Hidenori Maezawa

Hidenori Maezawa (前澤 ヒデノリ) (b. September 14, 1958 - Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese video game composer. He aided with the composition of many classic music themes for several games during Konami's golden era, including tracks for Castlevania and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse. He is still active to this day, composing tracks for many modern games.

Career
In 1986, while looking for a job in the magazine Being, Maezawa saw an opening at Konami for a gaming composer. His ability to both compose music and program computers was very useful and he was given the job. Maezawa then immediately began working on the audio of Castlevania, although he says he played only a minor role in the total audio.

Because of his technical skills, Maezawa was often in charge of porting the music from arcade versions of a game over to the NES sound chip. During these ports, Maezawa sometimes had the ability to flex his creativity by compose new music to fit into new sections. Another benefit of being able to program is that Maezawa was involved in designing Konami's add-on chip for the NES called the VRC VI. Among other things, the chip allowed for improved audio capabilities, effectively doubling the NES's sound quality. The chip made its debut in 1989, but it was only used in a few Konami games only released in Japan, so most of the world didn't get to appreciate it.

Maezawa stayed in Kobe, Japan as a game composer for Konami until 1992 when he moved to Tokyo, Japan to be a music director for Konami's music label. He started up his own company, Picnic. Maezawa now makes music for various medias including games, pachinko machines, movies, and even traditional music. He has a album called Rain Book that he recorded with Japanese folk singer Yoko Yamamoto.