Daniel Rosenfeld

Daniel Rosenfeld (born May 9, 1989) is a German musician and sound engineer best known as the composer and sound designer for the computer game Minecraft. His music is generally published under the name C418 (pronounced "see-four-eighteen").

Rosenfeld was born and grew up in East Germany after reunification, and the economic realities of the region limited his resources to learn audio composition . He says he learned on early versions of Schism Tracker and Ableton Live in the early 2000s, which were both rudimentary tools at the time. Learning under such restrictions turned out to help the young composer when he began collaborating with Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson. The sound engine in the game was not very powerful, so Rosenfeld had to be creative in his approach to sound effects and music.

As a freelance artist, Rosenfeld was not on staff at Mojang, the game company behind Minecraft, which was sold to Microsoft in 2014. Rosenfeld says he still owns the rights to all the music in the game, having released two albums featuring songs from the soundtrack. The first soundtrack, Minecraft - Volume Alpha, was released on March 4, 2011. The video game blog Kotaku selected the music of Minecraft as one of the best video game soundtracks of 2011. On November 9, 2013, Rosenfeld released the second official soundtrack, titled Minecraft - Volume Beta, which includes the music that was added in later versions of the game.Minecraft - Volume Alpha found its first release in physical format on Ghostly International in 2015.

Album

Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century, first as books of individual 78rpm records, then from 1948 as vinyl LP records played at 33 ¹⁄₃ rpm. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though in the 21st century albums sales have mostly focused on compact disc (CD) and MP3 formats. The audio cassette was a format used in the late 1970s through to the 1990s alongside vinyl.

An album may be recorded in a recording studio (fixed or mobile), in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. Recording may take a few hours to several years to complete, usually in several takes with different parts recorded separately, and then brought or "mixed" together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation, so as to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", allow for reverberation, which creates a "live" sound. The majority of studio recordings contain an abundance of editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones; with each part recorded as a separate track.