Artist Feature #7: Frank Klepacki

[@Nikos8BitStereo]

Another masterful Artist Feature, the span of how much Frank has done in his music career is pretty phenomenal, and that its now been just over 30 years since he began composing (video game) music. Sadly like the last AF tho, I knew very little of what Frank had actually done, just DragonStrike on NES and C&C1 and Red Alert, not a bad little bit to have from him, but it goes to show if you weren't a PC nut in the 90's (and even early 2000's) you would miss out on a majority of what he did. But hot damn his styling of "Rocktronic", and the hard rock and electronic flairs he did on C&C are the best, also WOW, what an incredible solo career he's had, I absolutely will be checking out his full albums as that is just something I really love to see, I wish more VGM composers had the chance of doing something like that, but, it's very much a personal preference if a composer wants to do something like that if they have the passion for it which I feel Frank has in spades. It's also great Mr. Klepacki was starting to be recognized early in his career for his video game soundtracks, and nicely balanced his work on video games and doing his drumming gigs, being apart of other bands/groups, and of course his solo work. I would say Frank has been absolutely successful in becoming a rock star, with his resume of all he's worked on and with, and of course, just being a supremely talented musician/composer, it's a great feeling to know he gets his recognition and is likely personally satisfied with what he's achieved in his 30 years in the industry. And I hope you feel achieved as well anosci, your effort on these videos especially the long Artist Features and the gathering of his work and all the tools he used to compose with and how its done is very appreciated I love learning more about that stuff, always hoping for the channel to explode in more praise and positivity for what you do man, keep on giving VGM nuts like myself this wonderful content!~

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

I have a strange relationship with what I make. Sometimes I start on a video and find that there's just no info available, so the video ends up kinda empty. I always wish these were better. Other times, I have plenty of info and can even get in contact with the Artist in question, and the video is better for it. that happened here and I'm proud of all of it, and happy to see others enjoy it too

[@ghos7bear]

This channel is god-like. Thank you for your effort in combining so much cool development history bits and mixing amazing music together.

[@VM-hl8ms]

digital frontiers also had vocals in few tracks... it's probably worth mentioning, since before most of his solo works only had samples.

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

That's actually a good point, and something I could have commented on: Frank has mentioned that he's terrible at remembering lyrics. He always focuses in on the melody, rhythm, etc -- the individual elements of the songs. This is reflected with the majority of his writing, as even his group music is co-written, like with Jordan Robins being credited for all of the lyrics in Home Cookin for example. Digital Frontiers is an interesting departure from that.

[@smaktat]

awesome mix and great information. really a great watch. frank im sure youll watch this too. if you see this, thank you for all your work. your music made my childhood and entertained me for many, many hours beyond command and conquer. it's how the series still lives with me to this day.

[@brsajo]

I LOVE how you lines the songs up to transition so smoothly!

[@Basscholic]

Great Eye opening video !!! TY

[@yoyoshi64]

I was watching this and thought the style sounded familiar I just Googled it and apparently the composer for Dungeons and Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun was Frank Klepacki That surprised me a bit

[@Dark9Volt]

Fun Fact: Decible was also featured on Lethal League Blaze's soundtrack!

[@Mordi]

I've never seen this channel before. Awesome stuff! Stylistic and informative.

[@MaloneysDigest]

Awesome video.

[@Infernalhazard]

No mention of Universe At War (check video description for link though)? As rough as that game was, the soundtrack was the most redeeming thing to come out of it. Still love listening to the Hierarchy faction tracks.

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

Yeah, I am really not sure how that happened! I only realized that I was missing Universe at War towards the final stages of this video. The section of the mix where it belongs ended up with a really nice flow, and didn't want to shoehorn in a song just to be comprehensive, so... alas.

[@fabiosemino2214]

Amazing work!

[@BuzzaB77]

C&C RA soundtrack was epic. like trent reznor and nelly hooper had a baby. monster mix. superbly done.

[@hrnekbezucha]

Great job, man. Thank you

[@geminielectro]

I discovered Franck Klepacki with the first Kyradia. There was really nice tunes.

[@InfinnacageMusic]

Lovely overview :) it's pretty interesting how similar his band music is to his VGM!

[@Fellwurstchen]

nice work on this one

[@edwardsimongray4877]

After having seen this, I really don't know how Frank will fit in a game like Lethal League Blaze, but man am I looking forward to seeing it!

[@ghos7bear]

16:08 This transition is flawless

[@Tore299]

Inaccuracies/misstakes - Shows Windows 95 version of C&C instead of the DOS version - Red Alert was released on Windows 95 and DOS with both versions on the same disc so it should've been noted as PC - Tiberian Sun was released in 1999 - Red Alert: Retaliation is missing from the list Notes - PC games had multiple ways of playing music. While most players heard FM synth of some kind, MIDI formats such as General MIDI, General Standard etc were possible to use with more realistic music or entirely different tracks

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

in order: 1. ....whoops. 2. I suppose this is what you call "Technically correct", though I mentioned DOS in this case as it's the last game featured here that appeared on DOS (instead of windows-only). 3. oof, that's a typo. it's placed correctly on the timeline, at least... 4. RA: Retaliation didn't add any new music, I think? the N64 port of C&C might be more notable thanks to the hardware limitations, but that was also omitted from the timeline. 5. music playback was constantly evolving back in the day. each game had a different set of supported playback formats. Kyrandia 2, for example, was written specifically with the MT-32 in mind, but I used the adlib version instead. The tracks were essentially the same other than timbre, as far as I'm aware!

[@Tore299]

Retaliation and Sole Survivor shares some tracks like Hell March (remix), but Retaliation does have a bunch of unique ones. Hopefully the recordings you used of FM music were from actual cards featuring OPL2/OPL3 chips, even though I did hear differences in Dune 2 from what I'm used to. Pretty sure Kyrandia 1+2, Dune 2 were composed for OPL2 (Adlib), MT-32 and Sound Canvas. When I asked Frank Klepacki a while back which version of the Dune 2 soundtrack he liked the must he did say Sound Canvas, even though the Adlib did have some charm to it. When I play Dune 2 I usually use my SC-8820 or SC-55, even though my SC-8820 has developed bit of a hiss lately.

[@kwizzeh]

Retaliation shares music with Counterstrike, Aftermath and of course, Sole Survivor.

[@plasmadrone3123]

Duude!! Have you seen Frank's concert last January? It's on KZbin and it's awesome!!

[@geminielectro]

I love the cyberpunk vibe in the C&C soundtracks.

[@Spiegelgeist]

Awesome job! Though I gotta admit my favorite soundtrack of his is from the 1995 PC version of MONOPOLY. Shame you didn't add any tracks from that :( I can give you the midi files for it if you'd like though! Always happy to get more fans of that soundtrack :)

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

Monopoly was sandwiched between the original C&C and Red Alert 1. it's quite different from these two titles. I was ready to rock by this point in the mix! A slower start of the mix might have seen its inclusion, but not here. It is a good and under-appreciated soundtrack though!

[@BuzzaB77]

wow his solo stuff is very Ministry. good stuff

[@marshalza4379]

10:07 you only need 1 Concrete (4blocks) to make a Wind Trap, and it won't get any damage. I want to say "What a noob play", but it's old game and back then many didn't know about this trick)))

[@ChrisHewittMedia]

Just discovered this great channel. Would consider doing an artist feature on Andrew Sega?

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

Necros! yeah he's an artist I dig so that'd be interesting, but he hasn't really done any work on console games, so that's outside of the scope of what I'm covering right now.

[@dylanmansfield3960]

Could you do an Artist Feature on Jeroen Tel?

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

This is planned, but it's going to be a while!

[@dylanmansfield3960]

Understandable

[@pandoblier]

Can you show us the Download Links of his full Solo Albums?

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

the store can be found on frank's site ;)

[@pandoblier]

@@GSTChannelVEVO His Style is too different on an Album. I bought Viratia but there was only 3 good Tracks. And with the other Albums is the same.

[@cosmiclounge]

While I find much of Frank's latter-day material to be hackneyed and somewhat forgettable, his work from Command & Conquer through to the Counterstrike and Aftermath expansions is legitimately some of the best music I've ever heard, and an enduring landmark in electronica.

[@Ratich]

Building unit ready unit ready building construction complete new construction options yes sir moving building unable to comply building in progress

[@Nukle0n]

Wait, Sly and the Family Stone hasn't been a thing since 1986, what band are you referring to?

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

Ok this may be a mistake on my part: I'm referring to The Family Stone, a group made up of Greg Errico and Jerry Martini (and formerly, the late Cynthia Robinson). so, this is sans Sly. Technically it's a new group, but there are some shared members and setlists. www.thefamilystonemusic.com/index.php/about

[@kwizzeh]

Overlooked is Firestorm. The soundtrack for the expansion took more cues from TibDawn and became more his "rocktronic" style since the base game was gloomy and ambient pieces.

[@4rtochka]

Music of Dune 2 on sega better than dos version

[@grongy6122]

That's because of nostalgia factor. In Russia the most popular Dune game was for Sega. I think we would think otherwise if PC's were more popular back then. I personally like both versions.

[@ghos7bear]

Quite the opposite for me, always preferred PC version, both graphics and music-wise.

[@TrueNeutralEvGenius]

To tell that Westwood "basically invented the RTS genre" is incredibly wrong.

[@GSTChannelVEVO]

Looking at my own commentary: ah. yeah that's some poor phrasing. at best, westwood codified the name of the genre, but even then... I'd rewrite that textbox if I could 😔

[@KainXVIII]

Coming for Kyrandia 1,3 or Lands of Lore music, leaving disappointed..