113-509: Monstercat (formerly known as Monstercat Media ) is a Canadian independent electronic music record label based in Vancouver , British Columbia . Founded in 2011 by Mike Darlington and Ari Paunonen, the label released regular compilation albums featuring music from various artists, beginning with the release of its first compilation album, Monstercat 001 – Launch Week . Until the release of Monstercat 030 – Finale in 2017, each compilation
226-405: A PA system , several turntables, and mixers. The performance did not go well, as creating live montages with turntables had never been done before." Later that same year, Pierre Henry collaborated with Schaeffer on Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950) the first major work of musique concrete. In Paris in 1951, in what was to become an important worldwide trend, RTF established the first studio for
339-466: A slide show synchronized with a recorded soundtrack. Composers outside of the Jikken Kōbō, such as Yasushi Akutagawa , Saburo Tominaga, and Shirō Fukai , were also experimenting with radiophonic tape music between 1952 and 1953. Musique concrète was introduced to Japan by Toshiro Mayuzumi , who was influenced by a Pierre Schaeffer concert. From 1952, he composed tape music pieces for a comedy film,
452-404: A base for the soundtrack. What followed was an EDM soundtrack inspired by early-to-mid 2000s progressive house music that Ault and Psyonix felt "embodied the spirit of the game." When in-game, the music is controlled using the playlist system "Rocket League Radio". Positive feedback from players, in addition to Ault's vision of a "big budget" playlist sound emulating Triple-A sports games such as
565-476: A chat interaction and monetization service for Twitch. Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 1 , an eighteen-track album published as part of the collaboration, was released on July 5, 2017. It features contributions from Aero Chord , Conro , Darren Styles , Ephixa , Notaker , Slushii , Vicetone , and other Monstercat artists. Its cover art , depicting the Monstercat logo painted on the hood of an Octane,
678-465: A common household item, and by the 1920s composers were using them to play short recordings in performances. The introduction of electrical recording in 1925 was followed by increased experimentation with record players. Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch composed several pieces in 1930 by layering recordings of instruments and vocals at adjusted speeds. Influenced by these techniques, John Cage composed Imaginary Landscape No. 1 in 1939 by adjusting
791-550: A game and/or in training. Upon the game's release in July 2015, a random selection of songs in the game were cycled in the menus. This was changed in September 2015, when the function to skip to another track was added. The option to toggle specific playlists was added in July 2017, allowing players to play specific albums and playlists. Reception towards Ault and Hollywood Principle's soundtrack from players have been positive. In
904-510: A label record 161 million views on Monstercat's YouTube channel As of December 2019. These views contributed to the artist earning $ 21 million the year after the video's release. In June 2017, Monstercat partnered with Psyonix to promote the second anniversary of the video game Rocket League by releasing Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 1 , an 18-song album from artists who had previously signed songs to Monstercat, including Slushii , Aero Chord and Vicetone . The album
1017-635: A label. The launch event for the stream was a DJ set by Monstercat artist Stephen Walking. Monstercat FM was eventually added to YouTube and Microsoft -owned live-streaming website Mixer . Since 2015, Monstercat has participated in multiple music festivals . One such festival was the Amsterdam Dance Event . Billboard described their 2015 show as "a three-hour mixer outing". In May 2016, Monstercat signed American producer Marshmello 's single, " Alone ". Its music video has amassed over 2 billion views combined across YouTube, including
1130-524: A medium to promote their friends and their music, was created the same day, and began a tri-weekly upload schedule in October. The young students were later responsible for the creation of the label's uniform compilation albums. The team moved to their current offices in Vancouver in 2012 after Darlington and Paunonen finished school. In July 2014, Monstercat surpassed one million in record sales across
1243-998: A number of musicians, ranging from Neil Rolnick , Charles Amirkhanian and Alice Shields to rock musicians Frank Zappa and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band . Following the emergence of differences within the GRMC (Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète) Pierre Henry, Philippe Arthuys, and several of their colleagues, resigned in April 1958. Schaeffer created a new collective, called Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and set about recruiting new members including Luc Ferrari , Beatriz Ferreyra , François-Bernard Mâche , Iannis Xenakis , Bernard Parmegiani , and Mireille Chamass-Kyrou . Later arrivals included Ivo Malec , Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton and François Bayle . These were fertile years for electronic music—not just for academia, but for independent artists as synthesizer technology became more accessible. By this time,
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#17327730023651356-608: A partnership with Linden Labs to bring live music experiences into the developer's virtual reality game, Sansar . The collaboration, called the Monstercat: Call of the Wild Experience , began on 12 July, and hosts a live virtual reality alternative to Monstercat's weekly Call of the Wild radio show. On 9 February 2021, Monstercat announced that they had acquired progressive house label Silk Music to form
1469-506: A platform for getting their music out there. In August 2014, Monstercat published a manifesto calling for the reform of copyright law. In it, they described their desire to allow musicians more freedom in sampling other musicians' recordings. In December 2014, Monstercat launched Monstercat FM as part of live-streaming service Twitch 's start in music broadcasting. Monstercat FM is a 24/7 radio station-like Twitch stream featuring many of Monstercat's releases from throughout their history as
1582-697: A public concert in New York together with other compositions I had written for conventional instruments." Otto Luening, who had attended this concert, remarked: "The equipment at his disposal consisted of an Ampex tape recorder . . . and a simple box-like device designed by the brilliant young engineer, Peter Mauzey, to create feedback, a form of mechanical reverberation. Other equipment was borrowed or purchased with personal funds." Just three months later, in August 1952, Ussachevsky traveled to Bennington, Vermont, at Luening's invitation to present his experiments. There,
1695-465: A radio broadcast, and a radio drama. However, Schaeffer's concept of sound object was not influential among Japanese composers, who were mainly interested in overcoming the restrictions of human performance. This led to several Japanese electroacoustic musicians making use of serialism and twelve-tone techniques , evident in Yoshirō Irino 's 1951 dodecaphonic piece "Concerto da Camera", in
1808-547: A release schedule of four times a week and a podcast episode in-between. In another first for the label, 9 August saw a collaborative single with Sumerian Records . Called " Kneel Before Me ", produced by Slander and Crankdat , and featuring Asking Alexandria , the single was praised across both the electronic and rock music industries. In September 2018, two weeks before Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 4 released, Gavin Johnson, Head of Gaming for Monstercat, spoke of
1921-421: A review for Business Insider , Ben Gilbert cites the soundtrack as a contributor to the game's feel of a "madman’s vision for future soccer." The soundtrack also gained favorable notes from USgamer ' s Jaz Rignall and PlayStation Universe's Neil Bolt in their respective reviews for Rocket League , describing it as "upbeat" and well fitting in the game. Ault had personally noted the positive reaction to
2034-810: A score. In 1955, more experimental and electronic studios began to appear. Notable were the creation of the Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano , a studio at the NHK in Tokyo founded by Toshiro Mayuzumi , and the Philips studio at Eindhoven , the Netherlands, which moved to the University of Utrecht as the Institute of Sonology in 1960. "With Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in residence, [Cologne] became
2147-460: A significant influence on popular music , with the adoption of polyphonic synthesizers , electronic drums , drum machines, and turntables , through the emergence of genres such as disco , krautrock , new wave , synth-pop , hip hop , and EDM . In the early 1980s mass-produced digital synthesizers , such as the Yamaha DX7 , became popular, and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
2260-418: A split in branding into two distinct themes, "Uncaged" and "Instinct", citing the diversity of their music library. This was accompanied by the creation of a separate channel, named Monstercat: Instinct. The Instinct brand features music that has a prominent focus on melodic aspects, including genres such as house and future bass . The change included a retirement of the tri-weekly release schedule in favour of
2373-567: A strong community of composers and musicians working with new sounds and instruments was established and growing. 1960 witnessed the composition of Luening's Gargoyles for violin and tape as well as the premiere of Stockhausen's Kontakte for electronic sounds, piano, and percussion. This piece existed in two versions—one for 4-channel tape, and the other for tape with human performers. "In Kontakte , Stockhausen abandoned traditional musical form based on linear development and dramatic climax. This new approach, which he termed 'moment form', resembles
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#17327730023652486-427: A third brand under the Monstercat label, titled "Monstercat Silk". The brand was promoted to focus on the progressive aspect of electronic music, continuing its signature style of progressive house and trance among similar genres. In the deal, Silk Music director Jacob Henry retained his directorial position with the brand. Silk Music's YouTube channel and social media accounts were rebranded to "Monstercat Silk" alongside
2599-454: A year-round hive of charismatic avant-gardism." on two occasions combining electronically generated sounds with relatively conventional orchestras—in Mixtur (1964) and Hymnen, dritte Region mit Orchester (1967). Stockhausen stated that his listeners had told him his electronic music gave them an experience of "outer space", sensations of flying, or being in a "fantastic dream world". In
2712-420: Is a compilation of electronic dance music (EDM) produced and curated by Psyonix audio director Mike Ault. It currently features music from 45 different artists, and has spawned a discography of four albums and four extended plays . The original soundtrack was produced by Ault and his band Hollywood Principle. Ault, having experimented with different genres, used personal projects unrelated to Rocket League as
2825-483: Is alone, a world of mystery and essential loneliness." In Cologne, what would become the most famous electronic music studio in the world, was officially opened at the radio studios of the NWDR in 1953, though it had been in the planning stages as early as 1950 and early compositions were made and broadcast in 1951. The brainchild of Werner Meyer-Eppler , Robert Beyer, and Herbert Eimert (who became its first director),
2938-595: Is best known for the 2016 release of the song " Alone " by American DJ Marshmello , which reached Platinum status in the United States and Canada in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The April Fool's Day release of " Crab Rave " by Irish music producer Noisestorm became an internet meme for months after its release. Monstercat Media was founded on 1 July 2011 by Mike Darlington (born 1989) and Ari Paunonen (born 1989/90), two university students from Waterloo, Ontario . The label's YouTube channel, which served as
3051-468: Is most recognizable in its 4/4 form and more connected with the mainstream than preceding forms which were popular in niche markets. At the turn of the 20th century, experimentation with emerging electronics led to the first electronic musical instruments . These initial inventions were not sold, but were instead used in demonstrations and public performances. The audiences were presented with reproductions of existing music instead of new compositions for
3164-718: Is to be realized as a magnetic tape. According to Otto Luening, Cage also performed Williams Mix at Donaueschingen in 1954, using eight loudspeakers, three years after his alleged collaboration. Williams Mix was a success at the Donaueschingen Festival , where it made a "strong impression". The Music for Magnetic Tape Project was formed by members of the New York School ( John Cage , Earle Brown , Christian Wolff , David Tudor , and Morton Feldman ), and lasted three years until 1954. Cage wrote of this collaboration: "In this social darkness, therefore,
3277-768: The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the late 1950s. Following his work with Studio d'Essai at Radiodiffusion Française (RDF), during the early 1940s, Pierre Schaeffer is credited with originating the theory and practice of musique concrète. In the late 1940s, experiments in sound-based composition using shellac record players were first conducted by Schaeffer. In 1950, the techniques of musique concrete were expanded when magnetic tape machines were used to explore sound manipulation practices such as speed variation ( pitch shift ) and tape splicing . On 5 October 1948, RDF broadcast Schaeffer's Etude aux chemins de fer . This
3390-569: The EA Sports titles, inspired him and the team to feature independent artists to be included in Rocket League ' s soundtrack. Ault credits the success of the soundtrack to the appeal of the EDM genre to the game's player base. In 2017, Canadian EDM label Monstercat partnered with Psyonix and began to feature its artists, and their music, in Rocket League , with multiple volumes featuring
3503-507: The Ensemble of electro-musical instruments [ ru ] , which used theremins, electric harps, electric organs, the first synthesizer in the USSR "Ekvodin", and also created the first Soviet reverb machine. The style in which Meshcherin's ensemble played is known as " Space age pop ". In 1957, engineer Igor Simonov assembled a working model of a noise recorder (electroeoliphone), with
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3616-485: The Rocket League soundtrack were credited to Hollywood Principle. Ault describes the Hollywood Principle discography as a "sincere attempt to actually do something with music", in contrast to his earlier solo work. Music produced by Ault and Hollywood Principle for Rocket League have been released on two soundtrack albums published by Psyonix. The first album was released on July 1, 2015, and included
3729-442: The dark fantasy game Hunted: The Demon's Forge . Ault began work at the studio as the lead sound designer on the gothic fantasy game Nosgoth , Psyonix's last project before Rocket League . When Ault began work on Rocket League in 2013, it marked a departure from six years of dark fantasy games; a change that Ault welcomed as he transitioned from "gory-type setting[s]" to "cars, boosts, and mechanical sounds." Ault oversaw
3842-432: The telharmonium , Hammond organ , electric piano and electric guitar . The first electronic musical devices were developed at the end of the 19th century. During the 1920s and 1930s, some electronic instruments were introduced and the first compositions featuring them were written. By the 1940s, magnetic audio tape allowed musicians to tape sounds and then modify them by changing the tape speed or direction, leading to
3955-484: The "Rocket League Throwback Anthem" by Warrnambool artist Adam B. Metal, who had previously composed the theme to Rocket League ' s predecessor, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars . In addition, notable video game composer Kevin Riepl , who had previously composed music for Gears of War , Crackdown 2 , Aliens: Colonial Marines , and Hawken , produced the track "Scorched Earth", which became
4068-500: The "Rumble" update. Afterwards, Ault entertained the possibility of "pushing someone that hasn't been exposed yet". The opportunity came after a friend of New Jersey artist Drunk Girl messaged Ault on Reddit , recommending his music to be featured. After being impressed by the song that was sent to him, Drunk Girl's "Don't Stop the Party" featuring vocalist Deanna, it would be added to the game's soundtrack. "Infinite Power!", "Don't Stop
4181-537: The 'cinematic splice' techniques in early twentieth-century film." The theremin had been in use since the 1920s but it attained a degree of popular recognition through its use in science-fiction film soundtrack music in the 1950s (e.g., Bernard Herrmann 's classic score for The Day the Earth Stood Still ). Music of Rocket League#Monstercat The music of Rocket League , a vehicular football video game developed and published by Psyonix ,
4294-445: The 1950s and algorithmic composition with computers was first demonstrated in the same decade. During the 1960s, digital computer music was pioneered, innovation in live electronics took place, and Japanese electronic musical instruments began to influence the music industry . In the early 1970s, Moog synthesizers and drum machines helped popularize synthesized electronic music. The 1970s also saw electronic music begin to have
4407-681: The Louisville Symphony and A Poem in Cycles and Bells , both for orchestra and tape. Because he had been working at Schaeffer's studio, the tape part for Varèse's work contains much more concrete sounds than electronic. "A group made up of wind instruments, percussion and piano alternate with the mutated sounds of factory noises and ship sirens and motors, coming from two loudspeakers." At the German premiere of Déserts in Hamburg, which
4520-525: The Party", remixes of Hollywood Principle's "Firework" by Edmonton producer Melad and "Spell" by California producer Sando, have not featured on an official album release, though do feature in Rocket League Radio as part of the "Unreleased Tracks" playlist. In June 2017, Canadian EDM label Monstercat announced a collaboration with Psyonix to provide the soundtrack to Rocket League ' s second anniversary update. Monstercat had identified
4633-475: The Philips studio in the Netherlands. The public remained interested in the new sounds being created around the world, as can be deduced by the inclusion of Varèse's Poème électronique , which was played over four hundred loudspeakers at the Philips Pavilion of the 1958 Brussels World Fair . That same year, Mauricio Kagel , an Argentine composer, composed Transición II . The work was realized at
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4746-450: The Poet , a 1959 series of electronic compositions that stood out for its immersion and seamless fusion of electronic and folk music , in contrast to the more mathematical approach used by serial composers of the time such as Babbitt. El-Dabh's Leiyla and the Poet , released as part of the album Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1961, would be cited as a strong influence by
4859-545: The United States following the end of World War II. These were the basis for the first commercially produced tape recorder in 1948. In 1944, before the use of magnetic tape for compositional purposes, Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh , while still a student in Cairo , used a cumbersome wire recorder to record sounds of an ancient zaar ceremony. Using facilities at the Middle East Radio studios El-Dabh processed
4972-454: The United States, electronic music was being created as early as 1939, when John Cage published Imaginary Landscape, No. 1 , using two variable-speed turntables, frequency recordings, muted piano, and cymbal, but no electronic means of production. Cage composed five more "Imaginary Landscapes" between 1942 and 1952 (one withdrawn), mostly for percussion ensemble, though No. 4 is for twelve radios and No. 5, written in 1952, uses 42 recordings and
5085-597: The WDR studio in Cologne. Two musicians performed on the piano, one in the traditional manner, the other playing on the strings, frame, and case. Two other performers used tape to unite the presentation of live sounds with the future of prerecorded materials from later on and its past of recordings made earlier in the performance. In 1958, Columbia-Princeton developed the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer ,
5198-748: The ancestor of the ORTF . Karlheinz Stockhausen worked briefly in Schaeffer's studio in 1952, and afterward for many years at the WDR Cologne's Studio for Electronic Music . 1954 saw the advent of what would now be considered authentic electric plus acoustic compositions—acoustic instrumentation augmented/accompanied by recordings of manipulated or electronically generated sound. Three major works were premiered that year: Varèse's Déserts , for chamber ensemble and tape sounds, and two works by Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky : Rhapsodic Variations for
5311-560: The announcement (with Monstercat retaining Silk's 24/7 YouTube streams and the Silk Music Showcase radio show), while Monstercat also announced that with the acquisition, they would be moving to having 6 releases a week, with each brand having 2 releases a week. On 17 September 2021, Monstercat and Westwood Recordings released an eight-track collaborative compilation album titled Compound 2021 , featuring artists such as The Funk Hunters, Kotek, and Defunk. It also coincides with
5424-641: The borrowed equipment in the back of Ussachevsky's car, we left Bennington for Woodstock and stayed two weeks. . . . In late September 1952, the travelling laboratory reached Ussachevsky's living room in New York, where we eventually completed the compositions." Two months later, on 28 October, Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening presented the first Tape Music concert in the United States. The concert included Luening's Fantasy in Space (1952)—"an impressionistic virtuoso piece" using manipulated recordings of flute—and Low Speed (1952), an "exotic composition that took
5537-479: The collaboration between the label and Psyonix : I met Josh Watson (Esports Operations Manager of Psyonix) at one of our Monstercat gaming-driven events during E3 of 2016. Shortly after, Josh introduced me to their Audio Director Mike Ault as he had a vision for how he wanted to approach music in Rocket League which mirrored that of our ethos with Monstercat. During our first call, it was clear that we shared
5650-412: The composition of microtonal music allowed for by electronic instruments. He predicted the use of machines in future music, writing the influential Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music (1907). Futurists such as Francesco Balilla Pratella and Luigi Russolo began composing music with acoustic noise to evoke the sound of machinery . They predicted expansions in timbre allowed for by electronics in
5763-456: The developers constantly cycled through inspirations from the "brassy, regal" sound of SportsCenter and Monday Night Football to Nintendo 64 games, among other genres such as heavy rock and thrash punk . As development on the game progressed, the team felt that the single track used for the menu had become stale. As a solution, Ault created an in-game playlist consisting of a large number of tracks created by Ault and other members of
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#17327730023655876-617: The development of electroacoustic tape music in the 1940s, in Egypt and France. Musique concrète , created in Paris in 1948, was based on editing together recorded fragments of natural and industrial sounds. Music produced solely from electronic generators was first produced in Germany in 1953 by Karlheinz Stockhausen . Electronic music was also created in Japan and the United States beginning in
5989-597: The development of music technology several decades later. Following the foundation of electronics company Sony in 1946, composers Toru Takemitsu and Minao Shibata independently explored possible uses for electronic technology to produce music. Takemitsu had ideas similar to musique concrète , which he was unaware of, while Shibata foresaw the development of synthesizers and predicted a drastic change in music. Sony began producing popular magnetic tape recorders for government and public use. The avant-garde collective Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), founded in 1950,
6102-402: The direction of electronic music. Another associate of Schaeffer, Edgard Varèse , began work on Déserts , a work for chamber orchestra and tape. The tape parts were created at Pierre Schaeffer's studio and were later revised at Columbia University . In 1950, Schaeffer gave the first public (non-broadcast) concert of musique concrète at the École Normale de Musique de Paris . "Schaeffer used
6215-740: The end of the 1960s, musical groups playing light electronic music appeared in the USSR. At the state level, this music began to be used to attract foreign tourists to the country and for broadcasting to foreign countries. In the mid-1970s, composer Alexander Zatsepin designed an "orchestrolla" – a modification of the mellotron. The Baltic Soviet Republics also had their own pioneers: in Estonian SSR — Sven Grunberg , in Lithuanian SSR — Gedrus Kupriavicius, in Latvian SSR — Opus and Zodiac . The world's first computer to play music
6328-438: The first complete work of computer-assisted composition using algorithmic composition. "... Hiller postulated that a computer could be taught the rules of a particular style and then called on to compose accordingly." Later developments included the work of Max Mathews at Bell Laboratories , who developed the influential MUSIC I program in 1957, one of the first computer programs to play electronic music. Vocoder technology
6441-546: The first programmable synthesizer. Prominent composers such as Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Milton Babbitt , Charles Wuorinen , Halim El-Dabh, Bülent Arel and Mario Davidovsky used the RCA Synthesizer extensively in various compositions. One of the most influential composers associated with the early years of the studio was Egypt's Halim El-Dabh who, after having developed the earliest known electronic tape music in 1944, became more famous for Leiyla and
6554-528: The flute far below its natural range." Both pieces were created at the home of Henry Cowell in Woodstock, New York. After several concerts caused a sensation in New York City, Ussachevsky and Luening were invited onto a live broadcast of NBC's Today Show to do an interview demonstration—the first televised electroacoustic performance. Luening described the event: "I improvised some [flute] sequences for
6667-666: The fourth year of the Monstercat Compound block party after a hiatus in 2020, which took place a day after the release of the compilation. On 18 August 2023, Monstercat released Gorilla Warfare, the debut album by Diesel, the stage name of basketball player Shaquille O'Neal . Monstercat signs artists on a single-track basis, allowing them to move between labels and brands without an exclusive contract. Monstercat has supported prominent artists such as Krewella , Gareth Emery , Knife Party , Modestep , Seven Lions , and Infected Mushroom . Other producers with connections to
6780-582: The future)." Word quickly reached New York City. Oliver Daniel telephoned and invited the pair to "produce a group of short compositions for the October concert sponsored by the American Composers Alliance and Broadcast Music, Inc., under the direction of Leopold Stokowski at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After some hesitation, we agreed. . . . Henry Cowell placed his home and studio in Woodstock, New York, at our disposal. With
6893-613: The game's "Tournaments" update. It featured music from Intercom, Koven , Pegboard Nerds , Protostar, Slippy, and Stonebank. The first Instinct EP, Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 3 , was released on May 25, 2018, four days prior to the release of Rocket League ' s summer -themed "Salty Shores" update. The compilation featured complementary summer-themed music from Aiobahn, Bad Computer, Dion Timmer, Duumu, Inverness, Soupandreas, Stephen Walking, and Vin, and cover art by Monstercat artist Amanda Cha. The Uncaged-themed fourth compilation, released on September 13, 2018, to coincide with
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#17327730023657006-636: The game's Season Nine update, featured electro house music from Bossfight, Infected Mushroom , Muzz , Pixel Terror, and Tokyo Machine. Dougal , Gammer , and Darren Styles also collaborated once again, after " Party Don't Stop " from Monstercat Uncaged Vol. 2 , for the compilation's third track, "Burning Up". The Instinct-themed fifth volume released on November 30 was the last published in 2018, and featured music from CloudNone, Grant, Hyper Potions, Nokae, Rogue, Rootkit, and Smle . On February 28, 2019, Psyonix announced that tracks from Rocket League x Monstercat Volumes 6 and 7 would be released throughout
7119-703: The gaming community as an important part of its audience, having described itself in Billboard as "synonymous with gaming since day one of its inception." Previous efforts by Monstercat to expand its gaming audience included licensing its music library for free use by streamers on video game live streaming site Twitch since the Twitch Music Library's launch in January 2015, and investing $ 1.1 million with Y Combinator and Extreme Ventures in Revlo,
7232-592: The help of which it was possible to extract various timbres and consonances of a noise nature. In 1958, Evgeny Murzin designed ANS synthesizer , one of the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizers. Founded by Murzin in 1966, the Moscow Experimental Electronic Music Studio became the base for a new generation of experimenters – Eduard Artemyev , Alexander Nemtin [ ru ] , Sándor Kallós , Sofia Gubaidulina , Alfred Schnittke , and Vladimir Martynov . By
7345-498: The in-game music would often be disabled or replaced by music not associated with the game chosen by players. The studio initially chose to focus the player's attention towards the sound design, much like other sports games , in order to avoid a reliance on the soundtrack for excitement, as opposed to "building the crowd and ambient sounds". The positive reception from players towards the Rocket League soundtrack, however, influenced Psyonix to later allow players to play music while in
7458-547: The influential manifesto The Art of Noises (1913). Developments of the vacuum tube led to electronic instruments that were smaller, amplified , and more practical for performance. In particular, the theremin , ondes Martenot and trautonium were commercially produced by the early 1930s. From the late 1920s, the increased practicality of electronic instruments influenced composers such as Joseph Schillinger and Maria Schuppel to adopt them. They were typically used within orchestras, and most composers wrote parts for
7571-473: The instruments. While some were considered novelties and produced simple tones, the Telharmonium synthesized the sound of several orchestral instruments with reasonable precision. It achieved viable public interest and made commercial progress into streaming music through telephone networks . Critics of musical conventions at the time saw promise in these developments. Ferruccio Busoni encouraged
7684-767: The label include: Electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments , circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers ) in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroacoustic music ). Pure electronic instruments depended entirely on circuitry-based sound generation, for instance using devices such as an electronic oscillator , theremin , or synthesizer . Electromechanical instruments can have mechanical parts such as strings, hammers, and electric elements including magnetic pickups , power amplifiers and loudspeakers . Such electromechanical devices include
7797-402: The label's first certified platinum record for the 2016 song " Alone " by Marshmello . In an email to Billboard , Mike Darlington expressed his gratitude towards the collaboration and expressed his praise for Marshmello's success. In December 2017, Monstercat was named one of the five best independent dance labels of 2017 by Billboard . On the week of 1 January 2018, Monstercat announced
7910-427: The label's more melodic artists. To promote the new imprints, Uncaged and Instinct-themed extended plays were released alongside major feature updates to Rocket League , truncating the size of the albums from eighteen tracks for Rocket League x Monstercat, Vol. 1 to six tracks each for Vol. 2 onwards. The first Uncaged-themed EP, Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 2 , was released on April 2, 2018, to coincide with
8023-399: The label. When asked about the label's model, Darlington said: People don't need record labels anymore. Artists can do everything on their own. So we either had to do it for them better or provide a platform and marketing tool they can't find on their own. That's where the community concept came for Monstercat. We created a brand that fans can use to discover music and [that] artists can use as
8136-453: The music being released by the label. The original soundtrack to Rocket League was composed and produced by Psyonix audio director Mike Ault and his band Hollywood Principle, an EDM troupe started in 2013 by Ault with producer Elliott Sencan and vocalist Kayla Hope. Ault was hired by Psyonix in 2011 to lead the studio's new audio department, after having fulfilled a similar role as a contractor for inXile Entertainment during development of
8249-813: The organization of electronic sounds in Mayuzumi's "X, Y, Z for Musique Concrète", and later in Shibata's electronic music by 1956. Modelling the NWDR studio in Cologne, established an NHK electronic music studio in Tokyo in 1954, which became one of the world's leading electronic music facilities. The NHK electronic music studio was equipped with technologies such as tone-generating and audio processing equipment, recording and radiophonic equipment, ondes Martenot, Monochord and Melochord , sine-wave oscillators , tape recorders, ring modulators , band-pass filters , and four- and eight-channel mixers . Musicians associated with
8362-607: The original eleven tracks included with the game upon its release a week later. The second album, consisting additional music Ault and Hollywood Principle produced for the game's Supersonic Fury , Revenge of the Battle-Cars , and Chaos Run DLCs was released on Rocket League ' s first anniversary on July 7, 2016. The album also included the tracks "Scorched Earth" by Kevin Riepl and "Rocket League Throwback Anthem" by Adam B. Metal. A three-disc vinyl record compilation album entitled Rocket League: The Vinyl Collection
8475-553: The popular Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the United States. Experiments with graphical sound were continued by Norman McLaren from the late 1930s. The first practical audio tape recorder was unveiled in 1935. Improvements to the technology were made using the AC biasing technique, which significantly improved recording fidelity. As early as 1942, test recordings were being made in stereo. Although these developments were initially confined to Germany, recorders and tapes were brought to
8588-482: The principle of the theremin . In the 1930s, Nikolai Ananyev invented "sonar", and engineer Alexander Gurov — neoviolena, I. Ilsarov — ilston., A. Rimsky-Korsakov [ ru ] and A. Ivanov — emiriton [ ru ] . Composer and inventor Arseny Avraamov was engaged in scientific work on sound synthesis and conducted a number of experiments that would later form the basis of Soviet electro-musical instruments. In 1956 Vyacheslav Mescherin created
8701-424: The production of both the game's sound design and music, with an adaptive creative process in which he consistently sought to improve upon ideas, reiterating on various components of the game's audio before settling on a final version. Without the financial resources to license popular music, the idea of sounding "big budget", à la EA Sports titles, was a goal highlighted by Ault. For the game's menu music, Ault and
8814-413: The production of electronic music. Also in 1951, Schaeffer and Henry produced an opera, Orpheus , for concrete sounds and voices. By 1951 the work of Schaeffer, composer-percussionist Pierre Henry, and sound engineer Jacques Poullin had received official recognition and The Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète , Club d 'Essai de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was established at RTF in Paris,
8927-479: The record label, including songs from Aero Chord , Pegboard Nerds , Muzzy , Stonebank and Kayzo . The song pack was released for $ 12.99 USD , (or $ 1.99 per individual track), with Monstercat offering new subscribers a free month of their Gold Subscription. A crossover music pack with Rocket League was released in November 2019. In July 2019, to coincide with the label's eighth anniversary, Monstercat announced
9040-497: The recorded material using reverberation, echo, voltage controls and re-recording. What resulted is believed to be the earliest tape music composition. The resulting work was entitled The Expression of Zaar and it was presented in 1944 at an art gallery event in Cairo. While his initial experiments in tape-based composition were not widely known outside of Egypt at the time, El-Dabh is also known for his later work in electronic music at
9153-584: The same desire to build new platforms for exhibiting artists to be on and grow. The groundwork Rocket League x Monstercat Vol. 1 begun immediately afterwards. In November 2018, Noisestorm 's April Fools' Day single, " Crab Rave ", entered Billboard ' s Dance/Electronic Songs chart. The Irish music artist, writing to the magazine, praised its entrance onto the chart, and expressed his approval of its status as an internet meme . In 2019, Monstercat partnered with Dutch video game developer Soedesco to compose music for its video game, Xenon Racer . The game
9266-426: The soundtrack and was surprised by how well it was received, despite the fact that most of the tracks were produced years prior in different contexts and not necessarily for a video game such as Rocket League . Ault credits the soundtrack's accessibility and the appeal of the EDM genre to the game's player base as possible factors in the soundtrack's success. Positive feedback towards Hollywood Principle's "Firework",
9379-482: The speeds of recorded tones. Composers began to experiment with newly developed sound-on-film technology. Recordings could be spliced together to create sound collages , such as those by Tristan Tzara , Kurt Schwitters , Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov . Further, the technology allowed sound to be graphically created and modified . These techniques were used to compose soundtracks for several films in Germany and Russia, in addition to
9492-406: The spirit of the game." For Ault, the diverse "playlist" feel of the soundtrack helped achieve his goal of a "big budget" sound for the game. This new soundtrack for Rocket League was predominantly electronic dance music (EDM), inspired by early-mid 2000s progressive house artists such as ATB , deadmau5 , and Kaskade . The "Rocket League Theme" was composed and produced with the timing of
9605-404: The staff. The most popular music among the game's team were a number of Ault's personal tracks worked on before he arrived at Psyonix, including "Flying Forever", which was a 2011 collaboration with vocalist Morgan Perry. Ault never intended for the music to be used in a game soundtrack when creating them, though he and the developers felt comfortable with the tracks, and deemed that they "embodied
9718-666: The studio included Toshiro Mayuzumi, Minao Shibata, Joji Yuasa, Toshi Ichiyanagi , and Toru Takemitsu. The studio's first electronic compositions were completed in 1955, including Mayuzumi's five-minute pieces "Studie I: Music for Sine Wave by Proportion of Prime Number", "Music for Modulated Wave by Proportion of Prime Number" and "Invention for Square Wave and Sawtooth Wave" produced using the studio's various tone-generating capabilities, and Shibata's 20-minute stereo piece "Musique Concrète for Stereophonic Broadcast". The impact of computers continued in 1956. Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson composed Illiac Suite for string quartet ,
9831-546: The studio of Bebe and Louis Barron . In the same year Columbia University purchased its first tape recorder—a professional Ampex machine—to record concerts. Vladimir Ussachevsky, who was on the music faculty of Columbia University, was placed in charge of the device, and almost immediately began experimenting with it. Herbert Russcol writes: "Soon he was intrigued with the new sonorities he could achieve by recording musical instruments and then superimposing them on one another." Ussachevsky said later: "I suddenly realized that
9944-571: The studio was soon joined by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig . In his 1949 thesis Elektronische Klangerzeugung: Elektronische Musik und Synthetische Sprache , Meyer-Eppler conceived the idea to synthesize music entirely from electronically produced signals; in this way, elektronische Musik was sharply differentiated from French musique concrète , which used sounds recorded from acoustical sources. In 1953, Stockhausen composed his Studie I , followed in 1954 by Elektronische Studie II —the first electronic piece to be published as
10057-496: The tape recorder could be treated as an instrument of sound transformation." On Thursday, 8 May 1952, Ussachevsky presented several demonstrations of tape music/effects that he created at his Composers Forum, in the McMillin Theatre at Columbia University. These included Transposition, Reverberation, Experiment, Composition , and Underwater Valse . In an interview, he stated: "I presented a few examples of my discovery in
10170-399: The tape recorder. Ussachevsky then and there put them through electronic transformations." The score for Forbidden Planet , by Louis and Bebe Barron , was entirely composed using custom-built electronic circuits and tape recorders in 1956 (but no synthesizers in the modern sense of the word). In 1929, Nikolai Obukhov invented the " sounding cross " (la croix sonore ), comparable to
10283-441: The theme for the game's Chaos Run DLC. All four aforementioned tracks were included on the second volume of the official Rocket League soundtrack. In mid-2016, Ault approached German producer TheFatRat to inquire about including his music in Rocket League . He agreed, and a remixed version of his 2014 track "Infinite Power!" appeared in the game as the theme for the "Rumble" update. The track also appeared in trailers for
10396-412: The theremin that could otherwise be performed with string instruments . Avant-garde composers criticized the predominant use of electronic instruments for conventional purposes. The instruments offered expansions in pitch resources that were exploited by advocates of microtonal music such as Charles Ives , Dimitrios Levidis , Olivier Messiaen and Edgard Varèse . Further, Percy Grainger used
10509-403: The theremin to abandon fixed tonation entirely, while Russian composers such as Gavriil Popov treated it as a source of noise in otherwise-acoustic noise music . Developments in early recording technology paralleled that of electronic instruments. The first means of recording and reproducing audio was invented in the late 19th century with the mechanical phonograph . Record players became
10622-430: The title screen in mind. Ault worked with UI artist Jared Adkins to time out the theme's opening build-up to anticipate the appearance of the title screen. Future tracks that were featured on the title screen were edited in a similar way, including Hollywood Principle's "Firework" and "Breathing Underwater (Ether Remix)", which were similarly shortened and edited to fit the opening cues. Five officially released tracks from
10735-416: The title screen music was changed to a brand new track, "Firework" by Hollywood Principle. The positive reception towards the track and the soundtrack change in general inspired Ault and Psyonix to make further changes to the soundtrack, and also recognized the potential for independent artists , who were not involved with Ault or Psyonix, to gain exposure through music features in the game. A remix contest
10848-400: The two collaborated on various pieces. Luening described the event: "Equipped with earphones and a flute, I began developing my first tape-recorder composition. Both of us were fluent improvisors and the medium fired our imaginations." They played some early pieces informally at a party, where "a number of composers almost solemnly congratulated us saying, 'This is it' ('it' meaning the music of
10961-465: The work of Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff continues to present a brilliant light, for the reason that at the several points of notation, performance, and audition, action is provocative." Cage completed Williams Mix in 1953 while working with the Music for Magnetic Tape Project. The group had no permanent facility, and had to rely on borrowed time in commercial sound studios, including
11074-512: The year and available in-game on the same day as the individual song's release. Albums The soundtrack to Rocket League plays on the game's title screen and menus through an in-game radio branded as "Rocket League Radio" in patch notes and promotional material. Music during matches have been the subject of internal debate at Psyonix; the studio did not consider such a feature after player research on Rocket League ' s prequel, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars found that
11187-556: Was CSIRAC , which was designed and built by Trevor Pearcey and Maston Beard. Mathematician Geoff Hill programmed the CSIRAC to play popular musical melodies from the very early 1950s. In 1951 it publicly played the Colonel Bogey March , of which no known recordings exist, only the accurate reconstruction. However, CSIRAC played standard repertoire and was not used to extend musical thinking or composition practice. CSIRAC
11300-579: Was also a major development in this early era. In 1956, Stockhausen composed Gesang der Jünglinge , the first major work of the Cologne studio, based on a text from the Book of Daniel . An important technological development of that year was the invention of the Clavivox synthesizer by Raymond Scott with subassembly by Robert Moog . In 1957, Kid Baltan ( Dick Raaymakers ) and Tom Dissevelt released their debut album, Song Of The Second Moon , recorded at
11413-478: Was also released, with a thousand copies produced. Iam8bit co-founder Jon Gibson described the idea for the picture discs, which was conceived during an email chain with Psyonix, as "such a simple thought", and that "connecting the fact that vinyl records spin and wheels spin [...] made for a really cool visual." Albums With the Supersonic Fury DLC and its associated update to Rocket League ,
11526-415: Was built in 1935. however, after World War II, Japanese composers such as Minao Shibata knew of the development of electronic musical instruments. By the late 1940s, Japanese composers began experimenting with electronic music and institutional sponsorship enabled them to experiment with advanced equipment. Their infusion of Asian music into the emerging genre would eventually support Japan's popularity in
11639-419: Was conducted by Bruno Maderna , the tape controls were operated by Karlheinz Stockhausen . The title Déserts suggested to Varèse not only "all physical deserts (of sand, sea, snow, of outer space, of empty streets), but also the deserts in the mind of man; not only those stripped aspects of nature that suggest bareness, aloofness, timelessness, but also that remote inner space no telescope can reach, where man
11752-427: Was designed by digital artist Thaira Bouhid, using Cinema 4D . Conro's track, "All Me", was inspired by an eponymous affirmation towards his teammates in Rocket League when they have possession of the ball. In January 2018, Monstercat established two imprints, Monstercat: Uncaged and Monstercat: Instinct, as part of a marketing refresh. The Uncaged imprint houses the label's bass-heavy artists, while Instinct houses
11865-732: Was developed. In the same decade, with a greater reliance on synthesizers and the adoption of programmable drum machines, electronic popular music came to the fore. During the 1990s, with the proliferation of increasingly affordable music technology, electronic music production became an established part of popular culture. In Berlin starting in 1989, the Love Parade became the largest street party with over 1 million visitors, inspiring other such popular celebrations of electronic music. Contemporary electronic music includes many varieties and ranges from experimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music . Pop electronic music
11978-693: Was given a name and depicted the story of the aforementioned mascot in the album cover. This preceded a rebranding of the label, with a new series of albums titled Monstercat Uncaged. In 2018, Monstercat introduced a new brand titled "Instinct". In 2021, Monstercat acquired electronic label Silk Music to form a third brand titled "Monstercat Silk". The compilations ended the same year with the release of Monstercat Uncaged Vol. 11 . Monstercat has featured many notable artists, including Pegboard Nerds , Vicetone , and Seven Lions . Monstercat has also released soundtrack albums for various video games, including Fortnite , Rocket League and Beat Saber . The label
12091-513: Was held on Indaba Music by Psyonix and Hollywood Principle in late 2015, challenging contestants to submit remixes of the band's track, "Seeing What's Next"; its winner, Kevin Frey, had his remix of the track featured on the title screen of the game's "Neo Tokyo" update. Other tracks by independent artists added through updates to the game include a remix of Hollywood Principle's "Breathing Underwater" by then-17-year-old Baltimore artist Ether, and
12204-540: Was never recorded, but the music played was accurately reconstructed. The oldest known recordings of computer-generated music were played by the Ferranti Mark 1 computer, a commercial version of the Baby Machine from the University of Manchester in the autumn of 1951. The music program was written by Christopher Strachey . The earliest group of electronic musical instruments in Japan, Yamaha Magna Organ
12317-482: Was offered access to emerging audio technology by Sony. The company hired Toru Takemitsu to demonstrate their tape recorders with compositions and performances of electronic tape music. The first electronic tape pieces by the group were "Toraware no Onna" ("Imprisoned Woman") and "Piece B", composed in 1951 by Kuniharu Akiyama. Many of the electroacoustic tape pieces they produced were used as incidental music for radio, film, and theatre. They also held concerts employing
12430-457: Was released by Iam8bit in December 2016. The compilation included all tracks from the first two soundtrack albums and features gatefold artwork by Dan Bronsema of Puddle & Splash. Pre-orders of the compilation included a download code for the albums. A limited edition of the album featuring picture discs decorated with the in-game cosmetic Invader, Lowrider, and Tempest wheel rims
12543-414: Was released on 26 March of that year. On 14 March 2019, Czech-based indie studio Beat Games released their first paid Downloadable content (DLC) song pack for their virtual reality rhythm game Beat Saber for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4 . The song pack was released as a partnership with Monstercat, titled Monstercat Music Pack Vol. 1 . It features a collection of 10 tracks from
12656-546: Was released on 5 July 2017. Monstercat also announced their own television channel, Monstercat TV, on the Pluto TV television platform the same month. In July 2017, Monstercat won DJ Mag ' s Best Breakthrough Label, competing against other labels such as Discwoman , Tuskegee Music, Perspectives Digital and Honey Soundsystem. Monstercat has hosted an annual block party near their headquarters, "Monstercat Compound", since 2017. In November 2017, Monstercat received
12769-416: Was the first " movement " of Cinq études de bruits , and marked the beginning of studio realizations and musique concrète (or acousmatic art). Schaeffer employed a disc cutting lathe , four turntables, a four-channel mixer, filters, an echo chamber, and a mobile recording unit. Not long after this, Pierre Henry began collaborating with Schaeffer, a partnership that would have profound and lasting effects on
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