- Mark Knight (musician)
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Mark 'madfiddler' Knight - website photo
Mark Knight, also known as madfiddler, "TDK" (or The Dark Knight) is a well-known Amiga demoscene musician, video game composer/sound designer and electric violinist.
Born January 8, 1973, in Brighton, England, the oldest of two children, he received his musical education during his school years from his Polish Grandfather, Edward Hanka, Heather Cowl, and Andrew Sherwood.
As a member of Melon Dezign and Anthrox, his chip music sounds often appeared in Crystal and Anthrox cracktro's. As a game musician, he converted several existing game tunes to the Amiga, and also made a number of original compositions for many formats from the Nintendo Entertainment System through to the PlayStation and PC.
After leaving the Amiga demo scene in 1993, he has worked for the computer game developers - Mindscape Group, 3D Realms, Bullfrog Productions, Electronic Arts, Climax Group, Visual Science and is currently working for Codemasters. His notable music compositions are used in titles such as Dungeon Keeper 2, Populous: The Beginning, Warhammer: Dark Omen, Wing Commander amiga version, Duke Nukem 3D Total Meltdown, and he has since had sound design credits in games such as the Develop Magazine Audio Accomplishment nominated Race Driver: GRID, Develop Magazine Best art and sound nominated Sudeki, Shox, Formula One, and Theme Park World - which won a BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards award in 2000 for 'best sound in a video game'.
In 2011 TDK came out of retirement to release two new chiptunes under the name "Mark 'TDK' Knight.
As a semi professional electric violinist, Mark performs live under the pseudonym madfiddler. He has played, amongst others, the folk punk band Tricks Upon Travellers (1994-2000), K-Passa (2000-2001) - (2008-present), Blue Horses (2002-2003), 4-4-2 (2004), Laura Kenny (2006), Silver Dogs (2006-2007), Bleeding Hearts (2008-2010) and has worked as a session musician for bands such as Pepe Deluxé, The Divine Comedy, C64 Audio.com, and Massive Attack. He is currently playing with electric ceilidh band 'MoonDance', the DJ led improvising crew 'DiscQuartet', Bristol based 'K-Passa', and the Commodore 64 rock covers band 'SID80s'. Mark is also the demonstrator for the electric violin manufacturer 'Bridge Violins', and is also the owner/administrator of the 'Fiddle and Alternative Strings Forum'. In 2010 Mark performed with the electric violin on 'The Dividing Line' by neo-progressive rock supergroup Frost*.
Mark is currently based near Leamington Spa in England.
Contents
Music Discography
- CyberSpeed Unleashed (2011)
- Quirky (FortressCraft Credits (2011)
- Immortal 4 featuring Captive 2: Liberation Theme (2011)
Game Discography
- Alfred Chicken - Mindscape Group
- Battleships - Mindscape Group
- Battletoads - Mindscape Group
- Captive 2: Liberation - Mindscape Group
- Colin McRae: DiRT 2 - Codemasters
- DiRT 3 - Codemasters
- .ComBots - Electronic Arts
- CyberSpeed - Mindscape Group
- Duke Nukem 3D Total Meltdown - GT Interactive
- Dungeon Keeper 2 - Electronic Arts
- D/Generation - Mindscape Group
- Dragon Lore - Mindscape Group
- EA Sports Cyberathlete - Electronic Arts
- Evasive Action - Mindscape Group
- Formula One 2000 - Electronic Arts
- Formula One 2000 Championship Edition - Electronic Arts
- Formula One 2001 - Electronic Arts
- Formula One 2002 - Electronic Arts
- Formula One 2003 - Electronic Arts
- Formula One 2009 - Codemasters
- Formula One 2010 - Codemasters
- Formula One 2011 - Codemasters
- FortressCraft - ProjectorGames
- Guy Spy
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Electronic Arts
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Electronic Arts
- Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup - Electronic Arts
- Mario's Mission Earth - Mindscape Group
- Mario's Time Machine - Mindscape Group
- Metal Gear Solid Mobile - Konami
- Out to Lunch - Mindscape Group
- Outlander - Mindscape Group
- Overkill/Lunar C - Mindscape Group
- Populous: The Beginning - Electronic Arts
- Quake 3 - Electronic Arts
- Race Driver: GRID - Codemasters
- Sim Life - Mindscape Group
- Sim City 2000 - Mindscape Group
- Shox - Electronic Arts
- Sudeki - Microsoft Studios / Climax Group
- Superbikes 2000 - Electronic Arts
- Supersonic Racers - Mindscape Group
- Theme Hospital - demo music - Electronic Arts
- Theme Park World - BAFTA award winner for sound design - Electronic Arts
- Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat - Mindscape Group
- Warhammer: Dark Omen - Electronic Arts
- Wing Commander - Mindscape Group
Violin Discography
- 4-4-2 - Come on England
- C64Audio - Back in Time 3
- K-Passa - Born Again
- Pepe Deluxe - Beatitude
- SilverDogs - SilverDogs
- Tricks Upon Travellers - The Last Fish Supper
- Tricks Upon Travellers - Where the Skeletons Dance
- Tricks Upon Travellers - Acoustic Live and Uncut
- Frost* - The Dividing Line
References
External links
- 'madfiddler' website - Mark's official Electric Violin site.
- Gamesounds website - Mark's official Game Audio site.
- TDK on Facebook
- TDK on Soundcloud
- Fiddle and Alternative Strings Forum - Large electric strings section here, run by Mark to promote string instruments in non-classical music.
- Profile at Amiga Music Preservation - Details of Mark's Commodore Amiga work.
- TDK chip music collection - Details of Mark's chiptune work.
- Mark Knight on Exotica - Another Amiga music orientated site.
- MoonDance Ceilidh Band - One of the many bands in which Mark plays on occasion.
Categories:- 1973 births
- Demosceners
- English composers
- English electric violinists
- Living people
- People from Brighton
- Rock violinists
- Tracker musicians
- Video game composers
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