Drillimation Records

Drillimation Records (株式会社ドリメーションレコード) is the music subsidiary of Drillimation Studios, which records the soundtracks for the games and anime. Although most Drillimation games use tracker-based music, they were originally recorded the traditional way via a microphone before MP3 export was introduced in the late 1990s. Many background music tracks in the anime were recorded with a live orchestra.

History
Prior to the studio's founding, many of the Drillimation background tracks were licensed for publishing by various companies throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Originally, the tracks were published on tape-to-tape reel and cassettes, before CDs were introduced.

Before Mr. Driller was released in 1986, the soundtracks for the anime were recorded using a live orchestra. Hiroshi Takajima, the founder of the studio, realized it would be too expensive for a huge orchestra such as the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra. To get around this problem, Takajima decided to cut budgets by using smaller groups which consisted of either just a single pianist to a jazz band of only eight people.

After the success of Mr. Driller, more computer-generated tracks were being made, mainly using keyboards from Roland, Yamaha, and Casio.