About Omega Ronin
Artist Profile
Omega Ronin is an evolving sonic art project inspired by space exploration and science fiction soundtracks. The ever-changing Omega Ronin sound spans the genres of synthwave, electronica, industrial, darkwave, dungeon synth, darksynth, nu-wave, and video game soundtracks.
Created by veteran producer, artist, and filmmaker Mark Bussler, Omega Ronin is heavily inspired by 1980s synth pop, 80s TV shows, movies, industrial music, and classic 16-bit video game soundtracks. Bussler previously produced films and has over 25 years of video editing, sound design, and documentary film score experience that he applies to Omega Ronin.
With no limitations on what to expect, listeners can always expect the unexpected as Omega Ronin goes off in whatever direction it feels like...
The Basics
Omega Ronin started out as a science fiction graphic novel project in 2019 and evolved into a synthwave electronic music artist in 2022. After releasing dozens of albums, Omega Ronin continues to push the boundaries of combining music with print and web comics to create a unique sonic art project inspired by classic sci-fi, manga, and comic books.
Omega Ronin music can be found on all major streaming services and in our store on vinyl LPs.
Omega Ronin is published and distributed by CGR Publishing, which evolved from the ancient Internet show called Classic Game Room. You may see the "Classic Game Room" handle on some of our accounts like Kickstarter and Patreon because of this evolution.
How Omega Ronin Music is Made
The modern electronic music landscape is a rapidly changing moving target and my approach is to have fun and not take it too seriously. I mess around with gear until something sounds cool, and then I capture it. Then I mix, produce, and polish it.
Sometimes I aim for a synthwave sound, other times I go off on some industrial tangent. It really depends on whatever strikes my fancy that day. I prefer to work with hardware synthesizers, but sometimes a software synth works just as well (if not better.) It depends on the song. The songs sound completely different if I write them on a computer vs. just banging out stuff on a keyboard. It's a fun process.
I try to give each song that "Omega Ronin personality", or whatever that is. The entire thing is one giant art project and the modern streaming landscape, as frustrating as it may be, lends itself to artistic experimentation nicely. Anything goes because it doesn't cost anything to release an experimental song and you never know who might enjoy it. I don't over-analyze anything. I like Omega Ronin music to sound good and well-produced, but the structure of the song can be anything.
Omega Ronin is NOT made with A.I. This is a subject of much discussion when creating electronic music (or, any kind of music now.) Omega Ronin is an art project. I like to fumble about and see what sounds good. Since I am a giant gear nut and producer nerd, I love the process of making a simple song sound HUGE. That's most of the fun for me.
How Omega Ronin Album Art and Videos are Made
Omega Ronin music is made by a human (me!) Omega Ronin album art and videos are also made by a human, but frequently augmented with futuristic computers from space.
My stance on generative A.I. is that you can make art with A.I. so long as you aren't trying to sell it as a real hand-made item.
I think that generative A.I. is great for album covers for a few reasons. First of all, I think album covers that are straight-up weird look cool. A.I. is awesome for coming up with weird concepts. Also, if you're releasing a lot of music on streaming services, you have no budget for design team. This is the positive and nagative for A.I. in general.
The human element to my album art is that I capture an image, harness it, and adapt it to a cover design. It's not quite as simple as pushing a button and making it happen. I like an end result that reflects what I tried to do with the music, such as making a cover with robots or exploding boats or whatever. The album covers complement the music, but the creation process is apples and oranges.
Other album covers are photographic experimentation like Night Drive '89 which was made by me shaking a smartphone while taking the photograph.
For the Omega Ronin vinyl releases I have not used A.I. images because those are real, physical, tangible things and I think that you want a real, physical, tangible piece of art if you're paying for it.
Regarding video, I could write a book on this (and I did), but video is no longer "video". Video is broad term which, at this point in history, is simply used to get attention. Like... "Oh, I made a video by pointing my smartphone at myself while screaming." Awesome, but that's not video like Blade Runner is a movie even though they're both "videos."
I use computer animation for most of my videos, but also shoot with a smartphone and dabble in A.I.
History of Omega Ronin Music
In 2022, video producer, artist, and writer Mark Bussler created an experimental synthwave music project inspired by 1980s television theme shows and '80s pop culture. He created Omega Ronin songs to accompany social media posts and used them on videos marketing his books and other products.
Omega Ronin quickly evolved into a serious music project and Bussler became more interested in music producing and found some success in music streaming. "The first album was somewhat popular in Japan for whatever reason, it was an eye-opener that people can find an obscure band that they like will stream it and listen."
"I started to take music production and creation far more seriously than just a love letter to 80s TVs shows. By my fifth album Syntax Rhythm, I dug into new production techniques, experimented with different synthesizers, and turned Omega Ronin into a much larger and more complex musical journey. It's still a love letter to the 80s, but also to industrial music, electronica, and nu-wave all mashed together with a science fiction epic in mind."
After DJing in the 90s, Bussler started to make original music in 1999 for Classic Game Room and in 2002 for documentary films. "I started in filmmaking and edited for 20 years on and off. When I began to take electronic music more seriously in the 2020s, I saw that the workflow and equipment were almost identical to video editing. It's not something I thought I could do until I did it, and by the time I did, I had plenty of Internet distribution experience under my belt and owned a production company. Omega Ronin almost immediately merged with my art and video projects and evolved into a unique vibe that I really enjoy."
"I'm planning a vinyl set for the next batch of big songs (in the future future) with a similar theme. So, the hope is that this gets funded to cover the immense upfront production costs, gets LPs out there, and then I can put something together for the next batch of music."
MUSIC X GRAPHIC NOVELS
Omega Ronin Book 1 and Sirens is the first entry in CGR's line of Graphic Sonic Adventures by artist/writer/producer Mark Bussler.
"The first book and novel in the series sets the stage for many Graphic Sonic Adventures to come.
Omega Ronin Book 1 and Sirens can be enjoyed alone or played along while reading the book for the complete experience. This electronica-synthwave-industrial music album is heavily inspired by 1980s nu wave, 1990s industrial, and classic movie soundtracks. There’s a little bit of everything in Sirens including throwbacks to analog synthesizer soundtracks from the 1970s, distant piano tracks from your favorite cyberpunk movies, and hard-hitting classic ‘Ronin songs like One Year Ago, Raiders of the Mainframe, and Format A: that will push your speakers to their limits and challenge your subwoofer.
Producer, writer, and artist Mark Bussler says “Shut down your phones and turn off the screens. I created the Graphic Sonic Adventures Series so that you can enjoy a complete analog entertainment experience as a way to detach from the constant buzzing and beeping of modern life. No screens, no cookies, no whining comments fields, no harvesting and selling your personal data; just a record and a book. Old school.”
Additionally, more stand-alone Omega Ronin albums are in production for streaming and LP release. Watch our videos and follow our publisher's newsletter to keep up to date.
Albums published by CGR Publishing.