Mark Knight (musician)
Mark Knight | |
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| Birth name | Mark Alan Knight |
| Also known as | TDK, madfiddler |
| Born | 8 January 1973 Brighton, East Sussex, England |
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| Occupations | |
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| Years active | 1989–present |
| Website | |
Mark Alan Knight (also known as TDK and madfiddler) (born 8 January 1973, in Brighton, East Sussex) is a British video game music composer and sound designer, Chiptune composer, and electric violinist. He started out writing chiptune and module file music in the Amiga Demoscene,[1] and began his games industry career as a composer in 1992 . He continued until 2000 when he moved to sound design, and since 2014 has a split role as a sound designer and composer.
Biography
Born in England on 8 January 1973, his grandfather started teaching him the violin when he was 6. At 10 years old he was given a Commodore 64 home computer and took an interest in electronic music. Whilst studying in college he began writing music on the Amiga, releasing music within the demoscene. Having been refused a university place to study Music Production in 1992, he was given the opportunity to arrange the Wing Commander soundtrack to the Commodore Amiga home computer which led him to full-time employment with the developer, Mindscape.
Having left Mindscape in 1997, Knight wrote the soundtrack for Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown before accepting a position at Bullfrog Productions, a development company owned by Electronic Arts, working on games such as Dungeon Keeper 2, Populous: The Beginning and Theme Park World – which won a BAFTA for Best Sound.[2]
In 2000, Mark changed career direction and lead the sound design team on the EA Sports F1 series, stating that "If truth be told however, it was a simple choice of either F1 or Harry Potter".[3] He left EA in 2003, and after spending time at Visual Science he joined Codemasters in 2007 working on their DiRT, F1 and GRID franchises.
Knight has performed on the electric violin with the folk punk band Tricks Upon Travellers (1994–2000), K-Passa (2000–2001, 2008–present), Blue Horses (2002–2003), 4-4-2 (2004), Laura Kenny (2006), Silver Dogs (2006–2007), Bleeding Hearts (2009–2011) and has worked as a session musician for bands such as Pepe Deluxé,[4] The Divine Comedy,[5] C64 Audio.com, and Frost*. He also administers the Fiddle and Alternative Strings Forum.
In 2012 Knight released his first TDK chiptune album, and continues to compose music in this style.
In 2015 Knight announced his return to video game composition with F1 2015. and in January 2016 was nominated for Best Western Game Composer, 2015, at the Annual Game Music Awards.[6]
Knight resigned from Codemasters, the day F1 2017 launched and is now running his Audio Production company, SONiC FUEL, full time.
Personal life
Knight lives in Warwickshire, England.
Discography
Video games
- Carmageddon TV (unreleased)
- .ComBots (unreleased)
- Mario's Mission Earth (unreleased)
- Road Rash (unreleased)
- Velocity (unreleased)
- Guy Spy and the Crystals of Armageddon (1992)
- Outlander (1992)
- Wing Commander (1992)
- Alfred Chicken (1993)
- Battleship (1993)
- D/Generation (1993)
- Evasive Action (1993)
- Liberation: Captive 2 (1993)
- Overkill/Lunar C (1993)
- Mario's Time Machine (1993)
- Out to Lunch (1993)
- Sim Life (1993)
- Battletoads (1994)
- DragonLore (1994)
- Sim City 2000 (1994)
- Cyberspeed (1995)
- Supersonic Racers (1996)
- Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat (1996)
- Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown (1997)
- Populous: The Beginning (1998)
- Theme Park World (1998)
- Warhammer: Dark Omen (1998)
- Dungeon Keeper 2 (1999)
- Formula One 2000 (2000)
- Formula One 2000 CE (2000)
- Superbikes 2000 (2000)
- Formula One 2001 (2001)
- Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)
- Quake 3: Revolution (2001)
- Formula One 2002 (2002)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
- Shox (2002)
- Formula One 2003 (2003)
- Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup (2003)
- Sudeki (2004)
- Crysis (2007)
- The Witcher (2007)
- Metal Gear Solid Mobile (2008)
- Race Driver: GRID (2008)
- So Blonde (2008)
- Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (2009)
- F1 2009 (2009)
- F1 2010 (2010)
- DiRT 3 (2011)
- Dizzy Prince of the Yolkfolk (2011)
- F1 2011 (2011)
- FortressCraft (2011)
- DiRT Showdown (2012)
- F1 Race Stars (2012)
- F1 2012 (2012)
- F1 2013 (2013)
- GRID 2 (2013)
- GRID Autosport (2014)
- F1 2014 (2014)
- Toybox Turbos (2014)
- F1 2015 (2015)
- DiRT Rally (2015)
- Overlord: Fellowship of Evil (2015)
- D/Generation HD (2015)
- F1 2016 (2016)
- F1 2017 (2017)
- Flight Sim World (2017)
Music Releases
- Cyberspeed Unleashed (2011)
- FortressCraft Credits (2011)
- Reawakening (2012)
- D/Generation HD (2015)
Violin Sessions
- 4-4-2 - Come on England
- Bjorne Lynne - The Gods Awaken
- C64Audio - Back in Time 3
- Frost* - The Dividing Line
- Frost* - Falling Satellites
- James J Turner - How Could We Be Wrong?
- Ian Livingstone - Big Fat Gypsy Weddings
- K-Passa - Born Again
- Pepe Deluxe - Beatitude
- Press Play on Tape - Home Computer
- SilverDogs - SilverDogs
- The Divine Comedy - Casanova
- The Giallos Flame – House At The Edge Of The Dark
- This Morning Call - Deserted
- Tomorrows Ancestor - Live at Stainsby
- Tricks Upon Travellers - The Last Fish Supper
- Tricks Upon Travellers - Where the Skeletons Dance
- Tricks Upon Travellers - Acoustic Live and Uncut
References
- ^ "List of TDK Amiga tracker modules".
- ^ "Bafta Interactive Sound Winner in 2000". 2000.
- ^ Nichol, David (21 June 2012). "An interview with Mark Knight". Track Time Audio.
- ^ Beatitude (Media notes). Pepe Deluxé. Catskills Records. 2003. ASIN B0000AM6N8.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Casanova (Media notes). The Divine Comedy. Setanta. 2001. ASIN B00003ZACC.
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ "Video Game Music Online, 2015 nominations".
External links
- Mark Knight at IMDb
- TDK website
- SONiC FUEL website
- madfiddler website
- Gamesounds website
- AMP profile website
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