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Zelda: Tones of the Kingdom

Zelda: Tones of the Kingdom

Released Wednesday, 9th August 2023
 1 person rated this episode
Zelda: Tones of the Kingdom

Zelda: Tones of the Kingdom

Zelda: Tones of the Kingdom

Zelda: Tones of the Kingdom

Wednesday, 9th August 2023
 1 person rated this episode
Rate Episode

Episode Transcript

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0:02

Every word that I've spoken here on 20,000 Hertz

0:04

has been recorded with a Shure SM7

0:06

microphone. I love this mic so

0:08

much that we made an entire episode about

0:11

it. And this year, the SM7

0:14

is turning 50. To celebrate

0:16

this milestone, Shure is giving away 50 special

0:19

edition SM7Bs. This beautiful,

0:21

exclusive version is engraved with founder

0:24

Essen Shure's signature, and it comes with a variety

0:26

of custom backplates and thumbscrews. Shure

0:29

was kind enough to gift me one, and I'm talking

0:32

to you on one of these exclusive mics right

0:34

now. For a chance to win one of these

0:36

super rare SM7 mics, enter

0:38

your name at the link in the show notes. Submissions

0:41

end on August 21st.

0:47

You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.

0:52

My obsession with Zelda started when

0:54

I was six, with the very first Zelda

0:56

game. I remember spending hours

0:59

roaming around Hyrule, fighting monsters,

1:01

and looking for secrets.

1:06

Decades later, when my daughter was six,

1:08

she fell in love with Breath of the Wild. As

1:11

a dad and a huge Zelda nerd,

1:14

it made me really proud.

1:19

But when she first started playing, it

1:21

came at a cost. So

1:25

it was right after I demolished your game. That's my daughter,

1:27

who's now 10 years old. So

1:29

when I was little, my dad had beat the

1:31

game. By that point, I had put

1:33

hundreds of hours into Breath of the Wild. And

1:38

even though I had finished the main story,

1:40

I still had plenty left to explore. And I wanted to play

1:42

it.

1:43

So I accidentally clicked the button

1:45

that said, New

1:48

Game. New

1:50

Game.

1:50

So I remember you hitting New

1:52

Game. And when

1:55

I looked over and I saw that you didn't have

1:57

any armor or anything...

1:59

My heart sunk. Uhhhhh...

2:04

Do you remember what I said you had

2:07

to do because you deleted my game?

2:10

He said that I'd have to beat that game. Yeah,

2:13

and did you? Yes. It

2:16

took me about five years

2:18

to... or four years

2:20

to do it.

2:24

But whether you're a Zelda veteran like me, or

2:26

a newcomer like my daughter, a huge part

2:28

of what makes these games so special is

2:31

the music.

2:48

The Zelda series is full of classic

2:50

themes and melodies, some of which go all

2:52

the way back to that original game I played as a

2:54

kid, like the secret unlocked

2:57

sound, the

2:59

treasure chest sound, and

3:02

of course, the iconic Zelda

3:04

theme.

3:08

As we explored in our last episode, these

3:11

tunes were born in the age of 8 bits and

3:13

five lo-fi channels of audio, but

3:16

those limitations forced composer Koji

3:18

Kondo to make them as distilled and

3:20

powerful as possible.

3:29

As the series went on, these melodies

3:31

would come back again

3:32

and again.

3:34

Each time, they were transformed to

3:36

fit the mood and themes of the individual

3:38

games, and each version is

3:40

a reflection of the hardware it was made for and

3:42

where Nintendo was as a company.

3:49

The first two Zelda games came out in the late

3:51

80s on the original Nintendo, but

3:53

in 1991, Nintendo released

3:56

the Super Nintendo, and soon after,

3:58

a brand new Zelda game.

4:00

For 11-year-old Dallas, it was a huge

4:02

deal. The new Legend of

4:04

Zelda, A Link to the Past, now you're

4:07

playing with power and super power.

4:09

The Super Nintendo was a big step forward,

4:12

in both graphics and sound. This

4:14

allowed Koji Kondo to move away from the

4:16

simple 8-bit tones of the original console.

4:19

In A Link to the Past, the secret unlocked

4:21

melody has more of a bell chime sound.

4:25

And the treasure chest sound is once

4:27

again played with two notes, separated by

4:29

a major third. But this time, Kondo

4:32

used a triumphant horn tone and added

4:34

a drum roll to the

4:35

end.

4:37

All together it sounds big and dramatic

4:40

and it feels like the natural evolution

4:42

of the first game's sound effect. That's

4:44

Thomas, who hosts a YouTube channel about

4:47

video game history called Thomas Game Docs.

4:50

A Link to the Past soundtrack in general has sort of a faux

4:52

orchestral thing going on, as much as

4:54

the technological limits allow.

4:58

That faux orchestral sound comes through loud

5:00

and clear in the game's version of the overworld

5:02

theme.

5:11

With their next system, Nintendo made the leap

5:13

from 16-bits to 64, which was such a big

5:16

deal, they put it right in the name of the console.

5:19

Only on Nintendo 64.

5:24

The first Zelda game on the Nintendo 64

5:26

was Ocarina of Time.

5:33

Ocarina was groundbreaking for tons

5:35

of reasons, including the jump to 3D graphics,

5:38

a new combat system, and a totally

5:40

fresh sound palette.

5:52

But despite all of these changes, the

5:54

secret unlock sound stayed surprisingly

5:56

close to the original NES version.

5:59

Yeah, I find Ocarina of Time's

6:02

version of this sound effect really interesting because the

6:04

rest of Ocarina of Time's soundtrack is a move in a completely

6:06

different direction. For the first time, the

6:09

dungeons you explore, the music that plays

6:11

in them is much less melodic and much more

6:13

atmospheric and ethereal.

6:17

Koji Kondo uses kind of weird strange

6:20

noises mixed in with pad sounds.

6:25

And yet the secret unlocked sound effect is

6:27

much more abrasive

6:30

and synthesizer-y.

6:32

And it doesn't really feel like it belongs with

6:35

the rest of the music from the game. I suppose

6:37

one reason he could have done that is so that it sticks

6:40

out. There's a harsh contrast between this sound

6:42

and the rest of the things you're hearing.

6:44

But while Ocarina didn't change much about

6:46

the secret unlocked sound, it marked a big

6:48

evolution for the treasure chest melody.

6:51

When you open a large chest in the game, there's

6:53

a whole animation sequence where Link pushes

6:55

open the lid. The

6:57

chest is so big that young Link has

6:59

to hoist himself up and reach down inside.

7:03

You can't see

7:05

what's in it, but the light shining out of it

7:07

tells you it's something awesome. Finally,

7:10

Link reaches in and pulls it out.

7:15

By adding that long ascending intro,

7:17

Koji Kondo gave the sound a much bigger

7:20

sense of anticipation. Whenever you hear

7:22

it in the game, you can't help but think to yourself,

7:25

What's it gonna be? What's it gonna be? What's

7:27

it gonna be? What's

7:28

it gonna be? What's it gonna be? What's it gonna

7:30

be? What's it gonna be? What's it gonna be?

7:33

What's it gonna be? Oh, sick! It's a boomerang!

7:36

Musically, that intro actually has

7:38

a lot going on. Yeah, it's combining

7:40

two different scales. That's Kirk Hamilton,

7:43

a musician, composer, and host

7:45

of the Strong Songs podcast. So the chromatic

7:48

scale and the whole tone scale. The chromatic

7:50

scale being just if you sit down at a piano

7:52

and you play every single note,

7:56

up

7:56

the piano, black and white keys, you

7:59

get a chromatic scale. And a whole tone scale

8:01

is if you play just whole steps. So you play every other

8:03

note.

8:07

That's going in whole steps. So what

8:09

this is doing is just moving up the

8:11

first four notes of a whole tone scale. And

8:15

then it goes up a half step. Does

8:18

the same thing. And it goes up a half step

8:20

again. So up the chromatic scale. And

8:23

does the same thing again. And

8:25

then again. And

8:32

they add like

8:35

ocarina has that flat

8:37

seventh down on the bottom.

8:39

The flat seven is played with kind of a tuba

8:41

sound.

8:44

Here it is in its entirety.

8:49

And then it kind of ends on this dominant chord. This

8:54

change from major to dominant gives the sound

8:57

a bit more momentum. Just like the secret

8:59

unlocked melody. That's another kind of unsettled

9:01

place to end. I mean this chord. Doesn't

9:05

feel like you're home. You're not

9:07

in a safe place. It's more you're moving forward. So

9:09

you've picked up a new item. It's very exciting. Now

9:11

what are you going to do with it?

9:13

Strangely enough, the full Zelda theme

9:15

doesn't appear anywhere in ocarina of time.

9:18

But Koji Kondo did put a couple of callbacks

9:20

to it in the Hyrule Field theme.

9:35

The next leap forward for the music of Zelda

9:37

came on the Nintendo GameCube with

9:39

Wind Waker.

9:41

This year, the

9:44

legend is reborn.

9:51

In that game, the secret unlocked sound

9:53

is played with a synthesized harp.

9:57

It's the first time that it sounds definitely like

10:00

a real instrument, which blends in

10:02

well with the game's soundtrack, which is kind

10:04

of more Gaelic sounding. There's like bagpipe

10:07

type

10:07

sounds. There's

10:13

guitar-y type things.

10:19

It has a much more folk sound,

10:21

the music of Wind Waker, and so I feel like a harp

10:23

fits in kind of well with the overall

10:26

musical palette that the game adopts.

10:30

For the treasure chest sound, they added a high

10:32

sustained string note to the introduction and

10:34

gave the ending a more brassy sound.

10:46

The next Zelda game for a home console

10:48

was Twilight Princess. It came out

10:50

on both the GameCube and the Wii, which

10:53

makes this commercial a bit confusing.

11:00

By this point in the series, Koji Kondo

11:02

had moved to more of a supervisory role, with

11:05

other composers making most of the music. But

11:07

Kondo did compose one track for the game.

11:10

It plays during the intro sequence after the title

11:12

screen. The piece features a moody rendition

11:15

of the classic Zelda melody, and for the very

11:17

first time in the series, it was recorded

11:19

with a full live orchestra.

11:30

Kondo loved hearing his music come

11:32

to life with a live orchestra.

11:35

In an interview with Nintendo

11:36

Power, he said, quote, Even

11:38

when I've spent countless hours creating digital music

11:40

with complex layers for Nintendo's games,

11:44

artificial sounds just can't beat the real depth

11:46

and expression of live instruments.

11:54

At first, Kondo hoped that they could score the entire entire

11:56

game.

11:57

At first, Kondo hoped that they could score

11:59

the entire game.

11:59

entire game with a live orchestra, which

12:02

would have been a big change. For

12:04

a long time, higher ups at Nintendo had put their foot down

12:06

and requested that no real orchestra

12:08

sound should be used in games because they felt

12:10

that it wasn't gamey. They said it felt like

12:13

listening to a CD while you play a game.

12:15

In the end, Nintendo decided that the flexibility

12:17

of synthesized music was a better fit for

12:20

Twilight Princess. So apart from that one

12:22

track in the intro, they kept the music synthetic.

12:25

Here's a clip of the game's Hyrule Field theme,

12:27

featuring another callback to the classic Zelda

12:30

melody.

12:41

Like in Wind Waker, the secret unlocked

12:43

sound uses a synthesized harp, while

12:46

the treasure

12:47

chest melody includes an angelic

12:50

choral sound.

13:00

Following the debate about whether to use an orchestra

13:02

for Twilight Princess, Nintendo had to

13:04

make a similar decision with their other major

13:06

franchise, Mario.

13:09

At the time, they were working

13:11

on a game called Mario Galaxy. That

13:13

game was mainly composed by Mahito

13:15

Yukota, with Koji Kondo acting

13:18

as the sound supervisor. Early

13:20

on, Yukoto wrote a demo song and played

13:22

it for Kondo. It was a playful piece

13:24

that used Latin American instruments and

13:26

a kind of sci-fi theremin sound to

13:29

match the spacey theme.

13:34

But when Kondo heard it, he said the track

13:36

was no good, saying, quote, If somewhere

13:39

in your mind you have an image that Mario is cute,

13:42

please get rid of it.

13:46

As Kondo told him, Mario isn't

13:48

cute.

13:49

Mario is cool. Yukota

13:52

was so shocked that he thought about quitting

13:55

his job, but instead, he went

13:57

back to the drawing board. Three months later,

13:59

he sat down

13:59

with Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator

14:02

of both Mario and Zelda, to get

14:04

his input on the music.

14:07

Yucota played three tracks for Miyamoto

14:09

without telling him who wrote them.

14:12

One track was bright and poppy, another

14:14

was a mix of pop and orchestral music,

14:17

and the last one was purely orchestral.

14:19

It was an early version of this track.

14:32

After listening, Miyamoto chose the

14:34

orchestral piece, saying that it felt the most

14:37

space-like. What Miyamoto didn't

14:39

know was, that piece was actually

14:41

written by Koji Kondo.

14:44

For Yucota, this confirmed that Kondo

14:47

really knew the sound of Mario. So

14:49

after that, he changed direction and started

14:52

writing grand orchestral pieces for

14:54

Mario Galaxy. Koji Kondo also

14:56

wrote a few of his own, and for the first time

14:58

in a Mario or Zelda game, the

15:00

entire soundtrack was recorded with

15:03

a live, 50-piece orchestra.

15:05

Here's the main theme from Super Mario

15:07

Galaxy.

15:16

After that seismic shift in the music of

15:19

Mario, the music of Zelda would

15:21

never be the same.

15:34

That's coming up after the break.

15:45

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by Oscar award-winning composer Hans Zimmer.

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Hans has scored films like Gladiator, The

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Dark Knight, and both Dune movies. He's

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16:28

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16:50

Congratulations to Shelby Arnett for

16:52

correctly guessing last episode's mystery sound.

16:56

That's the so-called victory fanfare from

16:59

the original Final

17:01

Fantasy game on the NES. It was created by Japanese composer Nobuo

17:04

Uematsu. Like

17:06

the Zelda's secret unlocked menu, this fanfare

17:09

has appeared in almost every Final Fantasy game.

17:11

Here it is in Final Fantasy IV. The game

17:13

is a game that is made of a game that is made of a game

17:15

that is made of a game that is made of a

17:18

game that is made of a game

17:21

with a web councillors that is made of game structure

17:24

and the game is made out of a

17:26

game with

17:28

a video solver. Several characters

17:30

get in the game with the website and digital Apple Chrome.

17:34

But don't forget this game that is activated

17:40

only in an official release date which

17:43

is 99, Abuse Timeains? You'll

17:46

also notice at the end of that game it

17:48

will relation to your and

17:51

Yang Kyung Lee or from now.

17:59

If you know that sound, submit your guess at

18:02

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18:05

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Okay,

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back to the show.

20:30

In 2007, Mario

20:33

Galaxy became the first Mario or

20:35

Zelda game to use a live, fully

20:38

orchestrated soundtrack. Like so

20:40

many Mario games, Galaxy was a smash

20:42

hit. And for the next Zelda game, Shigeru

20:45

Miyamoto insisted they use a live

20:47

orchestra for the entire score. That

20:50

game was Skyward Sword. And while

20:52

Zelda has always sounded great, the addition

20:54

of an orchestra gave Skyward Sword a

20:56

new cinematic vibe. Here's

20:59

the epic rendition of the overworld theme

21:01

that plays in the end credits.

21:12

And that live orchestral sound

21:14

carried over into the secret unlocked sound

21:16

effect.

21:20

This sounds like an actual harp player playing it. And

21:22

they're adding some mustard to the original.

21:25

There are some extra notes in there that kind of go up

21:27

a longer arpeggio.

21:31

Oddly enough, the game's treasure chest sound

21:33

seems to be synthesized rather than live.

21:36

But that doesn't make it any less energetic.

21:47

Man, that one, talk about mustard. They put all the mustard

21:50

on everything in Skyward Sword. Because everything in

21:52

Skyward Sword is the most maximalist orchestral

21:54

version. There are those harp arpeggios

21:56

just tearing it up.

22:07

After Skyward Sword, lots of people expected

22:10

the next Zelda game to sound even bigger.

22:12

And with the huge open map of Breath of

22:14

the Wild, you might think that it would have the most

22:17

bombastic soundtrack ever,

22:19

but the composers decided to go in

22:21

a completely unexpected direction.

22:27

Breath of the Wild is such an interesting Zelda

22:30

soundtrack because it uses a lot of the same

22:32

musical themes, but they're much more sparse.

22:35

A lot of the soundtrack for Breath of the Wild is just

22:37

solo piano.

22:41

So all the time when you're exploring the

22:43

game's beautiful valleys

22:45

and mountains and hills, you're hearing kind

22:48

of sparse piano sounds playing around

22:50

you.

22:58

And also a lot of the game's sound

23:00

effects were rearranged for more of a piano

23:03

sound.

23:05

How does that sound make you feel?

23:08

It feels like it's mysterious,

23:10

like what's there? What's

23:13

there? Mmm, because then you

23:15

finally completed something that was hard for

23:17

you, or not hard for you, simple. And

23:20

then that thing plays, it reminds you, you're

23:22

one step closer.

23:26

Most of the soundtrack is very organic,

23:28

but when you interact with any ancient technology,

23:31

the sounds get much more synthesized.

23:34

Here's the music you hear inside the mysterious

23:36

shrines.

23:46

When you unlock a new rune or another part

23:48

of the map, you hear the treasure chest melody.

23:50

This version is kind of a hybrid between the

23:53

game's organic and synthetic sounds.

24:08

So, the way that that uses delay creates

24:11

a really different energy. There's

24:13

a kind of staggered quality to it that feels a little

24:16

disorienting.

24:18

They're all the way up at the end of the piano

24:21

on the right side in the highest notes

24:23

that the piano can make.

24:26

At the end, there's a breathy synthesized

24:28

layer.

24:33

But for one particular item, you hear

24:35

a different version of the treasure chest sound. This

24:38

one doesn't include the long intro.

24:45

That

24:50

version plays when you finally get the Master

24:52

Sword, which is the only weapon in the game

24:54

that doesn't eventually break. When

24:57

you unlock the Master Sword, it makes a lot of sense that

24:59

therefore you hear this new item get

25:01

sound effect, which is much closer to the traditional

25:03

sound of unlocking an item.

25:05

What do you think about that sound?

25:07

It makes me feel like I've

25:09

unlocked something, and it's very

25:12

valuable. And

25:19

that's not the only place where Breath of the Wild

25:21

gets a bit more traditional with its music. If

25:24

you manage to unlock the so-called true

25:26

ending, you'll see an extra cutscene

25:28

that plays after you defeat Ganon. In

25:30

it, Zelda tells Link that they'll have to work

25:33

together to rebuild Hyrule, and

25:35

that scene is set to an emotional rendition

25:37

of the classic Zelda theme.

25:54

Breath of the Wild was followed by a direct

25:56

sequel called Tears of the Kingdom.

26:00

James' musical palette is pretty similar to

26:02

Breath of the Wild, and it reuses the same

26:04

treasure chest and secret unlock sounds. But

26:06

there are some notable changes to the soundtrack,

26:09

like the dreamy reed instruments you hear

26:11

in the Sky Islands.

26:24

Tears of the Kingdom also has a dark, cavernous

26:27

underworld called the Depths.

26:33

The music in the Depths is peppered with ominous,

26:36

ethereal sounds.

26:40

It's a bit like the dungeons of Ocarina

26:42

of Time, but with even less melodic

26:45

elements.

26:50

But while most of the soundtrack is pretty sparse,

26:53

in one part of the game there's a whole bunch of

26:55

classic melodies. You see, both Breath

26:57

of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have

26:59

a cooking component, and whenever Link

27:01

cooks, he hums.

27:03

Here's the tune he hummed in Breath of the Wild,

27:05

which doesn't seem to be a callback to anything.

27:12

But in Tears of the Kingdom... He is now

27:15

humming a variety of different melodies.

27:17

He's expanded his repertoire. And

27:19

one of the melodies that he hums

27:22

is just a little sort of hint at

27:24

the main Zelda theme. He's like... Mm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm.

27:31

Other times, Link hums a snippet of

27:33

Zelda's Lullaby, a melody that goes

27:35

back to Ocarina of Time.

27:46

He also hums The Ballad of the Goddess from

27:48

Skyward Sword.

27:56

Niham's Epona song from Ocarina.

28:08

It's almost like Link is remembering his past

28:11

lives. Yeah, that's kind of what it seems like.

28:13

There's always that feeling in Zelda, right? There are these through

28:15

lines, but it's not actually the same guy,

28:17

but it sort of is the same guy because he's this immortal

28:20

mythic figure in a certain way. So it

28:22

would make sense that he would have this kind of ambiguous

28:25

memory where he just hums these melodies

28:27

because he's heard them somewhere, maybe in a dream. Listen!

28:42

Okay, so I

28:44

don't normally do this, but I'm going to break the fourth wall

28:46

and stop the show because I know

28:48

that tons of people are playing Tears of the Kingdom

28:51

right now, including me.

28:53

But there's this really beautiful musical

28:55

section at the very end of the game that is perfectly

28:58

relevant to this story, but I don't want to give you any spoilers.

29:00

So if you want to stay spoiler free, pause

29:03

the episode right now and skip ahead

29:05

by about a minute. I'll give you some time.

29:15

Like Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom

29:18

includes a true ending that you can unlock by

29:20

completing all of the main quests, and

29:22

that final cutscene is filled with musical

29:25

drawbacks.

29:25

First, you hear Zelda's lullaby.

29:39

Then, the track transitions into the

29:41

main Tears of the Kingdom theme. Finally,

29:50

it crescendos into the classic

29:52

Zelda melody.

30:11

These days, you can find the music of Zelda

30:13

all over the place. People make

30:15

remixes and lo-fi versions that

30:17

get millions of listens. Symphonies

30:20

around the world perform these themes in sold-out

30:22

concert halls. Of course,

30:25

there's a lot of great video game music out

30:27

there. But for Zelda players like me,

30:29

this music is just magical.

30:33

So you hear it over and over and over again. You

30:35

hear these beautiful themes, these lush

30:37

melodies, these rewarding little jingles.

30:40

And you form this relationship with them over

30:43

dozens of hours as you play through a Zelda game.

30:45

And then because the Zelda series has been going on

30:48

for so long, and because they've stayed true

30:50

to Koji Kondo's music throughout this entire

30:52

run, you know, over 30 years, we

30:54

have an even stronger relationship with those melodies

30:57

because it's been with you. For some of us, it's been

30:59

with us our whole lives. Over my life,

31:01

I've played so many Zelda

31:03

games at so many different points that

31:05

at this point I hear this music and it just,

31:08

it kind of transports me.

31:10

I feel like I'm home.

31:13

For most of my life, the music of Zelda

31:16

took me back to being that little kid

31:18

exploring the hidden corners of Hyrule. Fast

31:21

forward three decades and now I

31:23

have a daughter who's falling in love with these games

31:26

just like I did. Now when

31:28

I hear this music, I think about her

31:31

and all of the time we've spent playing these games

31:33

together. And someday

31:36

when I'm gone and she hears this music,

31:39

I hope she'll think of me.

31:46

I helped a little bit at the end though. That's

31:48

okay. Yeah, you actually were the one

31:50

who beat Ganon because I just don't

31:52

have the dignity to do it. You

31:54

don't have the dignity to do it. But this time it's Ganon

31:56

Dorff. Yeah. But he's harder.

31:59

I guess last question

32:01

here. Um, why

32:03

is Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom

32:06

special to you?

32:07

I don't know. It's just, it's so

32:10

fun. You want to keep doing it over and

32:12

over and over. No stopping.

32:15

Do you know why it's special to me? Why?

32:18

Because we both love it. Yeah.

32:21

And we both have our own game. Now

32:24

I can't crash your game. That's true. 20,000 Hertz

32:31

is produced out of the sound design

32:36

studios of De facto

32:38

Sound. Find

32:46

out more at de facto sound dot com.

32:49

This episode was written and produced by Casey Emerling.

32:52

With help from Grace East. It

32:54

was sound designed and mixed by Joel Boyder.

32:57

With original music by Wesley Slover. Thanks

33:00

to our guests, Kirk and Thomas. Kirk's

33:02

podcast is called Strong Songs. In

33:05

each episode, he breaks down an iconic

33:07

piece of music to find out what makes it work. Thomas

33:10

has a YouTube channel called Thomas Game Docs,

33:13

and it's all about video game history. Both

33:15

of these links are in the show notes. I'm

33:18

Dallas Taylor. Thanks for listening.

33:31

Hey listeners, I want to let you in on

33:33

something behind the scenes. Earlier

33:35

this year, with the economic downturn we

33:37

had, I wasn't sure 20,000 Hertz would survive.

33:41

Our advertising had dried up, business was

33:43

down at De facto Sound, and I honestly

33:45

thought I might have to end this podcast. Now,

33:48

fortunately, we managed to pull through. This time.

33:51

But I can tell you from experience, it won't

33:53

be the last time this happens. And when

33:55

it happens again, I can't say for sure

33:58

what the outcome will be. I'm telling you. you

34:00

this because it's really our listeners that determines

34:02

whether or not we can survive. You

34:04

are the difference between 20,000 Hz growing

34:07

and thriving or opening your feed one

34:09

day to find a very sad goodbye

34:11

episode. I don't want this to happen.

34:14

I love making this show. And while I don't

34:16

like asking for it, I need your help. There

34:18

are three concrete things you can do to help

34:20

keep this show going. First is

34:22

to recommend 20,000 Hz to people in your

34:24

life. And when you tell them, try to stay

34:27

away from language that says something like, if

34:29

you love sound, you'll love 20,000 Hz. Because

34:32

I believe everyone with hearing loves sound,

34:34

they just don't know it yet. Instead,

34:36

just tell them it's a fascinating, well-crafted,

34:39

clean, joy-filled show that covers

34:41

all kinds of fun topics. Video

34:43

games, movies, music, science,

34:45

history. I always design this show

34:48

to be appealing to everyone. Next,

34:50

if there's anything we advertise on this show that sounds

34:53

useful or interesting, then sign up using

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our URLs and promo codes. Everything

34:58

accounts for about 95% of our revenue, so

35:01

we need our ad campaigns to be successful. To

35:03

see all of our current deals, head to 20k.org

35:06

slash sponsors. Finally,

35:09

sign up for our premium feed, 20,000 Hz plus. Currently,

35:13

only about 1% of our listeners contribute.

35:15

If we could bring that up to just 2%, it

35:17

would make a huge difference for our bottom line.

35:20

If you could spare $4 a month for an Envy

35:22

podcast that takes 2 to 300 plus hours to make,

35:26

then sign up at 20k.org

35:28

slash plus, or just tap the link in

35:30

the show notes. Or if you're an Apple podcast,

35:32

just go to the top of our feed and tap subscribe.

35:35

Now, with messages like this, I know it

35:37

can be easy to think, well, I don't have to do

35:39

it because someone else will. The problem

35:42

is, everyone thinks like that. So you

35:44

would be surprised to see how few people do

35:46

this, but I'm asking you not to be that

35:48

person today. If you love the

35:50

mission of this show, which is to get everyone

35:53

in tune with their sense of hearing, then please

35:55

consider helping us out.

35:56

Thanks.

36:00

you

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