Richard Joseph

Richard Joseph (23 April1953 - 4 March 2007) was a British computer game composer, musician and sound specialist. He had a career spanning some 20 years starting in the early days of gaming on the C64 and the Amiga and onto succeeding formats through to the present day.

After being diagnosed with lung cancer, he died on 4 March, 2007 aged 53 years. [cite web | url=http://www.remix64.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=4493 | title=Remix64.com forums | accessdate=2007-03-05]

Biography

Richard was considered a pioneer of games audio being noted for bringing "real" voice actors into a game for the first time ("Mega Lo Mania"), the earliest use of interactive music ("Chaos Engine"), working with established recording artists (Betty Boo on "Magic Pockets", Captain Sensible on "Sensible Soccer", Brian May on "Rise of the Robots" and Jon Foxx on "Gods" and "Speedball 2"), and featuring vocals in title tunes, which was revolutionary for the time.

In the late 80s / early 90s he produced soundtracks for superstar development teams Sensible Software and the Bitmap Brothers. He is also credited with the soundtrack to the C64 version of the hit Defender Of The Crown.

He then went on to set up Audio Interactive at Pinewood film studios and, along with composer James Hannigan, helped Electronic Arts to win the BAFTA Award for best audio in 2000 for "Theme Park World". Richard's own soundtrack for "Cannon Fodder" GBA was nominated in the same year, and is still the only small-format soundtrack to be recognised by BAFTA to this day.

After producing the soundtracks for "" and "Evil Genius" for Elixir Studios (music composed by James Hannigan), both winning Bafta nominations for music, Richard moved to France where he ran SoundTropez, a company offering next-technology soundtracks.

Trivia

Prior to working in games Richard had a fleeting career in the music industry working with such luminaries as Trevor Horn and Hugh Padgham. Richard released one solo single on EMI and was part of the group CMU which released two albums on Transatlantic before evolving into jazz funk band Shakatak.

Richard came from an entertainment family. Brother Eddy is a Bafta-winning sound supervisor, working on films such as Harry Potter and James Bond. Brother Pat is a director of The Mill which won an Oscar for "Gladiator". Nephew Alex is a foley supervisor. Richard's Father Teddy (1918-2006) was a production executive working on, amongst many others, films by John Schlesinger and Alfred Hitchcock.

External links

Articles and interviews

* [http://www.c64.com/ C64.COM audio interviews]
* [http://www.remix64.com/interview_richard_joseph.html Remix64 interview]
* [http://www.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=52 Idlethumbs interview]
* [http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/evilgenius/preview_6104515.html Gamespot interview]
* [http://www.ilex-press.com/publishing/pdf/Game_development_sample.pdf Gamemusic article]

Websites

* [http://richardjose.ph Main website - richardjose.ph]
* [http://soundtropez.richardjose.ph SoundTropez]
* [http://www.ocremix.org/composer/id/508/richard-joseph/ Composer profile] at OverClocked ReMix
*

Sites featuring lists of Joseph's games and game music rips

* [http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1740/ RJ listing at Mobygames]

References