David Javelosa

David Javelosa
Place of birth: San Jose, California, United States
Employment history: Sega of America (1989-10 – 1994-09) Divisions: Product Development Team Sega Multimedia Studio Creative Support Yamaha (1999-01 – 2001-08)
Role(s): Audio Director, Composer, Sound Designer
Education: San Jose State University (1972-1976; BA Electronic Music), California Institute of the Arts (1989-1992; MFA Composition - Computer Music)

David "Dave" Javelosa is an American musician and former Sega of America audio director, composer, and sound designer. He first began working with Sega as a contractual consultant in 1990, and would eventually be directly hired in 1992, where he would serve as Senior Music Designer for a number of the company's first-party titles (including those in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise) as well as forming the Creative Support team. His responsibilities covered all aspects of music and audio production, supervision, creative support, and technology, the managing and hiring of musical talent, and the support of Sega-licensed developers with audio creation tools. He also composed music for the Sega Channel, as well as the first revision of the North American Sega CD BIOS.

After departing Sega in 1994 and leaving his consultant position two years later, he remained active in the game industry as a freelance composer and audio director, and eventually became a Professor of Interactive Media at Santa Monica College in September 2001 - a position he remains in to this day. He also runs the independent music label Hyperspace Communications, which specializes in releasing electronic, new wave, and game music on vinyl records.

Career

Background

Javelosa performing at New York City's Pyramid Club, 1983.

David Javelosa studied at both San Jose State University and the California Institute of the Arts, the latter of which saw him studying alongside Morton Subotnick, David Rosenboom, and other notable composers. During his youth, he was an active musician, co-founding the New Wave band Los Microwaves in December 1978 (where he played the synthesizer and provided vocals under the nickname "Microwave"), as well as and the independent label Hyperspace Communications that same month. He also established himself as a professional music producer and a composer of experimental electronic music, self-described as having "always been fascinated by the concept of computer-generated jazz." It was during his early musical performances that Javelosa first developed an interest in video games, as he would reportedly play the venue's arcade games to kill time.

In October 1989, Javelosa was first approached by his friend and fellow musician Alex Rudis ("the godfather of Atari Lynx music", whom Javelosa had known from San Francisco's new wave scene back in the 1980), who was then working with Sega of America. In particular, Rudis was tasked with evaluating the pre-GEMS sound driver, the Sega Music Development System, but was overwhelmed with all the projects he can taken on, and could not find another musician that had the cross section of skills for creating game audio at the time. He also knew that Javelosa could program FM-based synthesizers and edit MIDI in Commodore 64 command line editors, and reached out to him for assistance: first introducing Javelosa to the video game industry, and to Sega.

Javelosa spent the next nine months working remotely from Los Angeles, as he was still attending California Institute of the Arts. At the time, he was also working as a producer for Voyager Company's series of classical music CD-ROMs for Macintosh PCs. Javelosa attributes this experience with CD production, along with his previous compositions and technical work, is what eventually got him hired as a full-time employee; reportedly, Sega of America was just starting to ramp up CD-ROM development in preparation for the Sega CD, and Javelosa was the perfect man for the job.

Sega of America

Javelosa first began working with Sega of America as a contractual consultant in 1990, where his first job was to test the feasibility of an early audio tool for the Sega Genesis, the Sega Music Development System. He and others prototyped a demo for the tool, but it was found to be too inconvenient to be widely used, and the project was dropped. Following this, Javelosa was asked to provide support for a few in-development games, and was flown by Ed Annunziata from Los Angeles to Redwood City to work with the producer on the weekends (as Javelosa was still completing his MFA degree at the California Institute of the Arts at the time).

During this time, Mark Miller reached out to Javelosa for assistance in finishing the Sega CD version of Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin, as the artist had useful experience in creating electronic music. Still living in Los Angeles and working remotely, he ended up writing the game's title track, and eventually became a member of the company's internal Product Development Team. He worked on titles such as Mario Lemieux Hockey and M-1 Abrams Battle Tank, producing audio with tools like GEMS and the Novotrade sound driver, and even creating a custom sound driver for the game 688 Attack Sub.

After about two years consulting for the company, and as he was finishing his last semester of university, he was hired by Ken Balthaser for a full-time position in 1994, where he would serve as Senior Music Designer for a number of Sega's first-party titles. Alongside managing the music production of Sega's Western game output (including those developed both in-house and externally), Javelosa occasionally found himself acting as a liaison between Sega of America and its two biggest co-branches, Sega of Japan and Sega Europe. He recalls that during the development of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, he would compose music in MIDI format, and then send the music to Sega of Japan, who would transcribe the theme to FM synthesis and deliver the finished result. Particularly, an early version of the game featured an arrangement of the 1981 Kraftwerk song "Home Computer" (reflecting Javelosa's electronic inspirations), which was unfortunately not included in the final release.

Javelosa famously composed the background music for the first revision of the Sega CD, specifically utilizing both PCM and FM audio.

His first project as a full-time employee was to compose music for the first revision of the upcoming Sega CD. One of his first hurdles was handling the hardware's use of sampled sound, particularly in regard to combining the sound with the Genesis' FM synthesis. Working on the system was described as challenging, as despite the Genesis being engineered with future extensions in mind, the systems couldn't truly be linked to an optimal degree. Javelosa describes the system as "two game consoles that were just linked together", with which he would have to synchronize his sound between. Regardless, Javelosa sought to take advantage of the system's audio capabilities; the resulting piece was composed specifically to utilize both sound technologies, with the drums and strings being played in PCM, and the brass and bass in FM.

Another hurdle was the concept of having the Sega CD make calls to different data on the disc. With the way the system handled CD audio, the hardware would have to switch between the CD and running the game loaded into memory; [it] was always a shot in the dark, whether it was working exactly in sync." Regardless, Javelosa eventually grew proficient in accounting for the system's lag time and memory deficiencies. He recalls that while CDs offered an entirely different experience from chip music, they lack the interactivity of traditional video game music, and that he preferred the challenge of making good Genesis music over a typical CD track. "For me, that was the coolest thing about it, creating interactive music, having a live synthesizer in the gameplay was what that was all about for me."

Javelosa was also one of the primary musicians to work on the Sega Channel. First approached by a Sega of America producer sometime in 1993, he was commissioned to compose an initial set of Genesis tracks in the GEMS audio driver. The project continued into 1994, when Javelosa departed his full-time role with the company. Still, he remained in an advisory role until 1996, during which time he was contracted to compose a few more tracks for the Sega Channel - such as the introduction and menu screens). While John Baker and Howard Drossin are generally credited with composing its soundtrack, Javelosa states he created a much larger majority of the service's final music than previously believed. Notably, the track "Think Tank/The Arcade" was originally composed by Javelosa's band Los Microwaves for their 1981 LP Life After Breakfast and remixed for the project.

“	Writing for the Genesis was like doing a small instrumental ensemble, musically speaking, because you only had six voices to work with. But when those six voices were FM synthesizers, I could really go wild in creating new and interesting sound within the context of the games. I enjoyed writing for the cartridge machine almost more than the tracks I produced for CD. I was never really a traditional commercial composer.	„
— David Javelosa

When it came to producing music for the Genesis, Javelosa found the hardware difficult to program for. Worse, the system's output amplifier often made the music sound worse. He recalls that half the producers on staff were playing games on televisions with poor or blown-out speakers, with frequent complaints about the quality of the sound. Eventually, management upgraded them to Philips televisions, and "all of a sudden our music started sounding better." Regardless, Javelosa states that the YM2612 was an excellent sound chip, and that developing music for the Genesis was made easier by the abundance of tools and talent in the realm of FM synthesis. He even developed his own tool, a program which translated patch information from a Yamaha synthesizer to the Genesis, to ensure his music sounded just the way he composed them when later converted to FM. Javelosa's work with the Genesis sound chip did not end at work, as he began incorporating the system into his Santa Monica studio, reportedly "surrounded by bits and pieces of torn-apart game consoles, trashed Casios and forgotten keyboards."

In 1993, Javelosa began teaching at San Francisco State University's Multimedia Studies program. About a year into his teaching, Kurt Harland attended one of his audio design courses, where Javelosa introduced him to Mark Miller - who eventually hired the young musician. Additionally, he was still studying at University of California, Los Angeles. Regardless of his responsibilities, his experience eventually resulted in Ken Balthaser promoting Javelosa in a full-time position as director of Sega Multimedia Studio - in order to "turn the Studio into something never before seen at Sega, or any other hardware manufacturer, to this point", and to prepare the company for supporting the Sega CD.

Sega Multimedia Studio

As the company's first full-time Sound Director, Javelosa was responsible for supporting first and third-party game developers with both tools and talent, including the hiring of sound programmer Brian Coburn, programmer Tom Miley, musician Spencer Nilsen, and audio engineer Barry Blum. "I needed a range of talent that spanned CD quality recording and really interesting sound design and these guys pretty much defined that." With the example of Miley, all of these developers also doubled as composers, creating music for the company's games. On some occasions, Javelosa would recommend artists from his own references, while other times, producers would find their own talent and Javelosa's audio group would support them with the needed development tools. He also reached out to fellow musician Fletcher Beasley (whom he had known from his time at Voyager Company) and referred him to Western Technologies, where he was eventually given a full-time role as the company's Audio Director.

Sega Multimedia Studio was a passionate but short-lived audio division of Sega of America.

Javelosa describes his initial responsibilities as being vague ("Seriously, everything was being made up on the spot in those days"), with much of his audio staff lacking dedicated roles; instead, they were generally tasked with handling anything and everything audio-related. To sour matters, Sega of America's musicians were frequently credited only for sound programming, as in Javelosa's own words, "it's only because the producers looked at our sound tools as middle-ware for the programmers. We had to make music and implement with the engineers." Regardless, Javelosa continued to surround himself with talent audio staff from varied disciplines, eventually forming the Sega Multimedia Studio team.

In Sega Multimedia Studio's early days, Javelosa was responsible for purchasing equipment, consulting on studio construction, and hiring an audio team. He was also expected to continue creating music, sound effects, and even voiceover work. Eventually, Javelosa moved from managing the internal Sega of America sound team to heading Multimedia Studio's audio. Officially known as Senior Sound Designer, much of his work during this time entailed music supervision; connecting Sega's producers and video games with internal and external composers. While he was essentially functioning as the studio's music director, management refused to give him a "Director" title (giving him a "Manager" title), and Spencer Nilsen was promoted to Director of Sega Music Group instead. Following this, Javelosa's Multimedia Studio team was split into three branches: Nilsen's Sega Music Group, Javelosa's group (now known as Creative Support), and an unnamed technical support team.

“	It’s a balance. Some people say it’s all about composing the music, and some say it’s about knowing the technology. I think it’s both. You have to have an understanding of both, and sometimes it’s a risk. You don’t find a lot of opportunities where that intersection meets, and you don’t meet a lot of people who kind of understand both sides of it.	„
— David Javelosa

Regardless of any setbacks encountered with Sega Multimedia Studio, Javelosa ensured Creative Support would be fully staffed with a diversity of talent. "It was basically the five disciplines of game development: we had programmers, artists, designers, audio people, and the producer." Reportedly, Ed Annunziata was once set to serve as Creative Support's first producer, but realized that he wasn't able to exert as much creative control with an internal development group as he did with third-party developers, and declined the position. Regardless, Javelosa is proud of his experience with the Multimedia Studio team, recalling "we pretty much took the 16-bit processor as far as it could go, the 16-bit Motorola was not quite powerful enough to bring as much out of the CD-ROM as it could."

Shortly before departing Sega of America in 1994, Javelosa worked with Developer Technical Support's Kenneth Chao to produce an internal demonstration Mega Drive cartridge which would serve as an audio resume of the musician's output from his three years with Sega. Known as the DJ Demo Reel, it is a modified version of the GEMS Module Test Program with its modules containing a showcase of Javelosa's GEMS work, and features unreleased music composed for games like Baby Boom, Iron Hammer, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, among others. After leaving his formal employment position with the company later that year, he would remain working as a contractual consultant for Sega until 1996. Javelosa recalls that he almost accepted a music specialist role at Developer Technical Support during this time, but "saw the writing on the wall" and left the company to return to Los Angeles.

Later career

“	At one point I just realized that the reasons I came to Sega were no longer valid. I also realized that most of the freelancers that I was supporting in creative support were doing fine on the outside, so I thought I’d go on the outside and work as an independent developer. I had already started writing and teaching, so I took all those connections to LA with me and ended up writing a book and teaching at UCLA.	„
— David Javelosa

Professor David Javelosa, 2019.

Following his departure from Sega of America, Javelosa acted as a freelancer for companies such as Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Electronic Arts, alongside publishing work and electronic media consulting. He would remain a freelancer until 1999, when he was hired by Yamaha Corporation as their in-house game industry specialist. He would stay at Yamaha for the next three years, advising the company on the particulars of the American video game industry.

Javelosa began educating in the early 1990s, teaching at venues such as San Francisco State University Multimedia Studies Center and University of California, Los Angeles's Entertainment Studies Program, among others. He has also authored a number of articles on electronic music and art, and published an interactive book/CD-ROM in 1997 titled Sound and Music for Multimedia.

Since September 2001, Javelosa serves as a full time Professor of Interactive Media in the Design Technology Department at Santa Monica College’s Academy of Entertainment and Technology (currently known as The Center for Media and Design), where he also founded a dedicated game development program in the Fall of 2004. Javelosa also runs the independent music label Hyperspace Communications, which specializes in releasing electronic, new wave, and game music on vinyl records - including publishing his previous work. Javelosa's music has also been released on the labels Dark Entries Records and Section 9, the latter of which published dedicated Sega Channel and Sega CD releases in July 2023.

Javelosa is also a licensed United States Parachute Association skydiver, an established author for trade publications like Interactivity Magazine and Film Music Magazine, and a former chair of the game audio-focused IASIG Education board. He plans to continue teaching until late 2024, and still creates FM synthesis to this day.

Legacy

Javelosa retained his DJ Demo Reel cartridge following his time with Sega, and later reused its contents for teaching material once he began his teaching career. During one of his 2019 courses at Santa Monica College, a student recognized the importance of said material and eventually persuaded him to upload a recording of the cartridge's ROM to YouTube that May. This, along with Javelosa's active presence in the video's comment section, revealed new information related to a number of Sega of America's more notable projects.

Quotes

“	Some have said that game music is over; meaning that there is nothing more that can be done, technically speaking. But because my background was in experimental composition, I’ve always looked for the next cool thing in music technology. The buzz about “procedural music” in EA’s Spore is an example. Using software to generate unique musical experiences is something I have pursued for a long time. Also creating “interactive” music and sound engines that change with the game play is something that has yet to be fully explored. Some composers argue that the audience really can’t tell the difference. But just listen to Halo whey you play it. You can’t put your finger on it, but you know that something different is happening.	„
— David Javelosa

Production history

• M-1 Abrams Battle Tank (Mega Drive; 1991) — Composer
• 688 Attack Sub (Mega Drive; 1991) — Composed by
• Spider-Man vs. The Kingpin (Mega Drive; 1991) — Music and Effects (as Dave Javelosa)
• Mario Lemieux Hockey (Mega Drive; 1991) — Music/Sound
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Mega Drive; 1993) — Sound
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Game Gear; 1993) — Sound Programmers
• Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball (Mega Drive; 1993) — Special Thanks
• Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine (Master System; 1994) — Sound Programmers
• Streets of Rage 3 (Mega Drive; 1994) — Special Thanks to
• Jurassic Park (Mega-CD; 1993) — Sound Manager
• Aaahh!!! Real Monsters (Mega Drive; 1995) — Additional Music and Sound Effects (as Dave Javelosa)
• Iron Hammer (Mega Drive; 1996) — Composer
• Pocahontas (Mega Drive; 1996) — Production Support
• Baby Boom (Mega Drive; unreleased) — Composer
• DJ Demo Reel (Mega Drive; unreleased) — Composer

Hardware

• Sega Mega-CD (Mega-CD; 1991) — BIOS Screen (V1) Music Composer

Interviews

• Interview: David Javelosa (2008-07-02) by Sega-16
• Interview: David Javelosa (2023-11-12) by Alexander Rojas
• Interview: David Javelosa (2023-12-09) by Alexander Rojas

Photographs

Main article: Photos of David Javelosa

External links

• Official website
• David Javelosa at LinkedIn