Maclaine Diemer

Maclaine Diemer is a multimedia music composer. He worked on sound design and composing music for the Rock Band game series, and massively multiplayer online game (MMO) Guild Wars 2.[1][2][3]

Early life

Maclaine started playing guitar when he was 12. He enjoyed listening to the classic rock music genre with his parents, namely the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. During his older years Maclaine enjoyed listening to Van Halen and The Beach Boys.[4]

Maclaine studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and graduated in 2003.[5][6]

Career

In June 2008, Maclaine started working as a sound designer and composer at Harmonix Music Systems for 2 years. During this time, he worked on sound design and composing music for many of Harmonix's games. He worked on The Beatles: Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Rock Band 3. Maclaine left Harmonix in July 2010 to work at ArenaNet.[1]

In July 2010, Maclaine joined the ArenaNet team as a sound designer for the game Guild Wars 2, and later in 2012 he became the company's lead composer for the game.[2] During his time as lead composer, he worked on soundtracks for Guild Wars 2's Living World Season 1, Living World Season 2, Guild Wars 2: Heart Of Thorns, Living World Season 3,[7] Guild Wars 2: Path Of Fire, and Living World Season 4.[8]

In April 2019, Maclaine stepped down as lead composer at ArenaNet to pursue other projects. However, he is still writing music for Guild Wars 2.[9]

In July 2022, Maclaine joined Cyan Worlds as the composer for the adventure game Firmament.[10]

Musical style and influences

Maclaine influences come from a variety of artists and film scores. One of the biggest influences for Maclaine is John Williams in the Star Wars franchise. Other inspirations for Maclaine are Jerry Goldsmith in the Star Trek franchise, Howard Shore in the Lord Of The Rings, and Bernard Herman.[11]

While working on Living World Season 2 for Guild Wars 2, Maclaine wanted to record some of the soundtracks in a live orchestra. He collaborated with Dynamedion to record the music in Berlin, Budapest, and Seattle. The music for the announcement trailer for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns was also composed in a live orchestra.[12][2]

Legacy

The music that Maclaine and Lena Chappelle composed for Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns was played in a live orchestra by The Evergreen Philharmonic Orchestra. The Orchestra involved many students from Issaquah High School, and they played multiple soundtracks featured in Heart of Thorns.[13][14][15]

Ludography

Awards
Year Award Category Work Contribution
2009 Game Audio Network Guild Best use of licensed music[17] Rock Band 2 Composer & Sound Design
2010 Game Audio Network Guild Best use of licensed music[18] The Beatles: Rock Band
2011 Academy of Interactive arts & sciences Outstanding achievement in soundtrack[19] Rock Band 3
2012 IGN Best PC Game[20] Guild Wars 2 Sound Design
IGN Best MMO[21] Guild Wars 2
2015 Ten Ton Hammer Game of the year[22] Guild Wars 2 Lead Composer
2019 Techradar Best MMOs in 2019[23] Guild Wars 2

References
  1. QuintLyn. “Exclusive Interview: Guild Wars 2 Path Of Fire Composer Maclaine Diemer.” MMO Bomb, 26 Oct. 2017, www.mmobomb.com/exclusive-interview-guild-wars-2-path-fire-composer-maclaine-diemer/.
  2. “TESTIMONIAL • ORCHESTRA.” DYNAMEDION, 1 June 2017, https://dynamedion.com/services/live-recording/maclaine-diemer/.
  3. Purchese, Robert (16 August 2013). "Guild Wars 2 fastest-selling MMO ever apparently". EuroGamer.
  4. Corvus, creator. Corvus Interviews Maclaine Diemer, Composer for Guild Wars 2. YouTube, 13 Feb. 2015,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27NeNBbN-pY TimeStamp: 27:00
  5. "2018 GameSoundCon Speakers and Panelists". GameSoundCon. 2018.
  6. "About to go to Berklee College of music". Reddit. 13 December 2018.
  7. Olivetti, Justin. “Justin Olivetti.” Massively Overpowered, 19 Apr. 2017, massivelyop.com/2017/04/19/maclaine-diemer-opens-up-about-composing-guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns/.
  8. Olivetti, Justin. “Justin Olivetti.” Massively Overpowered, 30 May 2019, https://massivelyop.com/2019/06/02/jukebox-heroes-the-best-of-guild-wars-2s-season-4-soundtrack/.
  9. Diemer, Maclaine. Twitter, Twitter, 26 Apr. 2019, twitter.com/maclainediemer/status/1121889008810745856.
  10. Diemer, Maclaine. Twitter, Twitter, 6 Jul. 2022, twitter.com/maclainediemer/status/1544761760195887104.
  11. Corvus, creator. Corvus Interviews Maclaine Diemer, Composer for Guild Wars 2. YouTube, 13 Feb. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27NeNBbN-pY TimeStamp: 31:00
  12. Corvus,creator Corvus Interviews Maclaine Diemer, Composer for Guild Wars 2. YouTube, 13 Feb. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27NeNBbN-pY. TimeStamp: 6:00
  13. Cao, Jaime (27 April 2017). "Orchestra of local students plays 'video game concert'".
  14. "Music from Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns with the Evergreen Philharmonic". Youtube. 13 April 2017.
  15. "Enjoy Music from Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns With the Evergreen Philharmonic". Guild Wars 2. 13 April 2017.
  16. Diemer, Maclaine. "Music". MaclaineDiemer.com. Maclaine Diemer. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  17. Plunkett, Luke. "The Video Game Audio Awards". Kotaku.
  18. "2010 Awards". Game Audio Network Guild. 11 March 2010.
  19. "2011 AWARDS CATEGORY DETAILS". Academy of Interactive arts & sciences. 2011.
  20. "Best of 2012 Wiki Guide". IGN. 19 December 2012.
  21. "Best PC MMO Game". 19 December 2012.
  22. "best of 2015 awards". Ten Ton Hammer. 29 March 2016.
  23. Boyle, Emma; Hood, Vic; St Leger, Henry (8 February 2019). "The best MMO games 2019: live a second life on console and PC". Techradar.
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