LIVE: MAGWest 2022 with 8-bit Music Theory – PA166

Another year another MAGWest, we’re back in person this year exploring the depths of what makes ‘water music’ with a legend of VGM analysis, 8-bit Music Theory! We put him through the paces as we goof off in our usual Pixelated Audio style. First we ‘get to the bottom’ of what makes water music sound so wet with some examples and audience commentary, followed by a silly but fun quiz!

Check out 8-bit Music Theory’s YouTube channel. 8bmt is a music theory expert, drummer, pianist, and all around nice guy who was so kind to join us on the panel!

Thanks also to special audience appearances by friends and previous PA guests:

Apologies about the audio quality, but that’s live baby! We still hope you enjoy the show as much we did!

We did our best to make our show as enjoyable for regular listeners, but we have also included our presentation slides which help enhance the experience. Click through the presentation below to see the visual aids and video examples we used during our talk.

Track List:

  • 0:00:00 [Bedding] Medusa Bay – Ecco the Dolphin CD (SCD) – Spencer Nilsen

Water Music Examples

  • 0:05:02 Underwater Frigate Reactor Core – Metroid Prime (GC) – Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma
  • 0:11:05 Lake Theme – Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (NDS) – Go Ichinose
  • 0:18:03 Sea of Serendipity ~ The Abyss – Rayman Origins (Various) – Christophe Heral
  • 0:22:34 Zora’s Domain – Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (GC/Wii) – Toru Minegishi, Asuka Ota, Koji Kondo
  • 0:29:08 Beyond the Deep Blue Sea – Final Fantasy V (SNES) – Nobuo Uematsu
    • 0:32:32 [Excerpt] A Secret Sleeping in the Deep Sea – Final Fantasy VII (PS1) – Nobuo Uematsu
    • 0:33:27 Whale sound / opening – Secret of Mana (SNES) – Hiroki Kikuta
  • 0:33:54 Splash Down!! (Planet Undertow) – Ristar (GEN) – Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya, Masafumi Ogata
  • 0:37:10 Comb Reef / Diving 6 – Endless Ocean (Wii) – Ayako Saso

Quiz Examples

  1. 0:44:39 Drowning – Sonic The Hedgehog (GEN) Masato Nakamura (Just as a joke)
  2. 0:45:12 Swimming – Super Mario World (SNES) – Koji Kondo
  3. 0:46:23 Aquatic Ambiance – Donkey Kong Country (SNES) – David Wise
  4. 0:48:16 Lower Brinstar – Super Metroid (SNES) – Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano
  5. 0:49:23 A Thousand Leagues Below – Shovel Knight (Various) – Manami Matsumae
  6. 0:50:08 City of Tears – Hollow Knight (Various) – Chris Larkin, vocal by Amelia Jones
  7. 0:52:24 You Can Hear the Cry of the Planet – Final Fantasy VII (PS1) – Nobuo Uematsu
  8. 0:53:33 United Forest G.C. Winter – Hot Shots Golf 3 (PS2) – Shingo Okumura
  9. 0:55:00 Forbidden Memories – Panzer Dragoon Orta (XBOX) – Saori Kobayashi
  10. 0:56:02 Eruyt / Eryth Sea – Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii) – Manami Kiyota
  11. 0:57:20 Underwater 1 – Croc (PS1) – Justin Scharvona

Post Quiz Music

  • 0:58:50 Medusa Bay – Ecco the Dolphin (GEN) – Spencer Nilsen, Brian Coburn, András Magyari
  • 1:05:26 [Bedding] Map – Waterworld (SNES) – Dean Evans
  • 1:06:36 [Bedding] Storm – Spider-Man and the X-Men in Arcade’s Revenge (SNES) – Geoff Follin, Tim Follin
  • 1:11:44 Title – Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future (DC/PS2) – Tim Follin

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