Know All That! | Nyan Cat Gets a Soundtrack Album [REVIEW]

0 Comments/ in humor, Uncategorized / by Brian Anthony Hernandez

April 21, 2012

Nyan Cat has just gotten its paws on a belated birthday gift: music tailor-made for the 8-bit animated feline.

The Nyan Cat Adventure Soundtrack hit iTunes this week, giving avid fans seven new songs to get their fix of the Pop-Tart-shaped viral sensation. Nyan Cat turned 1 on April 5.

21st Street Games released the soundtrack to accompany its adventure game, which is compatible on iOS devices and the Xbox.

The titles of each of the 7 tracks — such as “Afternyan Delight,” “Nyantendo Approved” and “Taking Over the Nyaniverse” — are as playful as the retro-tinted music itself.

You don’t have to be a Nyan Cat lover to enjoy the ear candy. The bass-filled “Meganyan” had me bopping side to side in my office chair and envisioning how it would fit into my workout playlist. And parts of the opening theme brought back memories of the Tetris tune.

In short, it’s well worth the $6.93 asking price for a total 13 minutes of goodness.

The soundtrack’s audio designer, Kevin Salchert, says the music captures the essence of the original Nyan Cat tune from the YouTube video that now has 71 million views.

“The art direction for the project was completely 8-bit, so the music followed along with that,” Salchert told Mashable. “Once the Nyan theme had been created, we decided we were going to create an entire 8-bit soundtrack that paid homage to the iconic 8-bit tracks back when 8-bit was the only way to go.”

“It was always the intention to stay true to the original Nyan meme. The result was a soundtrack that was definitely 8-bit-era inspired, but with a modern twist.”

Salchert produced the music in two weeks using Apple’s Logic Studio instruments and retro 8-bit samples.

“I really wanted to stay true to the hardware limitations composers faced when composing 8-bit tracks, both in terms of what waveforms could be produced as well as the limitation on polyphony,” he says.

“It was actually really fun, because what I thought at first would be a limitation actually turned out to be an opportunity to get creative with the sound design of the instruments.”

Illustrator Chris Torres introduced Nyan Cat to the masses last year on YouTube. The clip has since spawned a slew of remixes, products and video games.

“We were fortunate enough to have Chris give us have a lot of creative freedom with the project,” Salchert says. “It was always the intention to stay true to the original Nyan meme, but at the same time we wanted to give it a very distinctive 21st Street Games touch.”

The soundtrack also will be available on Spotify sometime soon.

BONUS: Meme-Inspired Movie Posters — Including One of Nyan Cat — for Sale

London-based designer Stefan van Zoggel has put five of his 29 meme-inspired movie posters on the market. The 23-by-33-inch posters for these memes each cost €40 ($52), shipping included: Nyan Cat, Leave Britney Alone, Fenton, Trololo and Paul the Octopus.