TotalAudio produced the music for Bungie's Myth: The Fallen Lords the same year. On returning to Chicago O'Donnell emailed a Bungie staffer and pursued them for a job. Among the games Riven 's developers would play in their downtime was a title called Marathon, created by Chicago-based Bungie. O'Donnell became acquainted with the game's developers, including brothers Rand and Robyn Miller, and was hired four years later as a sound designer for Myst 's sequel, Riven. In hearing the theme music to the game, O'Donnell realized that the game industry was making great strides in creating "legitimate music" that contained dramatic elements. O'Donnell agreed, and in talking with Josh learned that he had friends in Spokane, Washington who were making a game O'Donnell had never heard of called Myst. In 1993, Dick Staub, a Chicago radio personality and friend of O'Donnell's, asked if his eighteen-year-old son Josh could visit O'Donnell's studio, as he was interested in computer games and audio. "I was hoping to find some other medium that would be new and cutting-edge and sort of the Wild West," he recalled.
#Halo theme virtual piano tv
After fifteen years of composing for TV and radio commercials, he decided that he wanted to work on game soundtracks and move on from commercial-sounding music. O'Donnell composed the music for jingles for Mr. Īfter completing a film score and a few commercials, the two decided to quit their day jobs and produce music in Chicago they founded a production company, TotalAudio.
![halo theme virtual piano halo theme virtual piano](https://cdn3.virtualsheetmusic.com/images/first_pages/HL/HL-21195First_BIG.png)
O'Donnell talked to his friend Michael Salvatori, who had his own recording studio, and offered to split the profits from the job with him the two became constant partners. O'Donnell began his musical career in the field after one of his colleagues who knew of his music background approached him to write for his film. The job fell through, and instead he worked as a grip in the film and television business. Īfter getting his degree, O'Donnell moved to Chicago, where he expected that he would teach at the American Conservatory of Music. Despite his interest in progressive and fusion rock, O'Donnell studied the classical component of music and composition at Wheaton College Conservatory of Music and received his Masters of Music Degree in composition with honors from the University of Southern California in the early 1980s.
![halo theme virtual piano halo theme virtual piano](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/9f/20/7d/9f207d6e5c5a198b953c081e4b451a06.jpg)
His father made films while his mother taught piano. O'Donnell describes his upbringing as "typical" he received piano lessons and wanted to start a rock band when he reached junior high school.
![halo theme virtual piano halo theme virtual piano](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/x3ItA0L6xXo/maxresdefault.jpg)
His final work for Bungie was composing music for the 2014 video game Destiny that went unused. He went on to compose the scores for Halo 3 (2007), Halo 3: ODST (2009), and Halo: Reach (2010). O'Donnell's score to the Halo trilogy has received critical acclaim, earning him several awards, and the commercial soundtrack release of the music to Halo 2 was the best-selling video game soundtrack of all time in the United States.
![halo theme virtual piano halo theme virtual piano](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Y_sdUvP8E7Q/hqdefault.jpg)
O'Donnell ended up joining the Bungie staff only ten days before the studio was bought by Microsoft, and would be the audio director for all Bungie projects until he was fired. After producing the music for Myth II, Bungie contracted O'Donnell to work on their other projects, including Oni and the project that would become Halo: Combat Evolved. O'Donnell moved to composing video game music when his company, TotalAudio, did the sound design for the 1997 title Riven. O'Donnell began his career in music writing television and radio jingles such as the Flintstones Vitamins jingle and scoring for radio stations and films. O'Donnell was Bungie's audio lead until April 11, 2014. O'Donnell collaborated with his musical colleague Michael Salvatori for many of the scores he has also directed voice talent and sound design for the Halo trilogy. Martin O'Donnell (born May 1, 1955) is an American composer known for his work on video game developer Bungie's series, such as Myth, Oni, Halo, and Destiny.