Playing in bands since the age of 12, Dren’s been in rock bands, big bands, orchestra pits, 35 piece noise orchestras and improv ensembles. He’s toured the US and Europe a few times (with Giant Ant Farm), been on panels at SXSW, NXNW and played many label showcases at said conferences. His first job was at a recording studio as studio manager/midnight engineer in Gardena, CA and has been involved in all aspects of the music business (playing in bands, booking tours, running a label, establishing an online/touring music merchandise business, producing/engineering records, pressing discs, printing shirts etc).
For several years now he’s been creating music and audio experiences for a variety of media, including video games, for which his passion runs all the way back to the Atari 2600 he found under a christmas tree sometime during the 70′s. His compositions almost always include live instruments (due to his audio engineering/band backround), including some of his homemade instruments. His work is influenced more by the experimental (Einsturzende Neubauten, Beefheart, Cage) and exploratory (Raymond Scott, Amon Tobin, Ellington) than it is by Hollywood scores, but he is comfortable in a variety of musical styles.
He also serves on the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) as Director of Development, and recently has lectured and been on panels at GDC (Game Developers Conference), GameDesignCon, GameSoundCon and at several GANG Summits.
BELONGS TO:
NARAS (GRAMMYS®)
GANG
AES
IGDA
ASCAP
ICAN (International Choice Awards Network – Game Choice Awards)
Audio Director | Loot Drop Inc | 2012
Titles:
Ghost Recon: Commander (Ubisoft)
Pettington Park (Zynga)
Audio Lead | 6 Waves/LOLapps | Dec 2010 – Jan 2012
Titles:
Ravenwood Fair (and Ravenstone Mine expansion)
Ravenskye City
Ravenshire Castle
Audio Director | nerdtracks.com
Skulls of the Shogun (principal sound design) – 17 Bit/Microsoft (announced, coming 1/30/2013 on XBLA, Win8, Surface, WinPhone)
MindSnacks educational suite of iOS apps (10 separate apps) filled with mini games – Mindsnacks – iOS
MLB: Full Deck (some music and all sounds) – GREE – iOS
Le Bun’s Fashion Stash – Spinmaster – online Flash game
Zombie Farm 2 & Tree World (The Playforge) – expansion music and sfx
graBLOX – MobilityWare/ngmoco – Android
Zoo World 2 (Facebook) – RockYou
Cloudforest Expedition (Facebook) – Loot Drop/RockYou
Idle Worship (Facebook) – Idle Games/Pyramind
Back & Forth (iOS Universal) – Fog Island Games
Music Construction Set (PC) – Electronic Arts
Instant Jam (Facebook) – Instant Action
Riddim Ribbon Free (iOS) – Tapulous/DisneyMobile
Riddim Ribbon: Black Eyed Peas (iOS) – Tapulous/DisneyMobile
Tap Tap Revenge 2 (iOS) – Tapulous/DisneyMobile
Tap Tap Revenge 3 (iOS) – Tapulous/DisneyMobile
Tap Tap Revenge: Kings of Leon (iOS) – Tapulous/DisneyMobile
Tap Tap Revenge: Coldplay (iOS) – Tapulous/DisneyMobile
Tap Tap Revenge: Metal Blade (iOS) – Tapulous/DisneyMobile
Pocket Clinic (iOS) – 99 Games
Tommy Tronic (PC/Steam) – Interplay/Oasis
Other composition work
Nvidia
presentations including Nvidia’s GTC 2012 keynote presentation, Nvidia “Kingpin”, Nvidia GPU History, Direct X11 (Rocket Chair), Temple University, GTC 2010 preview, Battlefield 3 LAN party presentation, Tegra 2 chip video (installed on all Tegra 2 mobile devices), PAX East 2010 Nvidia video presentation
CBS
“How I Met Your Mother”
“Accidentally On Purpose”
Berkeley Rep
Wrote music for a potential musical production that ultimately didn’t receive the funding it required
Community Manager/News Editor | Game Audio Network Guild (GANG: audiogang.org)
2010-present
awards
Game Audio Network Guild (GANG): “Distinguished Service Award” 2010
GDC Online 2011: Best Audio in an Online Game (nominee) Ravenwood Fair
IndieCade 2011: Best Audio (nominee) Skulls of the Shogun
speaking engagements/panelist
GameSoundCon 2012: composer panel
GameDesignCon 2012: “That Magic Moment: When Design & Audio Make Music Together” 30 minute, single speaker presentation
GDC 2012: “Evolution of Audio in Social Games” 1 hour, single speaker presentation
GDC 2012: Demo Derby – Sound Design
GameSoundCon 2011: composer panel
GANG Fall Summit 2011: Audio in Indie, Mobile and Social Games + demo derby
GDC 2011: Demo Derby – Sound Design
discography:
Hank Hooper: Playground Fortune Teller (2008) – full length children’s music CD
Hank Hooper: Podcast Party (13 15 minute episodes of children’s audio podcasts based on golden era radio shows)
GrnNtlBrnds (Grand National Brands) – The Great Dumbening (Vaccination Records Co. CD 2002)
Robot Arm – “Giant” (M/F Jackson CD 2002)
Knomalities vol. 2 w/Nels Cline, Alboth etc (Amanita 2000)
GrndNtlBrnds (Grand National Brands) – Communicating for Influence (Vaccination Records Co. CD 2000)
Rawk Party – v/a – (Vaccination Records Co. CD 2000)
Funny Rubber Hand – v/a (Vaccination Records Co. CD 1998)
Eyesore: A Tribute to the Residents – v/a (comp including Primus, Snakefinger, Cracker, Idiot Flesh, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Stan Ridgway, The Residents and more) -(Vaccination Records 1996 CD)
Oh God, Mother, Blood… – v/a – Vaccination Records Co. CD 1995
Giant Ant Farm – Dressed In Milk – (Vaccination Records Co. 1995 CDep)
Giant Ant Farm – Fortune – (Vaccination Records Co. 1994 CD)
Giant Ant Farm – Them! – (Vaccination Records Co. 1993)
John Cage – Europera’s 3 & 4 Long Beach Opera (Mode Records 1993 2CD set)
quotes about his work:
“Dren is a brilliant musician and sound effect creator. It was incredibly pleasant working with him, really great guy, easy going, and such a talent. Always does great work and is happy to wiggle toward the musical nuance hiding in my head till it is perfect, each iteration being brilliant. Just a great guy, a brilliant musician, hire him to do your music.”
Tom Hall: Game Designer/Creative Director @ Loot Drop (Pettington Park, Commander Keen, Anachronox, Doom, Wolfenstein 3D etc)
“One thing that really stood out for me was the game’s sound, courtesy of Loot Drop Sound Designer Dren McDonald. Facebook titles are typically bogged down by the limits of web media, so sound often suffers as a result. At times, I find online games so fucking obnoxious that I just mute the damned things. Ghost Recon Commander actually kind of shocked me with the quality of its effects. Guns actually sound like real guns; soldiers confirm orders with the intelligibility of actual humans. I recommend paying attention to all of the audible effects the game has to offer, because it’s obvious that McDonald knows what he’s doing.”
Ryan Perez: Reviewer for Destructoid – Game preview for Ghost Recon Commander
“Dren McDonald is a focused, reliable, quality-oriented person who gives me great results every time. His can-do attitude and willingness to learn and tirelessly improve his craft make him a joy to work with, and a person I will hire again and again.”
Nick Peck: Audio director/sound designer (Activision/LucasArts/SkywalkerSound)
“Dren has earned a reputation among our company as our external Go-To-Guy for virtually any and all audio and midi-related jobs.”
Wally Scharold: Audio Lead: Disney Mobile/Tapulous (Tap Tap Revenge, Riddim Ribbon, Tap Tap Radiation)
“Dren brings great creativity & talent to a project. I’m working on a serious themed game – typically games like this are not common and difficult to create because of the desired emotional complexity. It really requires the music and overall aesthetic experience to be in tune with the game mechanics and theme.
He worked with me (and my limited musical background) to elaborate on the creative vision for the music, and delivered work that completely surpassed anything I had originally envisioned – it’s phenomenal.”
Borut Pfiefer: Lead Designer/Programmer – Plush Apocalypse/17 Bit
“Working with Dren McDonald is a joy. A more responsive and talented game-music composer is hard to imagine. With only a few pointers and the vaguest of reference he will surprise you with his crystal-clear perception, and musical discernment. Very highly recommended to any company or individual seeking original high quality audio or music. Give him a direction and watch him go at it like an unbeatable musical terminator.”
Nick Conlon: Author of Tommy Tronic (Interplay) and director of Oasis Games