WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound is a music production company known for its creation of music for numerous video games. Since 2014, WaveGroup has been the official sound design team for Facebook.
History
WaveGroup Sound was originally co-founded by engineer James Allen and musician Will Littlejohn in Brisbane, California, doing audio post production for film, commercials, and corporate training videos.[1] WaveGroup relocated to the Silicon Valley 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 games, producing music for popular series like Karaoke Revolution, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and others.[2][3]
WaveGroup's sound design 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 and others.[4]
WaveGroup produced in-app notification sounds for Facebook's Messenger, Slingshot, and Instagram Bolt instant messaging platforms, and in 2014 the company became Facebook's official in-house sound design team.[5]
Partial music game portfolio
WaveGroup produced many or all of the songs or song covers for some of these video game titles.
- Beatmania (US) / Beatmania IIDX 11: IIDX RED (JP)
- Brooktown High
- Guitar Hero
- Guitar Hero II
- Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
- Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
- Guitar Hero: On Tour
- Guitar Hero World Tour (DLC Only)
- Samba de Amigo
- Rock Band (DLC packs as well)
- Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 4
- Dance Dance Revolution Universe
- Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3
Awards
- 2005 Spike Video Game Awards - 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
- Barlas, Pete (2 March 1997). "Firm makes waves with sound mixing". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- Jackson, Blair (1 February 2008). ""Guitar Hero" Rocks: WaveGroup Carves Its Niche In Interactive Video Games". Mixonline.com. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- Hochberg, Bill (2 August 2008). "Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Rock 'n' Roll Money Machine". wired.com. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
- Andersen, Derek. "Wave Group Sound; The Guts Behind Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Jambox's Audio". startupgrind.com. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
- Etherington, Darrell (26 August 2014). "Facebook Hires The Team From WaveGroup Sound, An Audio Production Company". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved 20 January 2022.
External links
- Spike TV 2006 Video Game Awards
- Company press release
- Company produced live action QuickTime of studio's Guitar Hero II work process