WaveGroup Sound is a music production company known for its creation of

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

for numerous video games. Since 2014, WaveGroup has been the official

sound design Sound design is the art and practice of creating sound tracks for a variety of needs. It involves specifying, acquiring or creating auditory elements using audio production techniques and tools. It is employed in a variety of disciplines including ...

team for

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

History

WaveGroup Sound was originally co-founded by

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...

James Allen and musician Will Littlejohn in

Brisbane, California Brisbane (pron. , unlike Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) is a small city located in California in the northern part of San Mateo County on the lower slopes of San Bruno Mountain. It is located on the southern border of San Francisco, on the ...

, doing

audio post production Audio post production is all stages of audio production relating to sound produced and synchronized with moving picture (film, television, or video). It involves sound design, sound effects, Foley, ADR, sound editing, audio mixing, mastering et ...

for film, commercials, and corporate training videos. WaveGroup relocated to the

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

in 1996, with Littlejohn later acquiring full ownership of the company. WaveGroup's work shifted to video game music and sound design, and by the early 2000s the company was the leading producer of music for interactive

music video game A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...

s, producing music for popular series like

Karaoke Revolution ''Karaoke Revolution'' and its sequels are video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games. The Original Conce ...

, Rock Band,

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs ...

, and others. WaveGroup's

work includes sounds for the Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset and JAMBOX Bluetooth speaker. The company also did Interactive Voice Response (IVR) work for major corporations such as American Express and

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is o ...

and others. WaveGroup produced in-app notification sounds for Facebook's Messenger,

Slingshot A slingshot is a small hand-powered projectile weapon. The classic form consists of a Y-shaped frame, with two natural rubber strips or tubes attached to the upper two ends. The other ends of the strips lead back to a pocket that holds the pro ...

, and Instagram Bolt

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

platforms, and in 2014 the company became Facebook's official in-house sound design team.

Partial music game portfolio

WaveGroup produced many or all of the songs or song covers for some of these video game titles. * ''

Beatmania (styled as ''beatmania'') is a rhythm video game developed and distributed by Japanese game developer Konami and first released in December 1997. It contributed largely to the boom of music games in 1998, and the series expanded not only wit ...

'' (US) / '' Beatmania IIDX 11: IIDX RED'' (JP) * '' Brooktown High'' * ''

'' * ''

Guitar Hero II ''Guitar Hero II'' is a music rhythm video game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 and Activision for the Xbox 360. It is the second main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series and is the sequel to 2005 ...

'' * '' Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s'' * '' Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'' * '' Guitar Hero: Aerosmith'' * '' Guitar Hero: On Tour'' * ''

Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero IV'' or ''Guitar Hero IV: World Tour'') is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' ...

'' (DLC Only) * ''

Samba de Amigo is a rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. The game was released in arcades in December 1999, and for the Dreamcast video game console in 2000. A port for the Wii was also developed by Gearbox Software and Escalation Studio ...

'' * '' Rock Band'' (DLC packs as well) * ''

Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4 The ''Dance Dance Revolution'' series started in 1998 and has grown to a large set of games in the franchise. This list of ''Dance Dance Revolution'' games documents games released, including systems, formats, and regions for which the games were ...

'' * ''

Dance Dance Revolution Universe ''Dance Dance Revolution Universe'' (also known as Dancing Stage Universe in Europe) is a music video game. It was released as a part of Dance Dance Revolution franchise by Konami for the Xbox 360. The game was unveiled on May 9, 2006 at the El ...

'' * ''

Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 ''Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3'', sometimes abbreviated as ''DDR Universe 3'', is a video game for Xbox 360. It was announced by Konami on May 15, 2008, and released on October 21, 2008. The game has new songs, a story mode, the ability to cre ...

Awards

*2005

Spike Video Game Awards The Spike Video Game Awards (in short VGAs, known as the VGX for the final show) was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 to 2013 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by ...

- Best Soundtrack for Guitar Hero *2005 Game Developers Choice Awards - Best Audio for Guitar Hero *2006 AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack for Guitar Hero *2006 BAFTA Games Awards - Soundtrack for Guitar Hero *2006 Spike Video Game Awards - Best Soundtrack for Guitar Hero II *2006 Game Developers Choice Awards - Best Audio for Guitar Hero II *2007 Spike Video Game Awards - Best Soundtrack for Rock Band

References

External links

Spike TV 2006 Video Game Awards
Facebook {{US-videogame-company-stub