HUGEsound is pleased to offer the critically acclaimed and multiple award-winning services of Chance Thomas, audio director and principal composer. HUGEsound also offers a full range of audio post production services through the HUGEsound Network of affiliated sound designers, voice casting agents, engineers and studios.
ESSENCE
Chance Thomas composes and produces original music for smash hit titles like Lord of the Rings Online, X-Men and King Kong. His projects are major award winners, including Oscar™, Emmy™, GANG™, Addy™, Telly™, Aurora™, IGN, SoundtrackNet and Gamer's Choice.
Chance was the first videogame composer to score an Academy Award™ winning film (The ChubbChubbs) and log more than 1 million mp3 downloads of his music (Lord of the Rings). He produced one of the first live orchestral scores in gaming (Quest for Glory V), and one of the first commercially successful game soundtracks (50,000+ units) in America.
In the late 1990's he led a successful movement which brought game music into the Grammy Awards™ for the first time ever. He also helped found the Game Audio Network Guild. He is widely regarded as one of the premier composers in the interactive entertainment industry. He also composes for film and television.
DETAILS
Author Aaron Marks wrote, "Chance Thomas is a composer's composer. He is musically educated, technically astute and is more passionate about music than just about anyone."
His education in music and sound, technical skills and passion for excellence have brought about a wealth of exciting projects, lifelong friendships and important ventures. We'd like to tell you about some of them.
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar features a symphonic live orchestral and choral score composed and conducted by Thomas. The creation of each track was based on years of personal research in the literature, painstakingly crafting instrumental palettes, vocal ranges, even stylistic tendencies based on direct references and inferences scattered throughout Tolkien's writings. The result, according to Game Developer Magazine, is a score "drawn from the very pen of Tolkien's writings, ringing of truth to anyone familiar with its pages."
Chance's music and sound supervision underscored the surprising success of The ChubbChubbs, an animated short film which opened for Men in Black 2 and is included in the MIB2 DVD. With lively songs and sound effects, outstanding animation, and a comically foreboding music score, The ChubbChubbs dominated short film festivals and awards, ultimately winning the biggest prize of all - an Oscar™ at the 75th Annual Academy Awards.
Chance's childhood love of comic books and science fiction is heard in his original scoring for Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Earth and Beyond, X-Men: The Official Game, Unreal II and Robota: Reign of Machines. His rousing super-hero themes, otherworldly soundscapes, and menacing combat tracks all trace their creative spirit to Thomas' youthful imagination, fired by a steady diet of The Avengers, Spider Man, The Defenders, X-Men, Star Trek and Star Wars.
He composed and produced the all-original game score for Peter Jackson's King Kong. Recorded with a live symphony orchestra, rich choir and talented soloists, the score delivers 120 minutes of thundering tribal rhythms, unsettling tension, thrilling action and romance. According to Business Week, "All of Chance's music has been validated by Peter Jackson... The soundtrack has been universally praised."
He served as Music Director for Vivendi-Universal's Lord of the Rings game series, supervising and coordinating the work of a dozen audio professionals on several games, and composing the main themes for the series. His work was praised by The New York Times and other prestigious media. MP3's of his original themes were gobbled up by fans, surpassing one million downloads from the official game site. The Game Audio Network Guild honored the series' music with an unprecedented eight G.A.N.G. Award nominations.
Chance developed his supervisory and hands-on audio skills working in-house for game developers. He served as Audio Director for Tektonic Studios producing the sound effects, voices and music for The Ninth Domain. He was Senior Music Producer for Sierra Online Entertainment and worked as a session recording engineer for Suite Sound Recording Studios.
He has been honored by the Emmy Awards, the Aurora Awards, the Telly Awards, the Addy Awards, the Vault Network Awards, and many others. He is a tireless promoter of game music, widely known for leading the successful campaign which brought game soundtracks into the Grammy Awards in the late 1990's.
Chance has served as chairman of the Music and Sound peer committees for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. He is on the Board of Directors for the Game Audio Network Guild and also serves as Guild Secretary. He has been a presenter at the Interactive Academy Awards, a regular speaker at the Game Developer's Conference, and a voting member of the Recording Academy. He holds a degree in music from Brigham Young University, cum laude.
PERSONAL
Chance is married to his sweetheart since 1982, singer Pamela Michaels. They are the parents of three beautiful children whom they adopted at birth. They enjoy traveling, and among other ramblings have been on 128 cruises together. Chance loves authentic Italian cooking and extreme sports. He enjoys volunteer work and is an ordained minister in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He climbs Half-Dome annually, has been on 25 bungee jumps, and enjoys hiking in and around U.S. National Parks.