. He scored all of their NES games, and then during the SNES era, he collaborated with new composers at Sculptured, mainly Mark Ganus and Kingsley Thurber. When the Nintendo 64 came out, Webb thought there was no more need for his expertise and quit the video game industry.
Webb's music mostly consists of rock or jazz. His best known scores are for the Star Wars series on SNES.
Ever since 2007, Webb has been working at CleaOne as a Technical Support Engineer.
Contents
Audio Development
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.
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, which uses Artech Studios' SEGA Music Development System, which developed by Mark Miller and his colleagues, who founded Neuromantic Productions. 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:
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:
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 while scoring Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (SNES), 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 games Hoversprint (AMI) and (AST) credit a "P. Webb" for music. It is currently unknown if this is the same Paul Webb or someone else.
Picture Gallery
Links
- mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,4593/ - MobyGames.
- linkedin.com/pub/paul-webb/4/10b/430 - LinkedIn.
- youtube.com/@paulgeorgewebb8560 - YouTube.
