Neil Voss (born October 7, 1974) is a

video game composer Video game music (or VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to ...

. Voss' first recognized work was on ''

Tetrisphere ''Tetrisphere'' is a Puzzle video game, puzzle video game developed by H2O Entertainment and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in North America on August 11, 1997, and in PAL regions in February 1998. The game, originally ...

'' for Nintendo 64 in 1997, an acclaimed effort that earned him a "Best Soundtrack" award from '' Nintendo Power'' for that year. Later he composed tracks for ''

The New Tetris ''The New Tetris'' is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo 64. The game was developed by H2O Entertainment and published by Nintendo, based on the latter's popular ''Tetris'' series. The game was originally released on July 31, 1999, in North Amer ...

'' in 1999, also for Nintendo 64. Voss later moved to working on the Game Boy Advance, producing soundtracks for '' Racing Gears Advance'' in collaboration with Orbital Media Inc. Many of his compositions for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

are available in

The High Voltage SID Collection The MOS Technology 6581/8580 SID (Sound Interface Device) is the built-in programmable sound generator chip of Commodore's CBM-II, Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Commodore MAX Machine home computers. It was one of the first sound chips of it ...

Background

At the early age of 12, Neil Voss began playing with electronic music on his Commodore 64 and this hobby soon became a big part of his life. He later became an underground electronic music developer, but saw his fellow composers signing to game developers, and so he joined H2O, a third-party developer for

Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French publisher Atari SA through a subsidiary named Atari Interactive. The original Atari, Inc. (1972–1992), Atari, Inc., ...

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus '' Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the th ...

. His first project was ''Phear'', but after Jaguar failed, it was moved to Nintendo and expanded into ''

''. As audio director, Voss produced, composed, and engineered the whole soundtrack for ''Tetrisphere'', which some say made the game a hit. Voss went on to create more hit techno music in the N64 puzzle game, ''

''. This soundtrack became an instant favorite. Later, in 2005, Voss worked on '' Racing Gears Advance'' for Game Boy Advance. which won for "Best Use of Sound" by ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

''.IGN.com presents The Best of 2005
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References

– Interview with Neil Voss (Part I) at ''

'' on June 15, 1998
Interview With Neil Voss (Part II)
at ''IGN'' on June 16, 1998
Neil Voss: The Melody Behind the Addiction
– Interview with Voss at ''Nintendojo''

External links

Performing at Blip Festival in 2006
(video), courtesy of 2PlayerProductions
List of Neil Voss' songs
at Last.fm * 1974 births American male composers 21st-century American composers Living people Video game composers People from Tampa, Florida Musicians from Tampa, Florida 21st-century American male musicians {{videogame-musician-stub