Tania Smith

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Tania Smith
Tsmith1.jpg
Born 1969-08-15(?)
Birth Place Hobart, Tasmania
Nationality Australian   Australia.svg
Aliases Tania, Shakti, SpaceJunky
Website spacejunky.com

Tania Smith (also known by her online alias Shakti) is an Australian musician, known for her work in the band SpaceJunky. Tania started into music when she was 8 years old and was playing the piano. Beam composers Gavan Anderson, Marshall Parker, and Tania all knew each other. When only Gavan was working on the audio for Beam's games, he ended up getting too much work and needed help. That's when he turned to Tania Smith, and she accepted her job and started working at Beam Software in 1989. From this point on, Tania ended up composing music while Gavan only made sound effects. Her first project however, involved Gavan also working on the music. The first game she did for Beam was Road Runner (NES), in which she helped Gavan arrange Flight of the Bumblebee to the NES. They had originally completed the whole song, but due to the NES' memory constraints, they had to strip the song down for it to fit in the game.

Because Beam Software occasionally ported Cinemaware's games to the NES, she worked there while they were doing so, and she got to work on the music and sound effects for the NES Rocket Ranger. It was a difficult task because Tania had to convert Bob Lindstrom's score from the Amiga version (that used four channels) and scale them down to the NES which had only three melodic channels. Plus, unlike the Amiga version where Bob used a music program to create the music, Tania had to write the music in Music Macro Language using Beam Software's music driver. She also had the honor of composing Beam's first Game Boy game (Boulder Dash).

Later, when she went on tour with Kylie Minogue as the keyboardist, she asked Marshall Parker to take her position for her and he accepted. Tania currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee playing in her band Spacejunky, whose band members who live in different parts of the world. They perform together by roleplaying 3D characters online. Tania's character in the band is named Shakti. Besides music, Tania also makes jewelry.

Music Development

GB/NES

Tania wrote the music in a Music Macro Language, using sound drivers by Gregg Barnett, Neil Brennan, and Brian Post.

Gameography

Released Title Sample Notes
1989-??-?? Road Runner (NES)
1989-09-?? Bad Street Brawler (NES)
Arranged music with Gavan Anderson.
1990-01-?? RoadBlasters (NES)
Arranged Brad Fuller and Earl Vickers' music with Gavan Anderson.
1990-02-?? Dash Galaxy in the Alien Asylum (NES)
1990-03-?? Fisher Price: Perfect Fit (NES)
1990-06-?? Rocket Ranger (NES)
Arranged Bob Lindstrom's music.
1990-07-?? Battle Chess (NES)
1990-09-?? Back to the Future Part II & III (NES)
1990-09-21 Boulder Dash (GB)
1990-10-?? Days of Thunder (NES)
1990-11-?? The Punisher (NES)
1991-01-?? The Hunt For Red October (NES)
1991-01-24 Bigfoot (NES)
1991-02-?? The Last Ninja (NES)
1991-02-?? NBA All-Star Challenge (GB)
1991-05-?? Family Feud (NES)
1991-05-?? The Hunt for Red October (GB) (レッド・オクトーバーを追え)
1991-07-?? The Punisher: The Ultimate Payback (GB)
1994-11-?? NBA Jam (GB)
Unreleased Exploding Fist (NES)

Picture Gallery

Links