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MEET THE TEAM

Thanks for your interest. Let us tell you who we are!

Michael Ghelfi Studios (MGS) is the largest Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPG) audio label in existence. We currently have four composers working in the team.

We tirelessly expand the most comprehensive and immersive TTRPG audio library in the world, consisting of 1700+ ambiences, 1100+ songs and thousands of SFX.

Our audio has been used in thousands of podcasts, YouTube videos, actualplays and projects of all sorts.

We won the ENnies Award in 2021 (Gold) for best digital accessories for TTRPGs.

We won the 100,000 subscribers award on YouTube in 2022.

Our Story

MGS started as a one man band in 2011 by Michael Ghelfi. It was first named “Paradigm Shift”, a solo Post-Rock project. The name was already taken by a indian progressive metal band, so the project was simply renamed Michael Ghelfi afterwards. Over the years, the project evolved through different phases of celtic music, cinematic music, medieval music, and a few others.

Michael is a TTRPG dungeon master and a published author. He invests a lot of efforts to provide an immersive experience to his players. Due to a lack of ambiences for TTRPGs on YouTube or their low quality, Michael started composing for his own use at first, and released his first ambience on the 26th of December 2017. “Windy Desert” can be heard here. The quality of the ambiences and their higher usability generated a fantastic traction on the channel, growing it from 7,000 subscribers to 100,000 in just a few years. It made it the largest audio channel for TTRPGs in the world.

In January 2021, Michael left his job as a project manager in Cybersecurity for the Swiss government and started working full time in audio production. In December 2021, Filip Melvan joined and took the role of music composer. highly improving the quality and diversity of MGS music. Michael solely focusing on ambiences and SFX from then on. The project took the name “Michael Ghelfi Studios”.

In 2022, MGS partenered with dScryb, and worked on the development of a revolutionary tool to manage audio and descriptions for dungeon masters.

In 2023, MGS officially became an audio label. New composers have been recruited, carefully selected by Filip and Michael for their unique style, deep understanding of audio needs in TTRPGs and impeccable composition skills. The team also grew our friends from Lyre RPG Music joined the team!

In 2023, MGS officially became the composers for Paizo, Inc., releasing several albums for their fantastic Adventures Paths.

Our mission

Our mission is to keep improving the ultimate audio library for TTRPGs and fantasy uses. Our ultimate goal is to provide a solution for all situations that could arise in a TTRPG context, while keeping the highest standard of quality which made our renown. In that regard, the team only works with the best. All our bards have different styles, to make sure we can answer positively to your wildest audio needs.

We do not use elements generated by AI to compose our audio.

MEET THE TEAM

Michael Ghelfi

CEO, sound designer

Favorite instrument:

Favorite artists:

Favorite video game:

Other interests:

Country:

Style description:

Harpsichord

Jason Hayes, Paul Romero, Basil Poledouris, Justin Bell, Debussy.

Dwarf Fortress

Psychology, Politics, Bouldering, Motorbike, DMing.

Switzerland

Michael composes all the ambiences and SFX of MGS. He’s crazy about having everything well organized and tidied up. Precise like a Swiss watch.

Filip Melvan

Director of music, Composer

Hurdy-gurdy

James Newton Howard, Howard Shore, Bear McCreary, Franz Liszt

Remember Me

Manga, Anime, Reading

Serbia

:Favorite instrument

:Favorite artists

:Favorite video game

:Other interests

:Country

Filip Melvan is a Serbian composer with over 10 years of experience in the music industry. His journey began as a promising piano player in a music high school. However, he soon discovered a new passion for songwriting. Following high school, he enrolled in the Academy of Arts to study sound design. After three years, he realized that this path was not the right fit for him. Taking matters into his own hands, he embarked on an extensive self-study of music in film, television, and media.

After dedicating several years to gathering knowledge and writing film music, Filip decided to take a break and pursue a more challenging and exciting direction in life. At the age of 25, he became a sailor, navigating the Danube River all the way from Austria to the Romanian Black Sea for a few years. This transformative quest exposed him to numerous challenges that he had previously only dreamed of, teaching him the values of persistence and discipline.

Upon completing his sailing adventure, Filip returned to music composition, fully committed and determined. It was during this period that he discovered tabletop games, which would completely change his life. His first project involved composing a soundtrack for the TTRPG (Tabletop Role-Playing Game) titled “Black Void,” created by Christoffer Sevaldsen. This endeavor turned out to be a tremendous success. Inspired by his accomplishment, Filip founded the Tabletop Music Bazaar, dedicating himself to composing music specifically tailored for tabletop games. He quickly gained recognition within the community, uncovering the countless wonders it had to offer.

Shortly thereafter, Filip received a commission to create an original soundtrack for another major TTRPG title called “The Omega Horizon.” In 2021, fate brought Filip together with Michael, as the prophecies had foretold. In December of that year, they officially formed their partnership, gradually establishing themselves as legends and revolutionizing the world of tabletop games with their unique musical perspective. Today, Filip has composed over 500 songs, ranging from public to commissioned pieces for private TTRPG campaigns and other projects. He has also embarked on a new venture in writing music for video games, showcasing his versatility and unique musical perspective.

His ability to capture the essence of each project and deliver exceptional and immersive soundtracks has earned him acclaim. With a growing portfolio and a passion for pushing boundaries, Filip is poised to make a significant impact in the world of music, further expanding his artistic horizons

Lyre RPG

A band of Two composers and one Editor

Lyre RPG is a German trio of selftaught TTRPG-content creators, formed by Isaac (composer), Olav (composer) and Sebastian (graphics and animation). In 2021, they started producing RPG-music with a focus on immersive and atmospheric soundtracks that enhance gameplay during RPG sessions. The mixture of self-recorded and digital instruments define Lyre’s sound. Typically, Olav composes the drum-heavy combat tracks and the acoustical tavern music, while Isaac is responsible for the atmospherical tracks, with frequent collaborations on songs.

Isaac is a German/Canadian multi-instrumentalist from an early age, playing live-music with different bands, styles and instruments for over 19 years now. His musical journey lead from playing drums in the progressive rock band „Post Modern Orchestra“ for 5 years, to another 5 years of celtic folk playing upright bass, guitar and whistles to finally bringing everything together by recording and composing his own tracks. In 2017 he co-composed the official soundtrack for the highly successful German arthouse movie „weit.“, with over half a million cinema visitors alone. After discovering Dungeons and Dragons and playing with Olav, Sebastian and friends for over a year, he and Olav started composing tracks just for fun and for their love of fantasy music in general. Isaac loves getting lost in musical details and sounds and favors playing over clicking.

Olav started his musical journey by playing the drums in several punk rock and rock bands. He then started playing the guitar, both classical and electrical. He has since experimented with lots of different instruments, such as accordion, mandoline, and percussions. All of these instruments inspired his rhythm-oriented Pen and Paper-songs with a mixture of recorded and digital instruments.

Sebastian is the forever-DM of the group. As such, he assures that all tracks work well in the context of a game session and provide the GM with fitting music, that enhances the atmosphere without distracting from the gameplay. When working on the soundtrack for a published module, he extracts a list of locations, scenes, and NPCs for which a song is needed.

Isaac, Olav and Sebastian