Screen Magazine: Vol. 29, Issue 9

Screen Magazine - Index

Screen Magazine - Screen Magazine: Vol. 29, Issue 9 - Index

Reporting on the advertising industry has always been
rewarding at SCREEN – for all those who have delved headfirst
into the sea of creativity then rise back to the surface
with an elusive treasure. That statement has never been
more accurate when speaking of GameBeat Studios.
GameBeat was founded by 24-year music industry veteran
songwriter and producer Darryl S. Duncan. Duncan originally
attended the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago
and studied Jazz piano and Electronic Music before signing
a major publishing deal with A&M Records and later Warner
Brothers Music in Los Angeles, where he served as a staff
writer for eight years, writing for established artists looking
for material. Darryl’s career in the mainstream industry was
highly successful, having pinned songs for Jeffrey Osborne,
Chaka Khan, Shanice Wilson, Sharon Bryant and R. Kelly,
to name a few. Duncan himself was even a solo artist
on Motown Records. Duncan has had numerous Top 40charting
singles, a number one record and his work has also
been featured in major motion pictures.
GameBeat originally started as a music house that served
the gaming industry and has since evolved into a highly
decorated music company for the commercial advertising
industry. In 1994, Duncan was hired to start and manage the
audio department for Electronic Art’s Florida. At EA Florida,
Duncan was the lead composer and sound designer
for the enormously popular “John Madden Football”
video game franchise as well as “NCAA Football.” After
overseeing the audio development at EA Florida for over
three years Duncan stepped out to form GameBeat Studios
in 1998. GameBeat Studios immediately began to gain
considerable recognition in the gaming industry, leading
to their involvement in several other high profile game
titles. Duncan’s company was responsible for the audio in
top selling video games such as Microsoft’s “Zoo Tycoon,”
“Dance Dance Revolution” and “The Sims,” to name a few.
Since its formation, GameBeat has provided the music and
sound design in a variety of ad campaigns and has won
�� Visit www.screenmag.tv for more daily news than ever before!
��
By Robert Leach
numerous awards for its work. Based in the Chicago area,
GameBeat maintains and utilizes an exclusive network
of some of the area’s top musicians and vocalists for the
various projects they work on. Since 2003, GameBeat has
pinned spots for Wal-Mart, Toyota, McDonald’s, Budweiser,
Miller Beer, Volkswagen, Kraft Foods, ComEd, Tyson, The
Illinois State Lottery, Altoids, Sears, Motorola and The Kalahari
Resort Hotels.
In addition to being one of the most versatile and wildly
creative music houses we’ve come across in a long time, we
also get the sense that there are still many more advertising
agency creative teams that can benefit from musical talent
like Duncan. While GameBeat does indeed specialize in
Urban music and can pump out strong Urban tracks almost
effortlessly, few realize the true versatility of this award-winning
team. In fact Darryl would be the first to tell you that they are
equally as comfortable and equally as capable producing
Pop, Rock, Folk, Atmospheric, Country, Ballads, Jazz, Dance,
Funk, Children’s Music or anything in between.
Here is a quick resume for our readers to chew on: in the last
two years, GameBeat has won 13 top industry awards, eight
Telly awards, three Addy awards and two Millennium awards.
The awards didn’t just recognize GameBeat’s outstanding
Urban music scores but included Orchestral Classical and
Latin style music for the Illinois Lottery general market account
and the infectious theme they composed for the popular
Kalahari Water Park Resort. In fact, GameBeat produced the
entire award-winning 2007 summer campaign for the Illinois
State Lottery’s general and Hispanic campaigns.
Aside from their above average musical creativity, one of the
many qualities that make GameBeat so unique is the fact
that Duncan’s background as a hit-making songwriter and
producer means that he is capable of bringing much more
to the table than just music. As Duncan explains, “So often in
this industry the term ‘making beats’ is tossed around when
referring to music composition and production. I strongly
feel that ‘making beats’ is not making music even when
speaking about Urban music, and that too often lyric and
melody seem to be an afterthought or completely forgotten.
I feel that, in all forms of music, it is the lyric and melody that
make a piece of music truly memorable, not just the music
alone, and isn’t that what music for advertising is all about
– something that the mind will truly remember?”
GameBeat’s facilities are fully equipped with the latest
digital audio workstation technology. The staff’s weapons of
choice are the industry standard ProTools systems. Duncan’s
personal composition station is surrounded by a variety of
musical instruments, software and hardware tools. They also
maintain a massive sound effects library to enhance the
projects they score. Duncan says, “I feel it is crucial to have
all the toys to make the noise, so to speak. I think one must
invest heavily in technology while maintaining that human